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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: TribbleSmasher on October 04, 2019, 02:59:34 PM

Title: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: TribbleSmasher on October 04, 2019, 02:59:34 PM
... as seen on a1k.org
https://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?threads/72081/
Quote
key features:
Artix7 - FPGA (215k Logic Cells)
64MB SD-RAM (32Bit Bus)
16MB FlashROM
Micro-SD-Card Slot
SPI-BUS

Form factor: just about 5mm taller than an original 68k in its socket. :o

The core used is  tg68 Core from the MIST-project @50MHz:  w.i.p..
It is MMU and FPU promised to be implemented; or a licensed Apollocore if feasable. :)

It is supposed to get KickFlash functionality and SD-Card-boot. Current focus is on stability of the core.

This little thing could be a nice drop-in replacement for the CDTV-CPU, for instance.

Also interesting for, ehm, Sega Genesis, Apple Mac Classic....
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: utri007 on October 04, 2019, 07:49:20 PM
This is something! Really interesting product.
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: TribbleSmasher on October 04, 2019, 08:03:23 PM
Yes! And it should be cheaper than the full-fledged Vampire; just an accelerated "CPU" and some Megs of FastRAM (and a SD).
If it reaches 030/33MHz+ terrain it could be a real alternative for the CDTV, as mentioned already. With a different layout even an A600 version is possible.

Edit
The used FPGA seems to cost 100€ á piece.
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: pyrre on October 04, 2019, 08:55:40 PM
Nice project, this one peeps my interest.
im gonna follow up this one
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: Gulliver on October 04, 2019, 11:08:38 PM
or a licensed Apollocore if feasable. :)

Matze clearly stated he is not going to license anything from the Apollo guys, that he is going to use the open source TG68k core and improve over it to add MMU support between other things.

Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: TribbleSmasher on October 04, 2019, 11:39:37 PM
I think so too, but Matze can split himself only aprox. 8 times, before he has to admit he is no longer capable to sustain all his projects. And this project is OS, so any customer can load whatever he wants into the device.
How any license is invoked is none of his business.
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: kolla on October 04, 2019, 11:54:15 PM
Anyone can load Apollo Core into the MiSTer too, right? :)

Great project with quite a large potential market, 68000 chips were widely used.
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: TribbleSmasher on October 04, 2019, 11:57:19 PM
Apollo core is useless for AtariST users, and for hardcore Amigans too, but for those other systems there are signals required that are not yet confirmed to be available yet and by wiring up those connections the range for potential host systems gets bigger, no matter what Apollo core consists of.
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: trekiej on October 05, 2019, 02:54:24 AM
My A1000 and A2000 would get a big boost with this.
 8)
Title: Re: Worlds smallest 68k FPGA turbo board
Post by: TribbleSmasher on October 05, 2019, 03:00:11 PM
If they cover the mini board with some ceramic-gold lookalike, that would be really cool in an A1000. :D