What to do with this?

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Stimpy
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

What to do with this?

Post by Stimpy »

So I got this out of storage, it's been sat for almost 20 years. I have no monitor for it (VGA) no keyboard or mouse. I did hide :D and power it up, no bangs no smoke. I doubt I will ever get around to completing it, I'd hate to see it go but I'm being realistic.what should I do?

4MB 72 pin (70ns?) Simm wired up for fast RAM access
'F' bus drivers
HBS240 with manual - runs CPU at 2x bus speed with Cache
Bus overclock to 12MHz using Falcon accelerator
TOS 1.04 but also SRAMs for storing TOS 2.06. this was battery backed up and driven by Xilinx CPLD but that's looking pretty messy and the code to upload images is long gone.
RTL8019 network card using EtherNec circuit. Not sure if that was completed.
ET4000 - never got started on this but the card worked fine in a PC.
IDE cable hanging over the motherboard. I think I had this working from the CPLD but for some reason it is not connected.

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stephen_usher
Posts: 5582
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: What to do with this?

Post by stephen_usher »

My goodness! There is actually an ST in there somewhere. :-)
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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JezC
Posts: 2083
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:44 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by JezC »

Wow - some very interesting upgrades in there :o

Do you have any of the schematics or documentation for any of those add-ons?

It'd be very interesting to see the Gembench scores for something like that compared to a stock ST (and various accelerated machines)...

:thumbup:
Stimpy
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Stimpy »

I have the HBS240 manual (in German) and some scraps of notes, which make little sense. All the addons are home made. My benchmarks seem to show that the HBS is slower with TOS2.06 than 1.04. when using TOS1.04 it knows this address range and accesses it quicker. I see I have a note about trying the DTOS2.06 DTACK onto the processor...

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I think Id be interested in that bus speeder that doesn't affect the ST video timing (Troed?). Remove the IDE and just use a Gotek. Not sure about the network and ET4000, mainly just because the long length of wires will probably cause problems cranking the bus speed up. Maybe change the bus pullup resistors. Change the 70ns SRAMs for fast EEPROMs.

...or just sell it on :shock:
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Badwolf
Posts: 2231
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Badwolf »

A thing of beauty!

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
Stimpy
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Stimpy »

It looks like I was feeding the Shifter 48MHz then supplying the WD1772, YM2149 and ACIAs with original clocks.

I've had a brief look at the DoubleSt thread and I now see it's possible to leave the Glue at the original 8MHz to keep the original video timing - which could be useful, this was always the downside to speeding up the bus.

Can the DMA be kept at 16MHz if you want possible faster hard disk?
Stimpy
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Stimpy »

Well...it's been one year and still not touched it. :cry: I don't even have a monitor to connect it to. So it is probably for the best I pass this on and hopefully someone else can take it on as a project and revive it. Please make offers, bearing in mind it has an ET4000, RTL8019 card and HBS240.
Steve
Posts: 2570
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:49 am

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Steve »

Where are you located?
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Cyprian
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:16 am
Location: Poland

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Cyprian »

that's one sounds interesting.
Stimpy wrote: Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:03 pm Bus overclock to 12MHz using Falcon accelerator
What kind of Falcon accelerator did you use?
Lynx I / Mega ST 1 / 7800 / Portfolio / Lynx II / Jaguar / TT030 / Mega STe / 800 XL / 1040 STe / Falcon030 / 65 XE / 520 STm / SM124 / SC1435
DDD HDD / AT Speed C16 / TF536 / SDrive / PAK68/3 / Lynx Multi Card / LDW Super 2000 / XCA12 / SkunkBoard / CosmosEx / SatanDisk / UltraSatan / USB Floppy Drive Emulator / Eiffel / SIO2PC / Crazy Dots / PAM Net
http://260ste.atari.org
Stimpy
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:19 pm

Re: What to do with this?

Post by Stimpy »

Cyprian wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:39 pm that's one sounds interesting.
Stimpy wrote: Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:03 pm Bus overclock to 12MHz using Falcon accelerator
What kind of Falcon accelerator did you use?
Phantom, as it is basically a divider. Probably best to replace with the DoubleST stuff.
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