Hi Thierry, your persistance wanting 800x600 resolution for the Q60, combined with your optimism about the OS changes has inspired a new idea in my head.
The memory area accessible on the Q60 ROM sockets is 1048576 bytes long, but 800x600 requires only 960000 bytes, leaving 88576 bytes free. I could make an FPGA, which places bootloader code into the free area (at address 0) on reset. That bootloader could load an SMSQ/E or QDOS Classic Binary from SD card into RAM. Later on, the OS could overwrite the bootloader with it's own exception vectors. I wrote similar FPGA bootloader code for the Q68 already. The board would require not much more than the connectors, one FPGA, one RAM, and some resistors/capacitors. No additional wiring. Disadvantage: No 8 bit or 16 bit access possible - there are no such signals on the ROM sockets. It would be up to the driver to use only 32 bit wide access! (This might be achievable by making the screen area copyback-cacheable and force a flush with every 50 Hz interrupt.) The normal video circuitry of the Q60 would remain intact, a second 800x600 screen would be added, with separate VGA connector. I would be mapped into the ROM address area. Just an idea... probably the Q68 should have priority over this. Peter _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List
