SDD 99

[ralphb]

5 hours ago, dhe said:

I was hoping the announcement would be ready for Christmas shipping! ?

Yeah, me too! ?  What's left is that I need to make sure that each peripheral is working at least in principle, and then I can design the final board, first for sidecar, and after that for the PEB.  I can still provide new functionality with updates later, but the hardware I cannot change.

[+retroclouds]

Would it be possible to generate timed load interrupts via the SDD99?

That way preemptive multitasking could be implemented.

[+dhe]

Like the load interrupt board that went with Jeffery Brown's terminal emulator?

[ralphb]

13 hours ago, retroclouds said:

Would it be possible to generate timed load interrupts via the SDD99?

That way preemptive multitasking could be implemented.

Yes, that would be possible, at least with the sidecar -- the PEB doesn't carry the LOAD* signal.  Right now LOAD* is only used for the debugger.

 

I must admit, though, that I don't see any real applications for this.  After all, programs must share the same screen.

[+retroclouds]

2 hours ago, ralphb said:

Yes, that would be possible, at least with the sidecar -- the PEB doesn't carry the LOAD* signal.  Right now LOAD* is only used for the debugger.

 

I must admit, though, that I don't see any real applications for this.  After all, programs must share the same screen.

True, not for any existing applications. If you were to do a small multitasking environment it could be useful though.

 

[+FarmerPotato]

10 hours ago, ralphb said:

Yes, that would be possible, at least with the sidecar -- the PEB doesn't carry the LOAD* signal.  Right now LOAD* is only used for the debugger.

 

I must admit, though, that I don't see any real applications for this.  After all, programs must share the same screen.

I can think of some silly things.

 

Recognize what GPL program is running from cartridge.

Cheat at  Munch Man. Every 30 seconds, put one of the eaten energizer pills back on screen.

Modify sprites in other ways in other games.

 

However, though you could restore GRMWA, you can't restore VDPWA and something would go wrong if you interrupted a write.

(Just like if you forgot and left LIMI 2 on during your writes, while INT1 did sprite automotion.)

Maybe this would be limited to modifying PAD.

 

 

[fabrice montupet]

So Great project!

I'm impatient to be able to order one SDD99 ?

[+9640News]

On 12/25/2019 at 6:20 AM, ralphb said:

Yeah, me too! ?  What's left is that I need to make sure that each peripheral is working at least in principle, and then I can design the final board, first for sidecar, and after that for the PEB.  I can still provide new functionality with updates later, but the hardware I cannot change.

 

Ralph,

 

Very interested in your work. I will be getting one for the TI when it available, however, I just now realized you mentioned later building one for the PEBox.  Not sure if you were considering it to be compatible with a Geneve or not.  If you were, not sure how the onboard memory would interact with the Geneve's memory.  I'm guessing it would not play well.  Then, if you disabled the onboard memory, then I am guessing the speed would slow down significantly as then you are loading memory across the bus???  Just curious is all.

 

With your WIFI design, what kind of interface are you anticipating for users writing code to interface with the capability, if any?  Will there be client and server socket capability so users can develop client and server applications?

 

Beery

 

 

 

[ralphb]

My goal is to offer Geneve compatibilty, but I have no idea what exactly that entails.  While I do have a Geneve, I haven't powered it up yet, and want to wait until the SDD is mostly done.  On the positive side, the interface for TI and Geneve is the same (PEB).  Also note that the SDD logic is mostly in its firmware, so required changes could hopefully be programmed.

 

Regarding memory, AFAIR the Geneve has more than 64K RAM, which suggests that it's using banked memory, like the SAMS.  If that is the case, and the banking isn't implemented as sloppily* as the address decoder on the TI 99, I might be able to add the SDD memory in higher banks than the Geneve memory.  (* I really hate how the mapping of >8000->9FFF address range was designed for the TI, where we have 4 peripherals with just a few significant addresses, but the entire range is used up.)

 

Is there any Geneve architecture overview you can recommend?  I didn't find anything on WHTech when I looked some while ago.

 

Wifi serves two purposes: Connecting to the (file) server, and doing HTTP requests (some subset of REST).  For the server, it's possible to add a "Run" call that would run any (non-TI) program on the server.  For the server, any computer with network capabilities running Python will suffice, e.g., PC, Mac, RaspberryPi, ...  I probably won't allow users to open sockets to arbitrary destinations, and recommend to use REST instead.

