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PicoMEM Project : Pi Pico on an ISA Board.

So I would be interested in the card too, and no, I'm not interested in changing the design (if software exists which is working, it doesn't matter for me/it's fine for me).
But the software support is essential. If there is no software driver publicly available, it will not make any sense to think about obtaining a card (assembled or unassembled) or if the pcb layout is available, by ordering a card using this layout.
 
Peter z80.eu said:
So I would be interested in the card too, and no, I'm not interested in changing the design (if software exists which is working, it doesn't matter for me/it's fine for me).
But the software support is essential. If there is no software driver publicly available, it will not make any sense to think about obtaining a card (assembled or unassembled) or if the pcb layout is available, by ordering a card using this layout.
Click to expand...
I will publish everything when the board and software reach a certain maturity level.
I also would like to sell some boards myself first to get back part of my investment.

This board will also be an excellent platform for developpers, to add functions I even did not think of.
 
Hi,

Like written some post before, The PicoMEM fail for the moment on the 5150 due to the fact that the Memory refresh DMA cycles cut the CPU cycles in 2 (Does not use the CPU pin HOLD)
Then, I optimized the PIO Code, I was able to remove 10 Instruction and use only one state machine instead of 3.
This will allow me to have more flexibility and add some code to filter these weired DMA refresh. (I say weired because on the other machine I used for test so far, the ISA Cycles are NEVER cut in 2 by DMA Cycles)

My Time is limitted, and perform test on more Hardware/PC is required for the moment so that I can send some boards to ppls here and there.

The PicoMEM use Multiplexer needing 2 step of switch, then, it is not simple to trigger on the IOR/IOW MEMR/MEMW signals, do the 2 step switch, decode adddress...
It then use the ALE Signal to load the Address and pre decode it, plus a "Fixed delay" to sample all the control signals at once.

This allow to have No Wait State Memory emulation, but add complexity in the ISA BUS management, more if the DMA cut the cycles in 2....

5150 support is only a matter of time, do an universal firmware that can support all the machines may not be possible, this is something I wanted to avoid as much as possible....
Anyway, program a Pico si simple (Connect the USB, press a button and a file drag and drop)
 
FreddyV said:
5150 support is only a matter of time
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, what machines has this been tested on to work?

(Only wondering because it looks like the Sinclair PC200 is a pretty nonstandard machine. I found the schematics and it uses a bunch of gate arrays instead of the "standard" Intel chipset components you'd find in a bog-standard PC clone.)
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Just out of curiosity, what machines has this been tested on to work?

(Only wondering because it looks like the Sinclair PC200 is a pretty nonstandard machine. I found the schematics and it uses a bunch of gate arrays instead of the "standard" Intel chipset components you'd find in a bog-standard PC clone.)
Click to expand...
Synclair PC200, and Yes, the Amstrad PC are based on an "Home made chipset"

Anyway, the DMA cycles cut in 2 are supposed to be only on the early IBM Machines, because it is not really correct....
This is something I have to confirm with my Other machines (Atari PC, Commodore PC, Tandy) all using custom chip of course.
 
Excellent project @FreddyV! I’ll be glad to contribute. I have some Juko Turbo XTs, and DTK XT clones (I have posted some related stuff here), and I have already been involved (as beta tester) in some Pico developments, like pico-rgb2hdmi.
 
charlysan said:
Excellent project @FreddyV! I’ll be glad to contribute. I have some Juko Turbo XTs, and DTK XT clones (I have posted some related stuff here), and I have already been involved (as beta tester) in some Pico developments, like pico-rgb2hdmi.
Click to expand...
Thanks,

I am still working on improving my ISA bus code.
I can now have the PC200 working without the use of the ALE signal.
it is supposed to solve the problem of the 5150, buut it is not sufficient for the moment. (Even if much better than my previous attempts)

Anyway, I plan to send 5x PicoMEM to Ian Scott so that he can bring them to the VCFE Middle West next month. (To sell to selected peoples and he will keep one)

I need to work on an updated hardware revision, and of course, the software part is a never ending story.

