Commander X16 - Second Prototype PCBs are Here!

[-N2]

6 hours ago, peapod said:

Have now. Completely missed it first time round sorry.



P is what is being prototyped at the moment, phase 1



C is the mini itx version in phase 2



E is the raspberry pi size one in phase 3



Old person brain here, didn't join the dots at first glance.



Ta muchly for the redirect to the FAQ.

1) I'd like to see a C.2 rev where the entire system is put on a 16 bit ISA card, for use in a passive backplain. 

2) for clock generation, have a look at the Silicon Labs Si5351 series of chips, they are I2C controlled PLL chips that output 3 to 8 independently configurable outputs between 3Khz to 290Mhz. 

[TomXP411]

52 minutes ago, -N2 said:

1) I'd like to see a C.2 rev where the entire system is put on a 16 bit ISA card, for use in a passive backplain. 



2) for clock generation, have a look at the Silicon Labs Si5351 series of chips, they are I2C controlled PLL chips that output 3 to 8 independently configurable outputs between 3Khz to 290Mhz. 

No, ISA doesn't really make any sense, since the 8088 architecture is too different. Making this ISA compatible would require and extra 4 bits of address space, and a way to generate the IOW and IOR signals. The 6502 also reads and writes in a single, two-phase clock cycle, while the 8088 has a total of four clock cycles per bus cycle. You could interface with an ISA bus through some sort of intermediary, such as a VIA or CLPD, but that's going to require extra hardware and doesn't really give any tangible benefits except partial compatibility with devices designed for PC (and which often use device drivers that take up more memory than the whole of the non-banked RAM on the Commander.)

There are common bus standards that would work, including the RC2014, but even that would have required an intentional design choice from the beginning. 

 

[TomXP411]

@Kevin Williams This looks great! I feel like it's 1985 again, and I'm trying to figure out whether to buy the disk drive or the 9" black and white TV....

[Gaz Marshall]

Well done, this looks fantastic! ??

[ace]

looks really cool, good job everyone.

[recordingerror]

Progress has been made!

[jjBliss]

Great to see the progress!  I'm glad you decided to go with SNES controller ports rather than NES, that makes some game controls much easier to design for.  

[AndyMt]

Any ideas what kind of power supply will be needed? Atx I assume, but how much power output will be required?

I think about designing my own C128 style case and a bulky 300W Atx PS won't fit in there.

Yes - I know the X16P and C will be delivered in a case... I'll use that for something else.

[Perifractic]

Any ideas what kind of power supply will be needed? Atx I assume, but how much power output will be required?
I think about designing my own C128 style case and a bulky 300W Atx PS won't fit in there.
Yes - I know the X16P and C will be delivered in a case... I'll use that for something else.

Our PSU is 180W but the stock machine without expansions will use far less than that.

[AndyMt]

4 minutes ago, Perifractic said:

16 minutes ago, AndyMt said:

Any ideas what kind of power supply will be needed?

Our PSU is 180W but the stock machine without expansions will use far less than that.

Great! I'll fire up Blender then ?.