Two things - A SIMM that sits in a slot in the place of a ROM and can provide waveform data in place of 1, 2, 3 or 4 ROMS. The USB interface allows you to reprogram it in situ (ie without pulling it out of the box, but you would need to get the USB cable out of the box somehow). [of course if you want the SIMM to pretend to be 3 ROMs (96MB of waveform data) then you can only have one other ROM in the module...]
The second thing is a programmer board that can program these SIMMs and read ROMs or read/write FLASH SIMMs (the original EMU ones) - this is necessary because I need to discover just what it is that the proteus 2K modules expect to be reading from the SIMM (rather than the images that you get from reading them in an ultra sampler)
I was originally going to try and make a SIMM that was compatible with the original FLASH SIMMs (waves programmable in an ULTRA, presets programmable in a P2K module) but there seemed to be considerable resistance to that idea since it was preferrable for users to program them without resorting to an Ultra, and there isn't enough room on a single SIMM for both alternatives. At this stage I don't think there would be sufficient market for a FLASH only SIMM to make it worth the effort of making a clone of it [in the light of this alternative I'm making]
Just incidentally, I was planning on making a compatibility mode for it to behave like some 16MB ROMs that should work in an Audity 2000 or an Ultra if desireable (I have an A2K & E5k so this is a desireable feature for me).
From: JIBARO SOUL
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 9:19:43 AM
Subject: Re: [xl7] Re: FLASH SIMM
To: xl7@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 9:19:43 AM
Subject: Re: [xl7] Re: FLASH SIMM
Im still confused about the form factor of this product, you did shed some light on its capabilities (capacity, limits..) but will this basically be in the form of a removable rom that can be re-written via a usb interface device? in that case will it require that you open the command station and pull the rom each time you wish to re-write? Also, if we do own an ultra sampler, will it make this any easier/cheaper?
----- Original Message -----From: Jack PrattSent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:04 PMSubject: [xl7] Re: FLASH SIMM
Unfortunately, it would not be useable in a max'ed out module. You would need to remove one of the existing SIMMs [making it no longer max'ed out...]It is useful for those who have one or more free slots on their module and want it to mirror all of the free slots (ie if you have two of your own SIMMs and you want it to act like two more then it can do that, or if you have no SIMMs at all it can be all four). It also would allow someone to make their own 'SIMMs' without the use of an ULTRA sampler.It would be as good as one or more existing SIMMs with the possibility in the future that it could be better than any existing SIMM as it could potentially be 'swapped' to another ROM image without opening the module [note that this would require changes to the OS in the proteus and because there's no guarantee that this will happen, no one should buy one of these with that expectation]Anyway, by way of an update - I have redone the schematic for the SIMM to include a CPU (SAM7S micro from Atmel) with a USB interface and an SDRAM chip (512Mb). There are two options for programming the SIMM through the SDRAM interface. Firstly I could make the SIMM look like a mass storage device to the PC with the ability to write on image. The image would be written to SDRAM and when you disconnect then the image is written to the appropriate region of FLASH. A bit cumbersome to write multiple images, no option for reading existing images... The second alternative is to have it appear to be a USB serial interface and have some communication protocol to allow the transfer of images to the FLASH without unplugging (then re-plugging) the USB connection. Also doesn't require the SDRAM chip on the SIMM (which is rather large). There are other options, but ones that require me to write device drivers are heavily deprecated.I haven't fully decided which one (or both) I'll implement so feel free to provide feedback.I've also almost completed the schematic for the programmer/reader board [necessary for programming if you have a SIMM without a CPU, alternative for programming if you have a SIMM with a CPU, necessary for reading existing SIMMs to figure out the storage format]. Its stalled slightly while I mull over how interactive it will be. That is, whether or not you just use it through the USB interface (which is simplest), or have the ability to use it stand-alone [ie be able to programm a SIMM from a compact FLASH card with some LCD screen for interactive selection of images to use].Probably the easiest is just have the SIMM CPU and the programmer CPU both have the same USB-serial interface so one interface fits all.Note that 'easiest' means quicker completion but limited options. Feedback (opinions) are welcome, but I reserve the right to follow my own counsel :-)Also done a PCB library for the major components, so should be able to work on the PCB layout soon...