Ok, that makes sense. When I think of GPUs for laptop I think of copper heatpipes and vapor chambers. But maybe that's for more recent ones.

Also, if drivers are easy to find and not specific Asus or Fujitsu or whatever downloads, then yeah this makes a lot more sense to me. Thanks

sardaukar wrote on 2024-10-05, 11:56:

Ok, that makes sense. When I think of GPUs for laptop I think of copper heatpipes and vapor chambers. But maybe that's for more recent ones.

Also, if drivers are easy to find and not specific Asus or Fujitsu or whatever downloads, then yeah this makes a lot more sense to me. Thanks

Even as small as this board is, it still has way more vertical headroom than a laptop, plus a laptop has to be more careful with where it dumps its heat. Also, as you pointed out, modern GPUs draw much more power than old ones. So no heatpipes needed here! 😀

Driver-wise, the Mini-PCIe cards (having no 3D acceleration) will operate okay with standard VESA drivers in Win98. Modern recreations of old cards will of course use the appropriate drivers from that era.

Eivind wrote on 2024-10-05, 09:43:

Most likely: yes. In addition to the Vortex86EX SOM and CM4 (not mandatory, but enhances the system greatly), you'd still need t […]
Show full quote

Xargon321 wrote on 2024-10-05, 01:30:

are you going to do a group buy for v3? would love a prebuilt board obviously will have to source the vortex and pi4 but the rest would be nice to buy outright

Most likely: yes.
In addition to the Vortex86EX SOM and CM4 (not mandatory, but enhances the system greatly), you'd still need to buy the graphics card. As of right now, we have these options:
1. A Mini-PCIe-to-MXM adapter + a Mini-PCIe card; that'll be the Vortex86VGA (slow, but ok for 2D DOS games, ~$50) or one of the SM750-based cards (no 3D, but better 2D performance, ~$150-200). I think there's also cards based on the AST1400 IC, haven't tried those myself but supposedly they also work fine.
2. @sdz's Voodoo4 MXM card. No idea yet what the final cost of these is gonna be, first step is getting everything working. I'll be testing the MXM-equipped TinyLlama and this card soon.
3. Since the MXM "platform" is very capable, we might be able to make some custom, older PCI-based graphics card recreations down the road. I know @Deksor played with this idea a couple of pages back in this thread. Theoretically very doable, in practice I don't know yet.

is there a list i can get on 🤣?

Xargon321 wrote on 2024-10-05, 18:54:

is there a list i can get on 🤣?

Not yet, I'm still waiting for the first MXM prototype board + graphics card(s). When I'm happy with the results, I'll publish to Github and (most likely) do a list/group order. Subscribe to this thread to stay updated! 😉

Eivind wrote on 2024-09-25, 08:00:

Slightly off-topic, but I thought it would be interesting nonetheless: I finally heard back from my contact at DMP - they've got […]
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Slightly off-topic, but I thought it would be interesting nonetheless:
I finally heard back from my contact at DMP - they've gotten the silicon for the upcoming EX3 CPU back from TSMC, tested it and it looks good.
They're currently working on getting the substrate for the IC just right, supposedly it'll be in the ballpark of 4 months until the chip is done.
I also got a photo of the bare silicon die, with flip-chip balls attached and protective polymide coating removed.

The attachment EX3-noBump.png is no longer available

This is very exciting! Especially with the extra DMA potential!

Eivind wrote on 2024-10-02, 23:06:

Update: Revision 3.3 prototype boards + MXM adapters ordered! By kind suggestion from @sdz, I added some ESD protection diodes to the HDMI connector, otherwise the board is the same as in the renders above. Will update here when I get what I'm hoping will be the final revision in hand. Fingers crossed that everything will work out, especially the USB PD subsystem and MXM connector! 🤞

🎉🎉🎉

jamesfmackenzie wrote on 2024-10-06, 17:51:

Eivind wrote on 2024-09-25, 08:00:

Slightly off-topic, but I thought it would be interesting nonetheless: I finally heard back from my contact at DMP - they've got […]
Show full quote

Slightly off-topic, but I thought it would be interesting nonetheless:
I finally heard back from my contact at DMP - they've gotten the silicon for the upcoming EX3 CPU back from TSMC, tested it and it looks good.
They're currently working on getting the substrate for the IC just right, supposedly it'll be in the ballpark of 4 months until the chip is done.
I also got a photo of the bare silicon die, with flip-chip balls attached and protective polymide coating removed.

