On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Peter Graf wrote:
> Very interesting. And nice to hear, that another QL hardware designer has
> appeared.
I would hardly call myself a "QL designer" just yet! I have just checked
in with the QL scene and am prodding it to see how much life it has. The
last QLish work I did was, well, 1986! I last used a real QL in 1990 or
91.
> Just a little hint: What you are going to do, overlaps a lot with work that
> had already been done. E.g. the Aurora is a QL compatible mainboard
> (without the CPU/RAM part) with QL extension bus. The Q40/Q60 are complete
> QL replacements, with ISA-style extension bus.
I've been looking for Aurora schematics too ;P Basically, I'm trying to
see what the QL looks like in electronics terms when it's
upgraded/redesigned to use modern components.
> I gather you want a single-board system, but is that worth re-inventing the
> wheel? How about an Ethernet/USB/whatever-you-like add-on for existing
> hardware instead of a completely new mainboard design?
That's a definitely possibility. It's much more likely than a whole new
machine, that's for sure. However, if I were to undertake the project, I
would still need a fresh, current, useful and detailed understanding of
the QL hardware. At the moment, I'm thinking about Phoebus' ideas on
emulation as one path, and designing a QL-fit upgrade SA or XScale board,
and on the other hand, creating a microATX-style board which is all very
integrated, using a conventional north/southbridge, and robbing a bank to
raise funds so <covers head and bows> Tony Tebby can write drivers for it
*grins*
> If it makes good sense to put your add-ons onto the same board with
> existing stuff, that could still be done later on.
Absolutely. How hard would it be to implement PCI for a Q60 derivitive,
for prototyping/testing purposes only? What other widely used, well
documented busses are there?
> That's just a little though. I don't mean to corrupt your ideas. Please
> design whatever you like :-)
Peter, my ideas are so corrupt anyway ;) Seriously, this is purely at the
speculation stage, and if anything gets a response, I'm not the only
person listening. As an outsider, all I'm doing is clutching at different
straws to those people have been clutching at since Darth Amstrad took our
toys away ;)
Dave
