SDD 99

[ralphb]

To be honest, there was a phase last year were I was overly obsessed with this project. But I'm passed this -- now I'm just normally obsessed.

[+FarmerPotato]

I think I had around 3000 hours into TIPI sideport before I released it as a Beta (it is still beta)

 

 

 

Oh wow.

 

From where I see it, you make it look easy. 3000 hours is why it looks perfect (:

 

I have about 300 hours into FORTI-2. I was afraid I was just slow. (it's got an awful timing bug with the 9900 running code out of its memory, though data access works.)

[BeeryMiller]

 

 

But nevertheless I did implement new features, I'm just waiting until all parts on the new PCB are working ...

 

Ralph,

No problem. I just remain VERY curious and it is just nice to hear how things proceed and to let you know people remain interested .

 

 

Beery

[BeeryMiller]

Ralph,

 

Tickling this topic to see how things are progressing.

 

Beery

 

[kl99]

I will do another video capture if Ralph shows something at the TI Treff in England this year ☺️.

And count me curious as well.

[ralphb]

A while ago I decided to skip a second prototype video and go straight for the (semi-)final PCB ... which isn't to say that it'll be ready this year.  The MCU variant I'm currently using is actually somewhat rare, so it'll be safer to switch to another variant or go BGA. 

 

But Klaus is right, I'll present the current status at Leicester. 

[GDMike]

Will this also use an html browser and possibly read internet based TI servers?

I haven't seen past posts regarding..ty

[ralphb]

Thank you for your patience, I've just uploaded a new demo video:

 

 

The quality is just as stellar as you would except from me. 🤪 

 

The video focuses on disk-related stuff, and my idea is that I'll do another video on the interfaces (RS232, PIO, GIO, USB-HID) somewhat later when all the bugs have been killed.  Regarding the Wifi part, please note that this is not the final transfer rate -- I hope to improve both latency and throughput.

 

And I hope that my next board will be the final design. 🤞

 

[Sid1968]

2 hours ago, ralphb said:

Thank you for your patience, I've just uploaded a new demo video:

 

 

The quality is just as stellar as you would except from me. 🤪 

 

The video focuses on disk-related stuff, and my idea is that I'll do another video on the interfaces (RS232, PIO, GIO, USB-HID) somewhat later when all the bugs have been killed.  Regarding the Wifi part, please note that this is not the final transfer rate -- I hope to improve both latency and throughput.

 

And I hope that my next board will be the final design. 🤞

 

Das sind gute Nachrichten. Danke Ralph! 🙂

[ti99iuc]

thanks Ralph! 
i really like this! very impressive man!

could us have some short-cut keys combination for the usual commands maybe please?
a CTRL+FCTN+NUMBER for CALL CAT, CALL MOVE, CALL CD etc... ? 😛

Otherwise have a GUI named TIndows could help too 😛

[Nick99]

Ralph, you´ve done an amazing job! 👍

There´s no doubt what I will spend my money on... 😀💸 💶

 

[tmop69]

Ralph, many thanks for the update! This is an awesone project!😍

 

I have a couple of questions:
is SSD99 compatible with the FinalGROM? More specifically, is it possible to load a SSS using the FinalGROM (e.g. E/A, XB, etc.) and use the disk features of SDD99? Or the address spaces used are in overlap?

 

The second question is related to loading XB programs from SDD99. I remember in a previous video that is possible to use a command to load TI BASIC programs, but that was not possible for XB at that time. Is this feature now implemented?

 

Many thanks and please, keep us updated on the progresses! 😄

 

[ralphb]

19 hours ago, ti99iuc said:

could us have some short-cut keys combination for the usual commands maybe please?
Otherwise have a GUI named TIndows could help too 😛

Well, I was thinking of a shell-like program so that you don't have to type CALL all the time.  For a "GUI", please use SDM, plenty of short-cuts there. 🙂

 

10 hours ago, tmop69 said:

is SSD99 compatible with the FinalGROM? More specifically, is it possible to load a SSS using the FinalGROM (e.g. E/A, XB, etc.) and use the disk features of SDD99? Or the address spaces used are in overlap?

 

The second question is related to loading XB programs from SDD99. I remember in a previous video that is possible to use a command to load TI BASIC programs, but that was not possible for XB at that time. Is this feature now implemented?

