Hi,

I was wondering about the status of the "Bitwise USB Interface"
project ?

Does anyone know if it is sold already ?
I'd be interested in both buying one and developing new
software for it.

Best regards

Yeah, it would be nice to know about this. AFAIK it's still not on sale. It would be a very useful addition for cross-development or even controling real devices with an emulator. The same goes for their MSX network interface (which is not compatible with ethernet standards though). Would be quite nice to know about this one as well.

Maybe someone can contact Frits Hilderink about these projects as he's involved with both of them. IIRC he wants to emulate them in NLMSX.

Ah! I can give the answer to this :
- The Bitwise USB Disk Interface isn't currently sold yet.
- We now have a production-type prototype, ready for testing. If all comes out well, it can actually be sold, so please be patient till we work out the last testing stages

In the meantime, we (Bitwise) will have a meeting, after that, I can give you more info

[D-Tail] / Bitwise

This USB disk interface is that tool with which one can access his PC harddisk with an MSX? If not, what DOES it do? Sounds very interesting

I think it should be possible to access more through USB than just disk...

As I said before, I don't know all the details, but it's initially meant to get rid of crappy disks and the like: it's a disk interface which can be connected to a (windows) pc. With provided software you can select a directory in which the USB Disk Interface can look for disk images. Insert the disk image and off you go!
Of course, adding a HDD-access functionality would be a minor detail in my view, but I'll be hearing all of it soon

As far as I know, the first ones are to be released soon!

Aehhh .... will you be able to boot from it ?

Of course, that's what it is made for! Never have your sixpack XAK disks next to your Turbo R! Just a directory containing the disk images, select one using the software and reset your MSX! It's as easy as that!

I already love the device. Great for gaming, great for cross-development (whilst testing on the real thing). What about transfer-speeds? Comparable to CompactFlash?

yeah!... it seems a handy thingy .. esp. the xdev-possibilities opportunities

Haargh! Dunno all the [D-Tail]s!

But as said, you'll be hearing from us. At least I know that transfer speeds are reasonable enough to play games with. And remember Tilburg 2K3? We had a great Bitwise USB Disk Interface demo and Bitwise TMT_net demo there

Perhaps a stupid question, but can you -using usb on msx- use your PC memory as actual MSX memory? So, rather than buying some dusty 1mb second hand memory mapper, just use some of your PC mem instead..?

I think it would be more easy to code a 4MB memory mapper in the chip as well...

and probably cheaper

I would love to have direct access to msx memory using this device,
it would be GREAT for cross-development. You could write your own problems to monitor almost anything WHILE the msx is executing your program.

Also, you could assemble programs directly to msx-memory (or pc-memory that the msx uses as msx-memory)

I'll stop now to prevent drooling on my keyboard any more