New Minimig cores available

[boing4000]

@Darrin

It was a normal release and posted somewhere in this forum ;-) But that was all out of the old core version and is no longer working together with current PIC firmware.

I can post the new 14MHz version, if Jakub can tell me where the default settings for PAL and NTSC is located?
Right now I only have PAL by default with 14MHz.

[boing4000]

Thanks Jakub, now I can build seperate PAL and NTSC core with 7/14MHz selectable via Jumper.
When you release the OSD version, my one will be obsolete and I am looking forward to that time :-)

[boing4000]

A generic question should be done:

Will this daughter board be necessary in the future for new pic firmware?
If this is planed, I just want to "protest" a bit ;-)
In my point of view Minimig is this little board in itself. Everything is done IN software and the existing hardware parts.
In real Amiga we like maybe even love to hack the hardware with many extensions and additional PCB parts. Minimig is different.
Right now we are able to "extend" the hardware by very good coding and checking out.
If the daughter board is "only" for testing and provide a faster/more easy firmware upgrade via USB, I am pacified :-)

If the PIC18LF252-I/SP is not big enough to store future firmware, the PIC18LF2620-I/SP (64kb flash inside and pincompatible afa I can see) would be able to.

I also dont want to solder out SMD LED (even when I could) to strip wires arround the board for replacements. This Minimig V1.1 board should stay in its current form, at least for me and I belief many other Minimig owner will agree.

Please dont(!) take this personal! I just did freely speak out my opinion and feelings in Minimig :-)

[boing4000]

Thanks whiteb, lets see what come out.
HDF support is a nice thing, eminently for Workbench, multi disk games and WHDload friends.
Thanks to the new firmware and features I am really happy with Minimig now :-)

[boing4000]

@Darrin

I am not against upgrading at all. First of all I would like to let this PCB (v1.1) untouched. If really necessary an upgrade with PIC replacement could work but will also cost additional money for each Minimig owner. Not that much as buying a new PCB but lot more then just upgrading the existing PIC.

In real Amiga you dont have any other choice but to buy new hardware parts to have more RAM or a faster CPU etc.

I just want to keep the idea of "we have programmable hardware to do the job". Upgrading the real hardware is not the way for me. Not on the existing PCB. Think about it...

But this is just my opinion :-)

[boing4000]

Dennis did for one only reason stick the PIC into a socket: external programming if necessary.
We can be lucky after all to have an PIC18LFxxx on Minimig, that can reprogram itself at 3.3v.
But lets end this. I dont want to block any new idea :-)

No risk for the 68000 at 14MHz clock. Most Minimig 68k are designed for 16 or even 20MHz. This new chips are also powered at 3.3v and completely in static design. Even overclocking should easy be possible.
Dennis did this before in his 2nd released firmware (FW 27_04_2008).
The 68SEC000 will only get a bit more warm at 14MHz, no danger even in a 100 years of operating time ;-)

Im on it and will release the FW asap.

[boing4000]

@Jakub
Thats right, I think the new SEC000 can take a lot more MHz (overclocked) as the older HC000.

@whiteb
First release from Dennis was 7MHz, right. 2nd release hat "turbo cpu" clocked at 14MHz. I am working on it but its not that simple as before due to some changes in the module.
Right now I do have permanent 14MHz cpu clock, that is funny but some games/demos dont like it and crash or show unwantet glitches.
So be patient

[boing4000]

OK its finished. Download the firmware binary and source here[/u].

@Darrin
I hope you will find the link :-) :-D ;-)

[boing4000]

Contact your dealer for a replacement PIC with tinybootloader inside.
My first Minimig from Vesalia (build by ACube) also had no bootloader and I got the same update problem as found here.
Vesalia told ACube about this matter and both agreed to exchange the PIC against a new one for all customers.
In my understanding AmigaKit will do the same service!

[boing4000]

To any core builders (especially Jakub ;-)): Please do not implement SuperHires denise (ID $FC) in minimig core. This will cause well known problems as in real ECS Amiga 500/600/2000 to some program.
I gave it a try by simply setting the denise id to ECS and found some strange results.
Im aware that real S-Hires mode is unable to work at this way, but due to the chip-id the registers of denise will be used by (some) kickstart/demo/intro/game copperlist. In many cases this will show a weird screen or altering colortable etc.

ECS agnus in minimig is absolute right working and in fact even more compatible then the real ECS chipset itself.

[boing4000]

@Jakub
I did an adjustment in the FPGA core to shift the picture a bit to the right. I used a real A500, kickstart V1.3 and an initial cli screen with standard preferences (no devs:system-configuration file) to have native screen orientation on both system.

The new setting in Beamcounter.v at line #59 is:

Code: [Select]


parameter hsstrt = 25;  // front porch = (uncalculated)us (25)

Now the horizontal screen start is 100% accurate to an ocs/ecs Amiga.
Also the H-Sync signal now has 15.52KHz as on a real Amiga (before it was 15.62KHz).
Would be nice if you can implement this setting in your next core