Questions about Minimig future

[alexh]

countzero wrote:
I was talking about the Acube production run. Now if any of you are dreaming to interface a Z80 to that I say you're just dreaming.

I think you'll find the Z80 will fit inside the FPGA on the production run ACube and leave enough space for an 8-bit computer or console too.

freqmax wrote:
I meant a HDL-Z80 ofcourse. No reason to buy a physical one in this case.

Deffo.

[alexh]

whiteb wrote:
Which is why you put a copy of Tinybootloader on the pic first so you can flash pic firmware at will.

http://www.etc.ugal.ro/cchiculita/software/picbootloader.htm

Ah, it looks like Tinybootloader *might* be compatible with the MiniMig's 18F252 PIC although the exact part number confuses me.

I was under the impression that PIC's required extra programming voltages!?

Edit:

AFAIK the PIC serial port pins are not wired up to anything on the MiniMig v1.1 PCB board this makes TinyBootloader not much use as it is :-(

It would have to be modified to take it's files from the SD card. And then how do you tell the PIC you want to upgrade?

It is a shame that the serial pins were not wired to the FPGA then with a special FPGA image they could have been routed to the serial port. It still might be possible with a hot-mod to the "spare I/O" pins.

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:

downix wrote:
Forgot the Atari jaguar there Alex.

There is an open source FPGA Atari Jaguar? What's the link?

No way would the Jaguar custom chips would fit on a minimig FPGA...

[alexh]

bloodline wrote:
No way would the Jaguar custom chips would fit on a minimig FPGA...

I'd still like the link to the open source Jaguar code though ;-)

[Krusher]

alexh wrote:
...
I'd still like the link to the open source Jaguar code though ;-)

click

Didn't check on the content though but it looks like the stuff.

[whiteb]

alexh wrote:

Ah, it looks like Tinybootloader *might* be compatible with the MiniMig's 18F252 PIC although the exact part number confuses me.

I was under the impression that PIC's required extra programming voltages!?

Edit:

AFAIK the PIC serial port pins are not wired up to anything on the MiniMig v1.1 PCB board this makes TinyBootloader not much use as it is :-(

How do you mean, useless ?  Tinybootloader (or any boot loader for that fact) sits on the Pic, and when you first power up the device, listens for Serial port activity for approximately 1 second before booting the main firmware.

[edit] That bootloader you linked, *IS* the bootloader I am using in my minimig 1.1

Its during this 1 second window, you can send a new firmware to the Pic.  The Pic used in the minimig 1.1, has "Self Programming" capability, from the serial port.  

Remember, the Pic's Serial port *IS* used (shared) with the minimig Serial via a Jumper.

It would have to be modified to take it's files from the SD card. And then how do you tell the PIC you want to upgrade?

The Pic's boot window.  If it detects serial activity during the "Window" it loads the Tiny loader, receives the new firmware, Pic flashes itself, and reboots.

It is a shame that the serial pins were not wired to the FPGA then with a special FPGA image they could have been routed to the serial port. It still might be possible with a hot-mod to the "spare I/O" pins.

Well, you cannot wire it to the FPGA, *AND* the serial port at the same time.  One or the other.  at least with Dennis's     design.

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/39564c.pdf

Go have a read, especially the section titled "Special features: Self programming via software control", Section 19.8: Low Voltage In circuit Serial programming (ICSP).

Then go check out the Schematics of minimig 1.1, and look at the PIC signal names (Pins 17 and 18) which are the pic's Serial TX/RX.  You will find that they are connected to the Jumper, which selects either PIC or FPGA to gain access to the serial controller (Max232).

Trust me, it works.  I has someone with a Pic burner who put the boot loader on to the pic (Which is the ONLY time yo uneed the Programmer), then I put the pic into the minimig and downloaded the firmware via serial.

[alexh]

That is the netlists (post synthesis) for 1 chip from the unreleased Jaguar 2. Totally useless.

[alexh]

whiteb wrote:

alexh wrote:
AFAIK the PIC serial port pins are not wired up to anything on the MiniMig v1.1 PCB board this makes TinyBootloader not much use as it is

How do you mean, useless ? [snip] Remember, the Pic's Serial port *IS* used (shared) with the minimig Serial via a Jumper.

Ah, you see I didn't know that (as you can see from my post). I guess it is no big deal then.

whiteb wrote:
I put the boot loader on to the pic, (which is the ONLY time you need the Programmer) then I put the pic into the minimig and downloaded the firmware via serial.

Ah, so Minimig's firmware also contains TinyBootloader (or an equivalent) so you can update it?

[whiteb]

alexh wrote:

I put the boot loader on to the pic, (which is the ONLY time you need the Programmer) then I put the pic into the minimig and downloaded the firmware via serial.

Ah, so Minimig's firmware also contains TinyBootloader (or an equivalent) so you can update it?[/quote]

You can do it that way, but Dennis never supplied an all in one Bootloader/Firmware image for the pic for minimig.

What you do, is download the Bootloader, which is part of the Tinybootloader package from that website, and burn it to the pic using a programmer.  Once the Bootloader is on the chip, then you can reprogram to your hearts content using serial.  Thats why I got someone else to do the initial flash for me, he had a programmer, I didnt.  He sent them back, and I put the pics into minimig, Booted up in Pic - Serial mode and uploaded the Firmware.

One second window is *NOT* a lot of time, Its best that you connect minimig up, load software on PC, set the software to scan for the pic, *THEN* power the board, that way you will catch the "Listen" window.  The software has a higher time out than the pic.