You can use FinalGROM and SDD together like to describe, but the SDD doesn't really profit from the FinalGROM.  This is mostly due to the fact that the SDD subsumes all the functionality of the FinalGROM.  I already implemented (G)RAM modes, but so far there is no way to activate them.

 

I'm planning on extending XLOAD to load BASIC and ExtBASIC programs as well.  Doing so will speed-up the operation somewhat compared to OLD.  And all subprograms work in Extended BASIC as well.  And the subprograms are available in assembly, of course.

[jrhodes]

22 hours ago, ralphb said:

Thank you for your patience, I've just uploaded a new demo video:

 

 

The quality is just as stellar as you would except from me. 🤪 

 

The video focuses on disk-related stuff, and my idea is that I'll do another video on the interfaces (RS232, PIO, GIO, USB-HID) somewhat later when all the bugs have been killed.  Regarding the Wifi part, please note that this is not the final transfer rate -- I hope to improve both latency and throughput.

 

And I hope that my next board will be the final design. 🤞

 

My eyes! Jeez, whats with your video? While the video was informative, i found it very hard to watch.

Edited December 22, 2019 by jrhodes

[Sid1968]

Thats what is called Specialeffect.... and you had to pay nothing for it...

[+chue]

3 hours ago, jrhodes said:

My eyes! Jeez, whats with your video? While the video was informative, i found it very hard to watch.

IIRC, Ralph mentions in the video that the display chip in his TI is going bad.. It's probably related to that

[+--- Ω ---]

2 hours ago, chue said:

IIRC, Ralph mentions in the video that the display chip in his TI is going bad.. It's probably related to that

Ralph, PM me with your address, I have a spare 9918 I'll send you.

[jrhodes]

3 hours ago, chue said:

IIRC, Ralph mentions in the video that the display chip in his TI is going bad.. It's probably related to that

I only watched the first five minutes or so, all my eyes could take.

[GDMike]

I need to buy one from ya if you have another

[ralphb]

8 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:

Ralph, PM me with your address, I have a spare 9918 I'll send you.

Thanks, but it's not the 9928, it's the F18A -- and I have no idea how that is even possible. 🤨

[+--- Ω ---]

2 hours ago, ralphb said:

Thanks, but it's not the 9928, it's the F18A -- and I have no idea how that is even possible. 🤨

Ouch!  Yeah, looks more like a monitor issue when we are watching the video.  I hope you can get something worked out sooner than later.

[+retroclouds]

9 hours ago, ralphb said:

Thanks, but it's not the 9928, it's the F18A -- and I have no idea how that is even possible. 🤨

Check your VGA ribbon cable and if it's still tightly connected to the F18a. 

 

Had the same issue with my F18a (not the distorted picture, but did have the same colour degrading I've seen in your video).

At one time I ripped the VGA ribbon cable by accident and had to solder it back in place. The ribbon cable now looks ugly as hell, but works flawlesly.

 

oh, by the way. That is some most excellent work on the SDD99. Looking forward to that.

Do you run your debugger on TI side or is it running in the FPGA and is constantly monitoring the bus?

 

[Sid1968]

 

On 12/23/2019 at 10:35 AM, ralphb said:

Thanks, but it's not the 9928, it's the F18A -- and I have no idea how that is even possible. 🤨

Vielleicht liegt es an den Elkos. Stimmen dort noch die Kapazitäten? Vielleicht hat Dein F18A dadurch eine Überspannung bekommen.

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by Sid1968

[dhe]

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

Even in it's current state with DOS and storage it would be very handy to have around.

I hope you'll release it, as soon as the hardware is done, I'm sure people will be happy to play with working sections and add in additional hardware capabilities when the software is ready!

My Corcomp Micro Exansion Unit takes a dim view of this project! 😃 Cheers and thanks!

[ralphb]

On 12/23/2019 at 7:55 PM, retroclouds said:

Do you run your debugger on TI side or is it running in the FPGA and is constantly monitoring the bus?

It's running on the TI, but it's triggered by the "kernel", i.e., the code running on the controller.  Note it's not an FPGA, but a plain ARM microcontroller.  What I didn't show due to lack of a good example is that you can set breakpoints on GROM addresses as well.

 

You can gleam how it works from thinking about my question, "What steps are required to return from nanobug to the program just stopped?"

 

But I have been thinking about moving the debugger interface to serial so that you can keep the screen, especially for single-stepping.  In that case the entire debugger would reside in the kernel, except for small assembly probes to read and write VDP RAM.