The attachment EX3-noBump.png is no longer available

This is very exciting! Especially with the extra DMA potential!

In terms of the EX3's architecture, I noticed an interesting clue in one of their YouTube vids recently, in that it now supports Windows 10. Which means it has the NX-bit, unlike any previous Vortex. So it's concievable that it's quite heavily revised. Of the current Vortex chips, only the DX3 supports Windows 7, even then, not W10. According to DM&P's own figures, the DX3 is 4x the relative performance of the EX - given the EX3 appears it will be more advanced again, it could be getting to really usable W98 territory. Or I could be totally wrong and the NX-bit is a trivial piece of microarchitecture to implement...

Quick "unboxing" of packages received today.
It's aliiiive! 😁

Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eagerly awaiting the YouTube video 😃

man, that 3Dfx chip on there looks nastyyyyy! can't wait to get one for myself!

Awesome job !

You've outdone yourself again Eivind.

Been kinda busy these last days, but here's a quick update of my findings:
- The TL3.3 board looks alright, it does work (like the previous prototypes) and I can play games on it! 😀
- The MXM connector works with sdz's Voodoo4 card, I'm getting VGA and HDMI through MXM and out from the respective connectors on the TL board!
- My Mini-PCIe-to-MXM adapter works fine as well, tested with my SM750-based card.
- I think there's some kind of bug with my power circuit - It takes two pushes of the power button to turn on the board, one to power it down. I tried two different USB-C PD power bricks, identical result. Will investigate this further.
- My CM4 with eMMC works just fine even though the board also has an external SD card slot for the Pi. I guess that means you can use either the eMMC-equipped CM4 or the Lite version - I need to get one of those for testing.
- Haven't gotten to experimenting with the I2C IO expander and diagnostic LEDs yet.
- The SATA connector might not have been the best idea. I kinda forgot that SATA devices also require "SATA power", and there's obviously no ATX power supply with these power connectors at play here. What might be a much smoother solution is using an mSATA or M.2 connector. Problem is, there's no room currently on the board for such a connector. A good quality microSD card works very well though, so not sure it's worth pursuing really.
- I don't like the position of the power- and reset buttons. Will have to think long and hard about those, I do want them to be 90-degree ones, but they all have through-hole pins or stabilizer studs which would interfere with the MXM connector on the bottom side.
- My biggest concern right now, however, is PicoGUS's apparent lack of Win98 support. It works amazingly marvellous in DOS, but I'm really struggling getting either the GUS or SB mode working in Windows. Wish it had a WSS mode... 😁 Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Edit: a little bird told me that a WSS mode might be in the cards...

Man, this is awesome. I need one.

Can anyone recommend a place to sell my kidney to?

For the sata connector, maybe one could use one of these ? https://www.amazon.fr/FCQLR-pour-Power-C%C3%A … y/dp/B082FHLJPH

I don't think sata ssds need anything other than 5V power. Msata or M.2 would be great but as you stated: no space.

the soc can boot from usb correct? we could use a external hd for bulk game storage or what not be neat to see if we can boot from usb floppy 🤣. dont mind sd cards but they are prone to being slow m.2 can be had in 2230 maybe we can thing of a solution maybe piggie backed on the mxm card?

Cant seem to edit my post so here is a follow up. they do have m.2 vertical connectors that might be a solution for the space problem

@Eivind

You could try a SATA DOM on that SATA port?

this looks great! do you have the gerber files for the pre-MXM tinyllama? I want to play around with one of these but I don't have everything I need to build the voodoo card just yet!