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Offline matthias1992

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[OTZ80]2010 progress
« on: October 10, 2010, 07:35:10 am »
Ok I just thought I made this topic to get back onto this project. We have decided the hardware components for the OTZ80 but ever since then I haven't noticed any progress...
The big question now is, where do we go from here? Of course we will need to build a hardware dummy of this but who is going to make it? When will it be done? If it all works then what is our next step? I think we are in need of some sort of overall plan...personally I think it is good to know who is gonna do what and when they'll be doing it. If I were to make a schedule from here on I'd say our next step is to make one dummy, in the process of making it much can be learned and once it is succesfully made still more improvements might be possible. Actually building something also keeps the project alive, now again I have no clue as to who is willing to do this...I am not going to be it, I'd prefer to take a siderole in the whole development and just help on any level I can...

So who is going to do it (if anybody)?
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2010, 01:43:43 pm »
Yeah for some reasons, right after the polls ended, everything went poof. I think alberthrocks is busy with school and having troubles with grades and Graphmastur seems busy as well, so I'm not too sure if this is on hold until next summer or not.

Also now we'll have to compete with the new Casio calc so we oughta not make the final price too high, if the OTZ80 calc got lower memory than the Casio calc.
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ASHBAD_ALVIN

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2010, 01:46:43 pm »
This is going to be based on the z80 microprocessor?

Let's hope it has more tan 24kb of user RAM ;)

I would love to help and stuff by writing an OS or something, but i'm not good with creating actual hardware.  But I have a friend who might.  I'll go ask him.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2010, 01:50:39 pm »
I'm pretty sure it will have more than 24, but I was a bit worried it may have much less archive than the TI-Nspire and not much more RAM than the 89 Titanium. The Casio Prizm has 61 KB of RAM and 10 MB of archive, yet costs less than a TI-84 Plus, so if OTZ80 had like 128 KB of RAM but only 1.5 MB of archive, it would need to be considerably cheaper than the rest, especially if the processor is much slower than the new Casio calc.

Also yes it is gonna be based on some sort of Z80 processor.
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ASHBAD_ALVIN

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2010, 01:52:43 pm »
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on October 10, 2010, 01:50:39 pm
I'm pretty sure it will have more than 24, but I was a bit worried it may have much less archive than the TI-Nspire and not much more RAM than the 89 Titanium. The Casio Prizm has 61 KB of RAM and 10 MB of archive, yet costs less than a TI-84 Plus, so if OTZ80 had like 128 KB of RAM but only 1.5 MB of archive, it would need to be considerably cheaper than the rest, especially if the processor is much slower than the new Casio calc.

Also yes it is gonna be based on some sort of Z80 processor.

Sounds cool so far.  But it might take a while for my friend to repond to my email... he checks it once every 3 or so days. ;)
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Offline matthias1992

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2010, 02:36:04 pm »
I seem to recall its 16MB user ram and 16MB flash archive. The 'sort of z80' you were mentioning DJ, is the eZ80 which is 4x as fast as the Z80 and can adress up to 24bits (A.K.A 16MB of memory).

It might also be possible there will be only one memory chip of 16MB in this calc since swapping between two memory modules can be a pain if you use different types of memory...

Ooh yea, one more thing. Memory size was decided but for the actual chip I propose micron strata flash(16MB), it's on the FPGA I own and its very durable...
The chip itself is very small too (for the hardware guys here :) )
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ASHBAD_ALVIN

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2010, 02:39:32 pm »
Hmm, I looked on the Zilog site at the ez80.  looks worthwhile :D
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Offline matthias1992

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2010, 02:49:35 pm »
It is :D
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ASHBAD_ALVIN

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2010, 02:51:29 pm »
Hmm... but is it still simular to the microprocessor we all know and love?
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Offline calcdude84se

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2010, 02:58:18 pm »
It has binary compatibility and similar assembly syntax :)
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ASHBAD_ALVIN

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2010, 02:59:14 pm »
well, then I want to help on this dearly.  This is too cool of a project to let fade away.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2010, 10:56:30 pm »
if it's 16 MB RAM/archive it will sure rule a lot.
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Offline tloz128

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2010, 11:08:26 pm »
I know a little hardware... not enough at all to build a calculator prototype, though.
I would be willing to help in some way though. It would be good hardware practice ;). (battery light indicator or something little like that maybe?)

Oh, and as for the screen, did we decide on 192 x 128, or did we go with something else because we couldn't find screens that size?
« Last Edit: October 10, 2010, 11:09:36 pm by tloz128 »
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Offline matthias1992

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #13 on: October 15, 2010, 03:53:24 pm »
Quote from: tloz128 on October 10, 2010, 11:08:26 pm
I know a little hardware... not enough at all to build a calculator prototype, though.
I would be willing to help in some way though. It would be good hardware practice ;). (battery light indicator or something little like that maybe?)

Oh, and as for the screen, did we decide on 192 x 128, or did we go with something else because we couldn't find screens that size?
Basically it is 192*128 but if a other, better prized, screen is find or a screen that fits our needs better in general then we'll take a vote for that one. For now thoug, assume it'll be 192*128.

What worries me is that I am getting the idea this project is dying a slow death. Let me just repeat the question: where to go from here? Maybe I'll come up with a poll or something giving some pre-fab answers but I dunno if everyone is fine with that. Anyhow, I think it is time to recollect and recapture what we have gotten so far...
graphmastur? alberthrocks?
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: [OTZ80]2010 progress
« Reply #14 on: October 15, 2010, 03:57:41 pm »
What I am thinking is that Alberthrocks and Graphmastur are just too busy, from what they told me on IRC. In Alberthro case it even involved low grades and in Graph's case life issues. I think this project will go dormant until next June :(
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