Pandemonium

From Quazar Website, 26th January 2019

Pandemonium - a new SAM!

It started with three tweets on my twitter account on 1st January...

(1of3) 2019. It's now 26 years since I bought my first SAM Coupe and 24 years since I started Quazar and all my frantic developing for the system. It's a shame the SAM didn't thrive, but I often imagine what I could do if I ever got my hands on a handful of SAM's ASIC chips.

(2of3) The ASIC is the unique custom chip at the heart of the SAM Coupe. What could I do if I had some? A new SAM drastically enhanced with my extra peripherals and a faster Z80, plus an eZ80 co-processor? That would surely be some advanced micro! It would be utter pandemonium!

(3of3) I just need those SAM Coupe ASIC chips... Oh wait... I have over 200 ?? Okay... Hmm... Pandemonium... Thats a funky codename for a new SAM! So, I happily announce 'Pandemonium'! I've a long way to go but it's underway! Stay tuned...

While initially sounding a bit cryptic, I did just announce my next hardware project that will follow on from Symbiote!

Codenamed 'Pandemonium' for the time being, this will be a new SAM!

Yes, you did read that right, a new SAM!

What makes this possible? Well, as covered in my new year tweets, I've got my hands on several hundred of the ASIC chips - that's the customised VLSI logic array designed by Bruce Gordon, that provides all the main system logic of the SAM Coupe - graphics generation, memory paging, interrupts, MIDI, keyboard reading etc, etc.

Why the name 'Pandemonium'? It's expanding on 'Mayhem Accelerator' the name I used for my prototype SAM accelerator. While interest was very low over a decade ago it never fully progressed into a released unit, however on the basis that I'll be able to make a limited quantity of spanking new SAMs it makes sense to add in whatever I can incorporate, so that does include making it faster if possible. I've already updated my accelerator design, so couple that with most of my other hardware peripherals that I've designed and released over the years, such as the Trinity Ethernet Interface and the forthcoming Symbiote, it'll be a rather fantastic computer!

With SAM Revival issue 26 being a catchup issue, I'll go into more depth of my plans in issue 27. In the meantime, if you have any comments or questions at all regarding Pandemonium, the other projects I have on the go for the SAM, my other products or really, anything to do with the SAM at all please always feel free to get in touch.