FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

The daughterboard is coming along in placement, and I picked up most of the components for the test board. I'm busy with testing, ce marking and the rear panel at the moment, but nearly there. The website is also taking a lot of time to get up.

I am hoping to get the daughterboard PCB produced on my next trip, early Jan.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been traveling.
Still testing but starting to ship out. I'm mailing people this weekend asking to confirm price, address etc.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

Yes, you can use the daughterboard IO if using the cpu on the main board. In fact, the daughterboard can be depopulated and used just for the IO.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

A brief update.
Boards are shipping. I am working through the list of everybody who has contacted me as I can test and ship board. If you haven't received a email yet, you will!

I have produced a version of the core based on Yacube's 060 version, but with internal softcore again. This has also picked up some of the generic Replay libs and I am working on a general code and timing cleanup in parallel with the Yacube's work.

As was mentioned, this code does contain a "video card" capable of hi-res output over DVI, when the CPU core is fixed.
Best,
Mike

[mikej]

I also want to upgrade my board with the new core Mike, where can we get it ?

Thanks for the support :-)

It doesn't completely work yet. When I get back from China at the weekend I'll fix it and let you guys try it.
You just replace a file in the root of the SD card with the new one.
You can rename the old one and swap back whenever you wish.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

will this board ever be forsale to the masses seems to be taking ages ,it would have been better if people kept it in the background like natami thingy ,then we wouldnt have to pull our hair out waiting , or is this board just for the elite as usual?

First of all, fair comment. It is taking a long time.
Thanks for all the other posters offering support.

20 boards have shipped now. I have about 30 more on my desk, each need some hand assembly, testing, sometimes repair and programming. It takes time. I had all the components here in Europe, but the assembler let me down so I had to ship 10Kg back to China to get everything built. All the connectors were too heavy, so I need to hand build.

I met with the China company last week and we are going to do another bigger run shortly. They will fully build the boards this time.

Unlike NatAmi, this project is fully open. There are other developers with the code, and working on other cores. As soon as I have a stable release of the new core, it will be released, including full source. Then, things will speed up.

Best,
Mike

[mikej]

Oh, the backplates have been manufactured and are on the way to me now.
They do not include the holes for the 68060 daughter board, we will make another one then - or you can punch your own holes....
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Not unless the keyboard/mouse speaks PS2 protocol over USB - the converter is just a passive adapter. The new Amiga core uses a tiny microcontroller soft core to do the ps2 interface and I am looking at making it speak USB - so then a ps2/usb adapter would work with a true USB device. Something for the future.

Oh, the rear IO panels have arrived :
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

This will be 14 Euro each + shipping. Again, it's the NRE cost which hurts - after the first 100 it will drop a little. I will do another version for the daughterboard and offer a trade in

/MikeJ

[mikej]

If you do a follow up will it be the same layout or is slight component optimization a possibility?

Not quite sure what you mean, I'm talking about a softcore update.
The daughter board will add ethernet and usb connectors, maybe digital audio and some other odds and ends which will set just above the current sd/dvi connector.

The io panel just gets some more holes in it.
The base board is staying as it is!
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Correct, it has a cut out for the tall connectors.

I was under some pressure to get the io panel ready for the current board.

I need the final daughterboard to confirm the exact hole position - the NRE is quite expensive for the metalwork.  The panels are laser cut, so it's possible to add more holes to the design later.

Heat is not an issue, the base board does not get particularly warm.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

From the mechanical side, I hope there's room for standoffs on the baseboard such that the daugherboard has something to stand on.

It's about 20mm

[mikej]

It looks like it's not compatible with the Rev. B01 boards (protoboards) Mike ?
I hope to get one that will fit the rev B01 with daughtboard :-)
.

Do you want to try? I just fitted a io panel on the b01 board.

The only difference is the SD card and DVI connector are about 2mm in the wrong place, but a bit of dubious modification should be possible.

/MikeJ

[mikej]

What protocol does it speak, does it have a ps2 connector on it?

[mikej]

Yacubed and I are working in different areas at the moment.
I am using a small micro-core to control the PS2 ports, and this could be made to cope with various input devices.
It would need to translate to some standard codes back to the ARM processor to drive the OSD, but this is do-able.
/Mike

[mikej]

I am using a slightly shrunk picoblaze core to do the protocol and keyboard handling - it takes less area than the current VHDL implementation. The software can be changed to enable different keyboards.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Hi,
A brief update. I've received a lot of PMs and emails asking for status, and I haven't got around to answering them all yet. I am working through my list sending out first a quote and then payment details just before the board ships. I have shipped another 5 today.

Everybody who emails me is in the offer queue. It's taking longer than I hoped as I have some bad regulator ICs which need to be replaced, and this takes some time per board.

Things will get faster shortly when I start to receive fully assembled boards directly from the factory, the hand finishing and testing takes forever.

Best,
MikeJ