[Vampire] The AMIGA Future Is NOW! AROS!

[nicholas]

Is Mike still around here? Would be interesting to see if he'll be able to/want to add the SAGA code to the FPGA Arcade boards.

[nicholas]

Hi, sometimes yes.

I've no idea what SAGA is? If it's documented / open source then potentially, I see it as a 3rd party add-in to the original machines, much like an RTG graphics card.

I'm trying to model the original hardware/CPU as accurate as possible. Additions I have made, such as expanding the address range of chipset memory pointers for example, are configurable.

I'm spending time working on a Slower CPU which is more accurate
(and the rasp pi compute module running just CPU emulation)

/Mike

It's a Verilog clone of the AGA chipset but with extra features that weren't part of the original chipset. In the thread linked below Gunnar announced he's open sourcing it.

[nicholas]

Open Source Amiga, don't exists.
It's Amiga or not.

AROS = Amiga REPLACEMENT O.S.

So, it's "like" but.

Amiga is hardware.
AROS is software.
AROS runs on Amiga hardware.
Your problem is?

[nicholas]

I just read the thread. We already have two hdl implementations of the AGA chipset, mine and the minimig derived one. We have extensions such as extra memory, RTG, AHI audio etc already.

I guess the game here is to add propriety extra features and build a new platform, but that potentially breaks back compatibility. For them it makes sense to open source that part of the design to encourage people to use those features. Personally I'm much more interested in a new, cycle accurate (and high performance compatible) open source CPU, which is what we are working towards.
Why not just compile AROS to cheap modern CPU platforms?
/Mike

I must say I'm more interested in the ARM board being made to run a 68k emulator and appear as a real 68k cpu to the Amiga than anything else at the moment.

As i understand it the SAGA core is fully backward compatible with the original AGA chipset though.

[nicholas]

I don't have any problem.
But I call the things by his name.
Amiga is hardware and his OS.
Others is "like".

No, Amiga is hardware. There are many OS's that run on Amiga hardware. An Amiga doesn't stop being an Amiga because you run Linux/MINIX/BSD/MorphOS/TOS/AROS on it.

[nicholas]

"

This is what I'm doing. The FPGA will have a cycle accurate 68000/20 based closely on the original device, probably with some optional speed ups similar to the current design.

The 68060 add on board is pretty much done, and I'm playing with the PI compute module as a fast 68060 emulator. It has something called SMI which allows me to directly connect it to the FPGA. As the PI is just running the CPU, it's very fast even on a single core.

David has been doing some excellent bare-metal work here emulating the 6502.

https://github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect

Looks good!

Are there any of the x86-based RPi style boards that have similar SMI functionality? I've always fantasised about an accelerator card that was nothing but a screaming fast x86 running a CPU emulator.

[nicholas]

There was also this attempt at a Trance style 68k emulator for x86 AROS but it was never finished.

https://github.com/moggen/emumiga/blob/master/README