I have been giving the 16Mhz mod a little bit and thought today again... I was thinking if we could get the 16MHz all stable ( which would take probably 3 months as people need to catch up and I need to yet try the sync board out yet) That it could be basically integrated onto the next motherboard (currently rev H2 )....
But now I am actually thinking while it would be good to get a 16MHz machine, it may actually be a little pointless as the FPGA cores when sorted out are going to be running at 32MHz (or more) anyway.. So it actually renders the 16MHz mod kind of obsolete already. So I do not think spending time integrating this onto the next motherboard is really a constructive use of time..
Of course the 16MHz mod boards could still be done on the next remake board anyway.. Though likely what I would probably do is create some holes on the motherboard to make it easier to mount and wire up the mod boards...So it can have the provisions of fitting it, without the hassle of actually integrating it, and all the likely troubles which will probably go with it..
This basically means the H2 is very near done. In case people missed it
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 330#p23946 all the holes and connectors all seem to be lined up perfectly now.
Going back to the "future" with FPGA... Likely what will happen is there will be a large board with a FPGA on it, which will solder into the blitter, glue, mmu sockets and replace them with a single FPGA chip. Of course with 32MHz in mind, the RAM may get replaced with SRAM on the FPGA board as well. 60ns on the simm itself could be pushing it a bit for 32MHz.. but can of course be tested anyway.
The things I need to yet fix on the remake board, as I still haven't fixed the reset switch pins
As a couple of other bits and bobs I need to fix, I need to design a funky jumper header thingy for the 16 MHz mod... I think the 74F04 MHz buffer will likely get removed now, and I might just add 2 more 68K sockets... Am pretty much leaning towards a full-size board now. I mean its only going to save about 2 -3 inches at the front anyway. But I also could do with checking the full size of the board on a actual PCB anyway..
And in case it escaped people, Icky has rooted in the SMT GLUE & MMU so either the PLCC or SMT ones can be used... Though the SMT one should only be used on boards which are not likely going to be upgraded later on with the FPGA board for example (otherwise you will have to desolder the SMT chips)
As mentioned while ago, my board will be going off to be assembled, so I can actually order more parts and get some basic stuff assembled to other people as well... This would be the sockets, resistors, caps, SMT chips mostly. I am not looking to put together kits of parts for these again. But the BOM I will post of people just want to order the motherboard and do all the works themselves. I think it cost about £40 to assemble my remake board, but there was postage (£12 each way) so technically cost me about £65 in total, excluding the price of the sockets etc. I think the basic parts kit was around £50 on the Alpha.. So I suspected people want me to supply the parts and assemble them it will likely cost around £100.
So far it looks like 25 boards are needed.. Of course it's hard to know if all 25 will actually be ordered or not, but also some others may appear wanting the board also, so what I will do is likely price up 30 boards... Of course the price (whatever it comes out as) is for the production only, and would not include postage, as this will be difficult at this time to work out without having a physical board, and a physical assembled board to price up postage etc.. But this may ultimately help some people splitting up the costs over a couple of months anyway..
So people should take this as a forewarning that I will likely start looking to having the boards made a couple months before Christmas... Will basically be three or four months away.. This may sound like a long time, but there is a lot to do still yet meanwhile..And time goes so fast as well.. but I am giving notice that people should start saving their pennies towards production of the board in the near future. I may start taking preorders for these boards to give people a chance to pay in advance as well.
EDIT:
If I worked it out right, the price per board should work out at £24 each (as said before, this doesn't include postage to people) Its the raw PCB cost only.
