FPGA Replay Board

[JimDrew]

US customers that want to get on the waiting list, please click the link located in our NEWS page:

http://www.cbmstuff.com/news.htm

Thanks!

Jim

[JimDrew]

The arrangement that Mike and I have is for North America (US) sales for the FPGA Arcade Replay.  So, I have to honor that.  I have already had quite a few people from South America try to beg and plead for me to sell them one directly because the VAT is so high from outside of the U.S.   I won't do that, so please do not ask (or beg or plead!)

I don't have the FPGA Arcade listed in the online store yet because I don't have them available.  Once they become available to me, they will be there for purchase.

The retail pricing is slated to be $299, but that may go up or down, depending on the final price to me.  You are welcome to click on the link for the waiting list on the NEWS page:

http://www.cbmstuff.com/news.htm

[JimDrew]

What is the reason to decline business with South america? seems longer distance to deal with Europe from there.

That is the agreement that Mike and I have.  I would be happy to sell anywhere in the world because items shipped from the U.S. to other countries have no VAT.  There may be some import taxes based on the value, but not the typical 19%-30% VAT.

Mike has mentioned about allowing me to sell to other areas.  If that should occur, I will let everyone know.

[JimDrew]

Things have progressed quite a bit in the last few weeks with the Amiga core for Replay.  I have narrowed down the issues with the 68020+ instruction emulation, and Mike is working on fixing that.  Mike and I worked a few days on the floppy support and now there is support for SuperCard Pro (.scp) flux images!  This means that we now have the ability to image *any* disk and use it with Amiga core just like it was a real floppy disk.  So, every disk protection ever created will work with the virtual floppy drives.  The SCP flux level images contain the exact flux data that comes off of the disk drive's head.  So, at this point the floppy hardware emulation is so good that it would be possible to connect a few lines and attach a real floppy disk drive to the Replay.  That might happen in the future.

There are a several blitter modes that are not supported yet, and so there are graphics glitches with some games.  This graphics glitch, along with the 68020+ instruction emulation is preventing AGA mode from working fully.  I expect that as these last couple of things are ironed out that the core will be pretty incredible.

Mike is focused on the replication of the exact hardware, not a simulation of it.  So, since this is built around the A1200/A4000 chipset, it replicates the IDE controller.  Mike just finished a new file handler for the ARM processor giving the core direct access to the SD card.  The result is virtual hard drive (hardfiles on the SD card) transfers of >2MB per second!  Workbench folders open incredibly fast!

I will be attending AmiWest in October, doing a demonstration of the Replay board and all of its cores, and expect the Amiga core to be a very big hit!

[JimDrew]

We have been testing with caches off to try to eliminate one more layer  of potential issues, but the last thing I seem to remember from Mike was  a peak was around 106MHz 020+.  There can be improvements though from  there.  Mike is in the process of actually dramatically slowing down the  entire chipset because that is one of the issues with some games not  working... they bang on the custom chipset bus, expecting the operation to  act as a throttle mechanism.  Right now, there is no throttle!  Mike has  a provision in the OSD (on screen display, which the menu system) for  selecting 68000, 68010, 68EC020, and 68020 CPUs (and there is also the  chipset type there).  I am hoping we can add a 68040 mode w/MMU and  FPU.  There is plenty of space left in the FPGA for that - fortunately,  it's a big FPGA that's used in Replay.  There is also PicassoIV RTG  support.

I am distributing only to North America.  Purchases  outside of North America can be made through one of Mike's  distributors.  I do ship my products world-wide, and mark them so that  there is no (or very little) duties that are due.

[JimDrew]

Until the Amiga core is completed to at least get rid of the current graphics glitch and CPU instruction emulation problem, I won't have any boards available.  Once I have boards, shipping is typically within 24hrs, that is how shipping is done with my other product.

[JimDrew]

I am just along for the ride.  This is Mike's baby.  I am not a FPGA guy  by any means, but I do know the Amiga hardware so I help where I can.

[JimDrew]

Just got my first batch!  I have several hundred people on a list currently, so I am going by that list.  I am hoping Mike can start shipping regularly to me so we can get caught up!

[JimDrew]

1st batch of how many? Is it possible to buy one of these today if I'm not on that 12 year old list? How long do you expect several hundred orders to be filled? How can I get on this list? How long might it take to get thru the list so that I might be able to buy one and how long might that take? Just wonderin....

I am not sure where "12 years" comes from.  The further back I can find this project was almost 5 years ago.  I have been involved with helping Mike for about 2 1/2 years.

The list is rather long, and I am being fair by contacting people on that list in the order that they contacted me.  I expect boards to become readily available after the 1st of the year.  You can get on the list automatically by going to my website and clicking on the "notify once in stock" text next to the version of the Replay board you want.

[JimDrew]

Well, Mike has the Amiga core's cache working. Some bugs to iron out in timing, but it is looking rather promising.

[JimDrew]

Definite speed boost, and I think another one is coming shortly!

RTG speed is now great, although there is still very limited blitter usage.  If I can ever get some time to finish my commenting of the PicassoIV driver, I should be able to implement quite a few of the system patches to use Replay's blitter-engine.

Speed in benchmarks varies greatly - between 55% and 113% the speed of an A4000.  I have a feeling that is going to just about double shortly.  

[JimDrew]

Using the new cache core shows that Replay's Amiga core is now faster than MIST's!   More speedups to come too!

http://www.fpgaarcade.com/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=7424#p7424


Several CPU fixes have been done, and now I can actually run my PC emulator (PCx).  Since there is no FPU in the 68020 core, you have to use PCsx (the FPU simulated version).  It works pretty well!