MiniMig with AGA

[NovaCoder]

I have implemented all the AGA features into the Minimig core using MikeJ's Replay board. You can watch it running on YouTube.

[youtube][/youtube]

As there is no 68020+ IP core available the TG68 CPU core is used. It runs at 7.09 MHz with no bus latency and according to SysInfo is 1.85 faster than a stock A1200.

The 64 MB of DDR SDRAM is configured as 2 MB Chip, 1.5 MB Slow, 8 MB Fast and 48 MB of extra memory which can be used as additional Chip memory. You can have 50 MB of Chip RAM in total.

Nice, when will it be available to purchase?

[NovaCoder]

To create a 'nice' replacement AGA machine, all you'd need is to hook the FPGA Arcade to an 030 daughter board

An 060 100mhz would be a great option BUT would cost big $$$$

[NovaCoder]

Depends how much the daughter cards are. I've got six 100MHz 060 chips here I bought off eBay in a tray for under $40 a few years ago.

Yep I guess if they sold them unpopulated it could work but I was thinking about the new price of 060's vs the new price of 030's.

[NovaCoder]

what do you mean by 'new' ? I doubt any of the 68k line is being produced anymore ... So it'll have to be second hand no matter what ... :hammer:

You'd be suprised MC68030 68060

[NovaCoder]

@everybody else - I think the best all around core would be an 030 for game compatibility. Very few people run un-accelerated A1200...

I agree an 030 would be enough to run most (if not all) AGA software because it would be that much faster than a 'real' AGA machine.

[NovaCoder]

Go MikeJ

[NovaCoder]

I assume that this first batch is reserved for skillfull people like Yaqube and boing4000, and their peers of Atari ST and whatever other platforms the Replay targets. That would surely be for everyone's benefit, right?

That's right, give them to the people that will move the 'platform' on first, then when they get the softcore(s) working correctly Mike can do a new production run of a revised board for the the general populus (eg us).

I just hope that someone like AmigaKit or ACube pick this sucker up and market it properly.

[NovaCoder]

This thing keeps getting better guys

[NovaCoder]

Amiga.org does not have a quote contest, right?

OK, then I'm horny!

Quote contest?

Not sure but did you notice this thread has had 29,890 views!

[NovaCoder]

It's basically a retro 'machine' emulator.  It can be many types of system, what is of interest to us is that it might turn out to be a faster, enhanced, bug-fixed version of the original AGA machines....

[NovaCoder]

mm Guinness stained pcb's is Guinness corosive? I know Bushmills is

No, it's a preservative actually.....

[NovaCoder]

Just waiting for the assembly quote now, then I'll do the maths
/Mike

It will be interesting to see what kind of price you can sell an FPGA AGA machine for in 2010.  I reckon both Jens and the Natami boys will be watching with interest.

I'm interested to see how this thing will be developed in the next few years with FPGA revisions and software updates (the beauty of FPGA).  Just look at how much the original MiniMig has matured from its inception and then extrapolate

[note, big word day]

[NovaCoder]

While a custom p96 driver would be great (eg UAEGFX), to just do the WINUAE trick and boost chipram to 8mb and make it a faster would allow Ratte to develop some nice new drivers/modes.   Even without any new modes you'd be able to run in 1024x768 and 256 colours....just try it in WINUAE if you want to see how it performs

[NovaCoder]

I guess you didn't notice in the MiniMig AGA demo that it was running 50MB of chip ram...

[NovaCoder]

The WinUAE Amiga side P96 driver is closed source. Nevertheless the Minimig on the Replay board will have a true-colour RTG board and dedicated P96 driver (yes, I will write it). It won't happen before the 020 compatible CPU core is available (guess why).

The AGA chipset will be enhanced with chunky modes very soon. The chip memory bus access is already contention free but will be improved significantly in the near future.

Cool this is what I (and loads of other people) wanted to hear.  

How are coders (like myself) going to support these new chunky modes?   Will it be as easy as a patch to the API (eg writeChunkyPixels) to use the new modes?  In other words, patch the API so that it skips the internal C2P.

You should also have a word with Ratte (the guy behind HighGFX) to see if he can create some new WB screen modes for this sucker.