Announcement - new QL Interface

[georgeo]

I've run a range of much less interesting tests to check read/ write/ dir on different drives, copy files between combinations of floppy drive, Microdrive, and win1_ device, plus check TK2 functionality. All seems in order, except one strangeness I've found is that using flp2_ to format a floppy disk tends to fail, whereas I don't see any problems formatting in flp1_. I'll need to revert to my Trump card clone, to see whether the issue is related to the new interface.

I like how compact the card is - I'm much less nervous not having exposed electronics!

[tetroid]

Following my suggestions, Vitaliy is going to try to see if he can get the v2 ROM (and GAL code) for the QubIDE to run, as well as the v2 Trump Card ROM. There is a v2 Trump Card ROM on Dilwyn's site, but it has a lower version of Toolkit II than the v1.37 Trump Card - so we will need to try and extract that Toolkit II and merge it with the v2 Trump Card ROM - has anyone done this (or do you know the offset of the Toolkit II ROM?)

I checked any versions of Trump card ( 1.36, 1.37, 2.17 ) and they works as i can see.
But Qubide 2.02 not work, I think this archive not contain v2 GALs. On starting Qubide says - GAL1 is wrong.

Various versions of ROMs in attachment.

[Outsoft]

I've run a range of much less interesting tests to check read/ write/ dir on different drives, copy files between combinations of floppy drive, Microdrive, and win1_ device, plus check TK2 functionality. All seems in order, except one strangeness I've found is that using flp2_ to format a floppy disk tends to fail, whereas I don't see any problems formatting in flp1_. I'll need to revert to my Trump card clone, to see whether the issue is related to the new interface.

I like how compact the card is - I'm much less nervous not having exposed electronics!

Very strange that problem on formatting FLP2_

I always use my Trump Card with FLP2_ and never got problems formatting it.

[tetroid]

I've run a range of much less interesting tests to check read/ write/ dir on different drives, copy files between combinations of floppy drive, Microdrive, and win1_ device, plus check TK2 functionality. All seems in order, except one strangeness I've found is that using flp2_ to format a floppy disk tends to fail, whereas I don't see any problems formatting in flp1_. I'll need to revert to my Trump card clone, to see whether the issue is related to the new interface.

I like how compact the card is - I'm much less nervous not having exposed electronics!

I checked flp2_ on Miracle HD 3.5 dual disk drive.
Successful formatting for flp1_ and flp2_.

[RWAP]

Following my suggestions, Vitaliy is going to try to see if he can get the v2 ROM (and GAL code) for the QubIDE to run, as well as the v2 Trump Card ROM. There is a v2 Trump Card ROM on Dilwyn's site, but it has a lower version of Toolkit II than the v1.37 Trump Card - so we will need to try and extract that Toolkit II and merge it with the v2 Trump Card ROM - has anyone done this (or do you know the offset of the Toolkit II ROM?)

I checked any versions of Trump card ( 1.36, 1.37, 2.17 ) and they works as i can see.
But Qubide 2.02 not work, I think this archive not contain v2 GALs. On starting Qubide says - GAL1 is wrong.

Various versions of ROMs in attachment.

Great - did you try both sets of GAL code available in http://hardware.speccy.org/temp/qubide/ ... qubide.zip

Someone must have the GAL v2 CODE if neither of those work..

I wonder if anyone has the contact details for Phil Borman - he might be willing to do some minor work on the QubIDE driver to support the button for re-reading the parameters....

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I got Phil to release the Qubide source code, now on Dilwyn's web site. I did not ask for the PAL v2 code to be released as I was only interested in the Qubide source code for QDOS Classic.

I have a Qubide interface with v2.02 ROM and v2 PALs. I will see if I can read the PAL chips, assuming the security flag has not been enabled.

[RWAP]

Hi,

I got Phil to release the Qubide source code, now on Dilwyn's web site. I did not ask for the PAL v2 code to be released as I was only interested in the Qubide source code for QDOS Classic.

I have a Qubide interface with v2.02 ROM and v2 PALs. I will see if I can read the PAL chips, assuming the security flag has not been enabled.

If you still have any contact details for Phil - could you email them to me?

The sources are alas of no use for adding new features, as they are v2 sources (I think) which don't work without the GALs....

[Peter]

I don't know if 768K would be enough for GD2 graphics, but don't think you could add them easily via the expansion port - you would need an Aurora motherboard....

Once you have the hardware for a new graphics device, the expansion port is fully okay to add it.
Especially on the Aurora itself, the expansion port seems the only socket where it could be done.

The Aurora has integrated graphics, and I'm not sure if it can be disabled. If not, the Aurora would actually make things more difficult.

Designing a graphics hardware is more work than Qubide or RAM extension, but I personally would be glad to have a solution that supports modern monitors well.

[Peter]

Easy answer: A 1024 x 512 pixel display in 16k colours like what for example the Q40 has is going to need a sloppy 1.5 MB of video memory - Twice of what the Trump card can provide. High colour, hi-res GD2 graphics simply won't work in the address space of a 68008.

1.0 MB not 1.5 MB. Otherwise Q40/Q60 would support 1024x768.

Beyond that, the poor 68008 might run into some severe performance problems shoving that many screen bytes around.

Thats true. Even on the Q68, which is about QXL speed (lower 68EC040 range) the 1024 x 512 x 65536 color mode slows down the system significantly.

As Tobias pointed out, a 512 x 256 x 65536 color mode looks like a reasonable compromise, but II estimate that at least Gold Card is required for usable speed.

[thorsinclair]

@Peter

interesting, thank you. The point I raised is basically about what kind of new expansion cards could be done and would make sense, based on the idea that there is a new hardware manufacturer around

Could it be an expansion card with a FPGA with a more horsepower CPU core, more expansion RAM up to 2 or 4 MB, Quimi was also named, connectors for modern monitors, slightly better graphics in terms of resolution and colors, SD card interface and/or Qubide. What do you think? Especially when it comes to a FPGA CPU core I guess you've made some reasonable experiences with the Q68. There is a lot of talks around in the net about CPU cores but I think the implementation is much more difficult.