Ok, so the work continues on three fronts.
- BBC microbit no guts no glory. Underpowered, Lack of any real I/O, Banana Plugs that don't fit into the holes - Almost Trash.
- Arduino, found the code, for a self-contained cable tester, but has no flying probe and no easy configuration changes.
- VME possibility of a finished client.
- Trying to decide to run Intel or Sun Sparc.
- Found a Zycom DID 6U board with 64 bits of random Digital I/O, Rotec gmbh seems like they just want to ignore me. Maybe I' ll go away.
- have a Disk drive solved with some choices.
- PMC Module (on Intel CPU) for IDE
- SCSI-2 controler.
- Host software. with nice GUI.
Results so far.
- For the BBC micro bit, I have two (2) 16-bit I2c expanders.
- For the Arduino between native I/O and the two (2) 16-bit I2c expanders I can do two (2) DB-25 Connectors, plus a dedicated flying probe.
- For the VME System, I have the following working components.
- Intel:
- CPU, P3: VMICVME-7648 (VME-64) with 32bit 128Mb Compact Flash, 512Mb PC-133 Dram, 2x 100Mb Ethernet, 2x USB, VGA, PS2 Mouse/Keyboard Port. Has room for a PMC module. I did not fully test this with video and keyboard (next step)
- PMC IDE Module: RAMIXPMC235 with IDE connector in the front panel.
- Sparc:
- Force Sparc: CPU-1E/16
- Force Sparc: CPU-2CE, 40Mhz, KBD, Mouse, (2) serial, (2) S-bus ports, SCSI-2, Network Interface. (needs repair: Front panel missing, Reset and Abort switches will have to be replaced as well as a new micro-D Network Interface.
- Common Boards:
- Zycom DIO: XVME-240, 64 bits random I/O + 8 interrupt lines + 8 flag lines
- Rotec gmbh: DIG32-IS & DIG32-OK I have four (4) each of these cards they seem to be in working order but without any documents to guide me, I will be a long-term solution. As I will have 2x 4 x 32 = 256 pins of I/O (will require bus probes)
For the time being it looks like I will go with the P3 CPU as it is not a big hill to climb.
