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| * The Apple II - I still have a II//e and a II europlus that I have restored and collected a variety of cards for over the years. I have also designed (opto coupled parallel I/O card) and in the process of finalising a build of a Transputer link card with modification from Das Transputer Buch. // | * The Apple II - I still have a II//e and a II europlus that I have restored and collected a variety of cards for over the years. I have also designed (opto coupled parallel I/O card) and in the process of finalising a build of a Transputer link card with modification from Das Transputer Buch. // | ||
| * // | * // | ||
| - | * //Building electronic things - Now this is where RetroBrewComputers has just recently come into my life {{https:// | + | * //Building electronic things - Now this is where RetroBrewComputers has just recently come into my life // |
| * //Other computing related things such as SunOS/ | * //Other computing related things such as SunOS/ | ||
| // | // | ||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
| * //SBCV2 - Fully built and operational running romwbw 2.71. Currently running the Z80 at 4Mhz. Powered directly from the backplane < | * //SBCV2 - Fully built and operational running romwbw 2.71. Currently running the Z80 at 4Mhz. Powered directly from the backplane < | ||
| - | * //12-Slot Backplane 505-6508 - Built and 1/2 populated with connectors. // | + | * //12-Slot Backplane 505-6508 - Built and 1/2 populated with connectors. |
| - | * //ECB Bus Monitor - built pending proper configuration | + | * //ECB Bus Monitor - working {{https:// |
| - | * //ECB Disk I/O V3.0 - pending 8255 and testing// | + | * //ECB Disk I/O V3.0 - working {{https:// |
| - | * //ECB cvdu - pending 82C42 and the mini din connectors remain to be installed.// | + | * //ECB cvdu - working {{https:// |
| - | * //ECB propio - socketed and most components, pending PropIO, Resistor packs, mini din and SD Card// | + | * //ECB propio - Pending Propeller programming {{https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/ |
| + | * ECB ProtoBoard III - working | ||
| * EuroCard Rack - I got a great deal from this gumtree seller in Australia who has a range of racks/ | * EuroCard Rack - I got a great deal from this gumtree seller in Australia who has a range of racks/ | ||
| * 250W ATX Slimline Switch Mode Power Supply with ATX socket on breadboard and switch between the green wire and ground (sorry that's really not technical) | * 250W ATX Slimline Switch Mode Power Supply with ATX socket on breadboard and switch between the green wire and ground (sorry that's really not technical) | ||
| + | * MiniMax8085 - tested and working well | ||
| + | |||
| + | Built but yest to be tested | ||
| + | |||
| + | * ECB ProtoBoard III x1 | ||
| + | * ECB 68030 | ||
| + | * ECB MF-PIC | ||
| + | * SBC6120-rbc-edition - This is now built | ||
| + | * ECB VGA3 | ||
| + | |||
| + | Pending final parts | ||
| + | |||
| + | * ECB 4UART-USB | ||
| + | * ECB Dual-SD-Card | ||
| + | * ECB Sprite Video Card | ||
| + | |||
| + | To be built | ||
| + | |||
| + | * CPU280 | ||
| + | * REH-RBC-IDE | ||
| + | * 3 Slot ECB Backplane | ||
| This is a rather bad photo but shows my initial setup in an ABS Rack Case. This is now in a metal EuroCard Rack case (photo pending) | This is a rather bad photo but shows my initial setup in an ABS Rack Case. This is now in a metal EuroCard Rack case (photo pending) | ||
| - | {{: | + | {{: |
| + | |||
| + | September 2017 Update | ||
| + | |||
| + | Well after a big session I now have my RBC running a custom ROMWBW 2.4.8 with the following hardware. See the forum posts around DISKIO and CVDU for information on what was done there to make it all work. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * CVDU - terminal Video and Keyboard | ||
| + | * DISKIOv3 - 1.44M FDD and Physical HDD | ||
| + | * Z80 @ 10Mhz (see forum post about using Crystals instead of Oscillators) | ||
| + | * Busmonitor | ||
| + | * Prototype card with some basic lights to flash on and off for getting the hang of programming. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The following is the current setup | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{: | ||
| **Transputer' | **Transputer' | ||
| Line 42: | Line 78: | ||
| Example of TRAM can be seen plugged into the Tram Carrier Card below. | Example of TRAM can be seen plugged into the Tram Carrier Card below. | ||
