FPGA Replay Board

[Dozer]

I have to agree with the posters above me (both in the thread and in knowledge

Let MikeJ and the other "hardcore" people try this out, find obscure bugs and so on, and let the rest of us wait a bit longer before we get our hands on these boards.

Ofcourse, I'd like a board right now, now, before xmas, I'll pay a mountain of money for it .. But I'd also like something that I don't have to deliver bugreports every day for, and something that actually runs the software / games I want

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get another board, and that I actually get to order one.

To all of the developers and bugtesters: thankyou for your dedication and hard work.

[Dozer]

I haven't recieved a reply either, so I'm guessing it'll take some time. Then again, I've been waiting for a few years, so a few months won't matter much Keep up the _very_ good work, all of you

[Dozer]

Since the daughterboard needs a cpu, I started poking around ebay for a  used 68060, but the prices are rather steep.. (~100USD). Then I found  this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nortel-Meridian-NT5D03FB-CP-Rlse-02-68060E-128MB-64F-Module-/320877034462

Anyone know if that cpu actually would be usable? A bit of googling  shows that it should be a proper 68060@50MHz, and at that price I bought  one. (still one available if you feel like possibly wasting money)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68060 shows that Nortel did use a 68060, but I'm not sure about that e at the end..

[Dozer]

Since the daughterboard needs a cpu, I started poking around ebay for a  used 68060, but the prices are rather steep.. (~100USD). Then I found  this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nortel-Meridian-NT5D03FB-CP-Rlse-02-68060E-128MB-64F-Module-/320877034462

And I received it..

It's an LC version, and it's soldered to the board. No go unfortunately. I guess I'll have to put my faith in MikeJ's angels and their awesome 060-hunting-skills

[Dozer]

I've done some searching and reading in this thread, but either I've missed it, or you simply haven't said anything about it

What's the goal when it comes to compatibility for this board? 100% with an A1200, 100% A4000, or?

The thing is, I'm involved with the demoscene, and even though the Amiga-percentage of demos are declining, there is still a few who make good stuff for this platform. The biggest problem with such demos is that you need an A1200 with 060 (or A4000 with 060) or a well-configured UAE to even be able to watch them. Getting proper videosignals for capturing for either of these devices are even harder than ... well, it's not easy UAE tends to loose sync every now and then aswell..

If this device can give us a proper signal on the DVI-port, capturing it would be easy as pie

Don't get me wrong, I've already ordered one, but I keep my fingers crossed for even demo-compatibility

[Dozer]

Wow, my last post just goes to show that the world is indeed small. Got a textmessage from an friend back in the "old days", telling me that he actually HAS a board that I can borrow to test stuff with.

Awesome, I just hope the core he has is somewhat more stable than my (now sold) A4000

[Dozer]

 I can see the argument for a 7mhz 68000 profile, but anything other than that should just run as fast as it can. Even a 68020 is a waste.

No it is not; demos bang the hardware quite bad.

Try watching TBL-Tint on ANYTING but an A1200 with a 50 MHz 68030. Most likely it will crash and burn (even with the 040/060 patch)
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=701

Most demos nowadays are timed exactly on an A1200 with 50MHz 68060, if you use the Apollo Boards with a 66 MHz, the sync is lost quite often.

So, yes, we NEED proper settings, with cpu-selection and speed-setting to be able to watch the demos as intended

As a minimum:
7.14 MHz 68000
14.28 MHz 68020
50 MHz 68030
50 MHz 68060
66 MHz 68060 (some demos actually rely on this... )

Then again, this is to watch demos.. If all you want is to fire up the good old games, then "stock" settings would probably be enough.

[Dozer]

Banging the hardware doesn't have to mean incompatible. Frank Wille's SqrxzOCS game port bangs the hardware but works on 68000-68060, OCS-AGA, AmigaOS 1.x-3.x, is hard drive installable and properly exits.

