Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: yaqube on July 10, 2011, 12:35:38 PM
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You can see here a working version of Picasso 96 RTG driver for the Minimig's built-in graphics card.
The Replay FPGA board with 060 daughter board was used as the hardware platform.
It's not complete yet and there is still a lot to do but at least you can see the picture :D.
(http://www.minimig.net/yaqube/images/minimigrtg.jpg)
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WOW! You guys are so moddest. You SAY that there is so much to do but you keep putting things out one after another!
Keep up the great work guys! You really rock!
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Nice Screeny Yacube ;-)
Looks like you on fire again.
How manny % of the core is being used now with this nice expantion?
We realy need your daughterboard to run OS3.9 (softcore impossible to install 3.9)
I hope there will be a replay update from you guy's soon to test for us.
Keep the good work goinig this makes the replay even more complete.
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>for the Minimig's built-in graphics card
More informations available ??
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Excellent.
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Impressive!
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Awesome! Totally awesome!
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Sweet!!
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What a nice screenshot!!! Awesome stuff there /gz!
Thanks for sharing Yaqube
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Too cool for mere mortals. ;-)
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Sweet! Great work! :)
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So cool, maybe a micro revival of software developers will follow...
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@ JYaqube:
Any estimates on what sort of maximum screen size you expect to get from this? Could Ratte's experience with his Indivision "widescreen" screenmodes help you?
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Oh, and one more thought, can the code for the RTG be applied to unexpanded FPGA Arcade cards or do you need the extender card?
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Any estimates on what sort of maximum screen size you expect to get from this?
1280x1024
Oh, and one more thought, can the code for the RTG be applied to unexpanded FPGA Arcade cards or do you need the extender card?
It's expected to run on an unexpanded FPGA Arcade board but right now the TG68K.C soft core isn't compatible enough to run Picasso 96 software.
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Great work!
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this will be good xmas present to amiga community come xmas 2011
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The idea struck me that this could maybe in the future be ported to a small FPGA dev board like maybe the XULA, and used as a graphics card on actual classic Amiga hardware...
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Looking good, keep up the good work!
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I want one ...........
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Uhhh, Nice..
And yes, you guys are really being to modest...
I want one.
Will it be possible to add some sort of 3D chip/core later on?
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Uhhh, Nice..
And yes, you guys are really being to modest...
I want one.
Will it be possible to add some sort of 3D chip/core later on?
Yeah imagine that, modest; in a world of boasting about putting an ITX Ubuntu computer inside a copy of a C64 shell. These people actually made a new computer! Yet it is unheard of, has received 0 media attention and I will keep it to myself because I'm selfish, and on the real inside for once!
Same goes for Natami. Hollow vs Real, what are you spending your money on...
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1280x1024
It's expected to run on an unexpanded FPGA Arcade board but right now the TG68K.C soft core isn't compatible enough to run Picasso 96 software.
Thanks for the info. I've cross posted this on Amigaworld.net just to spread the word.
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@ TheGoose >> I don't know about you, but I wont spend my money on x86 HW with UAE. So you know I would spend my money, if only I had any.
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@yaqube
*WIN*
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I'm up for one with an 060 when I can get one.
Seems like we spend all our time waiting on the next big thing around here.
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Seems like we spend all our time waiting on the next big thing around here.
We are? I've only been waiting for exactly this for years, ever since Minimig first appeared. I feel pretty good about the idea that I can retire my the old classic systems I have in favour of tinier and more flexible FPGA clones.
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Fantastic work. To mirror other peoples sentiments, "I Want One" :)
For me some sort of p96 hardware/driver makes so much more sense than "super aga". The former having a plethora of available software already that will take advantage of the hardware and established apis, the latter relying on new software be created (by who though?), not to mention work will need to be done in the way of development tools (and docs,examples) to let people even try to offer much advantage of new gfx modes (yes there'll be a small improvement over aga using original ecs/aga modes seeing as a few botlenecks are renoved/reduced, but the same is true of minimig). Maybe (hopefully) there'll be an RTG driver for Natami too one day though.
As for the T68k.c core not being compatible enough, is tht due to lack of an fpu?
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For the first time I believe the minimig might offer something that I might just have to have! :)
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Jakub, tell me where u are in Poland, you definitely deserved a good pint :)
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Source code? ;)
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I want, I want!
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That is awesome Yaqube!
The stuff you guys are doing gets cooler everytime you show it :D
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For me some sort of p96 hardware/driver makes so much more sense than "super aga". The former having a plethora of available software already that will take advantage of the hardware and established apis, the former relying on new software be created
Not really, programs that work with AGA will also work with many of the new Super AGA modes. There are plenty of advantages with Super AGA that old software will benefit from, just like there are advantes with MiniMig AGA implementation over AGA on classic hardware. Simple stuff like speed and ammount of chipram for example.
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Source code? ;)
Seconded...I'm especially interested in the Picasso driver and 020 core progress. A couple of my projects overlap with both of these.
Man, I can't wait to get my hands on one of these boards.
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I hope we get all the typical screen resolutions (4:3)
640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, so on.
And I hope we will see some wide-screen modes (16:9), because most monitors now are in these dimension.
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Not really, programs that work with AGA will also work with many of the new Super AGA modes.
Most if not all will work with P96 as well. Anything that doesn't, won't use any new super aga features anyway. So can be used on the AGA implementation
Emulating P96 allows you to use software that already exists, while natami will need new drivers. However I doubt you can use copper to get draggable screens and mid screen resolution changes etc. Plus natami is also talking about h/w 3d rendering, which P96 doesn't have.
What Natami is doing is redefining what the Amiga can do, which will need alot of software work. I'd love to see if, then hopefully someone can figure out how to make it cheap enough.
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I don't quite understand this. To "emulate" P96 without making a new driver, Yaqube needs to clone a chip that has an existing P96 driver. Like, clone a Cirrus Logic GD5446 chip inside the FPGA. pr clone a S3 Virge chip inside the FPGA, or ... and use the existing P96 driver for that.
Natami could make a new P96 driver for SuperAGA. I think that's enormously easier than making a clone of someone else's graphcis chip to save on driver writing.
I don't know if Yaqube is doing anything more advanced than cloning AGA. Someone said CyberGraphics API had a driver for AGA, but it was very slow. If he's doing a direct but fast AGA clone, a P96 driver is still what would make sense. If he's enhancing it to make an Uber-AGA, then a P96 driver is still the right thing to do to benefit from such enhancements. (Or a CGX driver if you prefer that to P96)
Any which way around here, Natami is the same situation as Minimig-AGA or minimig-Uber-AGA
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The way I look at it, a new FPGA 'Amiga' should have (in order of personal preference):
1) OCS/ECS/AGA (100%) compatibly
2) A faster AGA mode but still compatible with most games (ie faster chipset speed)
3) RTG support (P96)
4) Graffiti or similar AGA mode for fast chunky graphics.
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Not really, programs that work with AGA will also work with many of the new Super AGA modes. There are plenty of advantages with Super AGA that old software will benefit from, just like there are advantes with MiniMig AGA implementation over AGA on classic hardware. Simple stuff like speed and ammount of chipram for example.
