Tobias, I agree 100% with everything you say. And ... by the way ... USBWiz can talk SPI, which is where I'm coming from with all of this. With a faster throughput it suddenly becomes more possible to use the other USBWiz functions, such as keyboard and mouse and maybe ... just maybe ... a USB ethernet adapter.
Adrian -----Original Message----- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Tobias Fröschle Sent: 12 March 2011 10:53 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Ser-USB on Minerva Adrian, Dave, while this might sound a bit naive, I doubt whether there would be much HW involved when trying to build a bit-bang interface to SPI. SPI is such dead simple that you could connect CLOCK to an address line, MISO to the data bus and MOSI to another address line (Suitable buffering and 5V/3.3V conversion would have to be provided, The ROMCS line needs to be married with the rest of the pins through some minimal logic). The rest would be a matter of clever software. The QL ROM port already is quite de-coupled from the Bus with complete address decoding so that this could actually work. What I would really like would be a small board connecting to the ROM slot, carrying a small CPLD for the decoding, an AVR controller, probably an Ethernet chip and an SD socket, maybe minimal USB hardware to connect USB mouse and keyboard. Dave, I like your idea with an FGPA based QL very much as it has lots of opportunities in it, but I think it's well beyond the capabilities of the current (small) QL scene, both regarding to Hardware and Software support. Start small! There's time for the more ambitious projects later. Tobias _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
