FPGA Replay Board

[Darrin]

No feature creep on the main board - the B02 board is production ready as far as I can tell. Everything seems to fit and we are processing the manufacturing data.
FPGAs should be delivered next week then we are good to go.

I added some pics on
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

Note I also have the new ATX power control board back as well. The chips to build it with arrive at the weekend.
/MikeJ

Hi Mike,

are these the FPGA Arcade boards in China ready to ship or do I have you confused with someone else?  


(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

[Darrin]

Want one for sure but how do i get yaqube add on board are you selling it or yaqube is and is there a list somewhere for it??

I don't believe there is a list yet as it is still being worked on.

[Darrin]

Where is the statement that it's 64 MB onboard?, last update on that issue said 32 MB asfaik.

There is 64MB as Wizard said, and it can be configured in several ways:

CHIP:  0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0
SLOW:  None, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5
FAST:  None, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0
XRAM:  None, 48MB FAST, 48MB CHIP

[Darrin]

Is this a new math where 48 + 48 = 64?

Where do you get 48+48?  It is an either-or.  You either have no XRAM, 48 MB or CHIP or 48MB of FAST.

Currently you can have a maximum of 2+1.5+8+48 selected = 59.5MB.  Just like on the Minimig I'm sure some RAM is required by the hardware itself and the amounts allocated it the menu are subject to change with core revisions.

[Darrin]

so would amikit amiga forever version and amisys amiga forever version will they work has they are in hdf? or would I need make them from scratch on fpga arcade ie like rebuild work bench from amikit installation.

They're configured for WinUAE and if you try and do a straight copy off the AmigaForever disks to a real Amiga or a Minimig then it won't work.

That said, I used WinUAE to set up Bloodwych ClassicWB hard files and then copied that to my Minimig v1.1 (ClassicWB 68000) and also to my A4000 hard drive (ClassicWB 3.x) and they work fine.

[Darrin]

If there's demand for another batch. How long would it take to realise?

Btw, do the boards come pre-assembled with the BGA mounted FPGA from China. Or is that done by the same machine that do the other components?
BGA tend to be a pain-in-the-ass

Regarding expansion boards. Maybe a solid power supply solution should be planned for so that it won't overload weak or loose DC-plugs, fit common power supplies, don't become a birds nest etc..

The FPGA Arcade allows you to connect 5v power in 3 ways:

1.  2 pin adapter in the bottom corner next to the power switch.
2.  Round 5v DC adapter as used on the Minimig v1.1 on the right side of the power switch.
3.  Standard "PC" hard drive/CD ROM drive 5v adapter on the right of "2" (I use this with a cheap power supply from one of those USB-SATA/IDE cable kits, but you could easily use a PC power supply assuming it will stay "on" without being connected to a PC on/off switch).

[Darrin]

well i copied all workbench folder in hidden folders to a working compactflash drive within winuae to use on a real amiga and booted to amiga forevers workbench 3.x without problem ps i found this smaller than a normal os 3.9 installation too.

what version of AmigaForever are you using?  I have 2010 and neither that or a previous version would work, which is why I used ClassicWb and the installed the network options off the OS3.9 CD later.

[Darrin]

I hope they have enough capacity for us
/MikeJ

OMG!  It's the C=USA office in Florida!  :eek:

[Darrin]

We have hardware, boards delivered to my sticky hands.

We had a meeting to discuss the next larger run, all the setup work for volume manufacture is now in place.

I'll will take these first 44 home and test next week. I'll start taking orders for these shortly when I know how many are working.
Cheers,
MikeJ

Excellent.  Good work Mike.

[Darrin]

Yup - it's B01-ESPSKOG

So mine is "B01 - DARRIN"?  Always nice to know.  

[Darrin]

I don't know about "Thunder", but I will be giving it some praise and play time at my display table at the AmiWest 2011 Show, so hopefully it will get some of the attention it deserves.

