Adrian D. Ives wrote, On 28/10/09 11:11:
Tony,
Yes, sorry about that. I was summarizing my original e-mail which
seems not to have reached you.
>From what you say it looks pretty bleak for the ROMDisQ, so I might
just embed it in a block of amber and keep it over the fireplace as
a "technological fossil". ;)
I was just thinking the other day how it might be possible to make a
CF card interface for the ROM slot, thus creating a ROMDisQ Generation
II. Fanciful, I know.
It should be possible to use CF cards with QUBIDE, by plugging in one
of the cheap CF to IDE adapters that are available, but that still
requires the QUBIDE, which is no longer in production. So my final
thought was that if anyone is ever going to produce any new hardware
project for the original QL hardware, the one thing that would be
really worthwhile is a basic bare bones USB interface. I was
astonished to find a place called RetroClinic that does just such an
interface for the BBC Micro!
Such an interface would only really need the basic drivers to handle
removable drives (sounds simple when you say it quickly) there would be
no intention of even trying to support other types of device except,
maybe, a mouse :)
Anyway, these are just musings (although I did go as far as collecting
the specs on the available USB controller chips). I suspect that the
only practical future for the QL now is to live on through emulation,
with programs like QPC2, on a fast Linux/Mac/Win PC delivering
processing power far in excess of any QL or QL-like hardware available
today.
In fact emulated QLs will soon be travelling so fast they will be able
to slingshot around the sun and travel back in time to 1985! ;)
I have a couple of USBwiz.
This gives USB *and* SD card interface (DOS 8.3 formatted) and other things.
It has serial but *not* RS232 so needs a Maxim style chip.
superHermes can go up to 460800 (I think!) so would give a decent speed.
I have no time to do the project though.
.... and it would need a driver.
Tony
--
QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255
[email protected] http://firshman.co.uk
Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman
TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
