TG68 Accelerator?

[Dr_Righteous]

With all of the work done on the minimig, I was wondering if anyone had considered designing a DIY TG68 accelerator for the classic systems (I'm desperate for something for this A4K). Both the Spartan 3 and the Cyclone II can run at 250+MHz... That's gotta stomp a mudhole in an 040. And by gods we need the memory upgrade.

By DIY I mean those interested may purchase a PCB, buy their own parts and whip out the ol' soldering iron. No need for the designer to fork out a bunch of cash building something that may or may not sell.

Seriously, with all the microcontroller and PLD geniuses we seem to have running around this site, someone out there should be able do this.

[Dr_Righteous]

Yeah, not the point guys.

I figure since no one wants to actually build and sell accelerators for classic machines anymore, one of our talented PLD guys could at least come up with the design for one. A 250MHz 000 core has to be an improvement over a 25MHz 040. Not to mention a decent RAM upgrade.

The cool part would be being able to upgrade the CPU core just by reprogramming the PLD.

Failing this project, a DIY 060 design would suffice. I see them all over eBay.

[Dr_Righteous]

Cyclone 2 comes in either BGA or TQFP package. While TQFP is possible, soldering a BGA component to a board is beyond most home users skills, and requires a professional hot air working station.

Naa, just a good hot air gun. As much as my hands shake the BGA would be easier than the rest of the soldering. LOL!

[Dr_Righteous]

Smell the rubber? LOL! Well not quite the punch I was hoping for my A4K, but a hefty improvement over any other stock machine. The ability to add RAM would be most helpful, and again it could be updated with a better core down the road.

[Dr_Righteous]

Hmm, there's a little more hope in the Cyclone III's. Twice the clock speed.

[edit] OMG how about a Virtex-5 FXT? Built in 440 PPC! [/edit]

[Dr_Righteous]

Could we not simply buffer the connections to the legacy bus with 5v tolerant buffers? Keep the accelerator 3.3v.

[Dr_Righteous]

Very cool technically. But OMG those are over US$8000 each chip!
http://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/Programmable-Logic/FPGA/_/N-100235?action=products&cat=1&catalogId=500201&cutTape=&hrf=www.avnet.com&inStock=&langId=-1&proto=&rohs=&storeId=500201&term=VIRTEX%2B5%2BFXT&topSellers=

Well I wasn't thinking dual core. LOL! Still $1,500 tho. Maybe the price will come down with time

The Virtex-6 is pretty bad too. Owie. Spartan-6 it is!