The Sinclair QL Forum

Well, yes, but if you say that, then you also say that the QL operating systems are simply not relevant to modern day computing, that they don't play well with others, and have been utterly superseded, and we should all rush out and buy a Mac.

Honestly, the QL is now for anyone still interested a true die-hard hobby, or a fun distraction, and I don't think I or anyone else need any more reason than that to do what we do.

The point is, it's really easy to say, "Don't do that, it's inefficient/outdated/not the best approach." It's much harder to say, "well, that's not my choice but good luck to you, enjoy it, and here's what I'm doing!"

I still use VGA for most things with the odd DVI cable.

Using old computers is the same thing as watching old films or driving old cars. It's part of the hobby, you enjoy it for what it is, not what it is isn't

One thing I've always wondered about is, if you have this custom hardware (none 68000 based) emulated machine on a chip, what is the difference between that and using an emulator on a PC?

Brane2 wrote: ....Practically all I/O on QL is outdated to the point of being unuseable. What good would be to have e.g 8x 230 kbit/s serial ports if no one uses RS-232 today ?

Same thing with network. You could speed it up easily, but if it is not Ethernet-compatible, it would be of very little use.

Video output is even more critical....

As I said in an earlier post: I am not planning to reproduce the serial, joystick or microdrive ports. If someone else wishes to create more modern equivalents they are more than welcome to do so. I just plan to have a faster native QL with inbuilt floppy controller and compatible video output.

For my own personal enjoyment, but I will share.

...because people who own QLs don't have any floppies, and don't know how to get hold of them.

I eagerly await your design

Brane2 wrote:

Dave wrote:I eagerly await your design

If this is polite way of saying "Stop being a smartass and start practicing what you preach", then my answer is that I'm not preaching but merely suggesting.


CF interface should be relatively "cheap" in development terms, compared to floppy interface ( AFAIK it's very similar if not equal to IDE interface, which is basicallly just adress decoder), so if you are going to do it, CF route would be easier for you.

I'm thinking about doing something like this, but on bigger scale and so far I have several pieces of that puzzle in not-completed stage, so it'll have to wait...

Using the CF card as a drive has already been done on the Amiga, albeit the Amiga already has the necessary interface for a drive anyway.

See it here http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59591 and alternatively PCMIA version here http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... cts_id=440

Installed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fWfqRd3E3E

As Dave put it, most existing QL owners will not have Floppy Disk Drives (or is that Disc Drives) so getting hold of existing software would be difficult. you can still get USB floppy devices (I have two) and they work qute well moving software to and from QL-PC but they are 1.44 systems and I do read many people have problems reading 720K, I havent yet.

Basically getting software/programs from floppies to SD/CF solid state devices with a new QL system is a problem but not insurmountable, the bigger things is get the new QL system up and running first, worry about the peripherals later, there is still many people out there who would add their technical expertise (from what I have seen in my return to the QL scene this last year), worst case scenario is that someone would do it for you.

I think SD/CF would be the way to go to provide such storage, but hey lets get the new FGBA or whatever QL system first, worry about the transfers after.

Would it be worth having a separate thread for Dave's custom build and maybe a thread for future QL hardware discussion?

There is someone who has already done most of the work of a project like this - his name is Peter Graf. He designed the Q40 and Q60, and the natami project is almost identical to his past work. Unfortunately, it hasn't reached market yet, but if/when it does, I think it'll be great and I'll be one of the first in line to buy one (though I'd rather be able to build it myself around his chip )

Peter Graf is a good designer, and is working on a couple of projects, including a QL-SD interface (which sits in place of one of the QL microdrives, and connects to the QL using a small board which sits underneath one of the ROM chips).

His design for the QL running on an FGPA is also complete and up and running - the issue is the operating system. Peter wants to be able to use a freely distributable operating system, and it needs to be patched to run on non-native QL hardware...

- QDOS is not actually freely available - there were rights granted by Sinclair / Amstrad to distribute it with emulators (although neither of them were quite sure as to who owns the rights to the QL ROM from memory). In the USA, the rights to QDOS are owned by a third party (Paul Holmgren and ?). I also do not believe the sources are available

- SMSQ/e Peter will not touch, as it is not under the GPL licence and in fact the executable can only be distributed by authorised distributors, who have to pay a fee to Tony Tebby for each executable sold (the sources can be freely distributed). Plus there is an age old argument about the fact that if he made any changes to SMSQ/e, those changes have to be incorporated into the main version files of SMSQ/e....

- Minerva seemed the best bet, but unfortunately, there appear to be only incomplete sources for this, which means that although Peter has a version running on his FGPA, it is not very stable and has problems.

Every new development is very welcomed, Dave's one based on a 68K, Peter Graf's one based on FPGA but also what Memorylane did is very good and brings the little QL world forward. Others I forgot?

I'm not sure about exisiting boards like Natami and if QDOS or as said above Minerva could be adapted. This board was mantinoned in the past but the discussion did not go further, same for fpgaarcade.com, another FPGA solution and Firebee which is a Atari compatible board based on coldfire. Seems that we need our very own solution

Anyway I didn't know that Peter Graf's FPGA QL design is finished ... any more details available?