RetroManCave loves JustCPC...

[zhulien]

I think it is a bit sad so many people critical of taking an existing gate array chip.  Offering such a board gives us choices, we can buy it or not but I'd rather the choice of such a board than not.  Ideally no keyboard membrane issue alternative form factor modern components...

[TotO]

Ok, well...I can open web shop with rare  parts for Amstrad. I have lot. But problem will be back in next shitstorm .Becouse if China man sell 40010 , we  say this,  is good, we have source of components. But .... if i start selling it,  will be bad. People start screaming Piotr (Zaxon) trying do profit on community !!!  Let's burn him at the stake. Who has the pitchfork?

I have sold cpc parts through centpourcent.net at the price I have bought them during years. No problem with that, while it is for the interrest of the community and not to make profits. Each peoples contribute on his free time by doing games, demo, tools, website, ... To avoid "unknown" peoples abusing about custom parts quantity, it is simple to ask them to ship the defective one to be eligible to get them.

[zhulien]

What would be good is if someone made cpc and plus to tower conversion kits with everything but the psus and tower. All extension cables ps2 keyboard adapter gotek or 3.5" drive cables etc... from my experience I have more good cpc main boards than keyboards drives etc.


Rescuing individual chips is a good thing and making new cpc boards even if butchering old cpcs is still better than having older unreliable or partially dead cpcs if it keeps another member of the community active.


I cant wait for Toto's new cpc... please send me one!!! Hurry 

[Piotr]

Toto, but I do the same. I moved to Poland 3 years ago. Amstrad is not very popular here but I am trying to change it. 
Unfortunately, here I operate as a company, so it is associated with many obligations. VAT, taxes, business license, environmental fees and many other things that I have to pay for. I am very happy to sell someone a part at cost ... But then regulations and bureaucrats come in and I have to explain it.
Well, the law requires me to add costs and the € 1 item becomes € 20 inc TAX, VAT, shipping. It's really not my fault.

In addition, during the last 6 years of my activity ... I have sold over 1000 disk drive emulators in various versions for Amstrad. I think thanks to this many users have come back and are using Amstrad again. It's rather good ?

I am mischievous and ironic when replying to posts ? Well, well, what I get is what I give back.  

[Duke]

I am mischievous and ironic when replying to posts ? Well, well, what I get is what I give back.

Or maybe it is "what you give, is what you get back" ? - self reflection!

[Gryzor]

Hands up anyone who thinks this thread contributes something new as it is...

[VintageAdvantage]

Hands up anyone who thinks this thread contributes something new as it is...

I am not sure what your intent of asking such a question is. Are you trying to "moderate" something here, close the thread, tell people to close the thread, ... something else?

Currently, this thread doesn't require moderation, and we are still figuring out how to source Gate Arrays. Btw, previously this thread did require moderation, when some derogatory comments have been made by MODERATORS and other well-known members, but the only one that ended up in the HOS was me, pointing that out. So, in this forum, it still matters more WHO says something rather than what is being said.  Anyhow.

But since you asked for it - yes, there is an interesting update here.

I actually managed to get a quote for the AMSTRAD 40010 from UTSource.
*After* having paid,  I then received a cancelation and reimbursement. 2 days later. Invoice cancelation and reimbursement email attached.

So, the source is dry. Anybody had success with the second source from @revaldinho ?

So yes, @Gryzor please keep the thread open.

[VintageAdvantage]

Well, well, what I get is what I give back.  

Well, I hope not, because otherwise you will be getting Tantalum capacitors installed incorrectly in your CPC extension hardware (and those get very hot before they blow up), and no support - just saying
But that was years ago so let's just forget about it and start fresh  I hope you don't mind the humorous anecdote from the past, I couldn't resist.

[RetroCPC]

Unfortunately, here I operate as a company, so it is associated with many obligations. VAT, taxes, business license, environmental fees and many other things that I have to pay for.

Well, the law requires me to add costs and the € 1 item becomes € 20 inc TAX, VAT, shipping. It's really not my fault.

While in China......

How can companies in Europe compete with China when we dont have a level playing field??? !

Piotr - I feel for you!

[zhulien]

is there a reason a GODIL FPGA cannot be used?


http://www.oho-elektronik.de/


Yes, a bit expensive for the purpose, but perhaps it can be enhanced with new gfx modes etc and other things?  ASIC functionality? v9990 functionality? perhaps a new better custom hardware sprites functionality and SID emulation?  really no limits is there?


Since there are Amstrad CPC cores in FPGA already, shouldn't it be fairly easy to pull out the GA logic of those and map them into the GODIL FPGA?

[Bryce]

GODIL isn't an FPGA it's a dev board with a Spartan 3 FPGA on it. What exactly is the advantage of using this exact board?

Bryce.

[VintageAdvantage]

What would be good is if someone made cpc and plus to tower conversion kits with everything but the psus and tower.

Personally, I really dislike all "after market re-housing" kits. Like these terrible things that put an Amiga 500 board in an ugly, badly designed, wimsy and cheap looking plastic tower. With tons of wobbely shakey adapters to pimp the thing up and patch things together. Extra blinds, screws that don't really fit, and maybe some plastic cutting involved to forcefully fit the thing in. Horrible.  Efectively destroys all character and signature of the original designs.

