exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

well done @agranlund

Cyprian wrote: 16 Oct 2020 20:22 well done @agranlund

Thanks! It feels super weird that my old ST is displaying 1024x768 in color :D
Of course, it doesn't count until all the things are neatly inside the machine. And also until it can seamlessly launch non-gfxcard aware games and demos. But it's still really cool even now though!

I really really love your 4MB expansion @exxos but I need to free up some space around that area :)
(Plus getting rid of MMU attachments will come in handy for some future experiments that may or may not happen) Order sent, always exciting to find out how many bodge wires will be required :D

@agranlund you are just full of great ideas at the mo.

agranlund wrote: 16 Oct 2020 21:33 Order sent, always exciting to find out how many bodge wires will be required :D

It's not a proper dev board until it has bodge wire :)

Nice work.

:bravo: yeah wayyyyy to many motherboard revisions out there .

Slowly but surely.. This is going to be an STGA implementation and as far as I can tell that should work with NVDI given the correct settings.
I'm soldering up a separate STGA test on a breadboard + million wires to make sure.

A small part of the ET4000 will go under the keyboard so in an effort to reduce height I desoldered the unnecessary Bios ROMs and moved capacitors to the underside of the card.
Also got rid of the socket for the keyboard controller and soldered that chip directly - and while I had the keyboard taken apart it got a well deserved cleaning :)

The graphics card should fit neatly inside the case now but I'm still weeks away from being able to hook everything up.


Not sure if I'm actually going to have the ethernet controller on there or not.. also not sure about the placement of anything except for the CPU, IDE and ET4000 connectors :)
I believe the Phoenix Sparkalaphobia is slightly larger than a normal blitter so I might need to move that PLCC socket somewhat to make sure the Phoenix blitter also fits.

From rounded traces to right angles... :P :P

For people like me whos got no idea, I assume the ET4000 plugs into your board or something ?

exxos wrote: 24 Oct 2020 00:12 From rounded traces to right angles... :P :P

You have no idea the dilemma I had with the traces, switching between right angles and rounded.. In the end I guess I settled for both :lol: :lol:

exxos wrote: 24 Oct 2020 00:12 For people like me whos got no idea, I assume the ET4000 plugs into your board or something ?

Yep, a modified ET4000 will plug into that 44pin connector on the right side of the board. That card will have the cable directly soldered to the fingers of its edge connector. I can't see any good way of fitting a proper ISA connector anywhere in there.
So while I'm of course happy to share the new Blitter board if and when it's working it's nowhere near plug-and-play connecting an ET4000.

This is roughly what I'm going for: (yeah it's not the correct cable, but it's the same width so it'll do fine as a mockup aid)


Haha I just noticed the sticked on it saying "Removal of label voids warranty".. I guess removal of chips is fine then :lol:

Ooh. Is it only 44 pins used on the ET4K connector/ISA slot?