Since I accidentally leaked that I would be designing such a thing a few months ago, I suppose it's fair to say something about the progress of the project.
So far, processors (68SZ328), Flash and RAM have been secured, I'm waiting for some Philips USB chips too. Working specs are: * 68SZ328 Dragonball derivative CPU at 66MHz * 40 or 64M SDRAM (probably 64) * 16M Flash ROM (OS boots from there) * Aurora-style 256 color graphics via VGA connector or TFT LCD (Still looking for a cheap source of these, only have 2 for testing at the moment), with touch panel support. 16 bit color is possible but resolution is limited. A rather odd 680 x 510 maximum should be possible in 256 colors, if we stick to 4:3 aspect ratios. * Built in MMC/SD Flash card slot and one CompactFash slot. The later is wired so that a sort of cartridge-type expansion is possible, for instance a CF to IDE adapter is simple to do, as well as other things like a small Ethernet, USB or modem card that plugs into this slot. * 1 standard serial port plus 1 IRDA port * A/D and D/A converter for voiceband sound record/playback (there may be a small speaker and microphone on board as well) * 8x8 matrix keyboard support (like on the original QL) * QL compatible expansion port (see notes below) * misc. features available in the 68SZ328 like real time clock, alarm, power down, etc... * very low power operation suitable for battery powered applications To be determined: * either USB-to-go (that can act as both USB device and host) on board or second CF slot where an USB adapter can be plugged in * PS2 keyboard/mouse support * Extra space for a NAND flash chip (128 Mbyte or 256 Mbyte) Size goal: approx. the size of an Aurora board, will depend on the availability of LCD displays as the idea is to mount a LCD display and computer board together. Notes: This is intended as a development platform, and the finished products will diverge into QL market ones and ones for different other markets. As such, they may not have the same complement of IO capabilities or connectors. Non-QL versions will not have the QL expansion port, for instance. In any case, this is a stand-alone machine and the QL expansion port is intended mainly for initial developement since the machine does not have a floppy controller and cannot directly use for instance a Qubide driver (needs slight modification) or have a romDisq connected to it. the port will implement a superset of the QL's address map alowing even old peripherals (but NOT QEPIII unless it is modified!, or RAM boards which I doubt anyone will need with the 40 or 64 meg already provided) to be used. 8x8 (and possibly more) keys are supported, this is a design requirement for the persons who are sponsoring this. PS2 keyboard/mouse support will depend on the ability to use the 68SZ328's SPI port for this purpose - in theory, it should work. Also, in theory there is no difference between theory and practise, so... ;-) 256 color display is natively supported on this hardware. It also provides 16 bit color support for reduced resolutions. 16 and 4 color support is possible for monochrome LCDs but 4 color is not compatible with the QL representation. Therefore, old mode 4 and 8 is emulated. The Flash ROM footprint on the board is capable of using anything from 2 megs up to 32 megs, depending on the availability of the chips. For now, we have 16M chips already in stock, and are looking into getting the full 32M. A very limited number will initially be available for developers willing to port SMSQ/E (or for that matter any OS), modify crucial driver code or write the few crytical applications... Comments and ideas welcome... Nasta _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
