On Tue, 11 Jun 2002 at 05:02:13, wrote:
(ref: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
>There still appears to be a fair market for expansion interfaces for
>the QL.
>
>I realise that many users are holding out in hope that the GoldFire (or
>whatever it is eventually called) will soon be released, but I
>appreciate that this is still several months away, if it ever reaches
>the market (sorry Nasta).
>
>Surely there is still a market for a small batch of Super Gold Cards to
>be made up, or am I correct in thinking this may now be impossible due
>to lack of availability of chips??�
Indeed. The EP1810 has proved impossible to find.
They changed the internal timing around 1995. Miracle had not followed
the timing spec to the letter (I think) and so it no longer worked.
These chips are OTP (one time programmable) so are not to be found on
the reclaimed chip market.
It would be an expensive exercise to build. Usually it is not economic
to think of less than 50 - certainly for pcbs.
I think Nasta should chip in here.
When Goldfire arrives, it is likely to release secondhand SGCs into the
market.
Also I would not like to think of a new SGC production damaging his
sales.
I know QPC and emulators are a valid route, but I feel that without
unique hardware, then the magic of the QL is gone.
I can never get excited about doing QL programming inside a crashing
Windows system.
... but I have a vested interest (8-)#
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