The other way, is to have the minimig powered up, already connected, load the software, hit "Upload", and then immediately hit the "Reset" button on minimig to catch the window.

[ChuckT]

I'm holding off because I want to hear some basic reviews.  I want to see more specs on the unit.  I'm assuming it can't handle an external Amiga compatible disk drive.  Why can't it have a multi-card reader or USB instead of us being stuck with only one format: Compact Flash?  Why only one memory card port and why be stuck with one or two gigs when you can now buy cards up to 16 gigs?  I wish you could put an ATA hard drive on the thing and I wouldn't complain.  What kind of external keyboard does it accept?

I read on Wikipedia there is a problem with Sprites but I haven't heard more about this.

I want it to have an HDMI port or cable for modern televisions because I don't want to buy a modern $600 LCD or an old Amiga monitor that is stuck in the past.  I want it to work with a modern tv.

A reference manual and expansion port would be great.  And a case would be great.

I have an A-Maxx (Mac Emulator) and wonder if it would run on the MiniMig.

[alexh]

ChuckT wrote:
I'm assuming it can't handle an external Amiga compatible disk drive.

No.

ChuckT wrote:
Why can't it have a multi-card reader

Expense, practicality. They chose the cheapest easiest format.

ChuckT wrote:
Why only one memory card port

Not enough pins on the FPGA for more than one AND you don't need more than one!

ChuckT wrote:
why be stuck with one or two gigs when you can now buy cards up to 16 gigs?

I've seen MMC cards upto 8GB and they make SD cards upto 32Gbytes but I'm not too sure they work with MiniMig.

ChuckT wrote:
What kind of external keyboard does it accept?

Any keyboard with PS/2 or USB that supports PS/2 legacy mode via adapter.

ChuckT wrote:
I read on Wikipedia there is a problem with Sprites but I haven't heard more about this.

It's true, the current core has several bugs not in Amiga chipse.

ChuckT wrote:
I want it to have an HDMI port or cable for modern televisions

Why HDMI? Modern budget TV's dont have HDMI. They do however have component or VGA.

MiniMig as it shipped has two output modes, 31KHz VGA and 15KHz RGB (SCART). Add to that I am 80% sure I could change MiniMig's core to support component too.

That covers vast majority (all?) modern TV's!

[Hattig]

Good luck porting the CPC core to it! Hope you get the CPC Plus functionality working

Oh, yeah, guess it would be nice to get Speccie and C64 and whatnot working too ...

I guess you could have a modified pic firmware that looked in the root folder on the SD card and listed all files that ended with ".cor" like "CPC6128p.cor" or something to select which computer you want to boot. Then each computer could have a folder on the SD card that all its files were in, maybe. That would require adding folder support to the firmware too ...

[downix]

alexh wrote:
That is the netlists (post synthesis) for 1 chip from the unreleased Jaguar 2. Totally useless.

Not entirely when you look through it.  There's a "netlist to verilog" program source code in there that's pretty complete.  The netlist for the Tom and Jerry is also out there, altho the original site that hosted them went down awhile ago.

In addition, there is an "oberon.v" file in there that actually is complete, if you can adapt it to use a more industry standard component list rather than the OrCAD specific one it uses as/is.

Yes, spent some time cleaning that code up.  I almost have the GPU core ready to put into an FPGA.

[alexh]

downix wrote:
There's a "netlist to verilog" program source code in there that's pretty complete.

Netlists are verilog. Without the technology files they are useless. Have you even been able to work out what all the cell's originally did?

Plus they are for a console that was never released and no software existed. That's pretty much the definition of useless to me.

downix wrote:
The netlist for the Tom and Jerry is also out there, altho the original site that hosted them went down a while ago.

While "less useless" it still borders on unusable.

downix wrote:
In addition, there is an "oberon.v" file in there that actually is complete

And even if you had the technology cell files, I am sure you've worked out what all the I/O are? And what the timing relationship was between signals?

downix wrote:
Yes, spent some time cleaning that code up.  I almost have the GPU core ready to put into an FPGA.

£50 says you never get it to do anything (worth while).

[ChuckT]

If my Amiga was working, I would consider getting a Minimig as a backup but without me being able to get files over to the Minimig, getting one doesn't help me port the files over.

[downix]

alexh wrote:

downix wrote:
There's a "netlist to verilog" program source code in there that's pretty complete.

Netlists are verilog. Without the technology files they are useless. Have you even been able to work out what all the cell's originally did?

Yes, actually.  Within the old Tom and Jerry netlists they included the original technology files

Plus they are for a console that was never released and no software existed. That's pretty much the definition of useless to me.

But which does run the legacy Jaguar software (seen it done on one of the prototypes)

downix wrote:
The netlist for the Tom and Jerry is also out there, altho the original site that hosted them went down a while ago.

While "less useless" it still borders on unusable.

downix wrote:
In addition, there is an "oberon.v" file in there that actually is complete

And even if you had the technology cell files, I am sure you've worked out what all the I/O are? And what the timing relationship was between signals?

On the embedded processor I have, it's been most of my focus to-date

downix wrote:
Yes, spent some time cleaning that code up.  I almost have the GPU core ready to put into an FPGA.

£50 says you never get it to do anything (worth while).

It's running in simulation (using WebISE) so we shall see how it does in the real world soon enough.

The actual processor core was very narrow-focused, couldn't even directly address more than 64kb of RAM, using DMA and the MMU to expand that in much the same way that the VAX and Alpha did.