C64 FPGA Idea

[humppa]

I dont know where the MMC-216 got the C64 FPGA core from (...).

Also the core is a lot more advanced then the MMC-216 which I believed was based off the FPGA64 sources that started on the C-one.

frenchshark wrote on lemon64:

"Let's talk about the C64 implementation we have :
- 6510 : from Peter Wendrich, we have a licence for this IP.
- 6526 : I modified a 8520 implementation I wrote long time ago to make it behave like a 6526 (changes in the TOD for those who know).
- VIC-II : I have my own implementation, the DMA scheduling is done with a ROM.
- SID with filter : I never saw that in open source
- VIC-1541 emulation : We have our own way : 6502 + NIOS II + DMA and GCR encoding in HW.
- Keyboard emulation with auto-start : handled by the NIOS II
- CBM mouse emulation : I never saw that in open source.
- On the fly PAL/NTSC frequency with PLL reconfiguration : it is only possible with the Cyclone III & IV from Altera, I doubt somebody did it in the open source world.
- Multi-standard S-Video encoder : we read the book "Video Demystified" and did the implementation.
- Starfield effect (yes, it is HW based)
- SPI controllers for SD-Card and SPI-Flash with automatic CRC calculation.
- Multi-port SDRAM controller.

I can also talk about the boot loader which has a NIOS II with a custom 2D GPU. We only use the text mode right now but we can have 4-layer graphics with 16-bit color.
But, this is coming from open source, right ?

Regards,

Frederic"

Source: http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=435620&highlight=#435620

[humppa]

Sure is nice to have options.   Have they VGA mcc216 now right?

Yes, they have released a VGA version end of last year. Resolutions are 480p (60hz) in NTSC and 576p (50hz) in PAL. The 50hz in PAL has its own advantages and disadvantages. No buffering/conversion to 60hz is required and there is no judder/stuttering. A major disadvantage is that 50hz over VGA is not a refresh rate commonly accepted by LCD/TFT-displays. Some are able to sync, some are not.
When they would have used a real video connection (e.g. HDMI or Component), this wouldn't have been such a problem since most LCD-TVs (at least the European/PAL-ones) accept e.g. 576p50, 720p50, 1080p50, etc.
The only solution are VGA to HDMI or Component transcoders or to add a PAL-upsampling to 60hz (if this is possible with the current hardware).

Just a few weeks ago, they have also released a first beta-version of their Amiga-core. As expected, there is still a lot of room for improvement, but it's nice to have something to play with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVJoM0CM_N4

[humppa]

Is there anything new to post on the MCC-216 or sccan?

They have just published a beta Apple II core for the MCC-216:

http://www.mcc-home.com/3.html

There is now also an unofficial forum for the MCC-216:

http://www.retrorebooted.com/mcc/forum/