ZX Spectrum Next (and compatibles) QL Core now available!

[vox]

Note: it's not YET compatible with either Aurora modes or SMSQ/e

Its really nice feature set and I hope SMSQ/e can be reached.

I wonder how NEXT spectrum keymap works as QL keymap?

[QuantumLeapGR]

Note: it's not YET compatible with either Aurora modes or SMSQ/e

Its really nice feature set and I hope SMSQ/e can be reached.

I wonder how NEXT spectrum keymap works as QL keymap?

It's quite intuitive once you used it for about 15 minutes. Granted CTRL (GRAPH) and Alt (EXTENDED) are a little bit out of the way but most stuff is where you'd expect them to be and definitely at the same place for a Spectrum + level keyboard. The only thing that's a bit "meh" but there wasn't really another way to do it is the use of the NMI key as a hardware shift for the numeric keys to realize function keys

[Peter]

Yes me too, zero wait states for both ram and rom, but how many main clock pulses total?

Hmm... are you talking about the QLion Gold or the Spectrum Next here?
I guess the QLion Gold has the potentially higher performance as it runs at 32 MHz.

The total number of CPU clocks is 1 + waitstates.
I thought that is always the case, don't know what you mean.

[lliont]

Ok, 68000 runs at x clock but each fetch (bus cycle) takes 4 of it's cpu clock periods at every zero wait state memory access.
That is what I mean.
Your bus cycle is 1 clock period?

[Peter]

Your bus cycle is 1 clock period?

Yes, but only for SRAM and ROM. And for you?

[lliont]

No, at least 2. I imagine you also use the negative transition of the clock.

So the performance of your QIMSI when running code from rom or SRAM is 40x4 like a 68000 running at 160Mhz ? Nice!

[Peter]

I use an 80 MHz phase shifted memory clock. Kinda tricky stuff.
Still your two cycles are not bad, I guess your QLion Gold benchmark suffers mostly from the lack of shadow ROM.
Did you try the Q-Top benchmark with the Spectrum Next?

[lliont]

It was a only little slower than the QLion card because of Lions 8-bit rom (I'll do the shadow thing), in the next core I already run rom from read only ram.

But now I run the next core faster also but have to adjust things and test. Also QLion currently takes more than 2 cycles/fetch, I think 3

[vox]

[quote=QuantumLeapGR post_id=60543 time=1733688324 user_id=1832

It's quite intuitive once you used it for about 15 minutes. Granted CTRL (GRAPH) and Alt (EXTENDED) are a little bit out of the way but most stuff is where you'd expect them to be and definitely at the same place for a Spectrum + level keyboard. The only thing that's a bit "meh" but there wasn't really another way to do it is the use of the NMI key as a hardware shift for the numeric keys to realize function keys
[/quote]

The only way that stops me from taking Next 2 instead of hard road to find usable QL and expand it is - even worse availability of Next 2 and crazy ebay prices like 1000 euros per new packed Next 2. I dislike clone 2 just because its back to Spectrum 48k look.

Any chance of 2025 or 2026 Kickstart or production run? Its insane Next 2 reaches and leaps over prices of e.g. MEGA65 since it still uses cheaper hardware base and less development needed.

[QuantumLeapGR]

I dislike clone 2 just because its back to Spectrum 48k look.

N-Gos have a wonderful mechanical keyboard (https://manuferhi.com/p/n-go-full-include-wifi-rpi-zero). The rubber key versions that some sell are insane and useless for any kind of meaningful use.

Any chance of 2025 or 2026 Kickstart or production run? Its insane Next 2 reaches and leaps over prices of e.g. MEGA65 since it still uses cheaper hardware base and less development needed.

Yes. I believe we'll be ready around April 2025. There are only bureaucratic hurdles to bypass otherwise we're ready for production right now. Our last stock was sold for 305 and 335 GBP respectively. How much people charge is insane. There's an Artix version of XBerry Pi coming soon too so you'll be able to get a full KS2 style machine minus the keyboard (but you can still buy a mechanical N-Go keyboard) for less than 250 euros