Unlike DOSEMU, this card lets you snoop on NT, 95, and OS/2
performing IRQ and DMA operations. It also costs money to build.
The card will store data in onboard RAM or transmit it out
to a second PC. If the data is stored, then you can use a
program to read out the collected data. (what is better?)
Info from the developer:
> 2) access to PCB manufacturing
> 10 pieces of a 4-layer PCB cost ~$1200 and need 4 weeks for
> processing.
With 10 people, the PCB will cost ~$120. The price goes down
if more people want the board. Who wants one?
> 3) access to components
> In every civilized country there is at least one big shop
> sending almost any kind of components by mail order (e.g. RS
> Components in Italy and UK). They just ask the double of the
> regular market price :-(
> If you accept to pay their fees, getting the pieces should be
> not difficult. I could restrict my component's choice to what
> is easily available to anyone anywhere.
> As an alternative, I can buy the parts from my local distributors
> and get the real market price or less (if it happens I have a
> friend there).
>
> 4) soldering and testing
> SMD with fine pitch (0.2-0.25 mils) are the real trouble.
> The solutions are: I avoid them from the beginning (e.g. use PGAs),
> I get mad soldering them all by hand, or I go to our laboratory and
> seek for some helpful people with some spare time...
I think that means 2 to 5 pins/mm. It may be best to have Linux user
groups or university EE departments build the boards.
Maybe that can be avoided.
> 5) programming
> The FPGA is really critical. Xilinx is probably the worst choice
> for a free project, since you need their expensive, dongle-protected
> tools. I'm now looking to other brands, exp. Altera/Lattice.
> Not having free(cheap) programming tools means that programming
> must be centralized, and this rapidly becomes frustrating on both
> ends when something goes wrong.
>
> If there is a micro, it should be supported by gcc.
>
> I have now these choices:
> Motorola 68k family (e.g. 68332) - slow IMHO, no DRAM
> Transpu...oops, SGS 20450 - nice chip but 3.3V and 208 pin SMD;
> supported by Linux
> Motorola DSP56000 - very bad gcc port, needs asm; only
> 64K SRAM (*)
>
> I could also design with:
> Motorola DSP56302 (*)
> TI DSP320C31 (*)
>
> (*) meaning that I {have/can recover from older boards} free chips
I'm going to ask about one other...
> Current dream: a big FPGA connected to ALL the ISA pins, programmable
> on the fly by the PC itself; a fast 32-bit micro with very fast comm
> ports (ST20450) and a 32-bit bus with a standard 72-pin DRAM SIMM module
> (4-16M); 4 RS-232 ports; USB (Universal Serial BUS) controller; MIDI...
> Of course not all is needed by everyone, only the FPGA can be mounted
> in a minimal version, and it can be a PGA, so no trouble soldering it.
> You can easily implement any kind of UART in a reasonabily big chip.
> Probable costs (for the user):
> development and testing ... $0
> FPGA ... $50-$100
> PCB ... $1200/n_users
> uP(20450) ... $40
> uP(56000) ... $0
> RAM ... see your local store/get from an old PC
> Connectors, glue logic ... $10
>
> Any feedback?
Note that PCB cost drops with the number of people who want
a board. If you are interested, let me know. Also, state if
you are able to solder large surface-mount parts or just
regular large chips - like a CPU.