Re: [MiNT] lp driver patch for the Firebee to extend the parallel port strobe duration

[Markus Fröschle <mfro@mubf.de>]

Am 04.10.2015 um 00:59 schrieb Alan Hourihane:
> Hi Markus,
>
> Why can't this problem be entirely fixed within the FPGA and not resort
> to these additional requirements ?
>
> Alan.

Hi Alan,

sure, the Firebee's high PSG port switching rate could be slowed down to 
the speed of a Falcon by inserting wait states in hardware inthe FPGA 
config until the 750 ns required by the IEEE 1284 (Centronics) specs are 
met.

We then had a (fixed) much slower achievable switching rate (not only 
for the strobe signal, but probably for all other PSG ports and other 
possible uses of the parallel port as well).

Just because the software was originally tailored to a specific hardware 
that only needed two NOPs instead of 21 because it was much slower. The 
most compatible machine to a Falcon is a Falcon ;)

Seriously, I don't think that would be the right thing to do.

The Firebee is intended to be as fast as possible and if specific specs 
for a specific use require it to slow down in places, in my opinion this 
rather should be done in that part of the software for that specific 
purpose (printer) instead of generally limit the hardware capabilities.

I'm open for discussion, but that's my feelings.

Cheers,
Markus