Author: Corman (216-53-208-192.ppp.mpinet.net)
Date: 06-29-2001 20:47
Sorry for the delay on me responding here. With the problems Atari.org has been having with hosting, I took a some time before checking if it was back up.
As for the netlist files, i do know they are incomplete but they are a starting point on fully understanding what will need to be impletmented or even just for early partial compatability. I am currently on a quest for more information this and for a more recent version of the netlist files if they do exist at all.
As for the controler port, yes they are HD15 (VGA) connectors. But jsut like the jaguar cart port, they are not directly compatable, just physicaly. I was planning on direct compatability on the controlers. And the extra pinage will allow for greater upgrades later by using pure digital communication vs. the mixed communication that the extended joypad port had on the orginal jaguar. This will give a slight step up agenst the rest of the consoles since the common range of pinage is 3 (signal, power ground like the n64) up to 4 (usb and like clones). These HD15 ports could support these features the othes have with add-ons. So why limit to low pinage. I know to some this might make the look of the system a little more scarry or overloaded, but choices can be mad alter how to actually aproach the usable design on this.
As for reverse compatability and how I am working towards this is still an iffy subject. Currently timing is a big subject on this such as you brought up if we do "upgrade" tom & jerry chips. As for including them as the plain chips, this takes up more space and possibly money since we could easily no days to incorperate these into more singular chips. So this still leaves us with the timing issue. We could have on chip timers with variable rate such set through software jumpers much like how you can change the clock multipliers on current pc mother boards. So all we would have to do is check the game through some process to see at what clock multipliers to run at. The one thing I belive we should not have a problem with is the 68k code or processors. Motorola has been very good to make a fine series that stays compatable from chip to chip. Recent plans have been to include a 68k series chip as a bootstrapping chip and i/o controller. This is a simalar design idea that Sony took with the PS2, to justify the costs of making the PS2 reverse compatable with the PSone, they just used the previous PSone cpu as a i/o controller on the PS2. So taking a similar route most likely will justify costs of implimenting this chipset even if the upgrade core system is completely different from the orginal jaguar.
As for the theme, the "big cat" theme is something I would like to keep for the sake of all us "Atarians". So far I have no be able to find a decent name. Since I do not want to use "Panther" since this was the name of the protype 32bit system that was soon scrapped for jaguar. And I also remember seeing the name Cougar possibly for a 16bit prototype as well, but this system has not been confermed to my knowledge.
All suggestion for names, designs, looks are welcome. Currently the web page I have been speeking of is coming together now, and since I have a week off, these apges should be up in a couple of days, but do not hold me to this since I hope to have it done decently right on the first try. More will be posted in the next few days. All messages and e-mails are welcome.
-Shea "Corman" Street
corridor9@yahoo.com
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