New Model Development Updates

[MbeeTech]

That’s great news. Just the Z80 side of the Bee will be more than enough; I suspect that some are thinking about porting GSX to the Microbee. As a one-time owner of an Atari ST, hearing the new Bee has 68K potential made me wonder about the potential for porting Emutos to it as a proof of concept.

Enough rambling; thanks again for undertaking this monumental project.

While it won't be launched with anything more than a basic 68K O/S ( CP/M68K most likely ), porting EmuTos is something that I have been looking into.  No promises, but it looks quite 'do-able'.
There is also the possibility of porting the Gamma OS to it, but time will tell.

[cfbsoftware]

While it won't be launched with anything more than a basic 68K O/S ( CP/M68K most likely )...

CP/M-68K is the most interesting aspect of the new models for me. I currently run CP/M-68K on my Sage IIs and Sage IV. An itch I have wanted to scratch for a *long* time is to get the single-pass native-code Modula-2 compiler running on it.

[MbeeTech]

While it won't be launched with anything more than a basic 68K O/S ( CP/M68K most likely )...

CP/M-68K is the most interesting aspect of the new models for me. I currently run CP/M-68K on my Sage IIs and Sage IV. An itch I have wanted to scratch for a *long* time is to get the single-pass native-code Modula-2 compiler running on it.

Ah, very interesting Chris.
The Sage machines are pretty rare these days.  I believe Microbee had a Sage 4 (or at least the use of one) when the Gamma was being developed.
Some of the very old (Gamma) source code for the machine was on Sage 4 formatted floppies.  I've implemented CP/M-68K v1.3 on other machines including the sector deblocking and buffering,
so it should not be too much of a task to implement on these new machines.

[snake]

Will they launch this year?

[MbeeTech]

Will they launch this year?

That is the aim.

There are a couple of things left to implement [usb mouse & sound fifos] and a few bugs to remove.
Components are being sourced and building up stock ready for release as well.  
Unfortunately for those waiting on them and keen to know a release date, I can't give one yet.
As mentioned in previous posts, retro is not the only area of business that Microbee Technology has
and as our other areas of business (Design services & SMD assembly services) are the ones that pay the bills,
then they have to come first.  It's taken a while to build Microbee Technology into a diversified income business
but that puts us in a good place going forward.
Having said that, I want to see these models launched as much as anyone.  I've invested so much of my time
in the development of them (not to mention financial resources) but I am also focused on ensuring they are a well 
rounded product at release.  I am all too aware of the time it has taken to get to here, and it grates on me if I'm honest.
However, really, we are in the final stages.

[MbeeTech]

Unfortunately there has not been much time available of late to work on the new models, 
however, some work has been done where I can squeeze it in.

The work of late has been to do with the keyboard.
Although I've had the keyboards for both models working for a while now, there were some things that needed
attending to.

Firstly, the keyboard driver needs to test which keyboard layout is in use on the machine - the 64 key original (premium)
layout, or the new 98 key layout. ( I've done this so that the firmware & system software can be the same for both models. )
Then it needs to adjust the key mapping to suit.  While I had the keyboard layout detection working already, I hadn't 
implemented the 64 key layout mapping as yet, so the keyboard was working o.k. for the standard QWERTY keys, but the 
symbol keys ()@^& etc. and the arrow keys were not working, or in the wrong place.  That is now done, so the 64 key layout 
works fully.  There are still a few keys on the 98 key layout that need handling properly while  NumLock is on (arrow keys have 
different scan codes while in different NumLock states for example).

The more important thing with the keyboard though was the interrupt priority needed changing for the keyboard (and mouse)
as previously the floppy disk emulation (and systems calls from Z80 -> M68K) had a higher priority.  This meant that 
during emulation task processing it was possible to miss / not recognize key presses.  This meant changes in the FPGA logic and the 
M68K firmware.

