brew-your-own-unibus boards?

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Tue Jan 20 14:14:32 2004

> This would also have enough BlockRAM to present 1KX16 to the QBUS as
> a boot ROM (is this enough?)

Yes. Especially since the bootrom code can use idiosyncratic features
of the board - for example, if you put an otherwise nonsensical bit
combination into some register, it could be a command to DMA some big
chunk of bootcode into host RAM. Then the bootcode on the qbus becomes
just set up for DMA, poke the register, wait till done, jump.

> [...]

This all adds up to less than $100 for parts. I'd certainly pay $150
for such a board if it could drive ordinary IDE and/or SCSI disks. I'd
even volunteer to write the firmware for such a project, assuming the
necessary specs are available (eg, whatever protocols it needs to
speak).

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Received on Tue Jan 20 2004 - 14:14:32 GMT