The Sinclair QL Forum

Possible somebody wait the really new SD interface from me. But I am sorry, I am not a software guru. I can only make the hardware for already present software. This is QL-SD interface.
I created this interface for personal use because of Marcel produce QD-SD. QL-SD is more useful, because we have no good PC program for QUBIDE to transfer files from PC to QL. Habi Image editor is old program and need some inprovement.

This interface connect to all QL extension bus ( standard QL-SD use only ROM port lines ) and can support direct writes now, and can use other addresses etc. But all of thlis need the driver/software modifications.

The interface contain :

1. 768 Kb RAM expansion.
2. Trump card.
3. QL-SD interface.
4. Minerva ROM.
5. Minerva clock with battery backup.

Very great, thank you. The only thing I miss (beside the other expansion things) is a suitable PAR port.

Great work! I guess it won't be a problem to get direct writes supported in the driver. Actually, it is a bit like going back to where the driver came from - Wolfgang's Q68 Minerva/QDOS driver, from which the QL-SD version was derived.

Please note there is a relatively simple trick to improve the QL-SD hardware for higher read speed, especially on the original QL, which is target of your new card. You can trick QL-SD into delivering two bytes at once by a word access to $FEE4, simply by ignoring the lowest address bit when decoding. Should be fully backward compatible, although I had no time for testing. Unfortunately, I decoded transfer speed switching at $FEE6, limiting this trick to word size. Otherwise, even longword access would be an option.

It does make sense to include this improvement right from the start.

Peter

Oooh, I see this has 5v jumper for aurora use? And both memory card slots work at the same time?

VERY GOOD !!!!

I use QL-SD with SuperGoldCard ...

It would be nice to allow the use of this interface also for SGC owners.
Or including this feature in the new SCG

M.

vanpeebles wrote:Oooh, I see this has 5v jumper for aurora use? And both memory card slots work at the same time?

Yes, you can use this interface with Aurora.
And both memory card slots work at the same time.

genetika wrote:VERY GOOD !!!!

I use QL-SD with SuperGoldCard ...

It would be nice to allow the use of this interface also for SGC owners.
Or including this feature in the new SCG

M.

Hear! Hear!

All that memory and CPU power hobbled by the storage.

Tetroid, did you ever think of having a separate FPGA/microcontroller to run the SD card medium, including the filesystem and then having a simplified interface to the QL side? I guess this might be more of a programming problem rather than hardware though, as you'd have to program the FPGA etc.

tetroid wrote:But I am sorry, I am not a software guru.

You are sorry? You are "only" a hardware guru!

tetroid wrote:

vanpeebles wrote:Oooh, I see this has 5v jumper for aurora use? And both memory card slots work at the same time?

Yes, you can use this interface with Aurora.
And both memory card slots work at the same time.

Hi,

The Aurora is a replacement for the QL board. The Aurora needs a CPU, usually a Gold or Super Gold Card, which can be connected into the Aurora expansion port.

There is also the use an Mplane, Qplane, Tetroid Backplane.

What would be the ideal configuration of Aurora/SGC and SD Interface?

I have most of these interfaces including the Tetroid SGC, just need to get an Aurora working.

tetroid wrote:I created this interface for personal use because of Marcel produce QD-SD. QL-SD is more useful, because we have no good PC program for QUBIDE to transfer files from PC to QL. Habi Image editor is old program and need some inprovement.

Yes, I spent weeks perfecting the QL-SD driver, I do think it's far superior to QUBIDE in basically every way.

This interface connect to all QL extension bus ( standard QL-SD use only ROM port lines ) and can support direct writes now, and can use other addresses etc. But all of thlis need the driver/software modifications.

You have already integrated my QL-SD v2 Verilog files? Is the hardware tested? If you send me a board I can have a look at the driver side.

Marcel