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A QSPI NOR Flash chip might serve your purpose. It's in the order of 20 clocks at 100+ MHz to get a byte so ~200ns Can you point me at a part that can do this? All the ones I've looked at take more like 40 clocks... not a dealbreaker as we can just treat it as slow memory and run at 1MHz, but if th...

Update:

- Added all ULA pins, from the Electron schematic in the EAUG.

A QSPI NOR Flash chip might serve your purpose. It's in the order of 20 clocks at 100+ MHz to get a byte so ~200ns This is really clever. I still like the idea of having a big SDRAM just in case, but QSPI flash is cheaper and easier to route on the PCB (and saves FPGA IOs), and given that we're the...

What would we actually use the SDRAM for. Extra sideways RAM? I can't see needing to access FLASH and SDRAM at the same time. Have you given any thought to a suitable connector for VGA video out? Yes, sideways RAM, I suppose. I figured if it’ll fit, it wouldn’t hurt to put in some more memory. I ha...

Yes! I hope it all works in the end :D Another question for Dave: the memory chips I’m looking at have a 16 bit bus (the flash chip has a byte/word select, and the SDRAM is 16 bit only but we can just wire up half of it if we only want 8 )... do you think it would be worth going to the trouble of wi...

A couple of updates...

- I've added one of the 8MB flash chips I used on the Arcflash board, as an optional component in case we want/need it. I'm also planning on adding a 16MB SDRAM chip.

- I've added the 3.3V regulator.

You just want the one :roll: I can send you a working Electron with the ULA socket removed and Pin Sockets in it place. You can then just have pins from your board to plug into the Elk. I'm away for a week, from tomorrow. I can get it sent off to you when I'm back. Thanks so much Dave! Maybe hold o...

Indeed... I believe the compact version (the one we’d be using) of the 10M08 has 32kB of user flash. The user guide doesn’t explain super well, but I think that’s what we get.

I’m also hoping to fit a flash chip on there, in case this turns out to be incorrect, though

Here's a link that shows what the adaptor board looks like and here's a link to a post where I attached a DXF of the adaptor board. I have 1 or 2 left. Phill, I could send you one if it would be useful? It would be a week on Monday when I could get it ready, as I'm away for a week from tomorrow. Yo...

All right... let's have a go at making a PCB for the ULA replacement; it looks like it might not be that hard to get a PCB together (not to say that getting it to work will be easy, but if this results in a few mostly working prototype boards that people can play with, I think that will count as a s...

As well as emulating an entire Electron, there is a "big mess of wires" prototype of the ULA replacement (also using a Papilio Duo) that plugs into a real Elk ULA socket (using an adapter board) that Dave H made: IMG_0579.JPG More photo's here: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=149156#p...

This idea might be of interest - break the rules, ignore the most interior of the pads (except where you mustn't), and you can do wonders even with only a single layer: If it's the 169pin package there a good chance of making it work as you can bring over 90 tracks out on one layer - should be more...

Oh wow! I should have reread the whole thread... I had no idea this had ever run connected to an Elk!

To answer mr-macrisc's question -- no, there is no circuit. What we have right now is a ton of FPGA work from Hoglet, that runs on a Papilio Duo board and emulates an entire Electron. If I were doing the hardware design for this, I would probably go for the 10M08 from Intel; it just needs a single 3...

In this case though the prototype did do a fair amount and belive was working reasonably well. So although it went off boil with a re-vist as dave was going to ask may produce something. I believe the state of things is that Hoglet has quite a complete FPGA implementation of the entire Electron, bu...

Replace broken ones will possibly only be a seller when one brakes (but only if cheaper than finding a replacement ULA or electron) if it isn't cheaper then the basic replacement ULA isn't a viable option to sell at moment. Value added performance option gives a reason to buy now and not when machi...

Yep, it’s all about whether you’ve burned the fuse bits or not. Definitely worth trying to read the chip out though! Of course if you have the VHDL or Verilog source, it’ll be much easier to do a circuit design...much less reverse engineering required.

Received yesterday: IMG_3163-2.jpgIMG_3163.jpgIMG_3164.jpg I'm preparing a very special Electron for John. I wonder if I'll have any luck asking my ex partner, Dave Prosser, if he has the FPGA script . . . . [-o< :? Dave H :D Ooh... if you do manage to get it, I’d be Interested to help with the PCB...

More progress... I have 1MB, 2MB, and 4MB flash banks working and selectable through the bootloader. Not enough room in the CPLD to also do 512kB banks, but with 16MB of flash that doesn’t matter so much. I have my test setup running with four 1MB banks (bootloader, A1 test rom, Arthur 1.20, RO2.01)...

I was using RedSquirrel to test. I assume you've tried resetting the BIOS? Red just means something hardware related failed in POST, take a look at the POST process for more info - the colour sequence will help pinpoint which test is failing. Aha! I was just too quick to call it quits. I just got i...

I've managed to build RO320 using the instructions in the OP, under RO 3.11 on Arculator. Ran into some issues with filenames getting truncated upon unarchiving with SparkPlug, but the build seemed to proceed OK after fixing those, and I get a 4MB RO320 file. Trying to run the new ROM, however, I ge...

The bootloader works! I can now turn on my A3000, see the bootloader come up and initialize the keyboard and display, hit 1-7 to select a 2MB flash bank, hit RESET, and be in my selected OS :D This has taken forever — such a relief to see it finally working! Heading to bed now... will post a video l...

You read my mind :D I've already designed a board that can use a 39SF010, but it's more of a dev board for messing about with stuff. It takes various flash parts, 62256 SRAMs, 27128/27256 eproms, etc, and has a bunch of I/O pins. Right now I'm in the process of scaling that down to be V2.0 of the M...

Thanks, myelin. I just thought there was a need for a lower priced memory card board for the Elk, when I bought mine the only card interface I could find was the GoSDC, which is a fine product but not inexpensive. Hoglet's work on the Electron printer port MMFS version has made it possible to do a ...

Pretty much all the projects described in this thread (definitely mine and flynnjs's) also produce a clock. I'm sure a Pi could do it too.

Nice! Excellent for all the folks out there without a Plus 1, and it's great to see a new Elk hardware designer here -- welcome!

Adding my voice to the chorus: Chris, your products are great, and well priced! Please hang in there... it's inspiring to see folks continuing to offer quality products and support for the machines we love (despite the lack of profit to be made!)

Boards are being made as we speak... Joka80, I'll ping you with pricing details once some arrive and I can build you one

I'm suprised you did it as an adapter board. Wouldn't it be easier to do another board with all the chips on-board that plugs in directly to the RISC-PC. That’s the eventual plan, but the main boards are expensive to make, and I’m short on time (new father with a now two month old baby!), so adapte...

Phew... more progress. Here's the Risc PC adapter board, which should just barely fit into my Risc PC 600 with i-cubed 600 combo Ethernet card, but will probably hit a capacitor on A30x0/A4000 boards, so probably won't work with them. https://github.com/google/myelin-acorn-electron-hardware/tree/mas...