Are you in our Discord ?
 
FreddyV said:
Thanks,

I am still working on improving my ISA bus code.
I can now have the PC200 working without the use of the ALE signal.
it is supposed to solve the problem of the 5150, buut it is not sufficient for the moment. (Even if much better than my previous attempts)

Anyway, I plan to send 5x PicoMEM to Ian Scott so that he can bring them to the VCFE Middle West next month. (To sell to selected peoples and he will keep one)

I need to work on an updated hardware revision, and of course, the software part is a never ending story.

Are you in our Discord ?
Click to expand...
Yes, I am.
 
I was finally able to have the PicoMEM boot on a 5150.

I still have multiple things to test, but it is encouraging.

I reduced the response time of the IOCHRDY signal, needed for my ROM Emulation by more than 100ns.
It seems that above 150ns between the cycle signal and IOCHRDY, the 5150 don't take it into account.
It is more than 250ns on the Amstrad PC.....

Ian Scott received my PicoMEM and will show them at VCFED Middle West.
 
Like Freddy says, I'll have a table at VCF Midwest and I'll be showing PicoMEM running on an XT clone!

I'll also be showing my own PicoGUS project (ISA sound card emulation on a Pico) as well as the PicoPOST (a very enhanced POST card that uses the Pico).
 
This looks really interesting!

So it looks like a multi function card in one.

I am using A Model 30 with the NEC V30 CPU.

I have the lotech 2mb EMS card and the Chinese CH375 card and A PS2XT2SD for replacing my dead ESDI hard drive.

If could combine everything into one basically would be great!

Taking Pre-orders?? ;)

Now to use the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect to add WIFI network support for mTCP so I can dump my LPT based XIRCOM PE3-10BT. :biggrin:
 
jdredd said:
This looks really interesting!

So it looks like a multi function card in one.

I am using A Model 30 with the NEC V30 CPU.

I have the lotech 2mb EMS card and the Chinese CH375 card and A PS2XT2SD for replacing my dead ESDI hard drive.

If could combine everything into one basically would be great!

Taking Pre-orders?? ;)

Now to use the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect to add WIFI network support for mTCP so I can dump my LPT based XIRCOM PE3-10BT. :biggrin:
Click to expand...
Hi,

The proof of concept is here, it is working and I am too perfectionist to let it go for the public for the moment :)
I am in the process to stabilize the board, test it on more machines, improve the board itself and so on....

Network emulation with Wifi is in the plan as well. plus Audio, USB KB/Mouse/Joystick....
I need to have the source released and some boards to go to peoples who can help to develop all this.

I would like to do a new board batch to sell (And have back some money to pay the first board batch), find a way how to have boards produced and not have only chinese and east europe copier who sell them.

The boards has been shown to the VCEF this week end, I have small return for the moment but it seems it impressed some visitors.
Boards were given to some youtubers and to Mobygamer/Jim.
 
This board could really help emulation research, I'd definitely be interested.
 
GloriousCow said:
This board could really help emulation research, I'd definitely be interested.
Click to expand...
Yes, completely.

Even if an emulator claim to be 100%, the PicoMEM run on real hardware, and can capture lot of informations.
Debug/analisys code can be added.
This, at software level, or even hardware, by mesuring delays in the ISA BUS.

For example, I can implement functions like start a timer and read the value back.
This is triggered by one "Out" and is more precize than the PC timer....
Or display a value or text to the Pico Serial port and in Visual Studio code, we can see the output with time stamp.
Commands like this can also be implemented in the PicoGUS, we will think about having a common set of commands on both cards.

Pi Pico code is on a ROM, so we can add up to 255 commands...
 
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Hello @FreddyV - I can offer evaluation on a Book8088 V2 (with the ports) if that would be useful - I have the ISA8 adapter.
I'm new to VCFed but you'll see I'm very active on Vogons, and have replied to your thread.
 
Very excited for this board to be released.
I was thinking to build another XTIDE, but I like the idea of this board being so...versatile.
Waiting patiently.
@FreddyV
 
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