Beiträge von FreddyV

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Hi,


    Sorry but I don't really understand what you mean.

    For floppy and disk, there is no need for a driver the board emulate ROM, has its bios that implement the bios standard functions.

    For the EMS, it is compatible with LTEMM, so use the same driver.

    For mouse, i will provide a modified CTMouse.

    If I add network it will be ne2000 compatible.

    For usb joystick, hardware compatibility.

    Usb keyboard, its bios can directly add the Keys in the buffer.

    And so on.....

    For not existing functions, it will be to simplify the life of people developping software on old PC.


    It is not like the opl3lpt needing to mofify all the games.


    Regarding compatibility, it will not support floppy copy protected games, but all are cracker

    Application accessing disk and floppy directly are disk copier, didk utility that nobody need to use with a board like this.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Hi,


    I see you agree with me :)

    There is no need to add 4 IRQ when one is enaugh.

    The Board will do what almost no other board is doing, but I don't think there is any rule saying : An ISA Board can't do this.

    ISA Board with Dual port RAM exist, ISA Board with co processor exist and so on...


    My Board is there to simplify the life of retro enthousiast.

    When I see lot of person asking for Help to install a simple XTIDE.... I think I am doing the right thing.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Hi,


    I know what I am doing.

    When available, everybody will be able to do what they want with it, I don't force anybody.


    With an IRQ and a ROM Emulation/Its own ROM the board can use any Hardware and Software IRQ.

    So, there is no limitation there.


    The abscence of DMA signal does not mean it can't do DMA...

    The board can capture what is sent to the DMA controller and emulate a DMA cycle through the IRQ and the BIOS.


    See what I wrote above for the Floppy emulation and XTIDE...

    My board do exactly like an XTIDE, but emulate the BIOS itself :)

    The XTIDE does not emulate an MFM because it does not have to.

    Why the PicoMEM should emulate an IDE, that did not exist on XT back in the day ? It is only a waste of time and risk of bug added.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Zitat von tofro

    Hab' ich gelesen, fand ich interessant. "Nur" für Speichererweiterungen fast schon ein bißchen zu aufwendig. Aber alles andere ist ja "nur" Sache der Pico-Software - Sehr vielversprechend.


    Allerdings: Eine überschlagsmäßige Rechnung, ob der Pico denn auch bei einem Bus-Interface zu einem (z.B.) V20 mit 8 MHz noch nachkommen könnte, hat da ein paar Zweifel aufkommen lassen. Wie der Designer schreibt, hat er nur mit der Original-Busfrequenz von 4.77 MHz bisher getestet.

    Hi,


    I tested on a 8086 8MHz PC, with a 4MHz ISA Bus, I did not talk about the CPU frequency, as it is an ISA Board.

    Even a 486 can have a 8/10MHz ISA.


    I checked on a 16MHz 286, it is working, not totally yet because the 286 can read/Write 16Bit with only one ALE Signal.

    It is again only a matter of software, not a timing problem.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Zitat von PC-Rath_de

    Immer wieder interessant, wie ein Mikrocontroller mit der vielfachen Leistung des gesamten Computers nicht genug Leistung hat und nur einen Bruchteil des PCs zu emulieren.

    8 MHz und 133 Mhz hätte ich erwartet, dass das funktioniert

    I don't understand what you mean...

    The problem is not the CPU power of the Core, but the Reaction time of the GPIO to be able to react in some nano seconds delay/Signals.

    If you check the PiSTORM, they used an expensive FPGA to manage the I/O, because the Pi3 and Pi4 "Can't" do it reliably.

    Then, what the PicoMEM does with a 0.8€ CPU without FPGA is quite good.


    Also, the Pi Pico has an M0 ARM Core, it even does not have division instructions. It is not "As fast" as this.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Zitat von Peter z80.eu

    P.S.: Vielleicht hätte man einen Espressif ESP32-PICO-KIT (ESP32-S3 Dual Core bis 240MHz mit mindestens 8MB Flash, max. 32MB) nehmen sollen...

    Hi,


    I used the Pico because I wanted initially to use a Pi, but it was not available, need an FPGA and was overkill....

