Homebrew 68008 computer

[thorsinclair]

Hi,

just found this 68008 based homebrew computer while browsing the net. Possible plattform for Qdos or SMSQ/E ??

See here: http://www.ist-schlau.de

Best,
t

[dilwyn]

Hi,
just found this 68008 based homebrew computer while browsing the net. Possible plattform for Qdos or SMSQ/E ??
See here: http://www.ist-schlau.de
Best,
t

An interesting little system for those interested in retro-computers. 68008, 10MHz? Not too different to a real QL (i.e. not high spec), but able to use 4 MB of RAM incl. 512K dedicated RAM (thought 68008 was 1MB max? although there were versions with 24-bit and 32 bit addressing I suppose).

I note the discussions about porting an operating system for it e.g. emuTOS - wonder if you should point them in the direction of e.g. SMSQ/E and/or QDOS Classic (as the sources are available) and persuade them to open up a new market for it by making it a "QL"? That way they gain, so do we by expanding the user base among retro enthusiasts.

SMSQ/E can be a disk based OS or like Q40/Q60 be put into flash memory. Big question might be if SMSQ/E works on 68008, as its base platform is QL with Gold Card (i.e. 68000+2MB).

What I'm inferring here is rather than rely on the QL community to do the porting (how much more work can we ask people like Marcel to do, although he might be willing to answer questions and advise, without any coding) promote our OS to them to get them to do it as a project to enhance their system. After all, the SMSQ/E licence is now more able to allow projects like this - e.g. what Daniele Terdina has done to allow QemuLator to use a special SMSQ/E - see
http://www.terdina.net/ql/software.html and scroll down to SMSQ/E section.

[Nasta]

Hi,
just found this 68008 based homebrew computer while browsing the net. Possible plattform for Qdos or SMSQ/E ??
See here: http://www.ist-schlau.de
Best,
t

An interesting little system for those interested in retro-computers. 68008, 10MHz? Not too different to a real QL (i.e. not high spec), but able to use 4 MB of RAM incl. 512K dedicated RAM (thought 68008 was 1MB max? although there were versions with 24-bit and 32 bit addressing I suppose).

I note the discussions about porting an operating system for it e.g. emuTOS - wonder if you should point them in the direction of e.g. SMSQ/E and/or QDOS Classic (as the sources are available) and persuade them to open up a new market for it by making it a "QL"? That way they gain, so do we by expanding the user base among retro enthusiasts.

SMSQ/E can be a disk based OS or like Q40/Q60 be put into flash memory. Big question might be if SMSQ/E works on 68008, as its base platform is QL with Gold Card (i.e. 68000+2MB).

What I'm inferring here is rather than rely on the QL community to do the porting (how much more work can we ask people like Marcel to do, although he might be willing to answer questions and advise, without any coding) promote our OS to them to get them to do it as a project to enhance their system. After all, the SMSQ/E licence is now more able to allow projects like this - e.g. what Daniele Terdina has done to allow QemuLator to use a special SMSQ/E - see
http://www.terdina.net/ql/software.html and scroll down to SMSQ/E section.

Dilwyn,
There was a 68008FN, which is a PLCC 52-pin version of the 68008. It has 4 more pins, two of which are used for extra address lines, so it supports 4M, and one of which is the missing interrupt line.
SMSQ/E should work just fine ona 68008 since it's for all intents and purposes a 68000, as found on the GC, or rather, the 68000 on the GC is made to look exactly like a 68008 for the obvious reasons. The main thing is that SMSQ/E expects the extra hardware found on the (S)GC, namely FDC chip, RTC chip and in the case of the SGC, parallel port.
If this small 68008 system was modified so that 256k or RAM was sacrificed for an expansion I/F, one could easily connect it to an Aurora. The Aurora does support faster bus access so 10MHz (or for that matter 16MHz) is not a problem.
I used to build QL's around the 68008FN10 a long time ago, and although the speed is not much more than that of a regular QL, it's a usable system for something like embedded control, given appropirate extra hardware to interface with the real world.