ZX Spectrum Next speaks QL

[Peter]

featuring our member Martyn Hill for a short time... (and mainly from the back)

And the moderator is Phoebus I guess?

[XorA]

It is TG68K and not @56Mhz, I think they said it runs as a 56Mhz, I know don't ask me how.

Okay, so nothing interesting technology-wise.
With SRAM as main memory, not even 40 MHz are needed to get a TG68K.C core to 56 MHz 68030 speed.

I thought it was a port of the MiSTer core with a couple of added peripherals?

[Derek_Stewart]

...but it only runs Minerva, no high colour, no high resolution.

I tried to buy a KS2 Spectrum Next, but still none available.

The Q68, QIMSI Gold still better, being able to provide an up to date operating system.

[Sparrowhawk]

The networking looks great, as do the extra colours. And did I understand correctly that the QL core would have access to the WiFi module?

And … Amiga and ST cores are being worked on? Amazing if they can pull that off.

[Wicksy]

Yes wifi. You can add a RS232 port instead of wifi as well. Though the QL network is going through one of the joystick ports on two unused lines.

I think Simon Goodwin has been involved for a while, as he has history with the Spectrum and not just QL?

As I've now got a lot of gaming software, QDOS hopefully will be running at normal speed on the Next (am presuming the faster speed is obtained from the turbo button) and joysticks this suits my needs.

I was unsure how accurate the Q68 slows down for games. That said I may revisit getting one for running apps and networking with the Next.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

There has been 3 new games produced, by good programmers, that deal with the speed issue and time the speed correctly, no need for speed down command.

[Peter]

The Q68, QIMSI Gold still better, being able to provide an up to date operating system.

But to make 32 MB RAM affordable, these machines use SDRAM. And there is no cache yet.
So I would expect the SRAM based Speccy Next uses less waitstates at a similar clock frequency, making it somewhat faster.

That, of course, would come at the cost of a severe RAM size limitation to 1 or 2 MB.
Which is only a quarter or half of a SuperGoldCard. SMSQ/E would soon be out of memory with fancy screen modes.

[Peter]

I thought it was a port of the MiSTer core with a couple of added peripherals?

As far as I remember, the MiSTer QL core supported two CPU flavors, FX68K und TG68.
FX68K is too slow to reach the announced speed, so it could be a derivative of the MiSt(er) core, upgraded to the TG68K.C.
I was mainly interested whether is was actually a 68030 FPGA implementation. Which would have been interesting technologically.

[Wicksy]

Hi,

There has been 3 new games produced, by good programmers, that deal with the speed issue and time the speed correctly, no need for speed down command.

I have them Derek, PI Cole, etc.
But I've invested in some of the original games that need the CPU slowing down. Though am starting to suspect am going to need to slug the Next as well, as it seems its' default setting will be this faster speed.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

There has been 3 new games produced, by good programmers, that deal with the speed issue and time the speed correctly, no need for speed down command.

I have them Derek, PI Cole, etc.
But I've invested in some of the original games that need the CPU slowing down. Though am starting to suspect am going to need to slug the Next as well, as it seems its' default setting will be this faster speed.

Of course all older games, will need slowing down, as at the time of writing, the software authors did not consider running the QL at anything over the speed of the Stock QL of 8Mhz.

But now we have 16, 24, 32, 40, 66, 80 ... Mhz speeds and if there is no software timing like seen in the new Invaders game then external slowing of the machine is required.

I do not think the older games are any good, there is no 3D vector graphics, which should be easy as the QL can scroll and pan the display without any external software.