    The Pico run in Dual Core 270MHz and Do PSRAM at 133MHz, MicroSD at 30MHz at the same time. So, it is more than sufficient :)

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Zitat von 1ST1

    Das ist genial, verfolge den Thread schon einen Augenblick. Theoretisch kann man darüber jede Art von ISA-Karten emulieren, also z.B. auch eine VGA- oder Soundkarte.

    Hi,


    To emulate a board, the equivalent output need to be present, VGA connector for Video emulation or Audio Jack for sound.

    There is a limitation in the Pi Pico I/O, so all can not be there.

    Anyway, for example, video frame buffer can be captured and sent through network... so a Minimal video emulation, for debug can be done.

    For Audio, If you check the board carefully, you can see a connector on the top of the Board... :)

    It can do Midi as well, or other things.

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Hi,


    Sorry to write in English, I am french :)


    I am the PicoMEM author, and I see lot of question here that only me can answer.

    I will answer to some here and to other individually.


    Overclock the Pi Pico is really simple, there is a register to set different frequency and the core voltage is also configurable by Software.

    The PicoGUS successfully work with the cores at 400MHz.....

    Thi Pico has no problem at all at 240/270MHz.


    By Board does not emulate an HDD or a Floppy, it is doing "Better", it does emulate the int13h almost entirely, the PicoMEM BIOS send the registry values to the Pi Pico, the Pi Pico give orders to the PC BIOS (Memory block copy) then return the registry result.

    Then, my Board can act as a "Pure" hardware emulator with I/O and MEM access control, or Interrupt "emulation" with DOSBOX Code...


    If somebody want to emulate an MFM Controller with the PicoMEM, why not.... but I will not spend time on this as just execute DOSBOX Code give acces to much more easily.


    I saw somebody writing that "It is not good, it does not emulate the hardware itself"

    The PicoMEM has no "Real Goal", anything can be done as it is software.

    It can't emulate a Floppy controller, just because the Floppy controller ALREADY exist on the PC....

    Also, nobody complain that an XTIDE does not emulate in hardware an MFM Controller....

    Then, XTIDE is "Better"

    But... XTIDE is First an int13h BIOS that give access to an IDE interface HDD.

    The PicoMEM is the same, but further, because the Int13h code is in the Pico, not in the PC ROM...


    I did read about Serial port and other... But what for ? Why emulate a serial port when we can do Wifi, Serial through USB or plus directly any USB HID (Mouse/KB/Joystick)


    The idea for the picoMEM come from simple frustration :

    We see TI99, AtariST, Amiga, C64 or ZXSpectrum with SDCard reader, but the PC XT had only the XTIDE that is really complex to use...

    Then, came the PiSTORM, when a 4 core 4GHz CPU is used to emulate a 68000 through a FPGA.....


    I did think it was time for the PC to enter the 21th century :)


    Something that was not explained is that the PicoMEM has its own BIOS interface/Menu, then, everything is automatic.

    It detect the Real RAM/ROM MAP and can automatically extend the PC.

    For the HDD/Floppy "Emulation" the images can be selected from .IMG files stored on a MicroSD.

    and everything can be disabled...

    We can have the PicoMEM doing nothing, only Part of the RAM extention, EMS, Floppy or disk

    If there is a problem because the PicoMEM Memory does not support DMA, it can be disabled if you need to use a floppy (And the software place its buffer in the PicoMEM RAM) It take some seconds only :)


    The Board is named PicoMEM because it is the first one that is interfacing with the full ISA MEMORY address space.

    The main goal was to do Memory entention, but it can do much more....

  • Pi Pico auf einer ISA-Karte (Pi Pico on an ISA Board) - PicoMEM - kennt das jemand?

    Zitat von Peter z80.eu

    Wenn für den RP2040 die Core-Spannung und auch die Frequenz per Software erhöht werden kann, wieso wurde dass dann nicht für die PicoMEM-Karte in Betracht gezogen, um auch noch die 7,1 oder 8 MHz ISA-Bus Frequenz zu schaffen?

    Hi,


    I did it, it is running at 270MHz.

    The problem I highlightes was for the ISA bus Frequency, not the CPU one. The PicoMEM can work on 8MHz 8086/V20 as they use a 4MHz ISA.

    This limitation is there because I did not have time to test it yet.