| + | |||
| + | TRAM's are silly expensive on ebay! So probably not the place to start if you don't have any. Much better to wait for the ECB Transputer CPU Card. | ||
| **Basic Transputer System** | **Basic Transputer System** | ||
| Line 82: | Line 120: | ||
| Gerber files for version 0.4 of the board {{: | Gerber files for version 0.4 of the board {{: | ||
| - | Jan/17 - Boards arrived and have been assembled. Some minor layout, screen print and design issues to resolve but they work! | + | Jan/17 - Boards arrived |
| - | {{: | + | [[https:// |
| Feb/17 - Version 0.4 of the board is now confirmed fully working however a number of design modifications have been made and Version 0.5 of the board is pending. | Feb/17 - Version 0.4 of the board is now confirmed fully working however a number of design modifications have been made and Version 0.5 of the board is pending. | ||
| - | {{: | + | {{: |
| - | the following is the image of the version 0.4 board with 4 INMOS TRAM' | + | v0.4 plugged into Axel @ Geekdot' |
| - | {{: | + | {{: |
| - | Jul/17 - Version 0.5 of the board has been finalised and sent for manufacture. | + | Proof of life. Simple BASIC program using PEEK/POKE to interact and confirm that there is a Transputer connected. |
| + | |||
| + | {{: | ||
| + | |||
| + | The following is the image of the version 0.4 board with 4 INMOS TRAM's installed. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{: | ||
| + | |||
| + | Jul/17 - Version 0.5 of the board has been finalised and sent for manufacture | ||
| + | |||
| + | Jul/17 - Version 0.5 boards have arrived. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{: | ||
| The following files are what have been sent. Please note that this version has had some modifications and re-routing from v0.4 of the board and as yet have not been tested. | The following files are what have been sent. Please note that this version has had some modifications and re-routing from v0.4 of the board and as yet have not been tested. | ||
| * Schematic {{: | * Schematic {{: | ||
| - | | + | * Gerber Files {{: |
| - | **ECB Transputer CPU Card (2TC2)** | + | **ECB Transputer CPU Card (TCPU)** |
| This card is in initial design phase but is aiming to be | This card is in initial design phase but is aiming to be | ||
| - | * Minimum | + | * 1-2x Transputer CPUs on board |
| * Minimum 1MB SRAM | * Minimum 1MB SRAM | ||
| * head and tail connector | * head and tail connector | ||
| Line 112: | Line 162: | ||
| This is ideal for those who want to put a Transputer in their system but maybe cannot get hold of a TRAM module. | This is ideal for those who want to put a Transputer in their system but maybe cannot get hold of a TRAM module. | ||
| + | |||
| + | //**ECB Transputer CPU Card -TCPUv0.1** | ||
| + | |||
| + | 6/7/2017 Have decided that the first development version will be just the Transputer, link connections, | ||
| + | |||
| + | KiCAD and Gerber Files {{: | ||
| + | |||
| + | 7/7/2017 Version 0.1 files have been sent to manufacture at ([[http:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Jul/17 0.1 boards have arrived…. | ||
| + | |||
| + | [[https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Sep/17 Version 0.1 board finally built, tested and working!. | ||
| + | |||
| + | errata so far | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Error should have been presented as notError - need to add a 74LS04 inverter to the next version of the board | ||
| + | * Link0 not presented in the uplink header. Link3 is there instead. | ||
| + | * Link Speed Jumpers need to be added | ||
| + | * Tidy up link locations and label | ||
| + | |||
| + | The following shows the current state. You can see the 74LS04 on a vero board behind the main board. Also the brown wire jumper down to the breakout where the link speed connections ended up. Plugged into my IIe running the basic test code and those magic words "32 BIT TRANSPUTER FOUND" | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{: | ||
| + | |||
| + | next step is to build out some memory options | ||
| + | |||