Which I actually mentioned in the post youre responding to. Really though theres no comparison between aga (even with some bus bottlenecks removed and faster chipram/access) and an rtg system (especially when the data busses there dont have the same bottlenecks they do with actual classics)). Its an entirely different kettle of fish.
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Which I actually mentioned in the post youre responding to. Really though theres no comparison between aga (even with some bus bottlenecks removed and faster chipram/access) and an rtg system (especially when the data busses there dont have the same bottlenecks they do with actual classics)). Its an entirely different kettle of fish.
I still cant get my head round how AGA is quicker than my Picasso II for OctaMED Soundstudio.
What a waste of money that was.
Pfft.
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It seems that between this and the NatAmi, that we classic lovers are spoilt for choic on "next gen" classic amiga hardware.
I just cant wait for either (although would prefer the NatAmi).
AmiBoy
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I still cant get my head round how AGA is quicker than my Picasso II for OctaMED Soundstudio.
What a waste of money that was.
Pfft.
Three of the main reasons AGA is not quicker is that bus speed, the chipset speed and the RAM speed (80ns), all of these issues dissaper with a modern FPGA board.
It should be quite possible to display a fast WB in 256 colors at 1280×720 (using HighGFX HD720) at an LCD friendly 60Hz.
Later AGA games that push the real AGA chipset should also be much quicker on a decent FPGA board.
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Natami could make a new P96 driver for SuperAGA. I think that's enormously easier than making a clone of someone else's graphcis chip to save on driver writing.
Not really. Cloning one of the cards that there is already a P96 driver for is pretty trivial. The simplest cards are just framebuffers with very few registers. The emulation doesn't need to be very accurate, just good enough for P96 to work.
Extending AGA to the point where P96 makes sense (16/24/32 bit modes) etc is going to be more complicated to shoehorn it into the design plus you can't even see it until you have written the software.
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I want a replay board!!!!!. can't wait!!!
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Cloning one of the cards that there is already a P96 driver for is pretty trivial. The simplest cards are just framebuffers with very few registers. The emulation doesn't need to be very accurate, just good enough for P96 to work.
It's much easier to write a simple P96 driver than clone an existing SVGA chipset (the FPGAs are limited in many ways). This way you can optimize software for the hardware.
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Not really. Cloning one of the cards that there is already a P96 driver for is pretty trivial. The simplest cards are just framebuffers with very few registers. The emulation doesn't need to be very accurate, just good enough for P96 to work.
If all you have is a dumb framebuffer, there's not much point in a P96 driver. P96 drivers accelerate things by using graphics chip hardware to draw lines and other shapes, picture-in-picture stuff, etc. A dumb framebuffer doesn't have such things. I don't get this.
Cloning a chip with features that are worth cloning, such as a Voodoo3 or eventhe old PicassoIV or whatever chips, that's going to be an enormous amount of work. You can find out the register API, what register addresses do what, what bits do what, but then you have to design the chip to do exactly that. Chip design is a lot of work. Yaqube is already doing exactly that sort of work in cloning AGA (and thus knows what you're asking of him) and perhaps improving on it. Let's not ask him to do this large effort twice.
Extending AGA to the point where P96 makes sense (16/24/32 bit modes) etc is going to be more complicated to shoehorn it into the design plus you can't even see it until you have written the software.
It's nearly exactly the same problem as cloning a Cirrus Logic 5446. How do you shoehorn that into the Minimig design any easier than an enhanced AGA? Do you convert the 5446 clone into the 680x0 bus that connects everything in Minimig now? (and thus have to redesign how some things in the 5446 work because it was designed for PCI) Do you make it PCI as the original was and then add a bridge between them?
A p96 driver isn't that big of a deal to make. I've been involved with that before. By day I am a chip designer. I don't do graphics chips, I work on microcontrollers, but I have some sort of idea of what you would have to go through to clone something. Trust me, making a new P96 driver is SIGNIFICANTLY LESS EFFORT than cloning a second graphics chip for the reason of avoiding a P96 driver for AGA, testing, debugging, etc. He's got to do all of that for AGA already, but for the purpose of an Amiga clone, that part makes sense. If you want a 5446 or some other non-AGA chip, wedge in a PCI slot or something to the design and plug it in there.
And AGA is already more advanced than your simple framebuffer proposal. It can draw shapes and move memory around. The main reason not to have made an AGA P96 driver ages ago was that the bus bottlenecks got in the way too much, performance was a problem there. Yaqube has an opportunity here to improve on those bottlenecks and get AGA performing better, so that P96 driver is worth making for it.
Let's encourage Yaqube to make AGA perform as well as or maybe even better than the PCI chips of old.
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Do you convert the 5446 clone into the 680x0 bus that connects everything in Minimig now? (and thus have to redesign how some things in the 5446 work because it was designed for PCI) Do you make it PCI as the original was and then add a bridge between them?
You'd only need to make it work the same as the original graphics card, so it would be a zorro device.
I guess if you could use the AAA register layout then it would be cool, I like old hardware and adding new registers just seems wrong.
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I think a P96 driver for Minimig-AGA makes sense for us users, and here's why. Minimig-AGA gives us AGA, so we can run AGA software. A P96 driver for AGA lets us also run P96 (and most CGX too I guess) software that doesn't have an AGA/ECS equivalent. And it does that with far less effort than adding in a second graphics core that is compatible with an existing P96 driver.
I was originally excited in this thread to find out how Yaqube accomplished P96 compatibility. Since then, it's become apparent that his path really is the most efficient one to get us there. Efficient in usage of his time, and efficient in usage of FPGA resources.
You'd only need to make it work the same as the original graphics card, so it would be a zorro device.
No, it was a PCI graphics chip with a PCI->Zorro bridge in between. A PCI chip has a PCI register map. I guess in theory you could leave out PCI and also leave out Zorro and attach such a reinvented graphics core direct to the native 680x0 Minimig bus, but it's still a lot of work, even if you didn't have to reverse it to start. Since we're inside an FPGA now, there's no PCI or Zorro forced upon us, but it's still a ton of work any which way.
Now, I am not against Zorro or PCI. I have a slower than glaciers progress project to do a Zorro bridge myself. But my only goal is Zorro<->Wishbone. I suppose a Minimig<->Wishbone bridge would be required for Minimig, but AoOCS already has Wishbone, so I can start playing there and then see if someone ended up making Wishbone for Minimig by then. I've taken to thinking that desigining a couple bus bridges would be a good way for me to learn Verilog. (Or VHDL if we're taken there, as I think MikeJ has suggested may happen, or will we end up with both Verilog and VHDL ports tracking each other?)
I guess if you could use the AAA register layout then it would be cool, I like old hardware and adding new registers just seems wrong.
Who needs to add new registers? We can do things to improve AGA compared to Commodore's motherboard/chip design without changing registers. Make the bus faster clock. Maybe make the bus wider. Faster memory access. Things that can make Minimig's AGA implementation perform well enough for P96 driver to now be practical for the first time. We're not talking incompatible, we're talking fast enough to be worth doing a P96 driver. And Making an AGA clone that performs well is something that makes sense as a big goal for Minimig-AGA.
