ALPHA CPU Quattro Board

[Icky]

If you have been following exxos' threads on the H2 board and the ALPHA 16MHz Mode you will of noticed that a few boards have been springing up to help us do some testing for the H2 board.

The first of the boards is the ALPHA CPU Expansion board which will allow us to test 68000 DIL boards like the IDE DEV board, SEC 50MHz booster etc. on the ALPHA.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 849#p21806

However there are more expansion components coming for the H2 such as the Fast RAM board
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =20#p21866

What this means is the H2 design has 4x expansion 68000 DIL headers as can be seen here:
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =20#p21866

So to help test this setup on the ALPHA we have come up with the ALPH CPU Quattro board which will plug into the ALPHA CPU Expansion board and give us the ability to plug all these expansion boards in to test how it will work for the H2.

Screenshot 2019-05-10 at 08.48.40.png

And no if you plug 4x 68000's in the 4 sockets and plug it in it doesn't make a quad core ST :P

[PhilC]

And no if you plug 4x 68000's in the 4 sockets and plug it in it doesn't make a quad core ST :P

Now theres an idea, wheres exxos when you need him :lol:

[exxos]

Now theres an idea, wheres exxos when you need him :lol:

Already plotted a Dual Core ST in another thread a few months back ;)

[exxos]

Looky what I got...

IMG_4188.JPG

[PhilC]

Now theres an idea, wheres exxos when you need him :lol:

Already plotted a Dual Core ST in another thread a few months back ;)

Yeah I remember that a while back, wasn't that to farm out video or audio cycles away from the main CPU?

[exxos]

Yeah I remember that a while back, wasn't that to farm out video or audio cycles away from the main CPU?

Yeah, Was trying to work out if I could basically build a mini "ST" where basically a 68000 would have its own RAM, and basically could be used for playing audio so it did not use any main CPU power... Of course that processor could be used for anything, but of course it would not have access to anything but its own RAM.

[PhilC]

It is an interesting idea, similar to what Sega did with the Megadrive I believe. It has a 68000 and a Z80 inside.

[exxos]

It is an interesting idea, similar to what Sega did with the Megadrive I believe. It has a 68000 and a Z80 inside.

Cool! did not know that!

[rubber_jonnie]

It is an interesting idea, similar to what Sega did with the Megadrive I believe. It has a 68000 and a Z80 inside.

Cool! did not know that!

Yeah, you can read about it here: https://hackaday.com/2015/11/06/winning ... ral-study/

[exxos]

Yeah, you can read about it here: https://hackaday.com/2015/11/06/winning ... ral-study/

ahh IO CPU kinda thing then... on that basis the ST is already a "dual CPU" as the keyboard chip does IO stuff.. Well may not exactly a CPU.. but the Z80 can do a lot more than just keyboard IO processing.