XT-IDE on PCjr

[Lutiana]

Quick question.

What about getting this card to also do the 736k hack? Is that possible?

[Hargle]

alanh wrote:I was thinking the idea of a pre-purchased/packaged kit was definitely out. Too much upfront cost for someone.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking - I wanted this to be made for home assembly, and I didn't want anything to require programming except the EEPROM (which can be programmed while the board is plugged into the sidecar bus without any special equipment).

Well, OK. I was actually going with the XTIDE model, which worked really well. We get a vote for how many interested people there were, I personally placed the orders, bulk buying all the parts and kitting everything up, then re-selling everything at cost, either as a home-asembled kit, or if you wanted me to build one for you, I charged an extra fee for my time and expenses.
If you don't really *want* me to take all the risk and do all the work and save you money re-selling bulk purchased parts at cost, then I'm totally fine with that! This is great!

[alanh]

I welcome it. But it's entirely up to you. Pre-buying parts opens up the possibly of significantly reducing the parts count with a little programming... but it requires programming. I just wanted to bring that up for discussion. Though not having to rely on someone for external programming is probably still worth the added cost/complexity.

Neither option prevents you or someone else from packaging kits.

[Lutiana]

Though not having to rely on someone for external programming is probably still worth the added cost/complexity.

I think being able to program the thing in circuit via the computer itself is imperative and almost mandatory for a project like this.

Once the XT-IDE was released the BIOS revisions and changes started coming quite rapidly, and there was even a second BIOS written for it by someone else (not Hargle). It would really suck to have to buy a programmer just to take advantage of advances in the software.

[jmetal88]

Quick question.

What about getting this card to also do the 736k hack? Is that possible?

I never could get the upper 96k recognized when I wired it up myself, so I'd be really hesitant to include it on the board. Also, I don't think there will be room for it. If you're into modding, you might be able to get it done by piggybacking some chips.

[alanh]

I think being able to program the thing in circuit via the computer itself is imperative and almost mandatory for a project like this.

Once the XT-IDE was released the BIOS revisions and changes started coming quite rapidly, and there was even a second BIOS written for it by someone else (not Hargle). It would really suck to have to buy a programmer just to take advantage of advances in the software.

I wasn't referring to the BIOS. It would always be in-circuit programmable. I was referring to a PAL which would never change.

[Hargle]

you could eliminate a half dozen chips (U1, U3, U8, U12, U15, U16, U18 [-7]) with a single 22v10 [+1].

well, i do have access to a PAL programmer here at work. It hasn't been used in so many years that I am toying with the idea of just taking it home with me.

This is actually an interesting way to go. Considering I'm used to packaging and selling kits, and I do have access to a PAL programmer, and that means we could reduce a big number of components to save costs, power and board space. This puts me squarely back into the selling kits service department, since I can offer the entire completed kit.

I am not skilled enough to program the logic in them though, so would need help there.

[alanh]

That's pretty easy. I suggest downloading WinCUPL from Atmel and have a look at the examples. I also have a programmer.

I'm open either way. Need jmetal and Mike to chime in. But with a PAL, someone would definitely have to pre-order at least those, gang program them, and send them out individually to folks. I also volunteer for that if we go that way. I'm going to order some 16v8, 22v10, and atf750 in DIP form today just to have around. Once they come in, I could write and program the logic and send them out to anyone trying to do a prototype. Infant mortality on that should be low though. The logic is straight forward and jmetal has already worked it out on a gate level.

[jmetal88]

If you guys don't mind doing the programming, I say go for it!

It ought to make the PCB routing a lot simpler.

[Lutiana]

Okay, so my understanding is that if we use these chips (they essentially PLCs right?) then we open up a ton of space on the board. Does this mean we can add a RTC now?

I am thinking, an IDE/RAM/RTC card would be a one stop sidecar for most, I know I would be completely set with those 3. We can just make a jumper block to enable/disable any of the 3, so people could configure the sidecar as they need it.