Now, if we can go beyond AGA (Natami anyone?) without breaking software, then why not? Add some true 24bit modes, and new registers or new bits previously undefined in old registers to support that. Add alpha blending. Add chunky modes. Add YUV and other color modes if you like. It doesn't have to break old stuff, and if you put your fingers over the new changes to the updated register map, you won't know the difference. If you want to get real crazy, add some hardware OpenGL.
And if someone wants to have fun putting an alien graphics chip in there too, that is OK to play around with. But for motivation of wanting to do that. Motivation to avoid writing a P96 driver is an odd one that I don't think makes sense. but do it for fun, for education, to show off, whatever. You're probably going to have to write a P96 driver anyway. (I think it would be fun to play with opengraphics and other free graphics cores, but I'd start on AmigaOnes and true Classics that have real PCI and real Zorro slots, rather than try to add PCI and Zorro into Minimig first. PCI, Zorro, and those other additional gfx cores will all take up space, and I don't have a huge FPGA chip)
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1280x1024
@YAQUBE:
Can you also put 16:9 modes into the list of possible resolutions. I think Mike once mentioned that 1680x1050 should be possible. It would be cool to have WB run on a native (and today very cheap) 1680x1050 monitor as 4:3 1280x1024 monitors today are a bit harder to get hold of.
Espen
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Would it be possible to use miminmig's P96 driver with normal a1200?
It would be slow, but I could have use of it
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@YAQUBE:
Can you also put 16:9 modes into the list of possible resolutions. I think Mike once mentioned that 1680x1050 should be possible. It would be cool to have WB run on a native (and today very cheap) 1680x1050 monitor as 4:3 1280x1024 monitors today are a bit harder to get hold of.
The resolutions of the Minimig RTG card are programmable. You can define your own 16:9 modes with standard Picasso96Mode setting program. Initially (due to pixel clocks limitations) you will be able to define 1680x1050 resolution with refresh rate of 50 Hz. The support for 60 Hz refresh rate will come later.
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Would it be possible to use miminmig's P96 driver with normal a1200?
Yes, but only if you can find an Amiga 1200 with an RTG card compatible with the Minimig's one.
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I belive that mimnimig RTG is AGA, just faster
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I belive that mimnimig RTG is AGA, just faster
The Minimig RTG card (embedded in the same FPGA as the main core) is independent from its AGA display engine. Although the Chip RAM is used as the display memory (there is 50 MB of it) it's much faster than the one found in real AGA machines.
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Why not make RTG driver for AGA?? It works with PPC amigas, sure it would work with minimig aga
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I'd really like to get one of these boards and jam it in an amiga 500 case and use an amiga 500 keyboard too.
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The Minimig RTG card (embedded in the same FPGA as the main core) is independent from its AGA display engine. Although the Chip RAM is used as the display memory (there is 50 MB of it) it's much faster than the one found in real AGA machines.
I've misunderstood things then. I appologize to the guy I've been debating with about the sense of a second gfx engine beside AGA in there vs AGA-native P96 driver.
When can we learn more about this thing? Is it something you made yourself, or an open core you found somewhere?
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When can we learn more about this thing?
Right now it's not a high priority. I tried to make use of the extra DDR memory bandwidth and I was surprised how easy it was to implement a simple frame buffer and write a driver for it.
Is it something you made yourself, or an open core you found somewhere?
As I said before it's a simple frame buffer but in the future it will be expanded by a dedicated blitter engine. Everything has been made by me.
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As I said before it's a simple frame buffer but in the future it will be expanded by a dedicated blitter engine. Everything has been made by me.
It may be a simple framebuffer, but I suspect that with the increased bandwidth it's far from slow compared to older hardware.
Awesome work BTW, I can't wait to get one. Money is in hand, I just can't seem to get anyone to take it ;)
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It's much easier to write a simple P96 driver than clone an existing SVGA chipset
Did you get the official SDK for developing drivers or did you reverse engineer one?
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Right now it's not a high priority. I tried to make use of the extra DDR memory bandwidth and I was surprised how easy it was to implement a simple frame buffer and write a driver for it.
As I said before it's a simple frame buffer but in the future it will be expanded by a dedicated blitter engine. Everything has been made by me.
I'm curious also why not a P96 driver for AGA direct. Is it still not able to perform well enough, even with all the good things that Minimig in a good FPGA offer with this DDR bandwidth etc?
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I want one....--->now<---
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I want a replay board!!!!!. can't wait!!!
Aren't there some available right now? I thought that MikeJ still had some from the second production batch that he has not sold yet. Maybe I am wrong, I have been away working in Hawaii, 21 miles North of Hilo, for the past 4-1/2 weeks, without any Internet connection, so I am probably behind in the latest Amiga news regarding the Replay boards.
I also want a Replay board and the 060 daughtercard. If there are any Replay boards still available, I will probably ask MikeJ to buy one this week. I want to have it running the Minimig core + AGA for my trip to the AmiWest 2011 Show this year. It will be a great machine to run on the rear seat flip-down video screen while someone else takes a turn driving.
I know that the 060 board won't be ready for a while, but I hope most of the remaining work on the Replay core code will be finished before the AmiWest Show starts. Or is the code for the menu finished already (I have not made it to the beginning of this thread yet, working backward).
Why do so many people use "Minimig AGA" to title threads about the Replay board? Well, on to the beginning of this thread, reading the rest of it.:)
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Why do so many people use "Minimig AGA" to title threads about the Replay board? Well, on to the beginning of this thread, reading the rest of it.:)
It's the usual confusion between cores and hardware. The hardware is the "FPGA Arcade", but it is running a "Minimig AGA" core. So, depending on how you look at it, "Minimig AGA" is technically both right and wrong.
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for the past 4-1/2 weeks, without any Internet connection
Scary... The last time I was without an internet connection that long was back in 1993, before I got my first 2400 bps modem for my A500...
Not sure I could survive that these days.
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A Minimig with an 060 and RTG? This really could replace my old A1200.
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I'm curious also why not a P96 driver for AGA direct.
Because Picasso96 was created to support chunky and high/true colour graphics. The AGA chipset is not capable of displaying these formats. That's why.
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Because Picasso96 was created to support chunky and high/true colour graphics. The AGA chipset is not capable of displaying these formats. That's why.
I suppose custom chunky to planar conversions could make though a p96 possible?Nowdays with those fpga cores and and the faster speed they can achieve a chunky to planar could be no problem without any speed penalties.
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I suppose custom chunky to planar conversions could make though a p96 possible?Nowdays with those fpga cores and and the faster speed they can achieve a chunky to planar could be no problem without any speed penalties.
Nowadays FPGAs are big and fast enough to integrate chunky/true colour display (RTG card) and AGA chipset in one core.
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Nowadays FPGAs are big and fast enough to integrate chunky/true colour display (RTG card) and AGA chipset in one core.
That's very good ! Hurry up, I cannot wait anymore...
I will come in Poland with a lot of vodka's bottles soon to celebrate this funny news, héhé !
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It may be a simple framebuffer, but I suspect that with the increased bandwidth it's far from slow compared to older hardware.
