Natami and FPGAArcade

[ferrellsl]

Has anyone considered using the fpgaarcade system to implement a lot of the Natami softcore code for testing.  It already has many of the hardware features we're looking for in the Natami and it already runs Minimig softcores.  But it's a bit more advanced than the Minimig in that it supports IDE, DVI, more RAM, etc.....

Any Natami team members on here who would like to comment?

See http://www.fpgaarcade.com

[mikej]

They are more than welcome if they wish to.

The FPGAArcade Amiga core will be enhanced and supported by me. With the patch daughter card it is possible to quickly wire up the original custom chips and check the behavior of the soft cores. We are doing this with the 68K soft core to start with, and I am building a 68030 onto the patch card as well to verify future 32 bit processor cores.

My Atari chips are cycle accurate, and hopefully we can get the open source Amiga core to the same state.

/Mike

[yakumo9275]

I'm just having this fpgaarcade board lust.  I so want want want

[ferrellsl]

Man, that is sweet!  I can't wait to get one with '030 and AGA or SAGA support.

[ferrellsl]

@MikeJ

Mike, you and Gunnar von Boehn should talk!

See:  http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=3¬e=6493

[mikej]

The hardware 68030 is to verify the accuracy of the softcore.

It won't be needed to run up the system. The optional daughter board will contain Ethernet and USB interfaces instead. If performance becomes an issue we might add an SRAM onto the expansion board (there are 120 odd pins to the FPGA) so the platform is expandable. The patchboards are also available so people can add other interfaces if they wish to.


/Mike

[mikej]

I should also add that the aim is to get this out as soon as possible. The time taken so far has been developing the hardware. Also, although this is an Amiga group, the aim is to also run other platforms such as the arcade games, Atari ST etc.

I have also ordered a 800x480 resolution 4.3" LCD with touch screen which will sit on the top board. I thought it would be fun, I always wanted a true portable Amiga - and software emulation doesn't count

Four prototype systems are in existence and have/will be shipped to developers who are working in this area.

Another 10 or so will be built next month.

/Mike

[AJCopland]

I want one of your boards once they're out Mike. I think it'll be a great piece of kit for running MiniMig and expanding upon it. Not to mention the numerous other possibilities for platforms!

The idea for the NatAmi is that it'll be fully open sourced I believe. So as long as there's room in the FPGA there should be no impediment to porting SAGA or the parts the people want across too a MiniMig/AGA core.

Andy

PS: it's really great seeing the continual progress on your site :-)

[ferrellsl]

@MikeJ

Mike,
     I think you and Gunnar should collaborate.  See his post here:  http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=3¬e=6493

Steve

[freqmax]

I think any joint venture is dependent on what license (GPL?) that will be used. Also I have a gut feeling that fpgaarcade will be out faster and cost less than NatAmi.

[mikej]

The aim is to be shipping by early summer.
The only license issues are with the C64 SID at the moment but this will be resolved.

Target price is 200Euro. Early samples might be slightly more, depends if a PCB respin is required or not. Volume production is possible at a much lower price.

/Mike

[freqmax]

I just read the thread "What is the max RAM on an A2500 and what determines it?". It should be possible to create an Zorro expansion slot card to fit those extra i/o pins. Would be an incredible fun thing to test physical expansion cards on a FPGA board
A an 100 ohm resistor in series should let the protection diodes of the FPGA handle the 5V -> 3.3V conversion. And 3.3V to 5V can be handled directly due compatible levels. The powersupply and other stuff should be straightforward.

What's up with C64 SID?

[FrenchShark]

Yep, what's wrong with the SID ?

I am finishing my own C64 implementation in VHDL (got the VSP and AGSP tricks working last weekend :-) ).
Do you use somebody else's SID ?

The SID is not so complex to implement compared to the VIC-II. I had quite a lot of head scratching with the filter but I figured it out now.

Regards,

Frederic

[mikej]

The NatAmi project looks very interesting. We are going in a slightly different direction - they are making a more powerful Amiga, while I wish to clone the original machines as accurately as possible for a low cost.

I can add some new features such as high screen resolutions and interfaces, but I don't plan a 3D engine etc

I'll have a chat to the guys.

My C64 code is based on Peter's design (same codebase as used in C-one) however the SID is not available. I had some code from another party but I can't open source that either, so I decided to write my own. There is some pretty detailed documentation from the die scans now. Frederic, if you wish to share your code I would be more than happy to come to some deal. Mail me directly.

Best,
Mike.

[FrenchShark]

Hello Mike,

let me finish the testing of the SID first.
I have seen the die scans but no detailled documentation except for the analog filter.
I am thinking about implementing a pseudo stereo mode too.

I also have the VIC-1541 being implemented in VHDL but it still has some bugs (IEC lock-ups). My guess is that the 6522 or 6526 implementations are not perfect.

Regards,

Frederic