S-100 IDE project

[lynchaj]

Hi! My good friend John and I are working on a joint www.S100Computers.com & N8VEM S-100 IDE project. It is based on the following design by Peter Faasse.

http://www.pjrc.com/tech/8051/ide/wesley.html

John built a working prototype and some software and I am making a PCB. The PCB is in trace route optimizing phase now. I can't say exactly when a PCB will be available but if you think you might be interested please let me know. PCBs will probably cost *about* $22 give or take some plus shipping. If you do want a PCB it is important you tell me beforehand so I can include it in the manufacturing order.

The board will connect to regular IDE devices and includes mounting areas and interfaces for laptop (2.5" with the high density 44 pin connector) and CF adapters. John has his prototype working with a CF adapter mounted on the PCB and it seems to work fine.

There are a couple reasons why I'm posting this information early; I think there may be some useful features on the S-100 IDE board which *may* be applicable to the XT-IDE project (and vice versa) and I would appreciate any reviews of the PCB and schematic for flaws and/or improvements.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[KenHarty2002]

HI:

I'd be interestd in purchasing one S-100 IDE interface board

Ken Harty

[lynchaj]

Hi Ken! Thanks! Just send me an email and I'll add you to the list. Thanks and have a nice day!

I see John posted a similar notice on comp.os.cpm so I believe there will probably be a few others joining the order. Hopefully it will be enough to get the PCB unit cost down to a reasonable level.

There are current schematics and PCB layout on the N8VEM wiki in the S-100 folder. John also posted some information on his website www.s100computers.com. He also noted although this board will come with schematics and software, its integration into any given CP/M S-100 system will still be non-trivial so it is probably best for experienced builders.

Andrew Lynch

[lynchaj]

Hi! Here is a quick update on the S-100 IDE project. We've received the PCBs and distributed them to our initial builders. During testing we found some minor issues and improvements so we are doing another revision of the PCB. The changes are the usual things like fix cuts and jumpers, improved CF card access, nicer layout, more and better diagnostic LEDs, etc. IMO the changes are cosmetic in nature.

I've built one of the boards and have tested it in my VG clone system. It works fine with the MYIDE software and it is looking good. John has his boards up and running on a variety of S-100 machines running CP/M 3.0 etc. John has prepared instructions on how to get the S-100 IDE board built, tested, and working. I followed them and had no troubles at all.

I have the new improved PCB in trace route optimizing at the moment and it will be a few days before it is ready for PCB manufacturing order. I am not sure when exactly that will happen but it will probably be soon in next week or two. The main benefit of the new PCB is it is an improvement on an already proven the design. The initial boards have shown design is solid and the risk of a totally non-working board is dramatically reduced.

At the moment we have requests for 10 PCBs. Based on the previous experience the cost of the PCB to $27 each plus shipping. If anyone else is interested in joining us please let me know. Adding additional orders will lower the unit cost for everyone so the more the better.

One note of caution: as John said earlier in this post on comp.os.cpm:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp....08b49928596615

"Please note these would be bare cards, a schematic and that’s it. Building the board and implementing CPM etc., you are on your own. This is not a project for first timers. "

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

PS, If you are interested, I recommend you act and do not wait for another PCB order. As with all the S-100 PCB projects, IMO the builder demand is very thin. I do not keep the S-100 PCBs on hand like the N8VEM ECB Eurocard boards. If there is another S-100 IDE PCB order it will not be for quite some time.

[FlashCorliss]

I'm interested in 4 of these.

Who do I pay?

Thanks,
Flash Corliss

[lynchaj]

Hi Flash! Please send me an email and I'll put you on the list for the next S-100 IDE PCB order. It should be soon since it finished trace routing last night. I need to do some clean up, final checks, and send it off for "design for manufacturing" review before placing the order but that should happen in the next couple of days.

After placing the PCB manufacturing order, it typically takes three weeks for the PCBs to arrive. When they do arrive, I'll send out an email to everyone on the list to pay for their boards and when they do, I'll ship them out. I do not accept payments in advance or pre-orders due to the inherent hazards of amateur homebrew projects. Assuming the same numbers as last time the PCBs were $27 each plus shipping typically $3 in the US. However, the quantities appear to be higher this time so the individual PCB costs probably will likely be lower. I need to put together the order and get final estimates.

Since the S-100 IDE PCB manufacturing order is going out fairly soon, if anyone else is interested in getting involved they need to contact me soonest. I have no idea if or when there will be another PCB order as that depends on many factors.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[lynchaj]

Hi! Quick update on the S-100 IDE. The board has made it through all the final checks. John had a minor change to a power trace so I'll fix that tonight and send the PCB off for manufacturing probably later tonight. This is your last chance for this round so contact me soonest if you want to participate.