Awesome work BTW, I can't wait to get one. Money is in hand, I just can't seem to get anyone to take it ;)
Yeah, that's a weird paradox in the FPGA-Replay world these days :roflmao:
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The resolutions of the Minimig RTG card are programmable. You can define your own 16:9 modes with standard Picasso96Mode setting program. Initially (due to pixel clocks limitations) you will be able to define 1680x1050 resolution with refresh rate of 50 Hz. The support for 60 Hz refresh rate will come later.
We are all very glad to hear that 16:9 modes are possible to define :)
Is it long before you have a ARM FW or a Core we can beta-test ?
How is it going with the Daughterboard. Where in the process is that project as of today. We're very eager to send you guys money :)
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Aren't there some available right now? I thought that MikeJ still had some from the second production batch that he has not sold yet.
I would be up for taking one then, assuming that when the 060 board is released, it will be compatible with the older batches (Unlike some Peecee hardware).
Then again, do we have a comparison list of the changes/Differences between the batches ? (If there are any changes that is).
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I am ready to purchase.
I travel 9-10 months out of the year and really need something small to haul around.
DLH
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RevB1 (10 built) and RevB2 (50 odd about to be built) run the same software and are functionally identical. RevB2 has some more space around the audio connector, and some difference in the power enabling to make sure the board turns off.
Future batches will also be RevB2 - unless we find something wrong with it.
The current 060 daughter-board prototype fits on the older RevA board which a couple of developers have. The production 060 card will fit on all RevB boards.
/MikeJ
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Excellent to see things moving along nicely! Can't wait to get one in my hands.
How's the AGA core coming along?
I hope someone's working on an Amstrad CPC core too :-)
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Would it be possible to make a scandoubler/flicker fixer for the A1200/4000 with A Picasso96 driver, using your new core?
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Would it be possible to make a scandoubler/flicker fixer for the A1200/4000 with A Picasso96 driver, using your new core?
No. You could put his 24bit graphics card code on a zorro3 board for the A4000. Or make an accelerator for the A1200 that incorporates it.
You may also be able to make a flicker fixer for AGA, but it wouldn't have picasso96 support for that.
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Would it be possible to make a scandoubler/flicker fixer for the A1200/4000 with A Picasso96 driver, using your new core?
I am not making any hardware for the original machines.
The Replay board will outperform an A1200 and provide hi-res DVI/HDMI output as it.
/MikeJ
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I am not making any hardware for the original machines.
The Replay board will outperform an A1200 and provide hi-res DVI/HDMI output as it.
/MikeJ
Mike
Will replay work with USB keyboard and mouse (through PS2-USB adapters)? And the DVI port through VGA adapter?
I'd like to have mine running through a KVM switch, assuming I am on the buy list as that isnt confirmed ;)
Meth
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Mike
Will replay work with USB keyboard and mouse (through PS2-USB adapters)? And the DVI port through VGA adapter?
I'd like to have mine running through a KVM switch, assuming I am on the buy list as that isnt confirmed ;)
Meth
I use both mouse and keyboard through ps2-usb adapters. Not all devices support this mode though.
You can use the analogue output through a DVI to VGA adapter.
I have you on my list, don't worry.
/MikeJ
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Mike
Will replay work with USB keyboard and mouse (through PS2-USB adapters)? And the DVI port through VGA adapter?
I'd like to have mine running through a KVM switch, assuming I am on the buy list as that isnt confirmed ;)
Meth
And you cannot use the DVI part of the DVI connector yet (just the VGA part using a DVI2VGA adapter), hence a DVI2HDMI will not work at the moment. But MikeJ confirmed that it will work in the future.
Also, the SVideo+Composite outputs 31kHz (and not 15kHz) at the momemt, so you will not bebable to connect svideo/composite to a TV yet. The MiniMig has a 15/31 jumper for this, but the Replay will have it in the OSD at a later time, I was informed.
So we're eagerly waiting for yet more cool stuff to be made and enabled.
The Replay board is the best thing I have ever bought since I got my C64 in 1984 :) ...well, getting the A500 in 86 was also a very awesome day :D
Espen
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So we're eagerly waiting for yet more cool stuff to be made and enabled.
The Replay board is the best thing I have ever bought since I got my C64 in 1984 :) ...well, getting the A500 in 86 was also a very awesome day :D
Espen
Thanks Espen!
The DVI and svhs/composite do work fine, just not with the released Amiga core at the moment. I'm still working on this.
The boot loader for example I have running on my HDMI tv.
/Mike
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RevB1 (10 built) and RevB2 (50 odd about to be built) run the same software and are functionally identical. RevB2 has some more space around the audio connector, and some difference in the power enabling to make sure the board turns off.
Future batches will also be RevB2 - unless we find something wrong with it.
The current 060 daughter-board prototype fits on the older RevA board which a couple of developers have. The production 060 card will fit on all RevB boards.
/MikeJ
Top stuff Mike.
I got the Doshy dollars ready, I want a B2 and an 060 board when ready :)
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MikeJ,
Is there an image for the Replay that executes MAME in its entirety, or just single machines? If not, it must be possible, no? At least to the point you reach max density for a given machine type..
Just dreaming of more stuff I want to do with this board if I ever get my hands on one. My developer friend is itching to play with it. Amiga is just a cherry on top.
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Is there an image for the Replay that executes MAME in its entirety, or just single machines? If not, it must be possible, no? At least to the point you reach max density for a given machine type..
While it's possible for the Replay to be configured to emulate arcade hardware, you can't use MAME to do this. Someone will have to code the emulations specifically for the Replay.
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You can see here a working version of Picasso 96 RTG driver for the Minimig's built-in graphics card.
The Replay FPGA board with 060 daughter board was used as the hardware platform.
It's not complete yet and there is still a lot to do but at least you can see the picture :D.
(http://www.minimig.net/yaqube/images/minimigrtg.jpg)
great, also dont forget to add a fpga function for alpha blendet blitting.SDL is able to use a Hardware alpha blend blit function
So SDL Programs can run lots lots faster on a minimig AGA RTG
maybe you get in contact with natami team so, the calling syntax can be the same, and not diffrent versions in SDL are need.
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great, also dont forget to add a fpga function for alpha blendet blitting.SDL is able to use a Hardware alpha blend blit function
So SDL Programs can run lots lots faster on a minimig AGA RTG
maybe you get in contact with natami team so, the calling syntax can be the same, and not diffrent versions in SDL are need.
Sounds like a good idea.
