Auld Lang Syne
As we come to the end of another year in Amigaland it's a time to reflect on the past 12 months and look forward to what the new year will bring.
December 2013
Χρόνια Πολλά & Καλή Χρονιά :-)
Σε
όσους
τους αρέσει ο
ύπνος, αλλά ξυπνούν
πάντα με καλή διάθεση,
όσους χαιρετούν ακόμα με ένα φιλί,
όσους δουλεύουν πολύ, αλλά δεν ξεχνούν
Java Developer's Kit
Tiny update for Java developer's
On the JAmiga support forum on amigans.net I've added a little note on a developer's package available on AmiUpdate:
Workbench booted up with the new card installed!
For those of you who might not get the significance, workbench loads a number of libraries into the extended fast memory on bootup. As you can see in this image below, more fast memory is actually being used than the chip, onboard memory immediately after bootup.
RTC Progress
RTC appears to be working and keeping the date and time across cold-starts.
I picked the Epson RTC-72423 which is about a $6 chip, but is obviously directly compatible with the OKI Semiconductor MSM6242B. The design, including the battery supervisor, had never been tested — not even as a prototype… and appears to have worked the first time!
I needed to do a “setclock reset”, set the date via “Date 28-Dec-13 02:26:00″ command, and then did a “setclock save” Subsequent setclock loads brings it back!
Found potential race condition on writes
After looking at datasheets for the 273 latches used and 74act74 flipflop used, the worst case propagation delay is something like 12.3ns.
But my NAND gate ACT00 logic which is triggered by the same CAS signals has a lower propagation delay of between 1-9ns.
So despite a 0ns setup time, it’s possible that I’m violating the SRAM setup times during a write by dropping /CE before the addresses have stabilized into the memory.
I haven’t come up with a solution yet, but it will likely involve adding an additional gate or two to increase the propagation delay.
Populated PCB with fix for unneeded inverter
Lots of progress but little time to talk about it.
Here’s the fully populated card installed. There were two issues identified so far with the PCB design. One, the battery holder silkscreen was upside down. The second fix involved an inverter that needed removed whenever we decided to migrates from a flip-flop(74LS74) design to a SR NAND latch made out of NAND(74LS00) gates.
The memory tests are passing at 100% now!@#
However, there is still a minor issue with how the card responds on bootup, and I’m investigating!
PCBs have arrived!
Just in time for Christmas, the PCBs have arrived from China. I used Seeed Studio (Fusion PCB Service) and they look pretty good. Here’s the first look at them.
I’m just about to solder one up, so wish me luck!
Happy Holidays!
I wish Happy Holidays to all the Amigans around the globe!
Christmas Cheer
I'm now back home to Summer in New Zealand, complete with a Northern hemisphere cold (sniff!), following my flying visit to Pianeta Amiga, which was held in a rather chilly Bologna in Northern Italy. Nevertheless the Pianeta Amiga show was a fun affair, even though the attendance was quite small compared to previous years. That didn't stop everyone who did attend from having a good time. I will write more about my Pianeta trip in my next blog but, for now I would like to wish all Amiga enthusiasts, whatever your Amiga colour, hue or flavour a very Merry Christmas.
Looking back at 2013 on X1000
Let's take a look back at 2013 on the AmigaOne X1000!
PCB ordered from Seeed Studio
I placed the order late last night for the PCB!
The PCB design is obviously finished, fully passes the kicad DRC checks, the problems with the footprints were solved.
I’ve decided to go with Seeed Studio’s Fusion PCB service. This is based on a recommendation from a knowledgeable friend that has been helping me.