It's like taking a nicely designed car strip the motor out and put it in a plastic box with wheels to get some extra space inside.

I can see the point of a big "expansion box interface" for the CPC - 8 MX4 slots, PSU, decent housing. But please keep the CPCs as they are :-)

[zhulien]

GODIL isn't an FPGA it's a dev board with a Spartan 3 FPGA on it. What exactly is the advantage of using this exact board?

Bryce.

The purpose is multiple, it is to make an FPGA solution that fits into a standard DIL socket.  It can plug into a 6502, a Z80, and of course likely the Gate Array also (their sockets I mean) - of course you have to make your core for it.


Ice T runs on it already - some Spectrums will run fine, some won't.  Not sure if CPC will be hit and miss also.


FPGA is really a modern version of a GA which we can program ourselves.

[revaldinho]

The GODIL's a good idea for prototyping. It's definitely large enough and the 40 pin DIL footprint, 5V level shifters and clever system of power/ground jumpers make it potentially a plug-in replacement for most 40 pin ICs. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that board has been out of production for quite a while now, so it's not a long term solution.


As it happens, I have got one which @bigEd and I used many years ago to reimplement the Acorn Tube IC and run in a BBC Master. It has a broken pin frame, so I need to repair or replace that but it's definitely a candidate for trying out the MiST GA reimplementation.

[zhulien]

The GODIL's a good idea for prototyping. It's definitely large enough and the 40 pin DIL footprint, 5V level shifters and clever system of power/ground jumpers make it potentially a plug-in replacement for most 40 pin ICs. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that board has been out of production for quite a while now, so it's not a long term solution.


As it happens, I have got one which @bigEd and I used many years ago to reimplement the Acorn Tube IC and run in a BBC Master. It has a broken pin frame, so I need to repair or replace that but it's definitely a candidate for trying out the MiST GA reimplementation.

https://github.com/hoglet67/AtomBusMon/wiki/ICE-T80
https://www.xcharitybox.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=263439
http://www.oho-elektronik.de/pics/UM_GODIL.pdf


If an FPGA is in general good for general computing (Terasic T-Rex, Mister, Vampire cards), then why would it be not so good for prolonged use in a CPC if the packaging of the FPGA suited the CPC (such as a GODIL)?


I am sure that other's here could make a small Z80 piggypack card more suited and better priced than GODIL too - I think it is a very worthwhile way to replace the Z80 as well as the existing Gate Array.  Make a Super Gate Array or... support HDMI natively with edge to edge picture more colours etc in all modes?

[revaldinho]

If an FPGA is in general good for general computing (Terasic T-Rex, Mister, Vampire cards), then why would it be not so good for prolonged use in a CPC if the packaging of the FPGA suited the CPC (such as a GODIL)?

I'm not arguing against using FPGAs to build CPC components.  I'm just saying that the GODIL board specifically is not in production anymore and hasn't been for quite some time now.


It's not available for sale new, but if you can find one somewhere then, yes, it's almost ideal for proof-of-concept type work in emulating old chips because it can plug right into a 40 DIP socket without modification.


Once you're satisfied that the code works on the GODIL you'd need to port it to a new FPGA board if you want to make it more widely available. So, good for prototyping if you have one, but not a long-term solution for hard-to-find gate arrays or other vintage peripherals.

[Piotr]

Uff,  nice evening...  Let's dissasembly some brand new GX 4000 from my attic and  recover few  ULA for CPC PLUS   Cash $$$$$$$  waiting 

[Piotr]

I do what I can . Thanks for motivating me to further work.  

[Bryce]

Uff,  nice evening...  Let's dissasembly some brand new GX 4000 from my attic and  recover few  ULA for CPC PLUS   Cash $$$$$$$  waiting 

You're not doing yourself any favours with posts like this. Next time you wonder why people treat you like they do, come back and re-consider your actions here.

Bryce.

[rexbeng]

I believe Piotr is being sarcastic with his 'gx4000 massacre' post.
Say, in search of CRTC, I stumbled upon this. Wasnt it used in KCC's?  https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=HD6845P&_sacat=159680

[Bryce]

I believe Piotr is being sarcastic with his 'gx4000 massacre' post.
Say, in search of CRTC, I stumbled upon this. Wasnt it used in KCC's?  https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=HD6845P&_sacat=159680

The 6845 is the CRT chip used in the CPC too. They are extremely common and still easy to find as they were also the chip used for almost every CGA card too.

Bryce.

[rexbeng]

So, the 40010 was a CPC only thing, then? Wasnt it used in any other computer/component?

[Bryce]

The 40007, 40008 and 40010 are custom chips that Amstrad had made to reduce the chip count in the CPC. It's not a general purpose chip.

Bryce.

[Piotr]

Next beatifull weekend, next Amstrad boards  arrived and waiting  for dissasembly of course ....     ....

Yes , i'm ironic and sarcastic.

Also i extend my offer.  I painlessly remove the poles in your asses 

[zhulien]

Uff,  nice evening...  Let's dissasembly some brand new GX 4000 from my attic and  recover few  ULA for CPC PLUS   Cash $$$$$$$  waiting 

Actually if you got them for $10 each back in the day, you could still profit doing that.