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I see in MOS powersdl, there is a call to do alpha blit on AOS.the source is in AROS too, its only software in this bltbitmapalpha func, but when call the minimig Blitter which can do alpha blitting this can do in hardware extreme fast.
static int CGX_HWAccelBlit(SDL_Surface *src, SDL_Rect *srcrect, SDL_Surface *dst, SDL_Rect *dstrect)
{
//D(bug("[SDL] CGX_HWAccelBlit()\n"));
if (src->hwdata)
{
if (src->flags & (SDL_SRCALPHA|SDL_SRCCOLORKEY)) // && (src->hwdata->pixfmt == PIXFMT_ARGB32 || src->hwdata->pixfmt == PIXFMT_BGRA32))
{
STATIC CONST struct TagItem Tags1[] = { { BLTBMA_USESOURCEALPHA, TRUE }, { TAG_DONE, 0 } };
//STATIC CONST struct TagItem Tags2[] = { { BLTBMA_MIXLEVEL, 0xffffffff }, { TAG_DONE, 0 } };
BltBitMapAlpha(src->hwdata->bmap,
srcrect->x,
srcrect->y,
dst->hwdata->bmap,
dstrect->x,
dstrect->y,
srcrect->w,
srcrect->h,
(struct TagItem *)&Tags1);
//src->flags & (SDL_SRCCOLORKEY|SDL_SRCALPHA) ? (struct TagItem *)&Tags1 : (struct TagItem *)&Tags2);
}
else
{
BltBitMap(src->hwdata->bmap,
srcrect->x,
srcrect->y,
dst->hwdata->bmap,
dstrect->x,
dstrect->y,
srcrect->w,
srcrect->h,
0xc0,0xff,
NULL);
}
}
else
{
struct RastPort *rp;
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Will the 060 board require a full 060 or will it work fine with an EC 060?
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Will the 060 board require a full 060 or will it work fine with an EC 060?
Well the difference between the two is the presence of MMU and FPU AFAIK so as long as the pins are the same (Which they are i believe) it should work.
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The hardware will work fine. Software which needs the MMU or FPU will not work, unless these functions are emulated.
I am not sure what the WB or AROS requirements on these blocks are.
Cheers,
Mike
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Will the daughterboard work 100% with all its functions and glory even if no 060 is fitted ?
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Will the daughterboard work 100% with all its functions and glory even if no 060 is fitted ?
Yes, there isn't any hardware limitation which could prevent the main board from using daughter board peripherals when the 060 CPU is not present. But we haven't implemented this functionality so far.
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4:3 1280x1024 monitors today are a bit harder to get hold of.
They don't exist. Native 1280x1024 monitors are 5:4 which makes them unusable for any 4:3 mode, unless you're lucky and it supports letter boxing.
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You may be right, but a lot of manufacturers state 4:3.
Here's an example:
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktop-monitors/lcd/graphic-series/vg932m.htm
But if I do the math, it is closer to 5:4 than 4:3.
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You may be right, but a lot of manufacturers state 4:3.
Here's an example:
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktop-monitors/lcd/graphic-series/vg932m.htm
But if I do the math, it is closer to 5:4 than 4:3.
It could still be 4:3 if the pixels are not square. You'd have to physically measure your viewable area to verify this.
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The specs on that model list the visible area:
Display Area
14.8" horizontal x 11.9" vertical; 19" diagonal
Although they state 4:3, if you do the math it's closer to 5:4.
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It could still be 4:3 if the pixels are not square. You'd have to physically measure your viewable area to verify this.
This is correct, not all resolutions have square pixels. 1280X1024 is one of the most common that isn't NTSC 720x480 or PAL 720x576.
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This is correct, not all resolutions have square pixels. 1280X1024 is one of the most common that isn't NTSC 720x480 or PAL 720x576.
Whether a pixel is square depends on the aspect ratio of the monitor you're using as well as the ratio of the pixel resolution.
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Whether a pixel is square depends on the aspect ratio of the monitor you're using as well as the ratio of the pixel resolution.
I meant that in general, a 1280x1024 screen is expected to be 4:3 display aspect which would have non-square pixels.
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A 1280x1024 display on a 4:3 monitor is useless - all images and graphics on the computer are assuming square pixels - why would anyone _want_ it to be "flattened" out to 4:3? Seriously, I have yet to encounter a native 1280x1024 monitor that doesn't have square pixels, and I wish they never existed since they're useless for any other regular mode.
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I think - as has been pointed out before - that these monitors with 1280x1024 resolution do actually have close to square pixels and a 5:4 ratio, even when they state 4:3. I think 4:3 is simply used as a common term for "old-style" proportions, as in a monitor is described as either 4:3 or 16:9, even if it's actually 5:4 or 16:10...
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While it's possible for the Replay to be configured to emulate arcade hardware, you can't use MAME to do this. Someone will have to code the emulations specifically for the Replay.
Right. Definitely some work to be done there. But assuming the building-block coding structure of MAME I figure a system could be set up to load a specific set of IC cores for a given game onto the Xilinx and emulate on the ARM whatever you can't do in the FPGA (which I doubt is much, except what isn't written yet.) I'm figuring it should be able to at least run about 1994-vintage games at best (but what do I know?)
Does the ARM have the same access to all the i/o lines the FPGA does? Or does it have some exclusive bus link to it? I guess what I'm getting at is, could the ARM be used as a coprocessor or is it too busy managing other stuff to be any help?
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The ARM does floppy & hdd I/O asfair. The rest of the capacity should be free. The communication with the FPGA is through a few I/O lines I guess. So they could cooperate, but I wouldn't place any realtime soundprocessing etc.. in the ARM. Btw, the ARM can tell the FPGA what to do with it's I/O lines. If the FPGA is configured that way.
An efficient option might be to use MAME as usual. But code for software hooks for chips that are too hard emulate properly in software. And thus avoid unessary (re)coding for functionality that will work just fine in software.
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Wow, nice. MikeJ, definitely expressing interest in one of those FPGA Arcade Replay boards, if you think you'll have a batch ready around November/December!
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The ARM does floppy & hdd I/O asfair. The rest of the capacity should be free. The communication with the FPGA is through a few I/O lines I guess. So they could cooperate, but I wouldn't place any realtime soundprocessing etc.. in the ARM. Btw, the ARM can tell the FPGA what to do with it's I/O lines. If the FPGA is configured that way.
An efficient option might be to use MAME as usual. But code for software hooks for chips that are too hard emulate properly in software. And thus avoid unessary (re)coding for functionality that will work just fine in software.
I've never run MAME on an Amiga, but how does it run on a 68060? If it works then the FPGA Aracde should be easy to set up with a Workbench installed with WHDLoad, MAME, VICE, Shapeshifter, DOSBox, etc.
Anyone drooling yet? ;)
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I meant that in general, a 1280x1024 screen is expected to be 4:3 display aspect which would have non-square pixels.
Tell that to all the people with 5:4 monitors.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/4569-29-aspect-ratio-confused
Right. Definitely some work to be done there. But assuming the building-block coding structure of MAME I figure a system could be set up to load a specific set of IC cores for a given game onto the Xilinx and emulate on the ARM whatever you can't do in the FPGA (which I doubt is much, except what isn't written yet.) I'm figuring it should be able to at least run about 1994-vintage games at best (but what do I know?)
You'd definately be better off starting from scratch & emulating it all on the fpga. I don't think anyone has done a dynamic fpga image build based on what game you want to emulate before either.
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The old CRT monitors were 4:3 and showed 1280x1024 as slightly squashed pixels or with less border at the top/bottom.
The 1280x1024 LCDs are 5:4 with square pixels however.
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WoW:banana:
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I've never run MAME on an Amiga, but how does it run on a 68060?
Godawful slow. Running MAME on even an 060 Amiga will barely give you enough speed to run a playable game of Space Harrier, even with 50% frame skipping. MAME isn't worth running on anything under a 1.5GHz P4 and even that's a bit slow for my taste.
