exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Just done 10 hours of real work test, ie, left Frontier running on the intro screen for 10 hours, all good here still

Forgottenmyname wrote: ↑Thu Sep 13, 2018 7:51 pm Just done 10 hours of real work test, ie, left Frontier running on the intro screen for 10 hours, all good here still

Will try and start boxing stuff up to send off for assembly next week.

Very quick update, that there will be 14 boosters going off for assembly tomorrow. I don't know when these will come back.. But will have to test these out a lot before I get into my store anyway.. Likely be a couple months before they appear.. But it will post progress as normal on this page as it happens..

So long as you've got enough rom switchers to go with them. I've got a normal STE I keep meaning to breathe on...

In the right thread now about status of this...

First board I tested worked fine at 40MHz... after much pondering on the second one, It only runs at 38MHz. I am not really surprised about this, the CPUs are being overclocked, so the mileage will vary...

I have got about 11 more to test... If a lot of these CPUs fail at 40MHz, likely I will drop down to 38MHz as the standard speed...

I did wonder about I could sell two different versions, 40MHz, 38MHz, but I can foresee that everyone would be waiting for the 40MHz ones to come back in stock when in reality they probably never will, which case nobody would buy the 38MHz versions.

If only a couple run at 40MHz, I may just list them here as one-off builds..

So it looks like RJ and I were lucky with getting two to work at 40mhz then?

Still 38 is pretty good for a 20mhz chip

Forgottenmyname wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:49 pm So it looks like RJ and I were lucky with getting two to work at 40mhz then?

Still 38 is pretty good for a 20mhz chip

Possible yes. I mean most of the chips ran at 32MHz when I tested them.. but that was in the previous STE booster... I don't know if they will run at 40MHz until built up and tested. There is not a huge drop in speed down to 38MHz anyway.

Its looking kinda official now I think..

This next board does the same...


Its not a problem with ROM.. adding waitstates to ROM does help, but the CPU locks up in under 30 seconds even when using ROM at slower or stock speeds.. So nothing I can do other than use 38MHz...

.. and typical Farnell only sell 36Mhz in 5V (not 38MHz)

Will keep testing these others, maybe one will run at 40MHz, but I think 38MHz is likely going to be the official speed.

BTW, was this how we are expecting to boost the STF boards or is there another way? I know there's the 8mhz soldered link. If so, I can probably try my STE booster in it at some point if it helps?

Forgottenmyname wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:05 pm BTW, was this how we are expecting to boost the STF boards or is there another way? I know there's the 8mhz soldered link. If so, I can probably try my STE booster in it at some point if it helps?

You could try it, I'm not sure about the ROM access on it.. Everything is set up for STE timings, so likely will be some issues on a STF... You could just try plugging the booster to the remake board, not connecting the CE line to anything... And see if it runs like that... But I would not be really surprised if it did not work.

Ultimately it will use the 50MHz SEC booster.. But that will likely need DIP CPU socket... I said somewhere before about this, that am thinking of using a CPU expansion bus is basically the DIP CPU socket.. Basically because testing will have to be done on a STFM anyway, so it it fits the remake board as well, it says be having to develop 2 different PCBs of basically the same thing. But of course, I actually need to finish the SEC booster first.. Once that is actually finished, likely will be around the same time I would be looking at making the mongrel STF board.