The product I think has gotten very little attention is the Chameleon from Individual Computers.  I almost never see any discussions about it on the forums.  I don't know if that is because very few of them were sold, or for some other reason.  Jens keeps development pretty close to his vest and I don't know who else is working on the Chameleon firmware updates with or for Jens (or who did the hardware design for Jens, was it Jerry "what's-her-name"?), but I think it is strange that we don't hear more about it.  I guess we also don't hear much about the original v1.1 MiniMig these days, so maybe it is just because the product is complete and there are not many problems or improvements to talk about, that there is no discussion about them anymore.

The Yahoo group is very active and I get a bunch of emails every day as people discuss and test each new core and various software.

The current core is still beta and is 6g.

It is certainly a great product for people who don't mind reflashing it when updates arrive, but I think Jens is just keeping everything quiet until he has a core that he believes will satisfy the everyday customer.  Rather like MikeJ with the FPGA Arcade.

[Darrin]

I have a friend that has a Chameleon and another that has an MCC-216, but have never seen anyone put together a review comparing all FPGA based systems with each other.  It would be interesting to see in which ways they are the same, or similar and which features are different on each of these systems.

I have not kept up with the features of the Chameleon, MCC-216, Natami, or expanded v1.1 MiniMig.  I think MikeJ has done a better job of keeping most of us Amiga users up to date with the progress of his work and the work of Yaqube, than some of the other system designers have done with their offerings.  Although the Natami Team seems to be very active on their forum, not as much of that info spills over to sites like this one.  The same is probably true for the Chameleon and MCC-216 on their own sites.

I did actually start a thread here with the intention of comparing the same software running on the Minimig v1.1, Chameleon and FPGA Arcade (obviously the FPGA would test AGA versions where available).  There didn't seem to be much interest and I got very busy with work so I shelved it (plus I was expecting a core update for the FPGA Arcade so it seemed to make sense to wait).

Here's all 3 machines running ClassicWB:

[Darrin]

The Minimig v1.1 is built into the black keyboard on the far left.  You should just to able to make out the yellow Chameleon cartridge sticking out of the cartridge port expander on the back of the C64C and the FPGA Arcade is that tiny board to the left of the keyboard on the right.

Another problem with testing is that the Chameleon Minimig core doesn't recognise the joystick ports on the C64 (yet).  The IR controller is supposed to work if I use a CDTV remote as a joystick, but I don't have one.  My only option was to use the keypad on a PS2 keyboard as a joystick.

[Darrin]

I think AmigaKit still has a ton of brand new CDTV remote controllers for sale.

I for one am interested in testing comparisons of your three FPGA based Amiga computers, so I hope you will find time to renew your interest in testing and reviewing them for the rest of us.  You can always update the results for the FPGA Arcade Replay board after you get the next firmware update.  That will also show how much improvement has been made between the firmware you have now, and the next version.

I should have my own Replay board within the next few days.  I can hardly wait to get it and test it out.

Thanks for that info.  I'm flying to the UK next month and I'll be in Cardiff.  I keep saying I'm going to call in to AmigaKit's store and this will give me a perfect excuse.  I hope they'll have some Spider PCI cards in too.

[Darrin]

The cache and prefetch must be disabled in the current core. This is what is hurting performance, not the cpu extensions. The new memory controller and cache system does a lot better.
/MikeJ

Also, the Chameleon's soft 68000 isn't really running at 110MHz, despite what SysInfo says.  :-)

[Darrin]

TANGENT ALERT!

A couple of quick questions:
How long does it take to load a core on fpga devices? Is it an instant thing and is there a limit to the number of times you can write to a device (like flash)?

If I wanted to use a Keyrah interface would the core need to have support built in?

Thanks.

the core loads in the blink of an eye so you won't even have time to read the "credits" before the Amiga boots (abou 2 seconds approx).

Using a keyrah would require USB support.  Stick to a cheap PS2 keyboard.