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Albireo

No change in size, 8 April
/* General */
* High-speed (1.5 Mbaud) serial link with built-in USB interface for linking with other computers for fast data exchange. Includes flow control, 16 byte FIFO on CPC side, and 512 byte FIFO on remote side, allowing fast buffered and interrupt-driven operation.
* Software configurable interrupt routing to either [[NMI]] or INT, or interrupt masking. Multiplexing of several interrupt sources: USB host controller, UART, remotely triggered, and CRTC CURSOR signal interrupts are gathered and easily accessible from a single interrupt status register.
 
=== How does it work? ===
* There are two main devices: the CH376 handles the USB host and SD card side of things, and is accessed at FE80 (data) and FE81 (command/status). The communication side is handled by a SC16C650B, mapped at FEB0-FEB7. This is similar to the chip used on most PC hardware and some Amiga expansions like the SilverSurfer.
* There is an FT230X chip to convert the UART to USB for connecting with a modern PC (standard serial ports are not that common anymore, and they wouldn't be fast enough anyway). The FT230X also generates 12MHz and 48MHz clocks for the two other chips.
* The 16C650 "modem control" lines are connected to various things (CH376 interrupt, FT230X general IO pin for remote control) and turns them into interrupts.
 
=== What is it useful for? ===
* Use both USB mass storage devices and/or USB mice in [[SymbOS]] with one or two Albireos, which can be connected at the same time
* Access mass storage devices with [[UniDOS]]; use the USB key or SD card directly from BASIC and well-behaving apps (which support extra disk ROMs and a C drive); load games and tools from the mass storage media
 
Planned:
* Connect to another computer like the CPC Booster, load snapshot, DSK or other files from it and write them to floppies or the mass storage media. A snapshot of 128K could be loaded in 0.86 seconds, a snapshot of 64K in less than 0.43 seconds.
* Use SLIP (serial line IP) and a properly setup gateway (Linux machine or similar) to connect the CPC to the Internet.
=== Board revisions ===
[[File:Albireo 2.0 top.jpg|500px]] [[File:Albireo 2.0 bottom.jpg|500px]]
 
=== How does it work? ===
* There are two main devices: the CH376 handles the USB host and SD card side of things, and is accessed at FE80 (data) and FE81 (command/status). The communication side is handled by a SC16C650B, mapped at FEB0-FEB7. This is similar to the chip used on most PC hardware and some Amiga expansions like the SilverSurfer.
* There is an FT230X chip to convert the UART to USB for connecting with a modern PC (standard serial ports are not that common anymore, and they wouldn't be fast enough anyway). The FT230X also generates 12MHz and 48MHz clocks for the two other chips.
* The 16C650 "modem control" lines are connected to various things (CH376 interrupt, FT230X general IO pin for remote control) and turns them into interrupts.
 
=== What is it useful for? ===
* Use both USB mass storage devices and/or USB mice in [[SymbOS]] with one or two Albireos, which can be connected at the same time
* Access mass storage devices with [[UniDOS]]; use the USB key or SD card directly from BASIC and well-behaving apps (which support extra disk ROMs and a C drive); load games and tools from the mass storage media
 
Planned:
* Connect to another computer like the CPC Booster, load snapshot, DSK or other files from it and write them to floppies or the mass storage media. A snapshot of 128K could be loaded in 0.86 seconds, a snapshot of 64K in less than 0.43 seconds.
* Use SLIP (serial line IP) and a properly setup gateway (Linux machine or similar) to connect the CPC to the Internet.
== Hardware ==
Phi2x
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