8bits4ever MSX interfaces

Probably as you are already aware thanks to our forums, behind this name there is a relatively new and little known Spanish hardware developer for MSX and ZX Spectrum. It started developing some stuff for ZX Spectrum a couple of years ago and took the leap into the MSX world since last summer.

8bits4ever offers nice hardware expansions for our MSX computers. The products available right now are:

Floppy Disk Interface
IDE Storage Interface
MMC/SD Storage Interface
Configurable RAM expansion

A CF-640 Compact Flash Storage interface will be on sale shortly, also an FM-PAC clone and in near future it's planned to release an x4 slot expander and a low cost FPGA based MSX.

Relevant link: 8bits4ever MSX Zone

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By Lord_Zett

Paladin (807)

17-06-2016, 23:46

nice hardware! nice price!

By htdreams

Champion (298)

21-06-2016, 19:27

I got several of their expansions and i'm very happy with them, nice packaging, great built and smooth operational :-)

i'm now waiting for the order of a MMC/SD storage with 512ks mapper to arrive, it will be great for sony msx2 machines with 64ks without wasting a slot... may be that 4 slot expander is not a bad idea (if it gets a tight price :-D )

By Grauw

Ascended (10772)

21-06-2016, 19:33

Ah, two new products since I last checked, nice! Looking forward to future products!

By meckert

Rookie (18)

11-07-2016, 07:27

When will sd-512 be available again ?

By Wolverine_nl

Paragon (1160)

19-07-2016, 13:53

Ordered an ATA-620 IDE Storage Interface, waiting for it's arrival. I put the wrong house number in the address, good and quick contact by email to solve it.
Will be checking out their new products!

By msxski

Resident (62)

24-07-2016, 03:10

Excellent prices. A few items are 70€ cheaper than msxcartridgeshop, and thats not even counting the free shipping.

By Fabio Belavenuto

Rookie (17)

21-09-2016, 14:00

Hello,

Regarding the SD-512 project, I noticed that the PCB is very similar
to the original project SD Mapper/Megaram, from Brazil.
(https://github.com/fbelavenuto/msxsdmapper)

I would like to ask if the SD-512 project is based on our project and
if so, the original license CERN OHL v1.1 was followed.
I could not see any pictures or videos of the SD-512 device booting,
to see if the software still has it's original copyright information
in place.

By gdx

Enlighted (6223)

22-09-2016, 08:17

All 8bits4ever products are existing device clones/remakes. It's also the case of many devices sold recently.

By Fabio Belavenuto

Rookie (17)

22-09-2016, 15:01

And that's normal? Violating license is now possible?

gdx wrote:

All 8bits4ever products are existing device clones/remakes. It's also the case of many devices sold recently.

By MSXPro

Resident (48)

22-09-2016, 20:54

I honestly do not understand this clone, because SD/Mapper 512KB and the entire project is opened and all files are available for manufacturing, including GERBER files.

Okay, okay ... can you tell me it's because of cartridge format, but even so, should not have been removed from the copyright information.

By gdx

Enlighted (6223)

23-09-2016, 01:32

Fabio Belavenuto wrote:

And that's normal? Violating license is now possible?

All projects come from various diagrams and source available on Internet. I do not think there's any copyright exept perhaps for Disk Roms (but it's the case for all unofficial disk interfaces).

By Fabio Belavenuto

Rookie (17)

23-09-2016, 15:09

I'm sorry, but it has copyright yes, read the OHL license:

https://github.com/fbelavenuto/msxsdmapper/blob/master/CERNO...

By tvalenca

Paladin (747)

23-09-2016, 21:49

a 404 error on this address ( http://www.8bits4ever.com/sd-512.html ) Means that SD-512 is an exact copy of Belavenuto's project? Also, the hyperlink for this addres on this page ( http://www.8bits4ever.com/msx-zone.html ) is gone and there's a black box where the hyperlink was, so it seems it was a quick and dirty edit.

Let's see if Belavenuto and MSXPro will get any kind of apology....

By l_oliveira

Hero (534)

24-09-2016, 16:40

Just mentioning, Belavenuto never asked for removal. What he asked was if the copyright notice for the software was left on the rom and it is displayed on boot as originally designed.

The project is open source and by it's license it's ok if it's sold for profit as long the copyright is reproduced properly on the design.

So, I believe all it is needed to fix this is putting the copyright information on. I see nothing wrong with producing open source hardware but on Open Source communities, credit is how the authors get their names known.

By gdx

Enlighted (6223)

24-09-2016, 17:22

It's true that many people forget to mention the origin of their creation and are very stingy on hardware specifications. The goal is to sell. The buyer must do confidence in his chance.

By Fabio Belavenuto

Rookie (17)

24-09-2016, 17:30

l_oliveira is totally right. The project can be reproduced and sold, as long the license terms are followed.

l_oliveira wrote:

Just mentioning, Belavenuto never asked for removal. What he asked was if the copyright notice for the software was left on the rom and it is displayed on boot as originally designed.

The project is open source and by it's license it's ok if it's sold for profit as long the copyright is reproduced properly on the design.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

24-09-2016, 21:42

The page http://www.8bits4ever.com/sd-512.html is back online. Still no any explanation ...

By tvalenca

Paladin (747)

27-09-2016, 21:05

We'd like to see at least a note for the copyright acknowledgement...

By JohanMSX

Resident (33)

04-12-2016, 14:07

I created a video of the 8bits4ever SD-512 booting, check it out on https://youtu.be/2FhMQ7Z6cC0

By msxtrd

Champion (274)

04-12-2016, 22:39

The cartridge and PCB: http://imgur.com/a/IfC33

By Fabio Belavenuto

Rookie (17)

06-12-2016, 19:40

Thank you very much.

By Robby

Master (217)

06-10-2017, 13:09

Hi all,

I asked Fabio about the availability of a Symbos driver for the SD-512 cartridge. Unfortunately, such a driver is not present yet. Personally, i do not have the skills to write such a driver, but maybe somebody here on MRC is willing to write such a driver?
It would be great to have another storage device (with mapper included) added to Symbos. Especially for use on msx2 machines with (only) 128kb, for example. (As for optimal Symbos use mostly more than 128kb is needed).

Note: sources of the sunrise driver are present on the github link above.

By Emily82

Resident (46)

28-10-2019, 23:32

I just bought SD-512 cartridge, yea i would like a driver for Symbos for it too. I can program but i dont have experience in device drivers development.
If there is some project on writing a driver, i would be glad to help on this for what i can do!

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