CPUWIZ Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 Happy T'Day everyone, here is something I cooked up with RevEng (bBasic support will come). It's a board that can handle 27C128, 27C256, 27C512, 27C010 and 27C020 EPROM's and it uses a 22V10 PLD to do the bankswitching (sorry, no 20V8 and not backward compatible with any other board). Every single pin on the PLD is used for 256K, so even if you have a suggestion, it's too late. It also supports SARA chips, so in essence, it's a 10 in 1. Two new bankswitching schemes have been designed, RevEng already has a locally hacked copy of Stella (once flushed out, Stephena will likely put it into the official version). So, bankswitching: F4, F4SC, F6, F6SC, EF, EFSC, DF, DFSC, BF and BFSC. DF/DFSC is the new 128K bankswitching scheme, touch $1FC0 to $1FDF to select 32 banks. BF/BFSC is the new 256K bankswitching scheme, touch $1F80 to $1FBF to select 64 banks. Here are a couple pics, both of the routed new board and my hacked up SARA board to deal with all the above mentioned methods (currently configured to 256K, no SARA). 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjchamp3 Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 What will this cost interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 For those who are no hardware experts (like me), maybe you could list the advantages of the new board? Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 The advantage of the board to me, is the fact that someone asked me if I could pull off SARA + 128K bankswitched. I pondered on it, figured that if I am gonna route a new board, I might as well make it versatile. Don't make me translate that into German, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Der Vorteil des Boards zu mir, ist die Tatsache, dass jemand fragte mich, ob ich SARA + 128K bankswitched abziehen. Ich dachte darauf dachte, wenn ich werde Route ein neuer Vorstand, ich könnte genauso gut es vielseitig zu machen. Lassen Sie mich nicht, dass ins Deutsche zu übersetzen, bitte. Lets see if Thomas can make that out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Happy T'Day everyone, here is something I cooked up with RevEng (bBasic support will come). It's a board that can handle 27C128, 27C256, 27C512, 27C010 and 27C020 EPROM's and it uses a 22V10 PLD to do the bankswitching (sorry, no 20V8 and not backward compatible with any other board). Every single pin on the PLD is used for 256K, so even if you have a suggestion, it's too late. It also supports SARA chips, so in essence, it's a 10 in 1. Two new bankswitching schemes have been designed, RevEng already has a locally hacked copy of Stella (once flushed out, Stephena will likely put it into the official version). So, bankswitching: F4, F4SC, F6, F6SC, EF, EFSC, DF, DFSC, BF and BFSC. DF/DFSC is the new 128K bankswitching scheme, touch $1FC0 to $1FDF to select 32 banks. BF/BFSC is the new 256K bankswitching scheme, touch $1F80 to $1FBF to select 64 banks. Here are a couple pics, both of the routed new board and my hacked up SARA board to deal with all the above mentioned methods (currently configured to 256K, no SARA). Onboard RAM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 No, C020231, SARA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 I now can make 4 way scrolling games. The maps to eat up quite alot of space. If I'm ever going to make an Ultima style game this would be the thing that makes it happen (with RevEngs support ~_^ ) Wasn't there some guy who was selling his collection of SARA donor carts? Whatever happened to that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr SQL Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 No, C020231, SARA. Can it support RAM Plus the same way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Lets see if Thomas can make that out I suppose CPUWIZ couldn't do any better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Always good to see new hardware get mass produced. Interested to see what people come up with now! Let us know when it's available, I'd definitely be interested in a board or two to play with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 I suppose CPUWIZ couldn't do any better. LOL, sehr witzig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Wasn't there some guy who was selling his collection of SARA donor carts? Whatever happened to that? I guess my secret question was: would I need to find donor carts to add SARA to my games using these awesome 256k boards or are you set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 Bumping an old thread, with a new picture. This is revision A, it has one bug (minor and already fixed), so I need to run another. But it works well. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 Cool! Will this board support batari's superbanking? If you're unfamiliar, superbanking has 4K banks but it's hotspots are in the $0800 range, so you don't have to waste ROM for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 7, 2014 Author Share Posted July 7, 2014 Cool! Will this board support batari's superbanking? If you're unfamiliar, superbanking has 4K banks but it's hotspots are in the $0800 range, so you don't have to waste ROM for them. Maybe, I need more details please. What is the exact spec? