FPGA Replay Board

[AmigaPixel]

A very exciting project! I haven't had a chance to read the planned specs much, Is it strictly for AGA games or will it be backward compatibe for KS 1.3 OCS/ECS games like the Minimig?

[Linde]

I suppose it will be like a real AGA Amiga in that some OCS/ECS games will have to be patched to run properly, or that you'd have to set up ECS compatibility in the early startup menu. As a whdload user, I don't mind either way.

[freqmax]

With FPGA it's possible to load any hardware combination you can imagine.

The only thing this FPGA thing lacks is an Zorro bus interface.

[mikej]

With FPGA it's possible to load any hardware combination you can imagine.

The only thing this FPGA thing lacks is an Zorro bus interface.

The core options, such as AGA enable are set up with the on screen menu. They can actually be switched live (at the moment) but this may make the system fall over. I guess I should force some options to only become active on a restart.

Why do you want a Zorro bus? There are a huge amount of pins to the expansion connector, so I could implement a Zorro bus if needed, and a daughter board bridge. What would you connect though?
Cheers,
MikeJ

[freqmax]

I was thinking on say unusual video grabbers etc.. that could need this. I don't think it's worthwhile atm to persue Zorro. But I hope all I/O that would be needed is available at the expansion slot?

Btw, how is XC3S1200 supply?, seems Xilinx is going for Spartan-6 for the "low-end" FPGAs.

[Belial6]

What would be interesting is if the expansion slot could dedicate a pin or two to a low speed serial connection that could query anything plugged in to determine what kind of expansion device was connected.  That way, any expansion devices in the future, like a Zorro slot, could just include the cheapest pic they could get their hands on to respond when the FPGAArcade queries the board, and everything could auto configure.

[ferrellsl]

With FPGA it's possible to load any hardware combination you can imagine.

The only thing this FPGA thing lacks is an Zorro bus interface.

A Zorro bus would be a complete waste.  Nobody is producing any Zorro hardware and why would you want to connect a 20 yr old Zorro device to this system when you have several other interfaces that are modern and more efficient?

[billt]

A Zorro bus would be a complete waste.  Nobody is producing any Zorro hardware and why would you want to connect a 20 yr old Zorro device to this system when you have several other interfaces that are modern and more efficient?

Educational purposes only I suppose.

http://opencores.org/project,zorro_to_wishbone_bridge

[xyzzy]

USB to Zorro bus adapter anyone?

[Darrin]

I think there is an opportunity here for someone like Elbox to produce a Zorro/PCI daughterboard along the lines of the one I have in my towered A4000 for any "power users" who wish to expand the hell out of this board.

It might be something for them to think about.

[digiflip]

or wait for natami or fpga arcade 2

[Belial6]

While I could see a PCI slot on a future FPGAArcade, I would be shocked to see a Zorro slot.  Remember, FPGAArcade is not an Amiga board.  It is a Retro system board.  Zorro would only have a use for those of us using it for Amiga.

[mikej]

I was thinking on say unusual video grabbers etc.. that could need this. I don't think it's worthwhile atm to persue Zorro. But I hope all I/O that would be needed is available at the expansion slot?

Btw, how is XC3S1200 supply?, seems Xilinx is going for Spartan-6 for the "low-end" FPGAs.

There is no reason other people can't produce daughter cards - Jakub built his own from my specs. I have a proto-card as well which you can build your own circuits on. You'll get ethernet and usb on my daughter card.

It's a Spartan3e1600 actually. No problems with supply, I've got around 50 arriving next week. I can always get them in China as well. No EOL on these yet.

Spartan6 is very interesting but is quite a bit more expensive at the moment.

Once we've knocked out a few hundred of the current card it may be time to move on, next year I guess.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

"While I could see a PCI slot"
You can already do this with the expansion bus available.
A simple bus mastering PCI core is not hard (I've written one before), but again, not sure I see the point.

For next gen card I would use a Spartan6 and then you could wire up a few SerDes lanes to the expansion connector and have PCIexpress.
/Mike

[JimS]

I don't see the need for a zorro slot either... A video slot for the Toaster might be slightly sensible. ;-) Or at least something in the "neat hack" category.

[freqmax]

Infact PCI-express might be worthwhile if the Spartan-6 rocketports can handle it nativly. The reason is that this could be done with very few signals or I/O slots. Which reduces cost.
These rocketports can also handle S-ATA nativly asfair.

Maybe I should say that the original Zorro comment was a little bit a joke. Ie the only thing missing .. (tm)

The only hardware that may need physical connection are the ones that interface with outside world in areas that the built-in functions won't cover.