Month: December 2014

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SD Card, 6800/6809 Motherboard

The prototype SD interface cards are here.  One minor board layout problem exists, so it’s a couple cuts and one jumper to fix.  The FLEX drivers are written but I just haven’t put it all together yet.  Lately I’ve been in a hardware mood, but will get back to software over the next couple of weeks.

Right now my CAD program is generating the Gerber files for the new 6800/6809 motherboard that should support the existing 6800 CPU card and also the 6809 CPU that I’m getting back to.  Prototype boards should arrive in about two weeks for testing.  The plan is to discontinue the existing 6800-only motherboard and only use the new one.

The other new board is a SS-30 expander that adds slots 2 to 7 using the expansion connector on the motherboard.  This board will work with both the existing and the new motherboards.

 

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SD Card, 6809 Motherboard

I’ve been busy with lots of other things but have gotten some time for the 68xx related projects.

Engineering circuit boards for the SS-30 SD card have been ordered and should arrive this week.  Software has been moving forward too, as the sector read/write functions are all tested and the Flex drivers have been written.  The higher level utility functions have been moved into EPROM so the software has less to load.  Just need some time to sit down and glue it all together.

I also finished the schematic capture of the next version of the SS-50/SS-30 motherboard which adds support for both 6800 and 6809 based CPU boards.  Ie, it can be jumpered to set the I/O base address to 8000 or E000, drive RS2 and RS3, and change the number of addresses per SS-30 slot to either 4 (6800) or 16 (6809).  Hoping to get the PC board laid out this week but won’t rush out to order the boards until giving it a few more look-sees to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Most people are asking about the 6809 board… it’s making slow progress and the schematic capture might be done by Christmas.

My intention is to have a production-quality 6809 based system in time for VCF East April 17-19th.  Setting a hard date forces me to make steady progress.