The larger a project is expected to grow, the smaller the chance of actually succeeding. Although a finished Q68 would be very desirable, the odds of actually getting that done with lots of hardware development, FPGA design and software (driver and OS-related) development, I see (given the state of affairs in the QL community) only a very small chance for the board + needed software to ever see the light of day. I would rather try and start something smaller.
I (personally) can very well live with an emulated QL on some other hardware - It's so much more comfortable to do a little bit of QL fiddling on your day-to-day PC than having a dedicated hardware-QL you need to set up, need space for it, a dedicated screen, and so forth. (I have a GoldCard QL and a QXL card in a Mini-PC on a desk in the attic that I rarely tend to use - When doing software development, I'm used to a decent editor, a decently large screen, an SVN-based repository and so on, something I most likely won't ever get on a 68k QL.)
Something that worries me quite a bit is the chance that the "real" (HW) QL is going to die sooner or later because there's no longer any functioning storage device around. With Microdrives dying like flies nowadays, even floppy disks becoming rare items, the end of life for a lot of boxes can easily been seen. The community would loose a lot of "low-tech" users once that happens
For all of these reasons, I see the QL-SD as the most important piece of hardware the community needs.
You are right about mass storage for the original QL, but I worry that lack of screen support will also bring it down. You would need a video card for the original QL - a project which could end up even bigger than doing the remaining Q68 work.
Simon_Carr wrote:Im new to the QL, but I would say that an SD card based mass storage (external or internal) is the one thing that the QL needs most of all. Microdrives are unreliable, disk drives are defunct technology, but solid state card storage would make the QL have a new lease of life.
I wish I had the skills and knowledge to contribute or help, but I have neither, just the enthusiasm to support it!
This is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
The QL must have a good dependable mass storage solution.
Without that nobody can really contribute time and effort into creating new software for this machine.
Well, there are at least 3 different SD card solutions in various stages at the moment.
The one which connects via the microdrive socket is probably the best solution going forwards, as it does not tie up any of the QL's main expansion ports.
The Q68 has always been an interesting project for me.
Here's hoping that one of them will reach fruition in the near-ish future!
In terms of where such a storage could go, while I am all in favour of a working SD card system, part of me would be very sad to lose one, or both of the Microdrives. As far as I am concerned, the two built in microdrive ports are part of what defined the QL design, and (as with my spectrums) I would rather keep the innards of the computer original, even just for heritage purposes.
I know someone is bound to say "buy another one, and modify that!", but I guess I am just old fashioned....
Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
For Info: The QL-SD is an internal solution with two boards. One of them plugs into one of the internal ROM sockets, similar to Minerva, and the other one can replace one of the internal microdrives, so the SDHC card can be inserted just like a cartridge. However, the QL-SD does not required to replace a microdrive. It is also possible to attach the SDHC card holder internally, practically resulting in a harddisk without moving parts.
I have QL-SD working here in my QL, and the design is complete. Due to my limited time, I can not document, build, test, market and support it myself.
There is a different project under development which emulates a microdrive. It has the advantage that it does not require a driver software and works with 128 KB. But there is a file length restriction to cartridge size, lack of subdirectories, and much slower speed.
Over-simplified answer: If you have only 128 KB RAM or don't want to open the QL, it is the microdrive emulation. If you want speed or dislike boards protruding from the QL, it is the QL-SD.
Except for 3 or 4 persons, it's only theoretical, as both devices are not for sale yet.
I made a little progress inasmuch I soldered one more QL-SD system and sent it to a person who ist interested in "mass production". I also wrote a little documentation.