| + | //**ECB Transputer CPU Card -TCPUv0.2** | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | Version 0.2 of the TCPU board arrived late December and as usual I got caught up in other things. Building this simple board was been slow progress and was finished in late February. Unfortunately the memory didn't turn up for another month…. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here is the blank board. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here is the board finally completed and connected to the PC for testing. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Initial tests failed to the CPU, after a while I realised I had tied one of the control lines (Analyze) to ground for some mad reason when I was re-drawing a section of the schematic, out with the knife and some bodging later I was able to see the Transputer. However I could not find any memory. About two months worth of frustration later I have finally managed to identify and talk to the memory, although not reliably or quickly. The issues: | ||
| + | |||
| + | * I had forgotton to connect notMemS0 to the 74F373 enable pin | ||
| + | * I had used a KiCAD 2×10 IDC connector in the schematic that numbers down one side and then up the other, on the board layout I selected one that goes from left to right and down in the numbering…..end result memory timing and configuration jumpers were not where I expected. Took a while to work that out. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The following shows the current test setup | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Any how as of late May I am now getting the following which shows that it is at least identifying the memory. However it is not talking to it reliably. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | (sorry they are on an angle) | ||
| + | |||
| + | As can be seen lots of errors and lots of different memory sizes for Transputer number 9 which is the one that we are testing. off to read more manuals and recall all that I have lost about T states :-) | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Transputer CPUs (T4xx/T8xx) have a programmable three-cycle memory interface. Through jumper configurations on the board they can support a variety of DRAM and SRAM. More information can be found in the reference manual [[http:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | I am also yet to get the bank 1 operating. I will do this once I get bank 0 working properly. | ||
| + | |||
| + | So there we have it - some progress. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Next iteration I am going to | ||
| + | |||
| + | * fix the above issues | ||
| + | * remove the ECB bus connector as I have decided a) I need the real estate b) it is a wast of a connector just for power c) power comes through the link interface. | ||
| + | |||
| + | **TCPU v0.3 and 0.4** | ||
| + | |||
| + | //August 2019// | ||
| + | |||
| + | So its been a couple of years, work and life have got in the way. Version 0.3 was a total dud….so lets move straight onto v0.4 | ||
| + | |||
| + | Per the last update I have removed the ECB connector. I also settled on ZIP memory TC514400AZ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | The result is that I now have a Trransputer + 4Mbytes of memory working (happy day!) The 0.4 board is not without issues so needs a bit of TLC. The GND somehow didn't connect to the memory. Also the AD11 on the memory didn't get connected to the bus. Lots of head scratching on that one with various errors. I am also going to move some of the resistors closer to the 74ACT86 and remove some of the jumpers that just aren't needed. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | output from ispy | mtest -x | ||
| + | |||
| + | The last line of the last command run is "proof of life" | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | Now the command doesn' | ||
| **ECB Manual Cross Bar Switch (MCBS)** | **ECB Manual Cross Bar Switch (MCBS)** | ||
| - | This card has been designed but is yet to be manufactured for testing. The card allows the connection of all unused links from other boards via a single ribbon cable and then allow for the configuration to be set with jumper cables. This will allow for maximum configuration of a given set of Transputers from either | + | This card has been designed but is yet to be manufactured for testing. |
| + | |||
| + | The card allows the connection of all unused links from other ECB Transputer | ||
| - | // | + | The following are the KiCAD Design and Gerber Files. I have never had this board fabricated but as you can see it is rather simple. |
| - | SBC6120-rbc-edition | + | KiCAD {{: |
| - | Thanks to Andrew the kit of parts has arrived. Looking forward to building this up. | + | Gerber {{: |
