Author Topic: eZ80 Hardware Discussion  (Read 51665 times)

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Offline tloz128

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #135 on: August 17, 2010, 11:20:25 pm »
I'm sorry for the double post but I'm *pretty sure* that I've waited long enough that it's okay. I also know that idea suggestion is closed but I felt that I should ask about this :P.

If the OS supports sound, should we include hardware dedicated towards it?
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Offline alberthrocks

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #136 on: August 18, 2010, 12:17:18 am »
For the battery light thing, I was thinking about a red/green LED that can change colors, and if possible, shine both at once to make yellow. It would be under the power button perhaps?

And as for sound... probably not. :( It may cost more, and we really don't want people to think that this calc is an MP3 (although it CAN be with programs and such). We will definitely NOT limit the I/O port for sure.

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Offline TIfanx1999

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #137 on: August 18, 2010, 03:53:27 am »
@alberhrocks: I think that design for the battery light would be fine. I'm unsure about placement, but that can be worked out later of course (if it gets included). Sound isn't really necessary IMHO either.

Offline matthias1992

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #138 on: August 19, 2010, 09:06:02 am »
@alberhrocks: I think that design for the battery light would be fine. I'm unsure about placement, but that can be worked out later of course (if it gets included). Sound isn't really necessary IMHO either.
Agreed.
Quote
I was thinking about a red/green LED that can change colors,
Those exists. You are looking for RGB LED's. Here: http://img.en.china.cn/0/0,0,288,745,360,360,8b4a3d3d.jpg
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Offline matthias1992

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #139 on: August 21, 2010, 11:45:16 am »
Sorry for the double post, I waited :P. Altough you can consider me a complete idiot when it comes to rams, flash's and roms I think I ahve found a very suitable Flash candidate: http://www.numonyx.com/Documents/Datasheets/306666_P30_Discrete_DS.pdf
it is the Numonyx StrataFlash. 16MB (which is the max adressing 'rate' of the eZ80), relatively fast read/write cycles and it can be run at 52mhz max (as far as I comprehend the link I just gave you). So to me it seems  to fit our needs. I Haven't looked at it's price yet...

the reason I came to this ram flash module is because it is used on my nexys 2 fpga board so I guess it's pretty reliable. Also it has a minimum of 100,000 erases which I think is pretty durable.

Your opinions?
« Last Edit: August 21, 2010, 11:45:42 am by matthias1992 »
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #140 on: August 21, 2010, 12:56:03 pm »
No problem.

Btw, for flash memory, are there any kind that won't last very long? We need to watch out about that. Back in the days, Casio's first flash calcs would break in a few years because of poor flash memory used in them. It would wear out after a few writes. This is something we don't want to happen in such period of time. My TI-83+ has been used for 9 years and worked well for this long despite several garbage collects.

Offline calcdude84se

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #141 on: August 21, 2010, 01:05:48 pm »
100,000 is a lot, and is about the number for TI's 83+ Series calcs too.
They should last a while with a well-designed FS :)
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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #142 on: August 21, 2010, 04:00:09 pm »
Yeah, and I've never seen a TI-83+'s flash die.  Or even heard of it happening.
Also, KFS is optimized for Flash, and should work great.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #143 on: August 22, 2010, 08:52:07 pm »
Yeah, and I've never seen a TI-83+'s flash die.
The guy who won the 2009 BASIC contest over here had it happen to his 83+ but I think his calc flash chip must have been defective

Offline wchill

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Re: eZ80 Hardware Discussion
« Reply #144 on: August 22, 2010, 11:55:11 pm »
I didn't really read that document, but it appears to be NOR flash.
The problem with NOR flash is the slow write speeds. Apparently that company's NOR flash implements a buffer or something (section 8.4) to speed up writes, however I'm still unsure how slow/fast the NOR will be.
But the exciting thing about it is being able to XIP (execute in place) meaning you can keep your programs in NOR flash and run them there!