QLion Gold Card

[lliont]

Thanks François, I was doing something wrong.

I now managed the 512x384 in 256 colors and the 1024x768 in 4 colors

[Nasta]

I used the public source smsq/e version and emulated the aurora registers and set the same vram addresses, I managed to make the smsq/e recognize my card as a gold card with aurora, machine=11. The standard modes worked using the aurora vram space. The higher resolution 512x384 didn't seem to work. Then I tried with a 68020 mode and was recognized as super gold card but again it didn't work. It didn't switch to another resolution. Maybe I missed something and I'll try again to find a solution when I find some time. That Minerva trick is promising.
Thanks for the info.

Was there a special smsq/e version for aurora that was different from the one I try with that supported the high resolutions ?

Not as far as I know.
Marcel did the Aurora driver, and I am not sure if he supported the 'odd' resolutions like 1024x960 or 512x480 but as far as I remember, 512x384 should work. Does 512x384 work in mode 4? Q68 and QUIMSI use the same driver and implement aurora compatible 256 color modes, but I think it only supports 1024x768 256 colors...

What is a "QUIMSI" ?

QIMSI with accidentally inserted U because of a horrible keyboard

[martyn_hill]

QIMSI with accidentally inserted U because of a horrible keyboard

But at least phonetically correct

[Derek_Stewart]

QIMSI with accidentally inserted U because of a horrible keyboard

But at least phonetically correct

No it me, I lived in the North East of England for a lo time, where the dialectic is a little strange, can not get rid of stupid Geordie accent.

[lliont]

The QLion Gold card is finished, I only wish to test it to more QL's, thankfully it doesn't use the QL's ram so no incompatibilities will arise due to the different QL's ram chips.

I added 3 aurora compatible modes so I can run smsq/e in higher resolutions and 256 colours, to achieve this I quit using bram for vram because it wasn't enough, this also has the positive effect that now Minerva second screen is supported with the cost of some speed decrease. I also can switch the core to use 68020 cpu emulation for the smsq/e.
The 256x256 mode with 2048 colours now uses 4096 colours (not in smsqe). The 256x256x256 mode is double buffered (has a second screen). QL standard modes can be mixed in the screen with the 256^3 video mode.
Also now the mouse doesn't need a driver to work just a poke to enable it, I emulate the QIMI hardware.
The first bank of sprites (the first 30 sprites) can now be configured also as 8x16 pixels with 256 colours.
The digital sample buffer was increased to 8Kbytes, the fast serial port has a 1K receive and 1K transmit buffer, I tested it with term software and made Xmodem file transfers. I want to connect it to a ESP in the future for wifi.

Speed is 5.1 bogomips and the tindex index is:

21 in qdos/68000
21.5 in 512x384 4 colour aurora mode in smsqe/68020
15.5 in 512x384 256 colour aurora mode in smsqe/68020
17.5 in 1024x768 4 colour aurora mode in smsqe/68020

So the final specifications are:

- 68000/68020 emulated cpu, TG68KdotC core
- 4MB of ram, 3712K available to OS, 256K as extra video ram
- 512K flash rom lets you choose using switches from 4 sets of rom and driver rom (patched JS+qlsd, Minerva+qlsd+tk2 etc).
- QLSD storage for win1_ to win8_ drives. It uses my implementation of SPI not bit banging, it's driver tested to work well with toolkit 2.36.
- VGA up-scaled to 1024x768 output that can be easily converted to hdmi if needed with a cheap external adapter (QL standard video output is not usable)
- 16 colors for mode 8.
- 256 color graphics modes for 256x256, 512x256 and 512x384 resolutions, 16 colour mode for 512x256, 4096 colour mode for 256x256 resolution, 3 aurora compatible modes.
- 50 hardware sprites of 16x16 pixels and 15 colors + transparency or 8x16 pixels 255+1 colour (for first 30 sprites), great help in creating games in C and even in Basic with the extensions.
- PS/2 mouse that works in the pointer environment, qimi hardware emulation.
- 3 channels of audio + noise emulating the standard AY-3-8910/YM2149 ic, 3.5mm stereo audio jack output, superbasic extensions for controlling it and a very simple/basic player for ym files.
- 8bit stereo digital sample playback at configurable sample rate, 8K dedicated buffer and a simple player I wrote for raw sample files.
- fast serial port with 3.3v lvttl output to use with a common serial to usb board at speeds much more than 115200, 1K transmit + 1K receive hardware controlled buffer.
- battery backed up real time clock using a DS1307 ic
- Execution speed control in 64 steps for playing games or accessing microdrives.

[Tinyfpga]

The QLion Gold card is finished

It seems to me that your QLion could be used to resurrect "dead" Qls. Am I correct in thinking that your board is almost a standalone system.

Might it not be possible to design a QL case_fitting PCB that would allow the QLion to connect to a new onboard power supply and a QL keyboard such that one could use defunct QLs as a source of keyboards for a new and shorter printed "QL next" ?
One would lose access to Micro drives, but for many this might not be a problem.

[lliont]

This could be done if I add keyboard support through zx8302 emulation, but it needs many extra io pins.
To make the card totally stand alone is easier if I add a ps/2 keyboard.

[Tinyfpga]

I have just looked on Ebay to see how much "for spare parts QLs" fetch. They are not particularly cheap but not much more
than some new PS2 keyboards. I know two people who own unwanted QLs they would be happy to give them to me for the purpose
mentioned above. I would certainly be interested in buying a couple of your boards and, as yet, two non existent adaptor boards.

I am aware that the same thing can be achieved with a Qzero and its QL fitting carrier board, but it seems to me that the more
SMSQE in FPGA systems there are the better.

What is interesting is that you have been able to get SMSQE (or have you?) to run in a Cyclone 10LP.

[lliont]

Of course a Cyclone 10LP I use and I run SMSQE

10CL010YE144I7G

[martyn_hill]

Great results, Leon!

In my own TIndex tests (using CoWo's QTop), I get around the 21x mark for the Q68 and QZero (both in mode 4, SMSQe), so these are great results for the QLion card!

Well done, my friend!