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What ever happened to the Hydra and HX512K memory? — Parallax Forums

What ever happened to the Hydra and HX512K memory?

tdg8934tdg8934 Posts: 126
edited 2012-03-06 14:45 in Propeller 1
Years ago I owned a Hydra (when it first came out) and remember the HX512K expanded memory card. I wasn't ready for SPIN (being an SX-28 SX/B fan) then and regrettably re-sold it on E-Bay.

However, I am now taking another look at the Propeller as I recently bought a Propeller Platform USB and video/audio proto board. I'm using the Propeller Platform with the Adafruit 32x16 LED RGB display with drivers from Rayman.

I'm interested in knowing more about expanding the memory on the Propeller Platform and thinking about getting a Hydra system and possibly HX512K card at some point.

Are these still available or outdated with something else replacing them?

How about the Prop II for more memory? Just trying to see what might fill the need here.

Thanks,

Tim

Comments

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2012-03-06 03:24
    We will know more about P2 in a few hours... waiting with baited breath :D

    As for external memory, there are a number of solutions. I have a tiny prop board (well a few) that dedicate the whole prop to driving the SRAM for what I believe is the fastest. A second prop works as the peripherals via a high speed serial link, or you can just connect 1pin TV and qpin Keyboard to it. Drac has various designs that interface to the SRAM using latches. Jazzed has serial SRAM solutions. I dont know much about the Hydra - see the Parallax shop for availability.

    So, it really depends on what you want to do.
  • blittledblittled Posts: 681
    edited 2012-03-06 06:55
    Check out http://www.xgamestation.com for any Hydra stuff. The HX512K can be found at http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=43. XGameStation is Andre LaMothe's website, the developer of the Hydra. You can get the Hydra for a lower price from Parallax though :).
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2012-03-06 06:57
    tdg8934 wrote: »
    I'm interested in knowing more about expanding the memory on the Propeller Platform and thinking about getting a Hydra system and possibly HX512K card at some point.

    Are these still available or outdated with something else replacing them?

    Hello Tim,

    It doesn't look like Parallax has those two options for the Hydra anymore. You can still get them from here:

    http://www.xgamestation.com/browse_products.php?category=7

    You can also get a nice case for the Hydra from here:

    http://mountainkingtech.com/

    I'm not sure how many programs took advantage of the HX512 Memory card but the SD card is really useful.

    Robert
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2012-03-06 08:25
    It looks like there is a Hydra for sale in the classified section if you want to pickup one of those systems:

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?137479-Hydra-Game-Development-Kit
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2012-03-06 08:37
    I'll second Roberts suggestion of using a SD card. SD cards are probably the easiest way to add lots of memory to a Propeller.

    Besides Cluso99's memory board, there have been lots of different methods of adding memory to a Propeller project. One method I was intrigued by was using 23K256 SRAM chips in parallel. I've soldered together a stack of eight chips and wrote my own driver as a learning exercise. Here's a link to my attempt. There are links in that thread to others SRAM projects with faster drivers than the one I wrote. I think my driver could read and write at about 1MByte per second but I'm not sure about that. I know I could have speed up the driver by using the first eight pins on the Prop for the data bus (I think I have a version where I've done this).

    The choice in which memory solution to use will depend a lot on how frequently the data will be changed, how much you want to store and how fast you need to read to and write from the memory. Jazzed even made a SDRAM board for the Prop. I think it was 32MB (I have one in front of me, but I can't read the printing on the chip).
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-03-06 09:24
    What benefit do you hope to get from extend Propeller memory "access" ?
    It is not possible to extend HUB or COG memory without a performance hit.

    What do you need? Bigger programs? Bigger data buffers?
  • tdg8934tdg8934 Posts: 126
    edited 2012-03-06 14:45
    I guess I will wait to hear about the Propeller 2 then.

    Thanks everyone.
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