This weekend I was able to do some work on the hardware of the project again, and I decided to bump the version number, so it is with pride and joy that I announce Revision 4 of the L-Star hardware.

One change that I made since Rev. 3 (which I never built) is that the PCB is now even smaller. It's now within a hair of fitting within the "magical" 80x100mm "Half Eurocard" size. The short side is 0.01mm too wide to fit into the crazy limit imposed by the free and cheap versions of Eagle. I don't think I'll fix that unless someone asks; I think this design is going to be the production version.

The most important improvement compared to revision 3 is that the expansion port is now a 50-pin header instead of a 40-pin header. As I mentioned in the previous project log, the location of the expansion port was always designed with the possibility that there could be a 50 pin header some day, and that day is now. For most projects, the original 40 pins may be enough, but the extra pins should remove any fears of future regrets: Simply every single important control signal is on the connector. The added pins are:

• RDY: The RDY pin can be used to hold execution (insert wait states) on the 6502: when it is pulled LOW, the 6502 stops executing, but the address bus and data bus are still going through their usual motions. In the original 6502 it only stopped read cycles and not write cycles, and it was intended to deal with slow hardware, usually ROMs. On the WDC 65C02 in this project, the RDY pin also stops when the processor is doing a write cycle. So on old hardware, the pin was rarely used and because of the change in the WDC processor, any use that can't be emulated by letting the Propeller stop the clock is probably not worth fixing, so I left it off the expansion port until now. In the unlikely case that it might be useful for a project where an expansion board controls the pin, it's available now.
• BE: The Bus Enable pin is a unique feature of the WDC 65C02. It puts the address bus, data bus and R/~W pin in a disconnected state to make it possible for other devices to use the bus. I admit, it was tempting to use it to let the Propeller access the SRAM chip directly, but because I was out of pins on the Propeller, and because it's easy to work around that problem with software (i.e. simply let the Propeller feed dummy instructions to the 6502 that take care of filling the RAM) I decided not to use it. I still expect that it will be difficult to use, because the Propeller has to know when to stop paying attention to the bus, too. But anyway, it's on the expansion port now.
• A16 and ~RAMEN: In most cases, it would be enough to let the Propeller have control over the SRAM chip (if it's even necessary to have an SRAM chip in the first place). But now the expansion port has the RAM control signals, it's possible to put some sort of hardware address decoding on there and keep Propeller pins free for other purposes
• KBCLK, KBDATA and TVOUT: It makes sense to have these on an expansion board: for one thing, it will make it possible to do things like generate color video from the expansion board. And by putting all signals in the jumper block on the expansion port, it's possible to replicate the jumper block on the expansion board, or even to remove the right side of the board (Prop plug, jumper block PS/2 and video connectors) completely, and/or put them on a separate board that's connected to L-Star via a ribbon cable.
• ~RES: This is the reset input for the Propeller, and though there already is a header to connect this signal to a switch in an enclosure, it's also a good idea to have it on the expansion port. For example: if you would want to separate the "right side" of the board from the rest of the board, the reset line is needed because it's also on the Prop Plug.
• Two GND pins: When there are so many pins connected to a second board in the system, it's always a good idea to have a good ground reference.

There are actual people owning actual hardware that uses the 40 pin connector, so the 50-pin connector is backwards compatible with the 40-pin connector. The two GND pins were added on one side and the 8 other pins were added on the other side. I don't expect to make any further changes to the pinout, because all the signals that I think could possibly interesting to any expansion devices, are on the connector. The only ones that are not on there are the Propeller clock and the brown-out protection. But I already decided that it's not worth making any changes to those: the project is intended for those who want to learn about the 6502, and while those two would useful, they would also be a distraction from the intentions of the project and add expense.

I ordered a batch of PCB's from OSHPark, and I plan to build it to make sure it works, I'm thinking of leaving the chips off the Mouser order, and stocking up on the passive components so I can do a production run soon, and finally put the project up on Tindie.