Minimig PCB run - interest thread

[pedro7]

Please please please make it to some recognised standard size and mounting hole placement.
Mini-itx or nano-itx I don't mind but smaller is better if possible.

[mongo]

Baby steps folks. Nevermind the PCI and IDE and all that crap. If future expansion is in our minds, we should focus on Zorro-II and possible RAM/CPU expansions first. Zorro-II being the first priority, as there are many A2K expansions out there (like SCSI interfaces) that would be well within the realm of MiniMigs current specs.

IDE would be cheap and easy to add. Really not much point in using a Zorro-II SCSI card.

Zorro-II would be easy to add too, since it's pretty much just the 68k bus with a few extra signals added.

I wouldn't bother with PCI though, too much hassle and too little gain. Especially since the Minimig is currently 68000 only.

16 bit sound and RTG compatible video cards could be integrated within the FPGA itself, no need to use an external device for these.

[freqmax]

ATA (IDE), ZorroII, SCSI all wants a large number of I/O pins. There a currently 4 remaining. A few more possible by reusing boot configuration pins. Getting larger fpga means BGA and that is a path you don't want to go.

But fpgas are capable of really fast communications, esp the standard spartan3. So a possibility is to use the leftover I/O to connect another fpga to hookup these things. Essentially a "south bridge" running on a pseudo serial bus.

Not minding the cost of an extra fpga, special copper trace requirements, support circuitry, power, and connectors.

[Hans_]

freqmax wrote:
ATA (IDE), ZorroII, SCSI all wants a large number of I/O pins. There a currently 4 remaining. A few more possible by reusing boot configuration pins. Getting larger fpga means BGA and that is a path you don't want to go.

But fpgas are capable of really fast communications, esp the standard spartan3. So a possibility is to use the leftover I/O to connect another fpga to hookup these things. Essentially a "south bridge" running on a pseudo serial bus.

Not minding the cost of an extra fpga, special copper trace requirements, support circuitry, power, and connectors.

Alternately you could connect the Zorro bus bridge directly to the CPU bus, leaving the FPGA to do the rest of the chipset. Using a serial link to another FPGA (or even a CPLD) would be fine for slower peripherals such as IDE.

Hans

[freqmax]

It would save costs possibly to connect directly. However in the eyes of an FPGA, Amiga electronics is like snails.

[JimS]

freqmax wrote:
ATA (IDE), ZorroII, SCSI all wants a large number of I/O pins. There a currently 4 remaining. A few more possible by reusing boot configuration pins. Getting larger fpga means BGA and that is a path you don't want to go.

I was looking at the schematics earlier toady. It might be possible to pick up 5 extra fpga pins by multiplexing the joystick ports. This would require adding another chip to the board though.

Personally, I don't see the need for PCI, Zorro, or SCSI. It would fun to add USB and MP3 to the SPI ports, though. Hook up a Vinculum Vmusic board and you've hot both.

[freqmax]

The thing with Minimig is access to software primarly, and hardware secondarly.
PCI, SCSI can be had on any PC, Or networked to the amiga (another issue..  ;-))

Zorro could be useful for expansion cards that you simple can't run on any other hardware.
Then there's the situation with software that requires certain hardware.

I think USB might become neccessary due that keyboards & mouse  might become only available in that format. But ps/2 is a simple solution that will work for a long time. And I think the effort is better spent on other parts.
Maybe USB memories/ethernet could make it worthwhile anyway?

[mongo]

Alternately you could connect the Zorro bus bridge directly to the CPU bus, leaving the FPGA to do the rest of the chipset. Using a serial link to another FPGA (or even a CPLD) would be fine for slower peripherals such as IDE.

The Zorro bus IS the CPU bus.

Same deal with the IDE, for the most part.

[freqmax]

Ok, so how much extra circuitry is needed?
Any idea how long flatcable Zorro manages?

[Snocksman]

Ok, Girls now I´m hot...  :madashell:  I want my Minimig as fast as possible !

@Xenepp:
When do you think you´ll be able to order our minimig-babies and what will be the price for one minimig ?

[Everblue]

Sounds good to me!!!

Xenepp wrote:
It looks like there is enough interest to do it, but I'll not be taking any payments until I have the PCBs in hand. It's far less complicated that way.

Once I have the design done, the price is set and everyone's happy I'll start making a list of those who wants one. Obviously, the more that want them, the cheaper it will end up being.

It's a good idea I think to design it to fit standard Mini-ITX cases. This way, people have a lot of options with how they'll case it up and I can make an Amiga type case to Mini-ITX specs, giving me a firm guideline. Nano-ITX is too small to route traces for all those connectors.

Thing only drawback is that it'll get bigger. The beauty of Minimig is that it's so small but then it doesn't lend itself well to casing with ports everywhere.

So what does everyone think about that?

Joel

[whabang]

I'd be interested in an ATX board, as long as there is a floppy and IDE controller on it.

Well, any form factor that will fit in an ATX case would do.

[pixie]

alexh wrote:

If Dennis wanted to make any money from this he would have. He could have made and sold boards... THEN at a later date release the JUST the binary FPGA file.

There was an opportunity for him to make money from this and he chose not to AND provide the source.

He is a great man for doing that. A better man than myself I fear.

I for one would like to contribute to him, if I bought a MiniMig capable PCB.

Well deserved money is never to be ashamed of earning it, at least not a reason to be any worst (or do you think only bad people deserve to make money :-P), nor anything stopping Dennis or anyone else for that matter to make money with it. In the end Dennis might make money, direct or indirectly from it, or at the very least I hope to be so as it he rightly deserves it!

On a side note I think both bounties #23 and #24 would fit perfectly towards MiniMig goals, presenting an Open Source solution completely free from (sc)Amiga IP.

[pixie]

mongo wrote:

IDE would be cheap and easy to add. Really not much point in using a Zorro-II SCSI card.

Given a machine as Minimig what would you use an IDE drive for? At least when against a 2Gb USB pen, where you could fit almost any games and change it on the fly and cheaply.

It would add space also...

[mongo]

Given a machine as Minimig what would you use an IDE drive for? At least when against a 2Gb USB pen, where you could fit almost any games and change it on the fly and cheaply.

USB requires a USB controller and a USB stack, both of which are more complex to implement than IDE.

Besides, Compact Flash cards work quite nicely on IDE. No need for a hard drive if you don't want one.

[pixie]

No pain, no game... ;-)