USB to Omnibus interface news

Hello everybody, a few days ago I introduced my USB to Omnibus adapter module. I'd like give you an update. As you might have seen on pdp8.hachti.de?gallery/omnibus_usb the board I made first was only half height and used three CoolRunner II CPLDs. I made a slight redesign of the board: - Full size Omnibus board. One could even mount DEC handles if he wanted to. - CPLD is now one big XC9572XL-TQ100. - Added working DIP switches, TX and RX device code are freely selectable. The board still uses the 7438 as bus drivers. And YES - I still use the "wrong" drivers. As Plessey did on their RK05 controller... And that controller is said to be more reliable than the original RK8E. So 7438 cannot be the worst choice. So please no more discussion about that. I'm very sorry that I just don't have a really loaded PDP8/e at hand to test the board. But I tried my best and loaded the test system with some hardware which was just at hand: - Front panel - Two backplanes in system - CPU + EAE - M837 memory extension and time share - KL8J terminal at 03/04 and 9600 baud - 24K core memory (3x8) - RK8E - TD8E - MI8-EA bootstrap diode board - Bus loads - OMNI-USB :-) That makes 24 boards in the system. Without the core memory boards which don't use anything than ground it's still 21. There are 13 slots left. The sytem is running OS/8 while I'm writing this. It just works. Booting works, transferring data over USB works, TD8E worked (until the TU56's PSU broke down a few minutes ago :-), RK8E works, terminal works. Looks good. Oh, kermit runs so fast...! I have decided to make a 25 piece batch of the new board. A prototype without gold fingers (it will have gold fingers in the end) can also be seen in my new webshop: http://shop.hachti.de Price is EUR 105 without any tax and any shipping. Shop initially displays EUR 125 incl. German VAT. Shipping of the boards will be in the beginning of April. April 2nd seems to be a bit too optimistic due to PCB manufacturing time. But I'm quite condident that it will be in the first week of April. You can already order/pay now. I very much appreciate that because it helps me to pay the boards and parts. The other effect is that I'd get a real resonance. Currently a handful of people told me that they want 15 boards. Some of them already ordered (big THANK YOU!), some are very quiet. Kind regards Philipp -- Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Philipp Hachtmann Buchdruck, Bleisatz, Spezialit?ten Alemannstr. 21, D-30165 Hannover Tel. 0511/3522222, Mobil 0171/2632239 Fax. 0511/3500439 hachti at hachti.de www.tiegeldruck.de UStdID DE 202668329