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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #9959 is a reply to message #9929]

Fri, 10 June 2022 01:44

sebastian
Messages: 12
Registered: April 2017

Junior Member

Sorry for being away, work got really busy recently. So much has happened here in the meantime, whoa.

Well, so a 68030 would be a really interesting option too, even though I'm still partial to plasmo's suggestion, but if I got the gist of Alan's posts, we may be thinking too big here. Maybe the true 8-bit ports are more refined already and easier to build upon?
Like I wanted to say, building the hardware would be manageable for me (although I admit there are maybe enough working platforms, but everybody focuses om different aspects, of course), but maybe my knowledge of how operating systems work isn't sufficient to do the software part alone. Probably basic skills in C and assembly won't cut it.
At this point it looks as if I aimed a bit too high, without having even read at least the important parts of Fuzix source code.

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #9965 is a reply to message #9959]

Mon, 13 June 2022 17:37

etchedpixels
Messages: 333
Registered: October 2015

Senior Member

It depends a lot on the platform for the software.

If you are building yet another banked Z80 clone system with CF adapter then it's basically lego, ditto most typical Z180 configurations or flat 68000/68008 boards.

The moment you step outside of that - for example to port to a new architecture - then you've got to be able to wrangle the toolchain, and also write loaders, context switching and some other glue. It's not rocket science but if you are not used to real low level embedded work (as opposed to big fancy toolkits that abstracr your 4K app into 60K of flash and do it all for you) then there is definitely a learning curve involved.

On the old processors it's a lot better than today. Trying to comprehend a 68000 is a lot lot easier than trying to understand something like the Teensy 4 ARM.

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #9966 is a reply to message #9965]

Tue, 14 June 2022 04:17

lynchaj
Messages: 1080
Registered: June 2016

Senior Member

etchedpixels wrote on Mon, 13 June 2022 20:37

It depends a lot on the platform for the software.

If you are building yet another banked Z80 clone system with CF adapter then it's basically lego, ditto most typical Z180 configurations or flat 68000/68008 boards.

The moment you step outside of that - for example to port to a new architecture - then you've got to be able to wrangle the toolchain, and also write loaders, context switching and some other glue. It's not rocket science but if you are not used to real low level embedded work (as opposed to big fancy toolkits that abstracr your 4K app into 60K of flash and do it all for you) then there is definitely a learning curve involved.

On the old processors it's a lot better than today. Trying to comprehend a 68000 is a lot lot easier than trying to understand something like the Teensy 4 ARM.

Hi
Yes, you're right which is why my prior ideas of a Z8000 or PIC32MZ based SBC are non-viable. It would be a bare-metal rewrite and that's a much, much bigger job than leveraging RomWBW as a starting point with a Z180. I think my time would be better spent updating the Z180GDC than attempting a brand new design with a previously little used processor architecture. Although I still think the Z180GDC would be a great target for Fuzix

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #9969 is a reply to message #9966]

Thu, 16 June 2022 13:15

etchedpixels
Messages: 333
Registered: October 2015

Senior Member

lynchaj wrote on Tue, 14 June 2022 04:17

Although I still think the Z180GDC would be a great target for Fuzix

It's on the list but I've been somewhat sidetracked with real life, writing a C compiler and helping build a toolchain for the Warrex Centurion. Too many toys too little time. I suspect that the GDC (except the console) is probably only a hundred lines or less different from the other similar Z180 ports.

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #9970 is a reply to message #9969]

Fri, 17 June 2022 15:34

etchedpixels
Messages: 333
Registered: October 2015

Senior Member

I pasted together a quick emulator and build for the Z180 GDC except for the video. As I suspected it's basically a cut and paste from a couple of other Z180 boxes. I think the only thing I needed to add that was original was the out instruction to turn the ROM off. I've not tackled the video. I don't fancy porting or writing an emulation driver for the graphics chip Cool

[Updated on: Fri, 17 June 2022 15:34]

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #10122 is a reply to message #9970]

Tue, 30 August 2022 05:02

bifo
Messages: 48
Registered: October 2019

Member

etchedpixels wrote on Fri, 17 June 2022 15:34

I pasted together a quick emulator and build for the Z180 GDC except for the video. As I suspected it's basically a cut and paste from a couple of other Z180 boxes. I think the only thing I needed to add that was original was the out instruction to turn the ROM off. I've not tackled the video. I don't fancy porting or writing an emulation driver for the graphics chip

Would it not be possible to pull the emulation code from (or base it on) the MAME project work already done?

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Re: Building a SBC specifically for use with Fuzix [message #10126 is a reply to message #10122]

Sat, 03 September 2022 15:31

mikesmith
Messages: 80
Registered: March 2018

Member

Extracting emulation code from MAME is a lot harder than it used to be. The CPU models are not well-isolated from the rest of the infrastructure anymore, and honestly it's easier to go the other way and use MAME's emulation model and build/deployment flow to build your entire emulator.

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