Commander X16

In yet other parts of the world (Bournemouth, UK), fuel is unavailable with some petrol stations closed.

Shortage of truck drivers as many are from Euro countries that left at Brexit or otherwise went home during Covid shutdown/slow downs.

In some parts of the U.S., a shortage of school bus drivers are putting pressure on contracts causing rising costs.  It’s going to be this way for a while longer.

On 9/27/2021 at 9:13 AM, paulscottrobson said:

No, I much prefer the window. Compatibility isn't difficult - 98% of the time it is just loading stuff in to VRAM, which is part of the Kernel anyway (or should be !)...

I looked for a VRAM loader in the KERNAL, didn't find one, and then created an "issue" on Github for it. 

https://github.com/commanderx16/x16-rom/issues/222

One possibility is to extend the memory-copy routine.  Or add Yet Another KERNAL Routine (YAKR).  I also suggested a call or two for the PSG.  Less of an issue but still.

 

On 9/28/2021 at 1:04 PM, Lasagna said:

As to why it hasn't launched I imagine the world wide semiconductor shortage is not helping. If you look on Mouser, Digikey, etc. the supply of FPGAs is not what was a year ago with many of the most popular FPGAs on waitlists.



Also, the exact FPGA that Frank has been using (ICE40UP5K-SG48ITR50) as been discontinued... meaning the physical designs would have to be updated to support another version of the ICE40 HX8K FPGA.



Lead time is a serious consideration.

TR50 refers to a specific packaging of the FPGA (50 part tape and reel). That packaging option has been discontinued. The iCE40UP5K-SG48I (which comes in the default 2,000 unit tape and reel) is still being produced and very popular. The reason for discontinuing the TR50 option is probably that they are simply making too many to cater to quantities that small. If you want less than 2,000 units, you go to Mouser or Digi-Key and they will cut a strip of them off the reel for you (for a fee, of course).

On 9/28/2021 at 10:48 PM, EMwhite said:

In yet other parts of the world (Bournemouth, UK), fuel is unavailable with some petrol stations closed.



Shortage of truck drivers as many are from Euro countries that left at Brexit or otherwise went home during Covid shutdown/slow downs.

About 14-16% of the shortage is down to EU nationals.

You have to have a special license to drive fuel trucks, unsurprisingly, and such are not in short supply.

On 9/29/2021 at 12:00 AM, Wavicle said:

TR50 refers to a specific packaging of the FPGA (50 part tape and reel). That packaging option has been discontinued. The iCE40UP5K-SG48I (which comes in the default 2,000 unit tape and reel) is still being produced and very popular. The reason for discontinuing the TR50 option is probably that they are simply making too many to cater to quantities that small. If you want less than 2,000 units, you go to Mouser or Digi-Key and they will cut a strip of them off the reel for you (for a fee, of course).

Yes that is why I said the physical design, they will have to change the board to BGA or whatever option is still in production. This also affects who can assemble them easily, etc.

On 9/29/2021 at 8:26 AM, Lasagna said:

Yes that is why I said the physical design, they will have to change the board to BGA or whatever option is still in production. This also affects who can assemble them easily, etc.

Why will they have to change the board to BGA when they can still get the same physical QFN48 form factor FPGA still in production, just packaged from the factory in Quantity 2,000 tape and reel ordering units for the QFN40 form factor units Quantity 50 tape and real ordering units? If they need 500, Mouser will be happy to cut a tape or a "Mousereel" of 500.

Heck, if they put the X8 out to crowdfund, I would not be surprised if they end up ordering one or more whole reels anyway, with one partial tape to hit the final order.

This could well be similar to container ships strongly preferring high cube 40 foot containers right now ... 2,000 unit tape reels probably ship more compactly than 50 unit tape reels, and with ocean container shipping costs 5x what they normally are, and still some challenges getting containers (because container ships don't like shipping standard height containers right now) ... that shipping volume consideration has greater force right now than it usually does.

 

On 9/29/2021 at 5:26 AM, Lasagna said:

Yes that is why I said the physical design, they will have to change the board to BGA or whatever option is still in production. This also affects who can assemble them easily, etc.

The TR50 only refers to how the parts are packaged for pick and place machines. All SG48 components are 48 pin QFN. The "I" refers to industrial grade. This is covered in section 5.3 of the datasheet:

 

(deleted double post)

Probably everybody but me knew about this (3 days ago) but maybe some of you are not on FaceBook so also. missed this 'news'...

David himself said:



 

On 10/3/2021 at 5:13 PM, EMwhite said:

Probably everybody but me knew about this (3 days ago) but maybe some of you are not on FaceBook so also. missed this 'news'...



David himself said:



{snipped}

Sorry, it probably should have been posted here. I saw someone else post about it in another message somewhere but I think I assumed it was here, and I was wrong.