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Offline matthey

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Re: A little teaser
« on: July 18, 2014, 06:29:18 AM »
The card above mates with a standard fpga card and plugs into a 68000 socket to give an A500/A1000/A2000/CDTV the following:

* Cyclone V fpga allowing for a very fast 68K CPU
* 128 MB DDR3 Fast-memory
* SD-card usable/bootable as IDE-device
* Network interface
* RTG Graphics Card (chunky/Hicolor/truecolor) with DVI/HDMI out

That's the current plan anyway.
 

Offline matthey

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Re: A little teaser
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2014, 05:12:31 AM »
Quote from: amiman99;769400
You guys are geniuses , using off the shelf components!
No need to waste time designing CPU module just the adapter and of course the 68k fpga core, WOW!
Looking at the picture, is it this module that will be used?
http://parts.arrow.com/item/detail/arrow-development-tools/bemicrocv#zpGE

The version you link to has 1GB of memory instead of 128MB. The brand, board layout and connectors look to be the same. The price is right too. Anybody want a 1GB memory Amiga for Christmas?
 

Offline matthey

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Re: A little teaser
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2014, 05:59:37 AM »
Quote from: Lurch;769402
If there is ever one for the 1200 then sold. Although why only have MB's for RAM? $20NZD for 2GB DDR3.

Why not put a SODIMM/DIMM socket on the board and provide it without RAM. I have a couple of spare SIMM's here :-)

Soldered memory is more reliable and it keeps the complexity on the mass produced fpga board. There are multiple fpga boards with this style connector to choose from so it's cheaper just to buy a higher spec fpga board. More memory and features does draw more power so it's important to consider if the 1st boards will work in a 500 without upgrading the power supply. Different fpgas may require twice as much time synthesizing cores for 2 fpga boards.

Quote from: Lurch;769402
Would prefer IDE/SATA connectors over an SD Card.

IDE takes high voltage by modern standards. SATA requires more expensive high speed transceivers although the cost of supporting it is falling. For now, the Amiga doesn't need much storage and an SD card is probably better than what most Amiga users use today for storage.

Quote from: Lurch;769402
On the website it states initial tests faster than an 060, what speed 060 and do you have those benchmarks to share? :-)

There are no benchmarks to share as the Phoenix fpga CPU core has not booted an Amiga as far as I know. The Phoenix processor in something like a Cyclone V would probably be 100-150MHz. There is tons more memory bandwidth and plenty of logic for huge caches (32-64kB). The 68060 is superscalar which helps it but Phoenix will likely out muscle it. There is a mostly complete superscalar version of the Phoenix processor also. Each of the integer pipelines is more powerful than the pipes in the 68060 and it has the instruction fetch (from the memory bandwidth) to feed the hungry monster. It's entirely possible, if not likely, that this fpga CPU would eventually outperform the 68060 clock for clock. The Phoenix CPU has to boot AmigaOS first though.

Quote from: Lurch;769402
More than 2MB chip RAM would be good too.

Adding chip memory inside the fpga is minor compared to implementing and debugging SAGA inside the fpga. The extra chip memory and AGA/SAGA gfx would only be available when using the DVI/HDMI output.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2014, 06:01:43 AM by matthey »
 

Offline matthey

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Re: A little teaser
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2014, 09:40:01 AM »
Quote from: biggun;769414
1 byte = 8 bit

You are right. The web page says 1GB (with a capital B) in 2 places at the top but down below is says 1Gbit of memory. Talk about deceptive marketing. It did seem too good to be true ;).
« Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 07:20:50 AM by matthey »