I thinking making a reversed engineered PCB isn't hard at all, however, the real trick to making a new board would be those VSLI chips and their proprietary information. If someone ever cracks those (the SE/30 has several) then making new boards isn't hard, minus sourcing the 68030. I can even make the metal brackets that attach fairly easily.Where's @maceffects and his engineer friend when you need him... ;-D
With my limited understanding of this from a technical level, I can acknowledge this would be a pretty hefty undertaking. Creating a board like this was much easier for Apple because they'd done it before with other machines, and had lots of skill and knowledge already in the company, as well as access to other resources and money.
It would be interesting to see what could be done with a partial redesign. The Classic II logic board fits a 68030 into a board half the size, though with other limitations.
As with all these projects, scope is important but so is having the resources, namely money, time and knowledge.
I for one, would happily contribute to a kickstarter for such a project - unfortunately I wouldn't be able to assist much more than that.
I wonder if the formulas are in the donated Apple archive and if so, the Woz might be approached in terms of licensing or release into the public domain for educational purposes?I thinking making a reversed engineered PCB isn't hard at all, however, the real trick to making a new board would be those VSLI chips and their proprietary information.
As @techknight confirmed, there are a lot of damaged boards out there just begging to be donors. Breaking 30 pin SIMM sockets is becoming a real problem. Upgrading the design to more readily available(new?) 72pin Sockets/SIMMS would be a no-brainer for me.If someone ever cracks those (the SE/30 has several)
I've done research on embedded 68030s for my accelerator projects. They're out there, Bolle said the last batch out of Freescale is available. Checked it out and no indication of incompatible instruction set was noted for it as was the case for others on the list. It's SMT, so you'd want to move it to the side and provide cutout circuitry and PGA socket for the inevitable reproduction of the SE/30's custom accelerator. Clock rate's fine for SE/30 and the Performer, but not high enough for the likes of Bolle's accelerator reproductions.. . . making new boards isn't hard, minus sourcing the 68030.
Missed your post, glad to see you're on board already! On board(socketed?) ROM is a great idea. What do you think about provision for embedded CPU/cutout injection with PGA socket combo?I would however go for a few changes... as jt already mentioned four 72pin SIMMs with 32MB are cheaper to come by than eight 16MB 30pin ones.
Also implementing space for four 29F040 ROM chips as a replacement for the ROM SIMM is a good thing I think. The ROM SIMM and socket often get hit by the battery so it just makes sense to go for a cheap chips-go-right-onto-the-board kind fo replacement.
I don't ever see that happening. Honestly, knowing Apple I'd be surprised if they still have them (or at least know where they are). With a recreation effort for a board, something to consider is that we are blurring the line between original and emulation and if the effort/cost is high, emulation might be better.I wonder if the formulas are in the donated Apple archive and if so, the Woz might be approached in terms of licensing or release into the public domain for educational purposes?
Nah, nothing like that, I just wish he'd do an end run around Apple's reflexive NO mentality and legions of lawyer drones. I seriously doubt the curators of that institution know much about Apple's archival donations in this kind of technical sense. The Woz and his Steveness both were long gone by the time of the SE/30.When you mention getting Woz involved, do you mean for the IWM knowledge?
I think that if you did this, the 72 pin SIMMs would have to be installed as identical pairs. The SE/30 supports 2 independent banks of RAM, not 4, and so probably lacks independent RAS lines for four independent 72 pin sockets.I would however go for a few changes... as jt already mentioned four 72pin SIMMs with 32MB are cheaper to come by than eight 16MB 30pin ones.
That's one reason why a pair of 64MB SIMMs, one per bank have replaced pairs of 32MB SIMMS for each bank in my related project. Combining a pair of 32MB or a quartet of 16MB SIMMs to fill a single 72pin slot was a thing, that's for yet another research project. Those boards really don't seem all that logically messy . . . but what do I know. :Even with identical pairs, it would be the equivalent of "composite" SIMMs. A little messy logically.
One 128 meg SIMM would give you two banks of 64 megs, with less fuss.That's one reason why a pair of 64MB SIMMs, one per bank have replaced pairs of 32MB SIMMS for each bank in my related project. Combining a pair of 32MB or a quartet of 16MB SIMMs to fill a single 72pin slot was a thing, that's for yet another research project. Those boards really don't seem all that logically messy . . . but what do I know. :