I just figured a lot of the IC emulation code could be ported to VHDL (or just use modules available now) and offloaded to the FPGA instead of using CPU. A 6502 "emulation" in FPGA runs clock-accurate with minimum system overhead, whereas a software emulation chews up lots of CPU overhead and screws up your signal timing (hence skipped frames.) I guess I'm getting a bit off-topic. Sorry.
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Godawful slow. Running MAME on even an 060 Amiga will barely give you enough speed to run a playable game of Space Harrier, even with 50% frame skipping. MAME isn't worth running on anything under a 1.5GHz P4 and even that's a bit slow for my taste.
I just figured a lot of the IC emulation code could be ported to VHDL (or just use modules available now) and offloaded to the FPGA instead of using CPU. A 6502 "emulation" in FPGA runs clock-accurate with minimum system overhead, whereas a software emulation chews up lots of CPU overhead and screws up your signal timing (hence skipped frames.) I guess I'm getting a bit off-topic. Sorry.
Cheers for that. I've only used MAME on a PC. :)
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"I just figured a lot of the IC emulation code could be ported to VHDL"
Thats exactly how it is done for the current games.
Nice picture ;)
http://www.amigafuture.de/album_pic.php?pic_id=16914
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Godawful slow. Running MAME on even an 060 Amiga will barely give you enough speed to run a playable game of Space Harrier, even with 50% frame skipping. MAME isn't worth running on anything under a 1.5GHz P4 and even that's a bit slow for my taste.
Metal Slug was playable on my CSPPC150 w/CV643D.
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Yeah, RTG makes a world of difference for mame. The older builds are also magnitues of times faster than newer versions. That said though even an overclocked '060 + rtg system using an older/faster build will struggle to give playable results with something like Double Dragon (as a random choice of game).
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"I just figured a lot of the IC emulation code could be ported to VHDL"
Thats exactly how it is done for the current games.
Nice picture ;)
http://www.amigafuture.de/album_pic.php?pic_id=16914
Congrats on the front page cover :) Looks great!!!!
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Yeah, RTG makes a world of difference for mame. The older builds are also magnitues of times faster than newer versions. That said though even an overclocked '060 + rtg system using an older/faster build will struggle to give playable results with something like Double Dragon (as a random choice of game).
I'll settle for the ability to play Defender and Pheonix. :D
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And BombJack :-D
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The old CRT monitors were 4:3 and showed 1280x1024 as slightly squashed pixels or with less border at the top/bottom.
The 1280x1024 LCDs are 5:4 with square pixels however.
It would depend on how you adjusted the h/v size. If you want full screen and square pixels on your 4:3 monitor then the only very slightly different 1280x960 is the mode to pick.
I would expect anyone that is running 1280x1024 to have a 5:4 display or at black bars. If they are stretching it to fit a 4:3 display then they deserve what they get.
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Every time I see this thread rise to the top of the "Front Page" of any Amiga website I get excited and hope to see that a price and date when orders can be placed has been posted. Then I get disappointed to see that it is only some discussion about square pixels and displays.
What is the latest info MikeJ, about when the second batch of production (the next 50 boards) will be scheduled for manufacture & assembly? Is it going to be in the next couple of weeks, or is there still some kind of materials delay, or wait for assembly scheduling that is the hold up? Maybe I am out of touch and the boards are already assembled and only need to be tested, or have one or two final hand assembled items installed on them before they can be tested and then shipped out to buyers. I don't know, as I have been traveling and without Internet connectivity off and on for the past 6 weeks and might have missed some forum postings in that time.
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exactly! looks like it gets delayed forever in a similar fashion that x1k or lets even say natami. guys, get some hardware outta door.
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Every time I see this thread rise to the top of the "Front Page" of any Amiga website I get excited and hope to see that a price and date when orders can be placed has been posted. Then I get disappointed to see that it is only some discussion about square pixels and displays.
What is the latest info MikeJ, about when the second batch of production (the next 50 boards) will be scheduled for manufacture & assembly? Is it going to be in the next couple of weeks, or is there still some kind of materials delay, or wait for assembly scheduling that is the hold up? Maybe I am out of touch and the boards are already assembled and only need to be tested, or have one or two final hand assembled items installed on them before they can be tested and then shipped out to buyers. I don't know, as I have been traveling and without Internet connectivity off and on for the past 6 weeks and might have missed some forum postings in that time.
Same here, I have been watching these threads, but no dates and no pricing. I would really want to know what is the price range in their mind, especially with 060 board.
We want price, We want dates!
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MikeJ got a seriously delayed FPGA delivery, dunno about other components but they are proberbly ok. The PCB is done asfair. The remaining task ought to be assembly and testing. I guess he will send components and pcb for assembly as soon as he have the oppertunity.
The price is approximatly 200 EUR asfair. Delivery maybe within a month.
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MikeJ got a seriously delayed FPGA delivery, dunno about other components but they are proberbly ok. The PCB is done asfair. The remaining task ought to be assembly and testing. I guess he will send components and pcb for assembly as soon as he have the oppertunity.
The price is approximatly 200 EUR asfair. Delivery maybe within a month.
I think you are correct, as I remember now that the boards were done and he was only waiting for the delayed parts to arrive. Now he has to wait for an assembly slot, as he stated that his small production run must be fit in between larger production jobs, or the price to run his would be higher than it is. I am sure MikeJ will let all of us know when he is able to get his small production run scheduled for assembly and then there is the testing phase. What I am unsure of, is the number of hand assembled parts that MikeJ must put on each board AFTER the assembly run is completed (if any) and how much testing he does on every board.
I will remain patient and wait for the good news of when I am able to send him some money. I still have a v1.1 Minimig PCB and all the parts to assembly it sitting here in my home waiting for my soldering iron to heat up, but that project will most likely become a gift for my Grandson in the future when I finally complete the assembly and testing of it.
Keep up the great work Mike, we all are looking forward to your great design and results of your continued hard work in developing the firmware and menu software.:)
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Same here, I have been watching these threads, but no dates and no pricing. I would really want to know what is the price range in their mind, especially with 060 board.
We want price, We want dates!
Indeed. I will probably won't buy it until 060 board is available.
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MikeJ got a seriously delayed FPGA delivery, dunno about other components but they are proberbly ok. The PCB is done asfair. The remaining task ought to be assembly and testing. I guess he will send components and pcb for assembly as soon as he have the oppertunity.
The price is approximatly 200 EUR asfair. Delivery maybe within a month.
Current status:
All parts are here and packed ready for assembly.
I am still waiting for an assembly slot and delivery of the paste mask. I will harass the guy again, but he is doing me a favour so I can only wait until they have time to fit it in between real jobs.
I need to confirm the assembly cost before I can take orders. It is still looking at 200/220Euro depending on option + VAT.
I will take a few pre-orders ASAP - I don't want to take anybody's cash before I have the boards in my hand.
Best,
Mike
p.s. I always said end August/early September for these and it is looking ok still.
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Hello Mike,
sorry for asking, I have not too much knowledge about Minimig AGA. How is the Speed of Minimig AGA compared to (Classic) AGA. Are there CHUNKY modes? Are there improvements with the sound? The 060 card is not included? How much does it cost?