I stand corrected, and need to clarify: "Demos aren't made to work on every hardwarecombination. They are made to work on the programmers computer, and will quite often not work as intended on other combinations"
Yes, democoders are somewhat lazy and in a timesqueeze, they make shortcuts. Just ask the guys behind the MindCandy DVD's (notably: http://www.demodvd.org/blog  

So we need settings for every possible 68k processor at every possible speed of every possible accelerator with every speed of memory with OCS, ECS, or AGA on an Amiga 500, 600, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3000T, 4000, 4000T, CDTV or CD32 and cycle exact in both CPU and all custom chips so we can watch poorly programmed old demos. Mike might be busy for awhile. We could have new and better demos (as well as apps and games) on a faster and enhanced CPU and custom chips in a fraction of the time. Basic compatibility is good but supporting every poorly written program is ludicrous. We can patch what is important and make videos of troublesome demos.

Not what I said. Most (still, not all) demos will run on either A500, A1200, A1200 with 68030@50MHz, A1200 with 68060@50MHz and A1200 with 68060@60MHz. (all with various ram-configs)

Patching and messing with the demos isn't something that should be done. If the hardware aims to be 100% cycle-exact, then this won't be a problem.

Again, don't get me wrong, cycle-exact is a proper troll to mess with, and I do see the problems. These are all dreams, and if I'm able to watch (and capture) some demos on the ReplayBoard, I'll be a happy camper, and my money will be well spent. Every single demo (and game or other software) that runs is a victory.

[Dozer]

Anyway, getting back on track...

What's the latest core available for the boards already out? Mine is shipped, but according to the owner, it has a rather old core and is "just a tad unstable".

It might be the latest one publicly available, but ..

[Dozer]

I have been holding off pushing out any intermediate versions during the re-write, and the new core addresses most if not all of the stability issues. It may introduce more bugs of course, but these will be quickly squashed

This is rarely said, especially by me.

Mike, you are an awesome individual, thankyou for all your work :-)

[Dozer]

Just to add my 2c

I have a real Amiga 1200 with an 060 and even I can't run all 060 demos so I don't see how anyone could expect an FPGA based system to run everything.

All 060-demos should run on your computer. However, you might need OxyPatcher AND setpatch, and startup with no startup-sequence.

[Dozer]

Ok, this might be a completely moronic and stupid question, but I'll ask anyway

I see that more and more people use FPGA-stuff to revive old platforms. Are the cards somewhat compatible, or will complete rewrites be needed?

The thing I'm wondering in particular, is if we can use the Replay Board to run C64-stuff, since that seems to be relatively complete right now

http://www.syntiac.com/chameleon.html

So, will I need to buy the Chameleon to do C64-stuff, or will the Replay Board support the same cores? (most likely, there will have to be a few changes, but that should be feasible I hope)

[Dozer]

Someone will have to port a C64 FPGA implementation to the FPGA Arcade, but once that's done, it should work fine. That's one of Mike's design aims, and he wants it to be easy to create new cores to recreate other systems besides the Amiga and various arcade games.

I expect that all systems up to and including fast expanded A1200s and Atari Falcons will be reimplementable on the FPGA Arcade. Maybe even the 3DO.

Fantastic

Someone should really make a page with some generic info on the fpga; since most of the really good info is buried way deep in this thread, and probably a few other places aswell.

.. Or even a Wiki, with a few test-setups, howto's and so on. Does this exist already, or is it something that will have to be done? (and, is an outsider like me welcome to set this up, or should it be done by the devteam when they have the time?)

[Dozer]

Of which year? iirc I'm waiting since april 2011

I'm guessing you're getting yours before I get mine then ..

Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:26:59 +0100
From: MikeJ

Done, I've added you to the list.
Best,
Mike

I'll be waiting, patiently, over here

[Dozer]

Not complaining, but I emailed mike years ago, and I haven't seen a single reply......maybe I'm far down the list, but whatever.

You and me both man. I did get a reply however, stating that he had received the email and that I was on the list. This is now a few years back, and I'm sure I'm still on the list. As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, MikeJ is in "devmode" and doing the best bugkilling a man can do (from what I've heard elsewhere, he's a perfectionist and never does anything half-hearted)

I do, however, also have a devboard with one of the first cores and even though it is unstable as "#$"#$"# ... The buildquality and general "look" of the board is utterly amazing. I am willing to wait for a new version of the board and pay the amount of money needed to get a board for myself (the devboard is on temporary loan

TL;DR: We have waited years and years for this board. Surely we can wait a few more (yes, I probably said the same thing about the AAA chipset back in '93-'94, but the point still stands