FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

Good news, a big box of FPGAs has just landed on my desk!

[mikej]

well, it's not very exciting. I can take a picture.

[mikej]

Just curious how 100 FPGA:s are packed
(or 50?)

Around 60 to a tray, then vac-packed in a silver bag.
I can't open them until production as they get damp (really)
/Mikej

[mikej]

What a great news !

Could you make a video of the production run (like Gideon did for his 1541 Ultimate) ?

I'm fascinated by this robots

I can ask.
The machine building them is a Siplace S27 chip shooter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDMGaSTbVpY&feature=youtu.be

[mikej]

I hand soldered the through hole connectors on the last batch.
All the SMD components are fitted by the assembler.
The problem is (on double sided boards) you need to mask off the bottom before you wave solder it. The components need to be hand fitted anyhow, so for the number I have on this board it's nearly as fast to do the whole thing by hand.
I don't fancy doing 500 though, the Chinese can solder them...

/Mike

[mikej]

1. When we can buy one (a ready to gone one, that is - no soldering involved!)

2. What will the price be (last I read somewhere was "much less than 200 euro").

3. What CPU speed and RAM will it have.

4. Will I be able to hook it up to a TV via HDMI, with audio coming out of the TV speakers.

1 - Pre-orders being taken this week possibly, delivery in 2-3 weeks. I'll update as soon as things are firm.
2 - 200Euro+VAT for this batch - subject to confirmation due to assembly cost.
3 - 64MByte RAM, CPU speed is being optimized at the moment. 30MHz, maybe much more.
4 - Yes, with a DVI to HDMI cable. For the audio you will need to run a separate cable from the 3.5mm jack to the RCA inputs on the TV.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

So how is that going to affect the 060 add on for the FPGA ?

Not at all. 68060 chips are still easy to get hold of.
/Mike

[mikej]

Thanks for the reply mikej - one more thing, what form factor is the motherboard? (if it has a standard form factor )

170mm x 80mm.
It's half ITX size, so it will fit in any ITX/ATX case and two holes that can line up do. All the connectors (apart from debug rs-232) are in the standard ATX IO window.
/Mike

[mikej]

@mikej

If it's possible to hook it to a CRT TV with a RCA cable or SCART or any other cabling (could not find the specs at the FAQ or elsewhere at your webpage) please count me in for a pre-order.

Yes, you can use a DVI to analog VGA adapter then a "standard" VGA to SCART cable.
If you get the SVHS/Composite option you also have the choice of those outputs.

Note, these are only supported by the 488i,576i (ntsc/pal) standards.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

You could use something like this:

DVI & R/L Stereo Audio to HDMI Converter

That's a pretty interesting box, if anybody has one I would like to know what chip is inside it

I cannot fit a HDMI connector due to licensing issues, and I can't buy (legally at least) the chips which support HDMI as they have HDCP support - and you need to be a member of the cartel to use them. Future hardware is likely to support display port instead.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

mikej I have a dreambox DM800 satellite receiver, and it has DVI connection, not HDMI, and yet it still outputs audio from the TV. Maybe you should look into that?

The receiver comes with a DVI to HDMI cable.

yes, there is nothing stopping you running HDMI protocol over DVI. The PHY chip I am using only supports DVI unfortunately, and I can't buy one which does what I want.
I am looking into building the whole thing into the FPGA...
/MikeJ

[mikej]

yes, as soon as the first batch have been allocated.
/Mike

[mikej]

Lets add a electrical RCA SPDIF digial output then on the daughter board.

I'll also add it to the core at some point, so you can wire it off the patch pins on the base card to an RCA panel mount connector with signal + ground pair. It will not meet the correct drive specs, but should work fine.

Best,
Mike

[mikej]

S/P-dif is the right direction. But even that interface suck. HDMI at least has some error protection for its sound transport.

If the S/P-dif port packet data can be modified to use CRC or similar it would useful for external FPGA/CPLD based adapters.

It has parity so a receiver can tell you if it's getting errors.
Embedded audio does have ECC but I haven't seen any hardware which bothers to do the correction.

Generally a link will work perfectly or not at all... at audio rates over short distances it should be pretty robust.

/MikeJ

[mikej]

Forget digital output - any idea if it's possible to build a cable to connect a 1084S to the DVI port? Apologies if that's a stupid question but some days I just need to sit in front of a 1084S.

Sure - you use the RGB TV out mode here, with a DVI to VGA adapter.
I output composite sync on H sync and a logic high on V sync for Scart switching.
Then use a VGA to Scart or VGA to 9 pin D cable. I do this here.
/MikeJ

[mikej]

The /dev/drupal is a development site, please use the main page for now.
The schematics are a few posts down.

Im having some trouble getting commitment from my assembler. I'm talking to another guy, but what will probably happen is I'll take the parts back to China on Tuesday next week and drop them off with the company which is doing the volume production.
This will actually speed up the volume deployment, but is more risky as I wanted to test the boards before paying for the set up and production stencils (which is kinda expensive).

Either way, I will have boards available by the end of the month.

The 68060 board is still being defined, although the prototype is running well.
It is unlikely to have pass-through connectors for SI reasons, but there are other IO pins on the main board which can be used. I will add a breakout connector for any spare pins.
/MikeJ