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Indeed. I will probably won't buy it until 060 board is available.
This. As much as I am hanging out for the Basic Replay, I want an 060 on it too :) (It has a Minimig Core right ?)
Buying both would help save a just a bit on postage to Aussie land.
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I wonder, if we use a 060 board, can the 680x0 logic be removed from the minimig-core and thus leaving more space for other nifty features ? Or does the minimig core rely on a softcore for starting up and then later on attach itself to the hardware-060 chip when booting the Amiga ?
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I wonder, if we use a 060 board, can the 680x0 logic be removed from the minimig-core and thus leaving more space for other nifty features ? Or does the minimig core rely on a softcore for starting up and then later on attach itself to the hardware-060 chip when booting the Amiga ?
Correct. When using a daughter baord the FPGA on the main card does not have a CPU in it, so has more space for other stuff.
You can load the normal core as well then the daughter board is disabled.
/Mike
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MikeJ:
I've speculated about the possibility of adding a second (or third) FPGA unit to the ArcadeReplay through the daughterboard connector, but never actually asked you directly if such an idea is possible/likely.
So here goes... Is it a bad idea? I imagine you would much rather design a smaller add-on for your current motherboard to add horsepower than redesign the whole board to accommodate a larger FPGA, no? I'm not saying your board isn't cool or powerful, I just want it to keep being cool a couple years from now. I'm thinking about the future when I want to emulate a PSX or Sega Saturn or maybe even a PPC Amiga with it.:) The idea of adding a real 060 is great if your primary aim is to use it as a MiniMig but seems to conflict with the initial idea of the board being totally reconfigurable.
In case you didn't guess, I'm an expansion fetishist :) It made me a prime candidate for Amiga ownership. I really wish the Walker had made it to market with its center spine expansion bus. That would have been almost as cool as my friend's Bodega Bay case :)
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If I can get my Replay board delivered to me before Oct. 20th, I will have it with me at the AmiWest 2011 Show in Sacramento, California.
I have heard that some AROS guys might show up at this year's show and I have been trying to convince the Natami Team to send someone with a working prototype board to the show as well.
How many of you would try just a little bit harder to make it to this year's AmiWest 2011 Show if you could not only see an X1000 booting OS4, but could also see my demonstration of MorphOS2.x beta running on my 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook, the FPGA Arcade Replay Board, the latest AROS build on x86 & 68k, and a working prototype Natami board running AmigaOS3.x?
It is going to be a great show, even if not all of the above show up to display their stuff, so do what ever it takes to get yourselves to Sacramento over the Oct. 21st to 23rd weekend. In addition to all the great gear and software, it is a hell of a lot of fun! Hope to see many of you there.
Edit: P.S. Paul Rezendes (aka Acill) will be there showing the latest development of AmigaOS3.x running on his iPhone (and/or iPad).
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If I can get my Replay board delivered to me before Oct. 20th, I will have it with me at the AmiWest 2011 Show in Sacramento, California.
I have heard that some AROS guys might show up at this year's show and I have been trying to convince the Natami Team to send someone with a working prototype board to the show as well.
How many of you would try just a little bit harder to make it to this year's AmiWest 2011 Show if you could not only see an X1000 booting OS4, but could also see my demonstration of MorphOS2.x beta running on my 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook, the FPGA Arcade Replay Board, the latest AROS build on x86 & 68k, and a working prototype Natami board running AmigaOS3.x?
It is going to be a great show, even if not all of the above show up to display their stuff, so do what ever it takes to get yourselves to Sacramento over the Oct. 21st to 23rd weekend. In addition to all the great gear and software, it is a hell of a lot of fun! Hope to see many of you there.
Edit: P.S. Paul Rezendes (aka Acill) will be there showing the latest development of AmigaOS3.x running on his iPhone (and/or iPad).
Hi. Dr. Dave :) I could lend you my cased Replay for the showcase if you want. I would have to bubble wrap it a zillion times (to be safe..hehe) and ship it over to ya. Yet, it would take probably 3 weeks to ship (I just shipped my old MiniMig ITX_V2 to TX and it took like 25 days or so).
I ask for nothing in return but you'd have to pay shipping back to me. And to take good care of it at the show :)
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Correct. When using a daughter baord the FPGA on the main card does not have a CPU in it, so has more space for other stuff.
You can load the normal core as well then the daughter board is disabled.
That sounds cool. But will the other components of the daughterboard be disabled aswell as the 060 if I boot the "normal" core that has the 68020 inside or can I still access the usb+ethernet on the daughterboard ?
//Espen
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I wander how Yacube is doing with the RTG part for the Acrade Replay.
i'ts been weeks sins we have heard from him.
So Yacube feel free to update us with what your are doing right now :-)
Any progress?? are things working on the 020 core. (just curious how things are going along)
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Me too :) I am super-eager to hear where in the project phase he and Mike is at the moment.
Some screen shots would be awesome :D
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Hi. Dr. Dave :) I could lend you my cased Replay for the showcase if you want. I would have to bubble wrap it a zillion times (to be safe..hehe) and ship it over to ya. Yet, it would take probably 3 weeks to ship (I just shipped my old MiniMig ITX_V2 to TX and it took like 25 days or so).
I ask for nothing in return but you'd have to pay shipping back to me. And to take good care of it at the show :)
Thanks for the offer. Please contact me via email. I will send you a PMail.
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The man is on the way to deliver the first "production" batch from the factory here in China...
When I get them home I will start testing them and taking orders for these boards next week.
Pics to follow..
/MikeJ
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I have them in my hand :)
/MikeJ
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I think this is the thread you are looking for: FPGA Replay Board (http://amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55885&page=65) ;)
-
I have them in my hand :)
/MikeJ
If you have them in your hand how can you type your post? :roflmao:
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I have two hand
/MikeJ
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Are we talking about the daughterboards or the latest batch of replay boards ?
-
That sounds cool. But will the other components of the daughterboard be disabled aswell as the 060 if I boot the "normal" core that has the 68020 inside or can I still access the usb+ethernet on the daughterboard ?
//Espen
That is a very good question!
-
I have them in my hand :)
/MikeJ
Great news Mike!
I am ready to send my money to you for my board. Just let me know when it is ready to ship.
What is the latest news about the daughter card design and firmware?
-
@Mike: Will the ethernet+usb on the daughterboard be available even when the 060 is not used (i.e. when booting a core with a soft-020 inside) ?
-
I think that yaqube said that you could use the facilities in the daughterboard even if there is no 060 attached.
-
At least mikej says so. And it computes with other facts.
-
68060 chips are not that difficult or expensive to find, so I can't imagine too many people needing to worry about using this daughter board without an 060. Finding the "Good" last revision 68060's that are capable of being over-clocked to 80MHz to 100MHz is harder, but I would imagine that even if you have to use one of the older, slower models of the 68060 and clock your daughter board at 50MHz or 60MHz, it will still be a good alternative to your A1200.
I already have my 68060 CPU waiting for this daughter board to become available, but it is not the last revision, so I am keeping an eye open looking for one of those, so I can run the daughter board at it's highest potential.
