FPGA Replay Board

[wrath of khan]

A few questions about the fpga arcade board. The amiga part is it faster or improved over an aga machine? As i understand it we can flash a hardware system to the board thru' software and it can mimic a variety of systems?What percentage of compatability is there for the amiga/st other systems?What are the benefits now or for the future for the fpga arcade over a regular amiga?I assume we can run roms/games on it and it can be like an arcade system.Is their a casing planned.etc.Lot's of questions i know.Im not a technical computer guy so any responses are appreciated thanks.

[wodan]

Is the source for these improved cores available somewhere?

[Jose]

Shame that it's produced in China.

[espskog]

@Mike: Very cool to hear about the progress of the Daughter board. I am waiting eagerly to get my hands on one of them as soon as you start shipping.

[amigadave]

My version of Jakub's core is now up and running - I've been adding some customisation for the Replay board etc. Not totally finished yet but getting close. This will beta while Jakub and I figure out to merge back. He is focusing more on RTG graphics and the 68060 at the moment.

I've finished testing another 5 boards today which will ship.

I'm also working on the daughter board, still aiming for mid-late April PCB production, depending on how long it takes to get the new firmware released.

/Mike

Your progress on the daughter board does not mean that the PCB production you are aiming for in mid-late April is for more daughter boards, does it?  I thought your earlier posts indicated that you were almost ready for a "large" production run for the regular FPGA Arcade Replay boards.  Is that correct?  Or do you have a planned production run of more daughter boards for mid-late April?

Are the next batch of boards going to be assembled more by the plant that is doing the surface mounted part soldering, so that the boards you receive will be ready to test and ship, or are you staying with the same partial assembly by the Chinese with you doing the through hole components soldering yourself, then the testing, before they are ready to ship out?

I already have mine, but I think these questions when answered, will prevent some of the confusion that might exist regarding your next plans.

Congrats on getting closer to being ready to sell more of your boards.  I am looking forward to the updated firmware and also eventually for the daughter boards to become available.

[mikej]

Is the source for these improved cores available somewhere?

Wodan,
Unlike every other project in this area, the source for this will be available at release.
May I ask why you ask? If you are interested in developing, and have some experience in this area drop me a mail.
Best,
/MikeJ

[mikej]

Shame that it's produced in China.

It's a fair point. The first boards were all made in Scandinavia, but I had real trouble finding a company who would bother to look at it. Those that did quote were >10x the price of a very good factory in China. I have also had quality issues with EU companies, not China ones interestingly.

With volume production it may be possible to move back to Europe, but for now you would have to pay @50-60Euro more per board for that.

I did get some help from two UK companies, but at that time I had already done the deal in China.
/MikeJ

[espskog]

@Mike: can you give a short status on the coming core and daughterboard ?

[wizard66]

@Mike: can you give a short status on the coming core and daughterboard ?

Yes please, and What I really want to know if the cache crash is fixed so the processor can run full speed now ! without crashing the system..

[mikej]

I "think" it will run at full speed, the design is timing-clean now. However, I have broken write to SD card at the moment, so I can't save a config file.
I will recompile and change the defaults to check.
It is running with selectable scan doubler now and svhs output it working well.
Composite is a bit iffy in PAL but the sync's are not quite right. Using my test pattern generator I get a clean picture.
/Mike

[Kremlar]

Any confirmation on what kind of 68060 the daughterboard will require yet?  Will an EC version work?  If so, what are the disadvantages of using one for general and game use?

[Darrin]

I "think" it will run at full speed, the design is timing-clean now. However, I have broken write to SD card at the moment, so I can't save a config file.
I will recompile and change the defaults to check.
It is running with selectable scan doubler now and svhs output it working well.
Composite is a bit iffy in PAL but the sync's are not quite right. Using my test pattern generator I get a clean picture.
/Mike

I was wondering what the delay was.

Has the soft-68020 core been updated?

[espskog]

Nice to hear about the progress. I am sure everyone will be happy to test the new core once you feel comfortable releasing it for testing.

Put some easter-eggs in there aswell

[ChaosLord]

Facebook, ummmm, not thanks, not everyone like FB. I won't be following along on FB, that's for sure. I don't have an account and don't intend on getting one.
:hammer:

+20

[Mr_DBUG]

Will AmigaKIT or Vesalia sell this at any point ?

[digiflip]

I think this board once the daughterboard is ready will sell bucket loads compared to the more expensive fpga based amiga compatibles.