MiniMig with AGA

[mikej]

Sheesh, people.  This system has been on the boards for a couple years now.  Go to the source if you really want to know more about this board.

http://www.fpgaarcade.com

Thanks Ferrellsl.

I've attached a pic of the new PCB. I haven't actually got it in my hands yet though.

Basically the board was designed as a general platform for my retro projects, arcade games and computer systems.  The Amiga core is ported to the board and I will maintain it. Jakub is working on AGA enhancements and I'm working on testing the soft CPU cores.
/Mike

[mikej]

If all goes to plan, I'll have the PCBs in my hand on Thursday this week.
I'll see if all the connectors and things fit....
I'll post a piccy then.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

The board is only available fully populated, it is not really possible to build at home.
The price will depend on the component costs, so I'll know very soon know when I have all the bits. I've got a good deal on the Xilinx - the boards will contain the larger device (1600e).

I decided to make my own board about two years ago and got the RevA board back in March last year. I had to do some other things for a while and there was a minor problem with the board so I couldn't take it to production. While updating it I decided to include the stacking connectors and composite video out on the main board. This was a bit of a layout challange. I started the PCB respin around September last year and have been working towards production since then.

The Atari ST softcore I started about 10 years ago !!!!
/Mike

[mikej]

I'm packing and off to China in the morning. I'll pick up the PCBs and hopefully get time to source the missing parts.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Have a nice trip Mike and bring the boards home :-)

I'm in the Irish bar in Beijing, and I have a box with 60 PCBs in my hand

I shall try not to leave them in the pub
photos tomorrow ...
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Well, the connectors all fit nicely.
You'll have to wait a bit for the photos, I can't get them off the camera at the moment...
MikeJ

[mikej]

If there was a 20-30 Euro extra price for the version with svideo/composite out, how many people would be interested?
Before I get the chips, it would be useful to know if I should make all the boards with svideo option, or say half.
(To get the basic board price down I made the svideo/composite a build option)
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

ok, I'll build half the first 60 with the svideo/comp option then.
Final parts should get here tomorrow.
/Mike

[mikej]

Have we got a price yet Mike? I need to know how much to put away from my salary this month!

Just waiting for the assembly quote now, then I'll do the maths
/Mike

[mikej]

It has analogue RGB out (nicely filtered as required). It also has DVI, which depending on the core and video timing, can be cabled directly into a HDMI TV input.

I have set up timing for most popular video standards, 576i, 488i, 576p, 488p (pal / ntsc interlaced/progressive), 1080i, 720p and a few others like 1280x1024 etc. The chip may do 1080P but it's pushing the FPGA IO timing a bit.

I am still waiting for placement dates, everybody here seems to be going on holiday and the first date I've got is mid July at the moment. I may take the parts back to China to get assembled. I'll keep you all posted.
/Mike

[mikej]

64MBytes.
/Mike

[mikej]

Yaqube and I are in discussion about the first expansion board, which will contain USB and Ethernet as a minimum.  

/Mike

[mikej]

The only problem with getting it in a A1200 case would be the height of the IO connectors. You could order a board without the PS/2, Joystick and video connectors fitted and cable it instead I guess.

I have a 1200 case in the UK I'll pick up next month, so I'll see if it fits.
/Mike

[mikej]

Will this be a problem for autofire joysticks? Do they expect 5v for their electronics ?

The power to the joystick ports is by default 3V3. We had some discussion about this and felt it was the best compromise, and joysticks would work fine at 3V3.

You can move the ferrite from L17 to L16 to get 5V. I don't recommend fitting both at the same time

/Mike
p.s. still waiting for assembly time.

[mikej]

Pm sent and I have to order the expansion board when yaqube finishes that. total price for everything?
also if V2 is done will there be a V3...V4 etc or just upgrades to the cores?

There are no plans to replace the main board at the moment.
I guess cost reduction, size reduction or a portable version could appear.

All cores (where humanly) possible will be updated and support the RevB and future boards - until they don't fit. Then they will be branched so you will have a RevB core which is upto date, but lacks some new features that RevC boards may support etc etc.

I really am trying to get pricing together, but until I get the assembly started it is tricky.
What is also clear is the NRE costs are quite high and as future production boards will not have to pay this the price will come down if we get some volume.

/Mike

[mikej]

Of course, no problem.
/Mike