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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: freqmax on April 01, 2009, 02:36:34 AM
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I have been away for a long while on Minimig issues, so I just wondering on project status. :-D
1) When does the remaining AGA, and other patents expire?
2) Anything interesting in regards to Bill & amiga. Or just noise as usual?
3) Is virtual floppy writing supported properly by now?
4) Is NTSC output working properly?
5) Any interesting new Minimig style project besides Clone-A, fpgaarcade, NatAmi, Illuwatar 2.0?
6) Harddisc works? (likely as virtual disc-on-flash-file ;) )
7) Ethernet network support? (sana compat?)
8) Status on softcore 68000, any developments on softcore 68020 ..?
9) Dram (SDRam) support, this would enable ~20 times more memory for the same money?
10) Has any new worthwhile non-bga FPGA chips showed up to explore? :-D
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freqmax wrote:
I have been away for a long while on Minimig issues, so I just wondering on project status. :-D
1) When does the remaining AGA, and other patents expire?
No idea.
2) Anything interesting in regards to Bill & amiga. Or just noise as usual?
Not even any noise.
3) Is virtual floppy writing supported properly by now?
Yes, since August last year.
4) Is NTSC output working properly?
When wasn't it?
5) Any interesting new Minimig style project besides Clone-A, fpgaarcade, NatAmi, Illuwatar 2.0?
The C-One has a Minimig core too that has more RAM available plus the ability to use a real floppy drive attached to the IDE port.
6) Harddisc works? (likely as virtual disc-on-flash-file ;) )
Yes, but only with the ARM expansion board that replaces the PIC. I have one and it works great.
7) Ethernet network support? (sana compat?)
Nope, but serial networking should work.
8) Status on softcore 68000, any developments on softcore 68020 ..?
No idea.
9) Dram (SDRam) support, this would enable ~20 times more memory for the same money?
No idea.
10) Has any new worthwhile non-bga FPGA chips showed up to explore? :-D
No idea.
In addition, the next core from Jakub is supposed to cover non-expanded and ARM board expaned Minimigs. For the unexpanded Minimig you should have 2 floppy drives while the expaned one will have up to 4 floppies plus the hard file. In addition you can also set the 68000 to run at speeds from 7MHz to 28MHz.
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I can only really comment on the FPGAArcade board (Replay).
The board is being built now, should be finished by the end of the week.
It uses the same ARM processor as Yaqube so it will get harddisk support. Ethernet is being considered for the expansion board. It has 32MByte of DRAM and uses a 68K softcore - with an option of a real 68K on the daughter board for verification of the core. I will maintain the Minimig core for this board.
/Mike
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mikej wrote:
I can only really comment on the FPGAArcade board (Replay).
The board is being built now, should be finished by the end of the week.
It uses the same ARM processor as Yaqube so it will get harddisk support. Ethernet is being considered for the expansion board. It has 32MByte of DRAM and uses a 68K softcore - with an option of a real 68K on the daughter board for verification of the core. I will maintain the Minimig core for this board.
/Mike
Looks excellent - definetly the obvious step up from minimig - ethernet option would be superb :-)
Oh, and one thing I miss on the minimig, and would also be obvious use for Atari ST "simulation" - MIDI ports :-D
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Darrin wrote:
The C-One has a Minimig core too that has more RAM available plus the ability to use a real floppy drive attached to the IDE port.
Almost - floppies are still images on the CF card, but you can use a real Harddrive on the IDE port. Real floppy drive is yet to come.
Minimig on C-one is like an A500 on steroids: 11,5M ram and harddisk is what I dreamed of back in '88 when I started saving for my first two megs of ram (could only afford it in april '89...)
Jens
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Schoenfeld wrote:
Almost - floppies are still images on the CF card, but you can use a real Harddrive on the IDE port. Real floppy drive is yet to come.
Minimig on C-one is like an A500 on steroids: 11,5M ram and harddisk is what I dreamed of back in '88 when I started saving for my first two megs of ram (could only afford it in april '89...)
Jens
Doh! Sorry Jens, my typo! I meant HARD DRIVE. :crazy:
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mikej wrote:
I can only really comment on the FPGAArcade board (Replay).
The board is being built now, should be finished by the end of the week.
It uses the same ARM processor as Yaqube so it will get harddisk support. Ethernet is being considered for the expansion board. It has 32MByte of DRAM and uses a 68K softcore - with an option of a real 68K on the daughter board for verification of the core. I will maintain the Minimig core for this board.
/Mike
Sounds great! :-)
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I was just looking at MIDI ports for the ST clone (and the ST core is a real clone). I think I could put them at the rear of the expansion (top) board as a not fit option, and they could be populated as an option. Trying to keep the cost down...
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mikej, I think you should keep the board to an absolute minimum. There's a lot of "good-to-have" and we all know the space and resources eaten by such strategy ;)
Better have plenty of free I/O in a manner that allows multiple expansions. And then use this for whatever need that shows up. This is THE benefit of FPGA. Unlike static designation of each pin as before, you can now use it for just about anything.
Your (fpgaarcade) board should definitely be able to reimplement an Atari-ST. I think it could wake some memories for some music artists.. ;)
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FPGAArcade (http://www.fpgaarcade.com/atari_amiga.htm) looks like everyone is trying to reimplement the classic chipset ;)
How long before we have a drop-in 1200 replacement MB?
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When the current softcore 68000 cpu is modded into 68020, and some working softcore AGA is created.
It might be possible to create some AGA core that looks alright from a software point. That don't actually perform all operations. To get a starting point without software freezes.
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well, you have to start somewhere.
The aim when I started this was to fix some long standing problems I had with the Atari chipset - we can now sort out the "if only it had this"...
There is no reason why we can't enhance the Amiga chipset as well, but first we need to get solid compatible chipset - hopefully including AGA - but it might not be the way to go. We can probably do better now, but then we need to write drivers for the new hardware. How much software is there for the AGA chipset?
/Mike
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mikej wrote:
We can probably do better now, but then we need to write drivers for the new hardware. How much software is there for the AGA chipset?
/Mike
If you just developed a faster AGA you could at least run the current monitor drivers at full color depth (eg try running HighGFX 1024x768 @ 256 colors and watch your miggy die). Of course it would be even better to have new higher res/higher bit-depth/higher scan-rate drivers for WB usage. As for AGA software, yes there is quite a bit out there.
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The reason to re-implement stuff like 68020 and AGA might not be new functionality per se. But to make sure there's a duplicate before all original parts that can be reverse engineered are broken or overpriced.
There time is not free in this matter. It might not simple be feasable to reverse engineer the chips later.
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A1200 drop in replacement.. ohh yes....
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mikej wrote:
I was just looking at MIDI ports for the ST clone (and the ST core is a real clone). I think I could put them at the rear of the expansion (top) board as a not fit option, and they could be populated as an option. Trying to keep the cost down...
No problem, as long as there is a way to actually get MIDI ports without too much fiddling, I'm fine.
I tried to hook up a RS232-MIDI box to the minimig, but it turned out that it uses pin 9 and 10 on the 25pin RS232, these two are +12V and -12V, and they have ofcourse no corresponding pins on the 9pin RS232. What it uses the +12V/-12V for, I have no idea. :-)
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RS-232 compliant signaling?, use 2x a charge pump chip like max232 to fix it?