FPGA Replay Board

[JimDrew]

Before production boards were started, I made a change to my SuperCard Pro project to make the floppy bus fully bi-directional.  This means that besides being able to use a real floppy drive, it can also emulate a floppy drive.  So, we can use protected disk images via the built-in microSD card slot.  Besides USB (using a parallel FTDI USB FIFO chip), there are also two 1Mbps serial buses that can be used to transfer data.  So, theoretically it should be possible to boot protected disk images from an SD card and not require a real floppy.  I am just starting the drive emulation support, but since its mostly hardware driven (capture/compare w/DMA) I don't think there is too much to do to make it all work... famous last words!  LOL!

[Lord Aga]

being able to use a real floppy drive

This is a great addition to FPGA Arcade Makes it more Amigaish !

[JimDrew]

True, but for me, I wanted something I could put inside of my A1200 to replace the floppy drive, and still be able to play Shadow of the Beast from "floppy".  

[freqmax]

This is a great addition to FPGA Arcade Makes it more Amigaish !

Better start coding of the thermal fatigue emulation module..

[AJCopland]

Yes, the main board supports RTG. The soft CPU has some compatibility issues so until these are resolved the 68060 on the daughterboard is required.
Hopefully this will be improved.
/MikeJ

That's good to know, any more news on the board bringup itself or it just the usual slog through issues at the moment?

Andy

[mikej]

That's good to know, any more news on the board bringup itself or it just the usual slog through issues at the moment?

Andy

Looking good, test hardware complete and running. Replaced regs on 10 boards and they are under soak test at the moment.
/MikeJ

[freqmax]

What's a soak test?

[Darrin]

What's a soak test?

I believe it has something to do with wanking over them and not wiping it off until it dries.  Mike will have to confirm this.

I'd put my name down for board #11 if this is the case.

[mikej]

What's a soak test?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soak_testing

[freqmax]

Guess the "soak" part confused me. I thought on dipping them in some chemical solution

[carvedeye]

Guess the "soak" part confused me. I thought on dipping them in some chemical solution

yeah me to lol

[freqmax]

"Howdy-dodi the Swedish cook thinks the little circuit boards needs a nice warm bath to get rid of all those dirty bugs"

Anyway, here's a quick reference to the schematic - Replay 1.02 RevB:
fpgaarcade_replay_b02_schematic.pdf and placement.pdf + photo.jpg

Page 1: U4 - LM2853MH-3.3 (3.3V 3A) ; U12 - MCP1703 (3.3V 0.250A analog) ; U9 - LM2852YMXA-2.5 (2.5V 2A) ; U2 - LP2995MR (2.5V reference) ; U2 - LP2995MR (2.5V Vtt) ; U3 - APX809 (reset) ; U14 - LM2852YMXA-1.2 (1.2V 2A)

Page 2: U6 - AT91SAM7S256 (microcontroller) ; P13 - Micro USB type B (ARM CPU) ; P17 - SD/MMC ; U5 - XC3S1200E (bank 2/ config+jtag) ; P15 - JTAG

Page 3: U5 - XC3S1200E (bank0+1/ peripherals and memory)

Page 4: U5 - XC3S1200E (bank2+3/ video and I/O)

Page 5: U5 - XC3S1200E (Vcc+GND) ; U8 - 46V32M16-6T F (DDRx16 TSOP66 64 MByte)

Page 6: U10 - CH7301C-TF-QFP64 (DVI & DAC) ; U15 - MCP1703T (video TVdd) ; P22 - DVI-I connector

Page 7: U11 - THS7353 (video filter) ; P3 - joystick ; P7 - aux ; P16 - joystick/video ;

Page 8: U13 - WM8729 (audio D/A) ; U16 - AD723 (TV encoder) ; P20 - S-Video ; X1 - HC49-27.000 MHz (oscillator) ; U7 - CDCE906 (clock generator) ; P21 - PS/2 keyboard+mouse ; P1 - FPGA or ARM TxD (jumper selection) ; U1 - MAX232 (RS-232) ; P4 - DE9M (RS-232) ; P8 - BSE_080-01-L-D-A (expansion board) ; P18 - 2xDE9M (joystick)

FPGA: Overall schematic says XC3S1200E-FG320-4, but page 3 says fitted part is XC3S1600E-FG320-4

[psxphill]

Guess the "soak" part confused me. I thought on dipping them in some chemical solution

Yeah, it's not a particularly descriptive name. I have never heard the origin of the term, but I expect there was some logical reason.
 
Burn in testing doesn't quite mean what it sounds like either.

[EDanaII]

I suppose I would have used the term "load" or "stress" testing, but it sounds like soak testing might be slightly different from those two processes...

[JimDrew]

The term "soak test" comes from the test procedure that focuses on long term thermal testing - where parts can be "soaked" at varying temperatures during the test.

NASA uses this frequently with their boards that go outside of our atmosphere (heat soaking/cold soaking).   I used cold soaking for my project with James Cameron's Mariana trench dive.  The electronics I designed for that had to withstand sub-zero temperatures at over 16,500 psi.  They actually were tested (in a chamber) to over 18,000 psi, sub-zero to +150F - up and down in pressure and temperature to see if they would fail.  No failures in 3 sets of boards... surprised me for sure.

[Ezrec]

"Howdy-dodi the Swedish cook thinks the little circuit boards needs a nice warm bath to get rid of all those dirty bugs"

Anyway, here's a quick reference to the schematic - Replay 1.02 RevB:

Just in case any of these datasheets/companies go offline, I've archived your message and *all* of the linked datasheets at:

http://www.evillabs.net/FPGAArcade_B02/