[+mizapf]

Have a look at Ninerpedia,

 

e.g. https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/Geneve_paged_memory_organization

or https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/Geneve_wait_state_generation#Architecture

[+mizapf]

Also, some things to be considered:

 

The Geneve actually only accesses the PBox and its devices for the pages 80-BF, with B8-BF being decoded by the existing peripheral cards (B8 = 0000, B9 = 2000, BA= 4000, ...). The onboard DRAM cannot be turned off (without doing a mod like the Genmod) and will not conflict with box devices, as its area is 00-3F, not intersecting B8-BF. The same is true for the SRAM in pages E8-EF and the EPROM in F0-FF.

 

So the only way to access the memory on another PEB card is to use the pages B8-BF. And then, the usual caveats apply: Make sure that only one device is active on the bus. This can be ensured using the CRU address (i.e. turn on the device at a specific CRU address, then interact on said pages).

Edited January 25, 2020 by mizapf

[Barry Nelson]

Is this available yet? What is/will the price be? When will it be available?

[ralphb]

14 hours ago, Barry Nelson said:

Is this available yet? What is/will the price be? When will it be available?

No, I'm still working on it, and I don't really want to predict when it is ready -- my estimates have been way off in the past.  I haven't thought about prices yet, but probably somewhere between 50 and 100 Euros.

[+9640News]

Just poking the topic to keep it alive.  Still interested.

[+acadiel]

Hey, Ralph - have you considered putting a pass through on right of the sidecar?

[ralphb]

14 hours ago, BeeryMiller said:

Just poking the topic to keep it alive.  Still interested.

Oh yes, it is still alive!  But I admit I did take a 3 month break, also to finish the port of xdt99.  I cannot really give any estimates, though, as I'm not working on SDD 99, but SDD 99 is working on me. ?

8 hours ago, acadiel said:

Hey, Ralph - have you considered putting a pass through on right of the sidecar?

The current iteration has one -- if you look at the title screen of the video, you can see the connector on the right.  I didn't put an edge connector there, though, but header pins for debugging.

 

That said, however, I actually plan to remove the pass through, as the traces occupy a lot of real estate on the board.  I'd rather add a power supply so that you can use it with the Speech Synth.

 

Was there any specific reason you suggested a pass through?

[+Schmitzi]

 

The more connectors, the better ?

 

 

[+acadiel]

10 hours ago, ralphb said:

Was there any specific reason you suggested a pass through?

Pass through to the PEB - so I can add other items like the SID99, etc.

 

[ralphb]

15 hours ago, acadiel said:

Pass through to the PEB - so I can add other items like the SID99, etc.

 

Yeah, but for using the PEB, I'll be working on a PEB card, as there shouldn't be major layout changes between sidecar and card.

[+acadiel]

9 hours ago, ralphb said:

Yeah, but for using the PEB, I'll be working on a PEB card, as there shouldn't be major layout changes between sidecar and card.

I'm just looking for flexibility. 

[aftyde]

Love to have this as a PEB card as well... :)

[tmop69]

On 2/23/2020 at 4:10 PM, ralphb said:

No, I'm still working on it, and I don't really want to predict when it is ready -- my estimates have been way off in the past.  I haven't thought about prices yet, but probably somewhere between 50 and 100 Euros.

 

Hi Raph, do you have updates/news to share with us?

 

This is a really interesting project and I hope to have it soon to enjoy with! ?

 

[ralphb]

I've just completed a new SDD 99 demo on the P-System:

 

 

I had to splice it together from 3 takes, since my Amiga monitor blacks out every couple of minutes.  You'll notice that continuity is violated at least once, but nevertheless this is the P-System running on bare metal with the SDD.

 

As I mention in the video, I'm currently in the process of designing the final board (assuming there are no bugs).  Since I decided I won't have a bus pass-through, I can decrease the width of the board by 2cm, and I'm also adding a plug for an external power source.  There is still quite some work on software left, but this can be done later, in part even after the SDD ships.

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by ralphb

[+wolhess]

Hi @ralphb,

 

there are very good news. You have the P-system running on your SDD99. I‘m definitely interested in your card.

Are the other capabilities like 32K/SAMS,Wifi still available on your card?
 

Wow, what a thing!

[ralphb]

10 hours ago, wolhess said:

Are the other capabilities like 32K/SAMS,Wifi still available on your card?

Yes, sure, there is 32K, SAMS with 32 MB, serial port, parallel port, general I/O, Wifi, CD sound, USB mouse ... and P-Code. ?  The GIO has two special pins which I'll demo in the next video.

 

EDIT: Forgot wifi ...

Edited July 23, 2020 by ralphb