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Maybe, I need more details please. What is the exact spec? From kevtris's mapper doc: SB (Superbanking)-----This is the same as 0840, except A0-A6 are used instead of just A6, as so:A13 A0----------------0 1xxx xBBB BBBBBy using 6 bits, the maximum ROM size has been increased from 8K to 256K. Also, these posts in batari's blog: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/134/entry-3979-supersize-me/ http://atariage.com/forums/blog/134/entry-4239-512k-superbanking-with-ttl/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 So that is a superchip? Wow. I always imagined them smaller, like the size of an LSxxxx. You gotta stop making them colored and cleanly designed, because I want them in a clear lighted shell! How about a run of clear epoxy or resin bricks (where you could still remove the EPROM. Probably way too expensive, but for limited editions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 7, 2014 Author Share Posted July 7, 2014 So that is a superchip? Wow. I always imagined them smaller, like the size of an LSxxxx. You gotta stop making them colored and cleanly designed, because I want them in a clear lighted shell! How about a run of clear epoxy or resin bricks (where you could still remove the EPROM. Probably way too expensive, but for limited editions... Haha, yep the SARA chip is the same size as a 2732 EPROM. CommaVid used 2 x 1K x 4 chips in Videolife and MagiCard, those are about the size of a 74XXX. At the moment, I don't see any reason why SuperBanking wouldn't work, at least without the SARA chip. I am not exactly sure how it would behave, since it captures the low address lines for the read/write window and all address lines are connected to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Haha, yep the SARA chip is the same size as a 2732 EPROM. CommaVid used 2 x 1K x 4 chips in Videolife and MagiCard, those are about the size of a 74XXX. At the moment, I don't see any reason why SuperBanking wouldn't work, at least without the SARA chip. I am not exactly sure how it would behave, since it captures the low address lines for the read/write window and all address lines are connected to it. Good to hear. Let us know if you try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 Me and RevEng tried a few different SuperBank methods this evening. The one that I can make work, is LDA $0880-$08BF, no STA! We have a working demo of "my" SuperBanking in progress, without wasting 64 bytes per bank. This can be dialed back all the way to 16K (or previously known as F6). P.S. SARA is a no go on this method, the chip prevents it somehow, have not dug into it deeper, other than theory I shared with RevEng. Still though, no board change needed and 64 x 4K banks works, without a single byte of ROM space wasted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 DF/DFSC is the new 128K bankswitching scheme, touch $1FC0 to $1FDF to select 32 banks. BF/BFSC is the new 256K bankswitching scheme, touch $1F80 to $1FBF to select 64 banks. DF/BF with/without SARA are officially working on Encore. What threw me for a long time was that I assumed BF was 1FB0-1FEF and DF was 1FD0-1FEF until I actually *read* the above But that makes me wonder, why waste 16-48 bytes? The 22v10 should be able to handle that higher address range. It might require an extra product term or two in the address decode logic for that pin you run to the clock line but it should work (I think the 22v10 allows at least eight product terms per output pin.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 DF/BF with/without SARA are officially working on Encore. What threw me for a long time was that I assumed BF was 1FB0-1FEF and DF was 1FD0-1FEF until I actually *read* the above But that makes me wonder, why waste 16-48 bytes? The 22v10 should be able to handle that higher address range. It might require an extra product term or two in the address decode logic for that pin you run to the clock line but it should work (I think the 22v10 allows at least eight product terms per output pin.) Me and RevEng tried a few different SuperBank methods this evening. The one that I can make work, is LDA $0880-$08BF, no STA! We have a working demo of "my" SuperBanking in progress, without wasting 64 bytes per bank. This can be dialed back all the way to 16K (or previously known as F6). P.S. SARA is a no go on this method, the chip prevents it somehow, have not dug into it deeper, other than theory I shared with RevEng. Still though, no board change needed and 64 x 4K banks works, without a single byte of ROM space wasted. You did see the post above yours, yes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybearg Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Anything new on this front? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 Due to lack of interest, I never re-submitted the fixed boards to my manufacturer. I sit on too many things already, like 100 of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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