Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

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genetika
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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


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Tesla
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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


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Zarchos
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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 ;)


Owner of various QLs including accelerated beasts, and also a happy Q68 owner ;)
Now porting SOTB to the Archies, to then port it to the Q68.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archimedes ... +%28100%25
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vanpeebles
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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


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Zarchos
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post by Zarchos »

;-) I re read the thread and the OP said 09/10/17 so it is a few more weeks to wait ...

Envoyé de mon XT1650 en utilisant Tapatalk


Owner of various QLs including accelerated beasts, and also a happy Q68 owner ;)
Now porting SOTB to the Archies, to then port it to the Q68.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archimedes ... +%28100%25
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Peter
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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.)


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vanpeebles
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post by vanpeebles »

Thanks for the updates :) How does the Q68 perform compared to a standard BBQL or one with a Super Gold Card?


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Peter
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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.
Last edited by Peter on Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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vanpeebles
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post by vanpeebles »

That is more than fast enough for me :shock:


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Zarchos
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Re: Q68 Advance Notice 2 - Pricing

Post 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 ;-)

Envoyé de mon SM-G900F en utilisant Tapatalk


Owner of various QLs including accelerated beasts, and also a happy Q68 owner ;)
Now porting SOTB to the Archies, to then port it to the Q68.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archimedes ... +%28100%25
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