QL 34th Anniversary new hardware.

[Sparrowhawk]

I announced a new design 4MB RAM expansion with through connector for the BBQL. It achieves this by replacing the internal CPU with an external 68008FN10 with two extra address lines. Nasta designed the custom logic, which allows mirroring of most internal memory to provide a useful speed improvement. It requires Minerva. If you do not have Minerva, we will include it free.

It's just undergoing testing/revisions right now.

It will be £79. General availability around 4 weeks?

Oh wow! Great news

[mk79]

I just want to mention how useful the miniplane has been in testing the 4MB RAM card. I have full access to all the J1 connector pins. I can put the logic analyser on any bus signal and not have to have clips all over the place!

Quite similar to my setup for debugging QL-SD related problems

[Dave]

Ah, that's you that is, eh?

I'm looking forward to this - if it'll improve the compatibility of the batch of QL-SD2 I'm making - ROM port version, has TWO SD slots for easy SD card copying/back-ups/mastering.

I only have two 16 channel systems. One cheap generic one and one nicer one I just bought that has some much more useful trigger options.

Right now I'm in thumb twiddling mode. I need to make a couple more boards for testing over the next couple of days, but I'm out of "dry" components so I am drying a batch right nw. This involves slowly ramping their temp up to 120C and holding it for a few hours. After that, I drop them in an anti-static bag with a silica gel packet and seal them, so they're dry for when I need them. Most components, with the humidity we have here, are only rated to be in the open air for around 168 hours before they need drying. If you don't dry them, when you assemble the boards the moisture turns to steam and "popcorns" the IC - causing violent internal damage. My reflow oven has a "component drying" function, which is nice.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Dave,

Looks great, I would love to have one.

Do you think SMSQ/E Gold would run on the new expansion?

Is there a name for it?

Also, would it work connected to an Aurora?

[Cristian]

Great job Dave!
Derek's questions are very interesting

[Pr0f]

Just a few questions:

Does the card make the additional interrupt levels available?

Are FC0/FC1 still driving VPA to assert autovectoring, or do you leave that to the logic on the QL motherboard?

Are there any restrictions on ROM addressing on either side of the interface (e.g. expansion side and ql side) - mainly thinking about qubide placement in the memory map.

In a way this interface is like a trump card in that it fills the address space of the processor with RAM, so I am interested to know which areas of memory are still usable by an interface, and if a legacy interface card that maps to c0000 for instance, was plugged in, where would it find itself mapped?

[Sparrowhawk]

Some questions:

Will TK2 be included on ROM?

Can I stick my SuperQBoard into that to still have access to disk drives and will the SuperQBoard's RAM be ignored in favour of the newer (and I am assuming) faster on-board RAM?

Or does it have a disk interface built in? Which would be even better!

When do we interest? Because I'm interested!

In fact I'd love to pimp out my BBQL with all the latest add ons / internal upgrades, but I've lost track of them all now and I'm not I'd know where to start

[mk79]

I'm looking forward to this - if it'll improve the compatibility of the batch of QL-SD2 I'm making - ROM port version, has TWO SD slots for easy SD card copying/back-ups/mastering.

Currently I'm stuck somewhat, GoldCard compatibility improved by a million times but general reliability is still not good enough for me. But not sure if it's a software or hardware thing, tests are weird and non-conclusive so far.

I only have two 16 channel systems. One cheap generic one and one nicer one I just bought that has some much more useful trigger options.

The system you see there is not mine, I borrowed it from work It's pretty old, but even used still in the 4-digits price range. And at 125Mhz with 32-channels it's still a fine device. People here prefer the Salea systems these days, I prefer this one.

Marcel

[Dave]

Hi Dave,

Looks great, I would love to have one.

Do you think SMSQ/E Gold would run on the new expansion?

Is there a name for it?

Also, would it work connected to an Aurora?

SMSQ/E will run on it if they'll do a version for it. We have it in mind that it might be able to shadow the ROM area in RAM, which would make things easier, but that's not implemented. We're still working out more basic kinks.

Beyond "4MB RAM card" we haven't really thought of a name for it. I guess it's a Silver Card?

It is Aurora-complete, so yes it would provide CPU and RAM for an Aurora system.

[Dave]

Some questions:

Will TK2 be included on ROM?

If you request it, I'll supply Minerva 1.89, 1.97 or 1.98 with the latest TKII on a carrier or if you have QL-SD Alain Haoui's 3.10 QL-SD driver. Just request it when you order. We chose to not put ROM on the board because it would be huge and we wanted to keep the board and through-connector as short as possible.

Can I stick my SuperQBoard into that to still have access to disk drives and will the SuperQBoard's RAM be ignored in favour of the newer (and I am assuming) faster on-board RAM?

I'll go one better than that. We'll have an option that will fit on your SuperQBoard in place of the 512K expansion.

Or does it have a disk interface built in? Which would be even better!

No. But you'll like SuperQBoard, version 4