On 1/3/02 at 2:58 PM Peter Graf wrote: >>I thought this free Coldfire hardware design might be useful. >>It looks like a PC104 graphics card should plug in. > >Thanks. It is indeed interesting. But unfortunately of no use >for running QL software.
Agreed. Wrong ColdFire. Actually, it would be possible to get QL software to work but it would be quite problematic, and not very competitive in performance. Using a 5407 would help that, even so, it is NOT possible to emulate anything more than a 68000 with it. If MMU capability is needed, for now we are limited to 68040 or 68060. That may change with the ColdFire V4e and later with V5. >Simple designs around such Coldfire chips are relatively easy, >especially without graphics. (The Q40 and Q60 designs were >magnitudes more challenging.) Exactly. The 'toast' is what I would call 'connect the dots' designing. Any decent designer could knock one of those up with his/her left foot. Also, the PCB design leaves a LOT to be desired. It seems that whoever did it is not very experienced. IMHO the board could have been 2/3 or even half the size. > I'm sorry, but I must destroy any hopes that Coldfire CPU's > (version > 1) could execute our existing QL software. Not even > the new announced ones with better 68k compatibility. Important > instructions which behave different to 68k can not (generally) > be identified or trapped out by a Coldfire CPU, in order to > emulate them correctly. Absolutely not. I would very much appreciate if you could give us some more details on this. Nasta
