ctirad Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 this PBI-Cart or ECI-Cart could also have some RAM enhancement (320k, 576k or 1088k RAM) onboard. You cannot have more than 320kB of total RAM with an external expansion. At least not compatible with the standard PORTB banking. That's why my cards are 320kB, although the 320XE is capable of 576kB with a small mod inside atari. It's of course possible to design a completely new expansion with, say, 16MB, but it would be completely incompatible with any exsting software, so what is the point? But I am not sure if the PBI / ECI - Cart would still be very small+compact then (no gfx or snd upgrades for sure, to keep it as small+compact as possible)... In fact a plug&play device with memory expansion, dual pokey and perhaps even VGA out is doable using FPGA. I already have some fragments of that working on my FPGA kit. Again, I know there is already SIDE/SIDE-2, but what do you think of this idea ? Instead of SIO2SD something like PBI2SD or ECI2SD. What's wrong with the SDRive/SIO2SD, by the way? I don't much understand the popularity of the parallel devices. The SIO devices are 100% compatible, much simpler and with proper loader or Qmeg ROM also very fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I'm afraid you have to try them to appreciate how much faster the PIO devices are in everyday use. And I used SIO2SD for a long time before these things were available. I appreciate the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 What's wrong with the SDRive/SIO2SD, by the way? I don't much understand the popularity of the parallel devices. The SIO devices are 100% compatible, much simpler and with proper loader or Qmeg ROM also very fast. Nothing inherently wrong with them, but these days I prefer 70+kB/sec to the maybe 5kB/sec you can get on an SIO device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricortes Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Started as a 2-stroke project and can now do the impossible - http://www.diyautotune.com Where is this 6551 in a cart? ~$1200 just for the box and wiring harness. By the time you get the throttle body, injectors, sensors, et al, easily up to $2000. Nice 4 barrel Holley can be had new for $300. The big guys are getting into it too with turn key FI systems for ~$2400. All FI is just too expensive for what you get. I mean you can buy a used car with FI for less then the aftermarket systems. The computing power/interface just isn't that expensive to build. You could do it with just about any modern day micro-controller and some off the shelf parts. The 6551 was just a wire wrap job. No interrupt signal in cart so it just worked in poll mode. I should'a had'a ought'a written an interrupt service routine to make sure it didn't drop characters but it was about the time usenet was taking over for the local bbs so the hack became a mute point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctirad Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) Nothing inherently wrong with them, but these days I prefer 70+kB/sec to the maybe 5kB/sec you can get on an SIO device. With Qmeg it is more like 15kB/s. It does load and run most of the software in 3 to 5 seconds. I'm satisfied Edited February 12, 2014 by ctirad 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari8warez Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Nothing inherently wrong with them, but these days I prefer 70+kB/sec to the maybe 5kB/sec you can get on an SIO device. Well, I do get little over 10kB/s with 512 byte sectors over SIO2PC, still not even close to PBI but very usable considering most Atari files are quite small in size and we don't do mass copying of files everyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) New Ultimate PBI BIOS will read SD ATRs at 20KB/s, and DD ATRs at 27KB/s. Numen loads from an ATR in 33 seconds. Candle's SIDE loader should load XEXs at twice that speed (although I haven't measured it). I'm satisfied too. Seriously, it would be interesting to run some benchmarks comparing these results with SIO solutions. Edited February 12, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctirad Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Numen loads exactly 1 minute from SDrive + Qmeg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) Pretty impressive. How about a stock OS? Anyway this is OT, so I'll post (and invite) some benchmarks elsewhere when less busy. I'm just genuinely interested in the numbers. Edited February 12, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctirad Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Numen loads exactly 1 minute from SDrive + Qmeg. I had no idea QMEG was so fast. But I have done copies with PoKey divisor at 0, and I thought this was the max possible. My tests showed right around 7.8kB/sec. OK - started a thread for you guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) There was a Supra PBI experimenter's board that may help meet your needs. (I think Best may still have them in stock) Or find a 1090xl... Its been bugging me for weeks! I always wanted a joystick port attached 6520 PIA, so I decided to revisit this post http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n10/productreviews.html "MicroPort XL gives the Atari yet another way to interface with the rest of the world. It is not a finished system, but rather a starting point for the hardware hobbyist who wants to develop magical new input devices, printer interfaces, LED displays, home security and appliance controllers, robot controllers, video-or-laser-or-hard disk controllers – you name it. The instruction booklet gives hardware and software examples for several neat projects." PDF with schematics - see attached I see several references to Best Electronics for the PBI Experimenters kit. Supra_Microport-XL_for_Atari_manual.pdf Edited March 14, 2014 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Its been bugging me for weeks! I always wanted a joystick port attached 6520 PIA, so I decided to revisit this post http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n10/productreviews.html "MicroPort XL gives the Atari yet another way to interface with the rest of the world. It is not a finished system, but rather a starting point for the hardware hobbyist who wants to develop magical new input devices, printer interfaces, LED displays, home security and appliance controllers, robot controllers, video-or-laser-or-hard disk controllers – you name it. The instruction booklet gives hardware and software examples for several neat projects." PDF with schematics - see attached I see several references to Best Electronics for the PBI Experimenters kit. I have one of those. It's a bare board, but does have the PBI connector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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