Edit: I hope MikeJ and Yaqube will make the daughter board with a lot of extra RAM possible, for the few of us that would like to have >128mb of Fast RAM. 256mb, or 512mb would be nice if you are going to use the FPGA Arcade Replay to run Lightwave3D stand alone and some other RAM hungry Amiga programs.
I can't remember if MikeJ has integrated the ability to allocate more than 2mb of Chip RAM or not? It would be nice to have 8mb or 16mb or more of Chip RAM that would allow some new larger screen resolutions with more colors, like what is planned for the Super AGA of the Natami, but the Natami has a new, faster blitter and I don't think that is available, or possible with the Replay (it's hardware does not exist except for on the Natami).
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Wow, I had completely forgotten about these boards...sound awesome..let's keep this on the first page!
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btw, when a new minimig will be available to purchase?
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btw, when a new minimig will be available to purchase?
This thread should be changed to FPGA Arcade Replay w/060 & RTG, as I don't think it has anything to do with the original Minimig.
The new FPGA Arcade Replay boards are being finished up right now with final assembly and testing and if you want one, just contact MikeJ to see if he has not already promised all 48 of the current batch to other people.
I don't know when he will be making the next batch, or if he will be increasing the number of units that will be produced in the next batch. It probably depends on how fast these sell and what the demand for more is.
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Regarding video resolutions. It's all about the memory bandwidth, and secondarly the size of it. Its also nice if there's any free timing slots to put CPU/blitter/GFX-cpu accesses into ;)
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68060 chips are not that difficult or expensive to find, so I can't imagine too many people needing to worry about using this daughter board without an 060. Finding the "Good" last revision 68060's that are capable of being over-clocked to 80MHz to 100MHz is harder, but I would imagine that even if you have to use one of the older, slower models of the 68060 and clock your daughter board at 50MHz or 60MHz, it will still be a good alternative to your A1200.
Yep. 68060s are not difficult to find if you know where to look. I have a Rev 6 and an older 060 sitting around waiting for the Natami or FPGA Arcade. I could always pull my other Rev 6 from my CSMK3@75MHz too.
Edit: I hope MikeJ and Yaqube will make the daughter board with a lot of extra RAM possible, for the few of us that would like to have >128mb of Fast RAM. 256mb, or 512mb would be nice if you are going to use the FPGA Arcade Replay to run Lightwave3D stand alone and some other RAM hungry Amiga programs.
128 MB of fast is plenty for me. The only times I've ever run out is with a poorly behaving program or me doing something stupid with the ram disk ;). The FPGA Arcade needs to be kept affordable. The Natami is targeted for higher end and it will cost to play.
I can't remember if MikeJ has integrated the ability to allocate more than 2mb of Chip RAM or not? It would be nice to have 8mb or 16mb or more of Chip RAM that would allow some new larger screen resolutions with more colors, like what is planned for the Super AGA of the Natami, but the Natami has a new, faster blitter and I don't think that is available, or possible with the Replay (it's hardware does not exist except for on the Natami).
I don't know how much chip ram the FPGA Arcade will have but it should be much faster than AGA machines. The blitter should be faster too. The Natami should be faster yet.
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This thread should be changed to FPGA Arcade Replay w/060 & RTG, as I don't think it has anything to do with the original Minimig.
While this thread does seem very FPGA-Arcade centric, since that's what Yaqube and friends have to develop the AGA version of Minimig in.
But nothing to do with Minimig? It'll have a lot of the same Verliog code (or VHDL port) from the original. AGA won't change everything everywhere... (Will Paula core change? Even if it does change, will it be completely thrown out and replaced?)
Unless you think of Minimig as the board. Which I don't. I guess that both the core and the old boards have the same names. but the boards really are just FPGA boards, like FPGA-Arcade is and Terasic DE1 is, etc. The Verilog core (or a port to VHDL) is what makes them really interesting to us here.
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The new FPGA Arcade Replay boards are being finished up right now with final assembly and testing...
Any progress since 14 months here?
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I have captured a short video showing ShapeShifter running on Replay FPGA board with Minimig AGA core and 060 daughter board.
[youtube]Ug4_yh3Q288[/youtube]
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Wow that is amazingly fast compared to A1200/060.
To answer the question about the CHIP RAM, yaqube posted a video a long time ago that showed the chip ram being boosted to some large amount (over 32mb) and loading this huge bitmap and smoothly scrolling about.
This is a huge big deal because for the first time ever DPaint V might be able to run correctly.
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I have captured a short video showing ShapeShifter running on Replay FPGA board with Minimig AGA core and 060 daughter board.
Woa. This is Batman's Amiga.
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Man, I would buy this if it actually becomes available. It's just what I've always wished would be produced - a fast Classic Amiga.
Just a couple of questions:
- is there any way one could use serial or USB MIDI interfaces with this type of board?
- is there any way to attach a real Amiga keyboard to a device like this instead of a PC USB keyboard? It would feel just right to have an actual A2000 keyboard attached.
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- is there any way one could use serial or USB MIDI interfaces with this type of board?
You can use serial port to connect to a MIDI device.
- is there any way to attach a real Amiga keyboard to a device like this instead of a PC USB keyboard? It would feel just right to have an actual A2000 keyboard attached.
In fact you need a PC PS/2 keyboard. To use an USB only keyboard you need an additional small interface board which Mike has just finished designing.
It's possible to implement support for real Amiga keyboard but since our human resources are very limited we hoped somebody from the community would do this.
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You can use serial port to connect to a MIDI device.
Is the Serial Port on this device fully compatible with a real Amiga serial port and devices?
i.e. the Amiga serial Port was able to achieve true MIDI baud rates (31250Kbps) whereas the PC serial Port was "locked" into several fixed baud rates which were not compatible with MIDI.
Essentially, could I take a real Amiga serial MIDI interface and use it on this new 060 MiniMig? If so - then I almost certainly will buy one. I would want to run Bars & Pipes and other Amiga MIDI sequencers.
It's possible to implement support for real Amiga keyboard but since our human resources are very limited we hoped somebody from the community would do this.
I hope someone does this. I'll be stashing away a spare A2000 keyboard just in case.
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I hope someone does this. I'll be stashing away a spare A2000 keyboard just in case.
It is reported (on minimig.net) that the 1.1 minimig currently will work with a real Amiga keyboard, so you know the code for this already exists.
http://www.minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=519
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It is reported (on minimig.net) that the 1.1 minimig currently will work with a real Amiga keyboard, so you know the code for this already exists.
http://www.minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=519
No, there is no support for real Amiga keyboards in current firmware. The person on the forum have been apparently joking. Amiga and PS/2 keyboards have different protocols. But it should be relatively easy to add support for real Amiga keyboards (the ones dedicated to A4000 and CDTV can be connected directly).
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No, there is no support for real Amiga keyboards in current firmware. The person on the forum have been apparently joking. Amiga and PS/2 keyboards have different protocols. But it should be relatively easy to add support for real Amiga keyboards (the ones dedicated to A4000 and CDTV can be connected directly).
I would love a CDTV KB for my 1.1 minimig :) and the new Minimig...