On 30.11.2004 at 18:21 Marcel Kilgus wrote: >>>> The SGC can actually access the Aurora ROM chip proper... what >>>> is unclear is if it can also generate write cycles on the bus >>>> for those addresses.
>>>Can't one see that in the chip code Keith has recovered? >> YES! >So didn't you get them? I had a brief look at them ages ago >and had the understanding that they're on their way to you. No, never got them... I only saw them when Keith oiginally got them and they were really faxed through and quite unreadable at that point. I have no idea what happened to them after that. >> 1) CPU >> a) 68k (semi)compatible or an alternative - the latter requiring >> a complete re-write of nearly everything or at least a very >> capable emulator. > I don't see much use in an alternative CPU. In that case better > get a cheap PC and get some emulator whose name just slipped my > mind. That would be the most logical choice for a regulat 'home use' machine, but not at all for something which can also be sold on the embedded market. SMSQ/E could be interesting in such markets even if emulated, but not at the price of involving PC hardware (although price is OK, reliability is questionable as is the cumbersome nature of it). >> b) 68060 or Coldfire - 68060 being the obvious compatible choice >> but suffers from obsolescence... Coldfire has the >> semicompatibility problem. >You probably just have to wait another few months and they'll get >completely compatible again ;-) Actually, Motorola/Freescale just announced data for their V5 core. They did put back a few more things but most of the semi-compatibility remains. Even so, if you had the time to look at that long email on this issue, it's a whole lot more manageable if you restrict things to emulaing 68000 plus a few choice extensions. >> 2) Format >> a) PC influenced or industial - in other words, uATX (flexATX or >> ITX) or Euro/halfVME. > Just my feeling, but I'd opt for small and something like a Euro > card. Yes, I like small put fun toys too ;-) > The ATX/BAT market is already served by the Qx0. Actually only BAT and that is very much dead. I'm thinking of even smaller. >> b) Fully integrated or expandable... integrated with minimal >> expansion but also fairly costly solution >Does it make that much difference price wise? For the finished product, no - the PCB is a fairly minor investment, 30% or so savings on it will not make it much cheaper. On the finished product you just don't populate the board with the bits you don't need. The developement is where you have to put lots more money - you cannot really split the project into segments and have actual hardware released one segment at a time. In the long run the costs are quite likely the same, but short term, the integrated approach requires much more $ at once to develop and set-up manufacturing. >> flexATX is that part of a regulap PC ATX motherboard that has >> the serial, parallel, USB, keyboard, mouse and sound connectors >Roughly 23 x 19cm, I gather. No, actually smaller. Think ATX with all the slots taken off. In fact, if you take an ATX motherboard and look at it so that the IO connectors are along the top righthand edge, and the PCI etc. slots on the lefthand side, you will see it has 6 main fixing holes. Take the 4 rightmost - 2 near the IO connectors and 2 usually just in front of the RAM sockets - they ruyghly delimit the size of a FlexATX board. So, it's about 17 x 18cm. N. _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