Now the keyboard (and mouse interface when that is implemented) have the highest priority interrupt.  I've implemented
a full 64 byte scancode buffer and also had to implement an interrupt driven 6545 keyboard matrix driver so that it is fully 
backwards compatible with how the original microbee keyboard interface was implemented.
The aim with the keyboard hardware / firmware when complete is to be fully backwards compatible with the original microbee
keyboard and the 256TC's keyboard so that no matter what boot disk (or disk image) you use (64k/128k/256TC), the keyboard 
will still work.

Still to finish off on the keyboard driver:
* debug the CapsLock / Numlock handling 
* add in handling for the arrow keys alternate scan codes (while NumLock=ON)
* provide 256TC keyboard interface compatibility

While this development work is still going on I am busy sourcing parts and building up stock ready for release.
Sadly though, and I am normally very careful when dealing with overseas suppliers for the first time, I was caught out.
While the loss is not overly significant, is was still around $530 USD that I handed over and have never seen the components
shipped.  Looking online at TrustPilot, I see I'm one of many that have placed orders with component-store.com and never seen
components shipped.  Communication was perfect until I'd sent the money & then crickets & tumbleweeds. Lesson learned.  
I mention it here so that others don't fall into the trap.

Anyway, Onwards & Upwards.

[benjaminboyjaminblue]

I can't wait for the new Microbee, I feel like if it was released back in the 90s it could seriously contend with offerings like the Amiga and the ST (and maybe even the IBM PC!)

[MbeeTech]

Hey All.

I took a bit of time to do the logic for the I2S sound interface over the last couple of days, to prove out the sound system.

Good news is, regular Microbee sound is now working - that is, the 1 bit sound that is driven by a pin of the PIO and normally
connected to a speaker via a driver transistor can be heard via the new arrangement.
Rather than going straight to the speaker, now that signal is routed to the FPGA where it is mixed in with (what will be) wave sound
from the new FIFO buffers and presented on the I2S sound interface to an external stereo DAC for line level output and internal speaker driving.
The I2S connection also goes to the HDMI interface for sound over HDMI.

What I've done so far is enough to have the normal 1 bit sound working.  I still need to implement the FIFO sound buffers for wave table
stereo sound but the connection into the I2S transmitter section is already there. I also need to program the HDMI interface to enable sound out there.

Still, very happy to have proven out the sound interface.

I did find an 'oopsicle' on the FPGA module where I'd forgotten to connect the PIO Speaker Bit to the FPGA, but I've put a link on the main board
to a 'Reserved' pin on the FPGA module for now.  The main boards (both models) need a couple of small changes anyway, so if I make the change
for the speaker bit there (like I've done with the link on the current version to get it going) then there are no changes required for the FPGA module.

Happy days.

[Graham72]

Hey All.

I took a bit of time to do the logic for the I2S sound interface over the last couple of days, to prove out the sound system.

Good news is, regular Microbee sound is now working - that is, the 1 bit sound that is driven by a pin of the PIO and normally
connected to a speaker via a driver transistor can be heard via the new arrangement.
Rather than going straight to the speaker, now that signal is routed to the FPGA where it is mixed in with (what will be) wave sound
from the new FIFO buffers and presented on the I2S sound interface to an external stereo DAC for line level output and internal speaker driving.
The I2S connection also goes to the HDMI interface for sound over HDMI.

What I've done so far is enough to have the normal 1 bit sound working.  I still need to implement the FIFO sound buffers for wave table
stereo sound but the connection into the I2S transmitter section is already there. I also need to program the HDMI interface to enable sound out there.

Still, very happy to have proven out the sound interface.

I did find an 'oopsicle' on the FPGA module where I'd forgotten to connect the PIO Speaker Bit to the FPGA, but I've put a link on the main board
to a 'Reserved' pin on the FPGA module for now.  The main boards (both models) need a couple of small changes anyway, so if I make the change
for the speaker bit there (like I've done with the link on the current version to get it going) then there are no changes required for the FPGA module.

Happy days.

Yay! Progess, link by link. Great to hear! Your dedication is outstanding. I spoke to a former Microbee user from the education field and informed him of the upcoming release.

[zhulien]

can the new microbee run without interrupts? or does it have NMIs?

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can the new microbee run without interrupts?  or does it have NMIs?

I should ask... can interrupts be disabled fully.