FPGA Replay Board

[Darrin]

I can tell you in secret that I'm working on a new board which integrates an FPGA and 060 CPU together with other goodies. It won't be a direct replacement of any existing Amiga mainboard.

You're telling us in secret on a public forum?  

[Darrin]

Of course, existing board owners who have been waiting for the daughterboard will be first. I can't promise 060s at the moment though (well, I can but not the final mask set).
/MikeJ

Excellent.  I'll take one as soon as they're ready, fitted with what type of 68060 you can get your hands on.  

[Darrin]

@Fahrenheit

Whew!
Thanx for the infos!
I was really scared for a minute there :nervous:

Note to self: Replay connects to VGA with simple adapter.

Note from experience:

Watch out for cheap adapters.  When I got my board I picked up a couple of DVI-VGA adapters (just the port) off eBay which I tried with a regular VGA cable (attach adapter to board, attach VGA cable to adapter and monitor).  The result was a blank monitor.  I fired off an email to Mike stating that I thought the board might be broken and inbetween bouncing some emails back and forth I visited Walmart and saw a straight DVI-VGA monitor cable.  I bought it, took it home, connected it and immediately got a perfect picture.

Meanwhile those port adapters have refused to work with any cables on any machines (PCs included).

[Darrin]

Did you measure the connectin diagram of the non-working vs the working ones?

No, I threw them into a corner and let them gather dust.  

[Darrin]

I'd be happy to test it for you, but I'm away from home for the next 4 weeks.  Remind me next month and I'll try it for you if nobody else has managed it.

[Darrin]

If there are any compatibility problems, I will do my best to fix them.
When the new core is out there will probably be a whole load of initial issues, so we go into bug-squashing mode. I have a board with external 68K I can run to see if it's a problem with the CPU (I can actually run both CPUs and diff them in real time).

I can also probe and capture any internal state with the JTAG FPGA debugger, so as long as we can get a trigger condition, and can reproduce the fault, it's normally fairly easy to fix problems.
/MikeJ

And I'm ready to start testing when you are...

[Darrin]

I'll be rolling out beta cores to current board owners in the next week - if everything goes smoothly.
/MikeJ

Thank you!!!  

Although I won't get to test it until the 23rd.

[Darrin]

@ MikeJ:

Any chance if that new core in the next week?  If not then I'll be away at work for another 4 weeks.  I need my FPGA Arcade fix.  

[Darrin]

Completely OT: How does one find food in China that one dears to eat without getting lead or other slowly poisons?
(I read the party people has their own organisation for this purpose out of reach for ordinary people)

When I worked over there we had a KFC, a McDonalds, an Irish pub that served fish n chips and a French steakhouse all within walking distance of the office.  :-)

[Darrin]

Lead, pesticides, motor oil and other spices included free of charge?

They come standard with KFC and McDonalds.  They wouldn't taste the same without them.  

[Darrin]

I have an FPGA Board from the last batch, and I was wondering... are there any differences between the boards from the last batch and these new ones?

The USB mouse and keyboard adapter comes to mind.  Mike said that this is something that could be retrofitted it the old boards are returned to him.

If the X500 keyboard needs a USB port then I'll probably have to do this.

[Darrin]

I've no idea what batch my board came from... it has been so long!  It still works though so it was definately made to last.  It hasn't even got a case, it just sits ontop of the desk with cables hanging off it.

[Darrin]

There are RevA boards - with the single joystick connectors on the back. There are only four of these with developers.

RevB1 (around 20 exist), with double height joystick and option of SVHS/Composite vid.
RevB2 (around 50 exist) is the same, but with the spacing between the DVI and audio jack improved, as well as a fix for DVI power backfeed (powering the board through the monitor basically).
RevB2 batch2 (100) is currently on it's way from China. Exactly the same as B2 but with FCC logo on the board as well.

New firmware supports all RevB boards.
It's printed on the top of the board, Darrin you have a B1 I think.

The new USB adapter replaces the PS2 connector and can be fitted on any all RevB boards.
/MikeJ

That's for that Mike.  Yep, I have the RevB1 because I remember you mentioning something about wanting to increase the space for the audio jack, but I already had connectors that would fit so I wasn't bothered.

I'll be home in 2 weeks... how's the new firmware looking?

[Darrin]

Oh God, you said the cursed line again! We're doomed!

[Darrin]

I did consider that, but the excess baggage fee for ~60Kg would be not funny
actually, it's not bad. Something to thing about.

You should have seen my bags the last time I made a trip from China to the USA.  I had 120 premier League football shirts & shorts sets, a set of knock-off golf clubs, more DVDs than Block Buster and a selection of software that would put Game Zone to shame and more trinkets than you would find on a typical pirate ship.  

I got stopped at customs too buy a US agent who wanted to know what I planned to do with all of those football strips.  I told him I was going to wear them.  

[Darrin]

@ Ptek.

Just make sure you get a monitor that supports a 50Hz vertical refresh.  I use a couple of ViewSonic models with my Minimig and FPGA Arcade.

Something like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3835537&CatId=5469