PiStorm

[bwinkel67]

I sort of lost focus when it was hard finding Pi Zero 2W's at a reasonable price. I'm sure you can get them now again but during the pandemic it was impossible unless you wanted to pay a lot for them. I also think the person most likely to do this would be lliont since his ZX8301 replacement is sort of boosting the BBQL's speed. Grant it he's not messing with the processor with emulation, but I wonder if the next step would be to add a processor replacement as well?

[Peter]

It's a comparatively small effort to try QL compatibility of the PiStorm CPU emulation with QDOS Classic on Amiga and a few pieces of "demanding" QL code. The emulation should be tried first, so things don't end up in a disaster. If not even such a first little step can be achieved within years, how can a much larger project succeed?

Is the motivation to run a software emulator inside the QL really big enough to justify all the work?

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I have an Amiga A500, with a PiSorm that just needs setting up, I can try it with QDOS Classic.

I am going to sell all the Amiga stuff on eBay, as I do not need them, I have a Amiga A600, but no PiStorm.

[Peter]

I have an Amiga A500, with a PiSorm that just needs setting up, I can try it with QDOS Classic.

That would be an important check. If possible, please try the qdos-gcc compiled Dhrystone benchmark on both EMU68 and Musashi.

[Derek_Stewart]

I have an Amiga A500, with a PiSorm that just needs setting up, I can try it with QDOS Classic.

That would be an important check. If possible, please try the qdos-gcc compiled Dhrystone benchmark on both EMU68 and Musashi.

Hi,

I have got qdos-gcc compiled on my Linux computer, so I can try compiling the Drystone Benchmark, sort of a acid test of the compiler.

I just have setup the Pi3A, which a simple task.

I will get this done and report back.

[bwinkel67]

s the motivation to run a software emulator inside the QL really big enough to justify all the work?

I think that always depends on who the person is and what their motivation is. There is some insane stuff out there on retro platforms :-/

[Peter]

I have got qdos-gcc compiled on my Linux computer, so I can try compiling the Drystone Benchmark, sort of a acid tedt of the compiler.

No need to compile, you can download it from Thierry's website: http://qdos.free.fr/files/dhrystone21.zip

[Peter]

I think that always depends on who the person is and what their motivation is. There is some insane stuff out there on retro platforms :-/

Sure. For the QL I just don't see the person nor the motivation yet. Not even a simple step was taken within three years...

If the EMU68 bare metal variant of PiStorm runs QDOS Classic and provides excellent benchmark results on the QL side, I might give it a thought.
But I'm far from enthusiastic. The amount of work is huge.

Effectively, a QL PiStorm would only use the keyboard of the QL - something that is easier to just feed into sQLux.

[bwinkel67]

I should finish my Amiga 600 PiStorm project. Lost interest when I couldn't find an affordable pi zero 2w during the pandemic. I should get one now and finish the project this summer.

[Peter]

I should finish my Amiga 600 PiStorm project. Lost interest when I couldn't find an affordable pi zero 2w during the pandemic. I should get one now and finish the project this summer.

Please keep us updated. In case you get QDOS Classic to work on EMU68 with a decent amout of QL side software, we know at least that potential work on a QL port of PiStorm would not be doomed from the start.