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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:06 pm
by genetika
One for me :-)

Thanks

Q68 board, 4Gb SDHC Card, SMSQ/E: £150.00
Black Case: £20
Belkin Black PS/2 spliter: £2.00

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:49 pm
by Tesla
One also for me if possible, the whole pack.

Thanks

Q68 board, 4Gb SDHC Card, SMSQ/E: £150.00
Black Case: £20
Belkin Black PS/2 spliter: £2.00
:D

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:38 pm
by Zarchos
Any news now about availability ?
Will it be normal 'soon' or French 'soon' ;-) which always takes a bit longer ... Ah ah !
It is cold and rainy now so plenty of time to play indoor with bits and commies ;)

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:59 pm
by vanpeebles
Zarchos wrote:Will it be normal 'soon' or French 'soon' ;-) which always takes a bit longer ... Ah ah !
Also known as a Sinclair allow 28 days for delivery :D

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:33 pm
by Zarchos
;-) I re read the thread and the OP said 09/10/17 so it is a few more weeks to wait ...

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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:00 am
by Peter
While it is nice to see so much interest in the Q68, let me also mention possible issues, so everyone can make an informed purchase decision. I already stated the restrictions of this hobby project concerning support/documentation, that ethernet has no native drivers yet, and although I'm interested in networking myself, no promise can be given.

Here are two other points:

Although the video output signal of VESA 1024x768 @ 60 Hz seemed the best common mode for a wide variety of CRT, flatscreen monitors and HDMI converters, there will always be a few devices which cause issues. For example, I had to introduce a minimal re-adjustment of timings to avoid losing two visible lines on a specific HDMI converter. But this weekend I noticed that (only) one (of several tested) FullHD monitor with VGA input now loses two visible lines, and only returning to the original timings would resolve this. In short, we found no compromise where absolutely all monitors and converters work perfectly. I have started a thread about suitable monitors for the Q68 at http://qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1885 where users can share their experiences.

Also it is important to understand that the Q68 video mode of 1024x512 pixels in 65536 colours is not suitable for speed critical operations. Reason: Transferring this amount of video data from memory to VGA output requires 1024x512x2 bytes 60 times per second, roughly 63 MB/s. While the max. memory bandwidth of 160 MB/s on the Q68 is much higher than the QL or it's existing upgrades, such a video mode still causes 39% workload. The Q68 has no cache, so the required video memory bandwidth slows down the CPU by about the same percentage. For running the Q68 at full speed, the QL video modes should be used. A good compromise with mininal speed loss is also 512x256 or 512x384 in 65536 colour, or 1024x768 in 4 colour. (That said, even with 1024x512 pixels in 65536 colours, the Q68 remains much faster than a GoldCard.)

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:41 am
by vanpeebles
Thanks for the updates :) How does the Q68 perform compared to a standard BBQL or one with a Super Gold Card?

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:06 pm
by Peter
It depends on the specific benchmark, but as a rough indication, the Q68 is faster than a SuperGoldCard, somewhere between the QXL and QXL2.

The Q68 can not compete with the Q40 and Q60 in terms of speed. However, it offers improvements over the Q40/Q60 in other areas, like flatscreen monitor support, easy data exchange by SDHC cards, PS/2 scrollwheel mouse, CPU speed adjustment for games, small size.

I hope to find some time to publish Q68 benchmark figures soon.

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:14 pm
by vanpeebles
That is more than fast enough for me :shock:

Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 5:34 pm
by Zarchos
That looks more than very good to me.
To be honest I didn t expect it to leave that amount of free CPU bandwith in the hi res screen modes ;-)

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