New generation of PLA - PLAnkton

[eslapion]

In answer to mongooseman (Lemon64):

Also Super Zaxxon can be burned to an eprom and used with a magic cart. Its not the original cartridge, but a very good alternative.

Super Zaxxon uses a flip-flop to control access to the upper/lower half of its larger ROM and is a 20k game. It will not fit in a magic cart. Only the real Super Zaxxon cartridge is sensitive to garbage signaled on the ROML-ROMH line by a poor quality PLA. If you make yourself a PLA substitute as suggested on Tynemouth Software's web site then Super Zaxxon is going to crash systematically.

[eslapion]

20 units left in stock!

... after that you'll have to wait for the 4th batch to be ready!

[mrr19121970]

What about black PCBs ? less conspicuous...

[eslapion]

What about black PCBs ? less conspicuous...

Well, that wouldn't be the color of real plankton, would it ? It would appear like a major oil spill instead of normal ocean plankton!

I guess we could do it for customers living in Louisiana...

Maybe you can ask Fredric, he's the one in charge for ordering the PCBs.

[eslapion]

The 3rd batch is now officially SOLD OUT!

The 4th batch is presently in preparation.

[eslapion]

Please note everyone:

The components for the 4th batch will arrive tomorrow and all pre-orders will ship next Monday.

European buyers can contact e5frog, I distribute for the rest of the world.

Thank you all!

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4th batch has begun shipping a few days ago, I have more than 100 units in stock!

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More than 600 units sold!

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4th batch sold out, a 5th batch is in preparation

700 units sold!

[Bobbi]

Wow those things are moving. I guess there are a lot of C64 users out there still!

[eslapion]

Wow those things are moving. I guess there are a lot of C64 users out there still!

Indeed! Did you check how many 1541 Ultimate II were sold by Gideon Zweijtzer by any chance ?

Find it here:
http://www.1541ultimate.net/content/index.php

[eslapion]

5th batch now in stock!
Pre-orders have begun shipping!

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Price adjusted for cost of components.

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Just a word of warning concerning a PLA sub selling on eBay that also uses the XC9536XL: Me and Fredric have examined this product and we were curious as to why it would carry the 5ns version of that chip - PLAnkton carries the 10ns version.

Considering the speed of a C64 and that most other PLA substitutes have problems because they are actually too fast, there is absolutely no logical reason to use a faster chip that also turns out to be considerably more expensive - PLAnkton uses the 10ns version of the XC9536XL, it is the slowest and cheapest member of that family of chips and only it has the necessary characteristics to faithfully replicate the slow N82S100 on which the Commodore PLA was based.

Upon closer inspection, we have determined that the reason why the 5ns version was chosen is because it is in fact Chinese made counterfeits. Chinese clones of the XC9536XL are all marked as 5ns but they have all sorts of different response speeds. Also, on these counterfeit ICs the slew rate limiter as well as the low power mode don't operate properly. Of course, they are considerably cheaper than all genuine Xilinx XC9536XL, no matter what their rated speed may be.

PLAnkton uses only genuine Xilinx XC9536XL circuits purchased from Digikey, an authorized distributor of Xilinx products. We program these chips to provide the most accurate reproduction of the behavior of a genuine C64 PLA as well as the lowest possible power consumption and only a genuine Xilinx circuit can achieve this level of accuracy.

[eslapion]

800 units sold!