Once the S-100 IDE PCB is ordered, my next goal is to get the N8VEM PropIO PCB or the S-100 KBD PCB manufacturing order placed. Which one depends on which finishes routing next but followed quickly by the other. I really want to get the N8VEM PropIO and S-100 KBD both launched so John and I can focus on the S-100 SRAM/EPROM board prototyping.

Some N8VEM builders are working on a color graphics and sound board and I would like to build a prototype. It is the long awaited TMS9918/AY-3-8910 or whatever audio chip (maybe SID or YM2203 or SN76489A -- I am not fussy about sound and just want something from the era that works). There are partial prototypes of the TMS9918 and AY-3-8910 working already although not a full prototype yet.

That's the plan. We'll see how it works out. Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[lynchaj]

Hi! The S-100 IDE board PCBs arrived last night and I sent the first batch out. John did an incredibly great design on this board and I think it is going to be popular once word gets out.

The good news is there appears there is enough interest in it to account for all of PCBs. We have enough PCBs for testing the new design so I think we are going to be OK. IMO, the changes from the initial board were minimal corrections and tweaks.

The plan is to let this project soak for a while and see how these boards do with their new owners. If everything checks out and works I'll consider another round of PCBs depending on the interest. It is a good looking board and easy to build. The prototype works well for me and hopefully this one will work even better.

One of the side benefits of the S-100 IDE project is its design can serve as a reusable template for simple "IO port only" IEEE-696/S-100 board projects. All that is required is to strip out the IDE circuitry, connectors, and prototyping area. Make some minor adjustments to the IO port decoding and add the desired circuitry. There is already one builder using this method to make their own 8 UART S-100 board (Mike at PikeAero).

IMO, it should be fairly easy for a hobbyist to rip out the IDE "guts" and "transplant" their own design. This would include the N8VEM existing ECB designs and the previously mentioned PropIO or color graphics and sound board currently in development. Note that "IO port only" S-100 boards are only a subset of the designs which exist and not a general solution. However, since the N8VEM SBC ECB also relies "IO port only" approach for its peripheral expansion bus all the existing N8VEM boards (except the SBC, AFAIK) are natural "donor" candidates.

The "transplant" approach wouldn't work for projects requiring DMA, shared memory (SRAM, EPROM, or some CRTCs), or CPU/Bus Master. Still it is a step in the right direction for long term S-100 homebrew hobbyist boards. If anyone is interested in pursuing this please let me know and I'll set you up.

I would like to say a huge "THANK YOU" to John Monahan from S100Computers.com who IMO has done an enormous service for the S-100 homebrew hobbyists. Great job John!

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[monahan_z]

Thanks for the kind comments Andrew and for your amazing work in actually getting the design lay out and the boards made.
There is a long (growing list) of boards in the works…
An IBM PC Z80 driven keyboard adaptor board, a 4MG Static RAM/EPROM board, a front panel type board with HEX displays, breakpoints, single step etc, a superfast Z80 board, and 8086, 80286 and 80386 boards are all in the works. More later. If we can get a hard core of 5-10 people we can whip these bare boards out for $20-$30 each. They will however get more complex. I will try and give step by step building and diagnostic help as we go along at www.S100Computers.com
What I would love to see is somebody work on the software for this IDE board so that a CPM3 bios can be assembled on an PC/DOS/Windows CPM simulator (e.g. Peter Schorn's Altair 8080 SIMH simulator (http://www.schorn.ch/cpm/intro.php)) and in some way the CPM loader is written (under windows) to a CF memory card starting at the first sector of the card.
That way anybody can write their own consol BIOS, load it on the card and instantly have a working S-100 CPM3 system. Currently you have to modem/network/disk copy it across to an already functioning CPM system
I unfortunately am too occupied with hardware to do that now. Any volunteers?

[lynchaj]

Hi! The S-100 IDE rev 1 PCBs have arrived and I've sent them all to their new owners. I still have two remaining PCBs that *might* be available depending if the remaining builder comes through. Please contact me if you are interested. It may be a few days for build and test results so stand by for news.

The S-100 Keyboard interface PCBs have also arrived and sent out to their owners. I have only one remaining PCB which is the one I am going to build so if you'd like to get one you'll have to wait for the next PCB order. I don't know if or when that will be but let me know and I'll put you on the list. It may be a few days for build and test results so stand by for news.

The S-100 SRAM/EPROM board is in prototyping phase. I ordered a small batch of prototype PCBs on Friday for build and test. They should arrive later this week for build and test. Once that's done we'll incorporate any corrections and respin the PCB. Hopefully it won't be too drastic so the existing layout and trace routing is preserved.

Started on S-100 Front Panel schematic capture and PCB layout. We are a long ways from done on this design. The next task is to get the PCB to trace route and then optimize. I am hoping to finish the trace routing tonight and get it in trace optimization.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch