FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

Sorry guys, I've been travelling back. I'm working through the emails, but it will take a day or so to catch up.

Layout is pretty much complete for the daughterboard, but not 100% yet, still fiddling with it. I need some time to go through it with Jakub before manufacture.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Great. Thanks for the update. Will it be ready for beta-testing before end of Q3 ?

I still hopeful to get boards in May. CPUs are proving the issue....
/Mike

[mikej]

Yes, I will ship without processors as well, but I need to get some to test it with.
I may have found some....

[mikej]

I'll buy a bigger SD card and try it as well with the new firmware.
I'm running a different filesystem so it will be a good test.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Mike, do not forget that FAT filesystem has ~4GB limit on file size. Please also remember that Amiga OS 3.1 scsi.device do not support drives larger than 4GB and fastfilesystem doesn't handle well partitions larger than 2GB.

Thanks Yaqube.
I must send you the update to play with, it seems relatively stable now - although I still cannot go up in the file viewer...

Quite right, even though the filesystem supports fat32 the Amiga os may be an issue. I don't know much about that end of things.

Oh well, surely 2GB is enough for anybody
/MikeJ

[mikej]

The Replay board itself is a portable tested, I am trying to get a ZIF socket for the processor.

The mask revision is contained in the PCR register, does anybody know what this register should contain for each mask set?
/MikeJ

[mikej]

The FAT32 has also 4GB file size limit.

Yes this is true. Possible to span a virtual disk over multiple files?

[mikej]

ah ha, we have struck E41Js apparently!
It remains to be seen if they are real ones ....

[mikej]

Hi,

 Just curiosity: what is the highest screen resolution available on FPGA Replay Board there? I ask in context of  16:9 monitor displays...

Depends also on frame rate. It has been tested at 1920x1080 and 1280x720 etc.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Some months ago I was honoured to be told I was "the next" to get a Replay...

Well now we have some non-Replay news here

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/22/chip_maker_via_outs_49_dollar_raspberry_pi_alike/

Interestingly VIA now have a name for the Replay board form factor - Neo ITX

I wonder if any other standards will emerge while I patiently wait

Oh, they have "stolen" my form factor, it's exactly the same size and mounting holes.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Methanoid - yes you are next. To clarify the situation ...

Sorry I have been quiet the last few days, I have been away at a music festival drinking far too much. I have received a complete barrage of email about Faranheit's advertising of the Replay board.

We have been in contact for a while and I have been using him as pre-production non-developer beta tester. I agreed that he could put boards in cases and resell them if he wished, but that other distributors may come on line, and the boards would always be available directly from the http://www.fpgaarcade.com website.

The price for the current boards is 199Euro + VAT for the non-composite/svhs version and 229Euro +VAT with. VAT in Sweden is 25%. I can ship without VAT to companies only in the EU. Everybody who has mailed me and requested a board is still in the queue and will be prioritized over the disti channels!

Producing boards is not a problem, but I do not want to sign off the PO for assembly of the next batch until I am 100% happy. I have about 30 boards which are not stable because the DRAM timing is fixed in the current core - and every chip will have slightly different timing. So, the full validation is being held up until I am totally happy, then we press the button.

The new core looks pretty much the same as before, but a whole lot of infrastructure has changed to support multiple cores and dynamic configuration etc. A number of people are working converting different games or platforms to the board.

It has been a long journey, but we really are reaching the good bit now.
Thank you for your patience

MikeJ
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

[mikej]

I've run quite a lot of demos, they are a good way of testing the accuracy of the hardware.

I will get my sticky hands on the 68060s shortly...
MikeJ

[mikej]

I don't think Mike J will bury his project like Thomas Hirsch did with his private Natami boards/forums.

Several people have the source code and are actively working towards the first release.
/Mike
p.s. I have some rather nice 68060s now. I'll post some pics.

[mikej]

I wish someone would make an FPGA thingy that lets you do the logic upload by ethernet(something else?) from your pc.

You just copy the FPGA file to the SD card, and the board boot loader does the rest.
/Mike

[mikej]

^ In that case you use the JTAG Xilinx programmer connected to the JTAG header and hit the "download" button on the chipscope debugger gui.
The ARM core will recognize the FPGA has been de-configured externally and sort itself out.
/Mike

[mikej]

I emailed them through the web site and never heard anything. I hope I am on the list.

Email me again with your "ravard" user name, I don't think I received any mail from you.
use the support@fpgaarcade.com email address.

Just sourced some 68060 sockets. They were not easy to get in China!
/Mike