TG68 Accelerator?

[Dr_Righteous]

With all of the work done on the minimig, I was wondering if anyone had considered designing a DIY TG68 accelerator for the classic systems (I'm desperate for something for this A4K). Both the Spartan 3 and the Cyclone II can run at 250+MHz... That's gotta stomp a mudhole in an 040. And by gods we need the memory upgrade.

By DIY I mean those interested may purchase a PCB, buy their own parts and whip out the ol' soldering iron. No need for the designer to fork out a bunch of cash building something that may or may not sell.

Seriously, with all the microcontroller and PLD geniuses we seem to have running around this site, someone out there should be able do this.

[HammerD]

With all of the work done on the minimig, I was wondering if anyone had considered designing a DIY TG68 accelerator for the classic systems (I'm desperate for something for this A4K). Both the Spartan 3 and the Cyclone II can run at 250+MHz... That's gotta stomp a mudhole in an 040. And by gods we need the memory upgrade.

By DIY I mean those interested may purchase a PCB, buy their own parts and whip out the ol' soldering iron. No need for the designer to fork out a bunch of cash building something that may or may not sell.

Seriously, with all the microcontroller and PLD geniuses we seem to have running around this site, someone out there should be able do this.

I'd love to see any kind of new non-68K accelerator for A3000/A4000...but so far no one or no company has brought one to market.  Too bad for us

People over the years have asked about new PPC accelerators for classics, but nothing has come....so that is why you still see sky-high ebay and used prices for cyberstorm PPC's, for example.

[Piru]

With all of the work done on the minimig, I was wondering if anyone had considered designing a DIY TG68 accelerator for the classic systems (I'm desperate for something for this A4K). Both the Spartan 3 and the Cyclone II can run at 250+MHz... That's gotta stomp a mudhole in an 040. And by gods we need the memory upgrade.

It doesn't have a 020, 030, 040 or 060 core. Once such core exist, it remains to be seen how well it actually performs against the real thing.

Yet, why an accelerator? Just have the whole system on chip...

[kolla]

Indeed, replace the old tired mobo with a smaller and more efficient one
Replacement mobos for A1200 and A600 would be nice.

[HammerD]

Indeed, replace the old tired mobo with a smaller and more efficient one
Replacement mobos for A1200 and A600 would be nice.

Sure...buy a NatAmi (if it's ever done...) or a minimig+030+aga core, which looks like it will be out way sooner than NatAmi

[AJCopland]

Yet, why an accelerator? Just have the whole system on chip...

Good question, but if you've already got the whole system with a slow CPU and want to accelerate it then it makes sense.

Also the "whole system" doesn't yet exist, although Yaqube might have solved that, so it makes sense to build it in parts.
Make a replica of the OCS/ECS (MiniMig) using a real 68k - - > then along came TG68k.
use the TG68k in a real AGA amiga  - - > someone (Yaqube) builds a replica AGA.

Beside even when there is Mikej's, Natami, SuperMiniMig3.0 & TG68 + YaqubeAGA some people will still want to replace dead CPU boards in their A1/2/3/4000s.

Just my opinion.

Andy

[DyLucke]

it doesn't have a 020, 030, 040 or 060 core. Once such core exist, it remains to be seen how well it actually performs against the real thing.

Yet, why an accelerator? Just have the whole system on chip...

agree.

[Gulliver]

The drawback: the Altera DE2 board costs more than 495 USD alone, imagine if you want to create a market for that product!!!

http://www.altera.com/education/univ/materials/boards/unv-de2-board.html

The MiniMig is cheaper, but its features are nothing to keep me interested on it.

The FPGAArcade (i dont know its proper name) seems much more reasonable and something really tempting!

[DyLucke]

Beside even when there is Mikej's, Natami, SuperMiniMig3.0 & TG68 + YaqubeAGA some people will still want to replace dead CPU boards in their A1/2/3/4000s.


Andy

Hmmmm, it would be a good idea to be able to fit one of these into a desktop A1200 case,
just for dead board replacement purposes. No? Some Kit could be made after the Superminimig is done.

[SamuraiCrow]

This thread on the Natami forums discussed some of the interest in such a board.  The 68050 core is nearly done.  It's not a GPL core though, which makes it unsuitable for use with the Minimig core.

[HammerD]

This thread on the Natami forums discussed some of the interest in such a board.  The 68050 core is nearly done.  It's not a GPL core though, which makes it unsuitable for use with the Minimig core.

I'm all for the NATAMI project but it just seems to be taking a very long time...and I'm not optimistic they will have any end-user "for sale" product this year.

[Dr_Righteous]

Yeah, not the point guys.

I figure since no one wants to actually build and sell accelerators for classic machines anymore, one of our talented PLD guys could at least come up with the design for one. A 250MHz 000 core has to be an improvement over a 25MHz 040. Not to mention a decent RAM upgrade.

The cool part would be being able to upgrade the CPU core just by reprogramming the PLD.

Failing this project, a DIY 060 design would suffice. I see them all over eBay.

[alexh]

SuperMiniMig3.0 & TG68

Not heard of this.

I figure since no one wants to actually build and sell accelerators for classic machines anymore, one of our talented PLD guys could at least come up with the design for one.

Someone is/was designing an A600 accelerator. Jens Schoenfeld was one. Some guys over at EAB were others.

A 250MHz 000 core has to be an improvement over a 25MHz 040.

You cannot get an FPGA today (at an affordable price) which could run TG68 that fast. And even if you could I doubt it would be as fast as a 66MHz 060.

[countzero]

By DIY I mean those interested may purchase a PCB, buy their own parts and whip out the ol' soldering iron.

Cyclone 2 comes in either BGA or TQFP package. While TQFP is possible, soldering a BGA component to a board is beyond most home users skills, and requires a professional hot air working station.

[countzero]

The drawback: the Altera DE2 board costs more than 495 USD alone, imagine if you want to create a market for that product!!!

http://www.altera.com/education/univ/materials/boards/unv-de2-board.html

I believe the OP was not talking about using a development board, but a custom designed one to fit in a miggy. The price of a Cyclone 2 chip alone is not that much (definitely cheaper than a second hand 68060 these days).

The only drawback here is that Cyclone 2 is a 3.3v chip, and it may require some work to interface it to the Amiga bus. I wonder if the DE2 Tobias used is 5v tolerant ?