FPGA Replay Board

[Duce]

FPGA Arcade with the daughterboard setup should be able to pretty much be able to replace a full system (USB, Ethernet, '060 socket) from what I understand.  By full system I mean a kitted out legacy machine with accel, ethernet, USB addons.

Bare board supports memory cards just fine.

[Darrin]

Hi
Does anyone knows if FPGA Replay Board supports harddrives. Can i use to replace my amiga setup ?

thks

The bare FPGA supports HDF files (hard drive images) on the SD card (supports 2 drives).  Last time I spoke to Jakub, his daughterboard was suposed to have a micro SD card slot which would act like a real hard drive (not a HDF).

[wawrzon]

I haven't felt convinced that he ever did look elsewhere though. I really wanted him to look into some simulations of the TG68 he was looking at and compare that with simulations of the Suska's 68k block to help him understand what was so weird about the TG68 and help him figure out what to wrap around TG68 to make it work in a normal 68000 socket. I don't think I succeeded in getting him to run simulations either, or in convincing him of their utility or importance. (I'm a verification engineer of ARM SoC chips, and I think that part is tremendously important and useful for what he's trying to do so blindly) And he seemed to me that he absolutely must do it with TG68 and not anything else for some reason. I tried suggesting that he work with the already much closer to what he needed Suska 68k, see that work better much sooner to help him debug his board design, then go back to TG68 if he must, but he seemed adamant that he must complete his design using TG68 and must avoid others for some reason.

I very much like his idea, and look forward to his results, as well as whatever comes from the other guys.

http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=6¬e=32232&x=2:

Posts 25
17 Jun 2012 23:44

I have some other cores in verilog that are faster but when I start working with them I ll tell you more. Also I have some papers Turkish authors regarding to Mc68K VHDL models and those papers are very interesting. Also there are some cores that are not public but I have them but didn't work with them yet. There was some talking about ao68000 who can work stable at 80Mhz.

sounds somewhat weird, and he doesnt seem very experienced, but looks like he actually wanted to look for alternatives. i think him being not a professional he might try to figure his way around that doesnt look reasonable to you, thats frequent with autodidacts..

[billt]

http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=6¬e=32232&x=2:

sounds somewhat weird, and he doesnt seem very experienced, but looks like he actually wanted to look for alternatives. i think him being not a professional he might try to figure his way around that doesnt look reasonable to you, thats frequent with autodidacts..

The ao68000 he mentions is not on a 68000 bus, it's a direct to wishbone bus processor, so that would have required a bridge and thus a lot more work. (I think that porting its companion aoocs project to FPGA Arcade would be fun too) Yea, he sounds like a hobbyist, no problem with a non-engineer trying to learn to do engineering work. We all had to start somewhere...

[psxphill]

Yea, he sounds like a hobbyist, no problem with a non-engineer trying to learn to do engineering work. We all had to start somewhere...

Yeah, although it can be annoying if someone asks the wrong question and then argues with the answer because it's not what they wanted to hear.
 
The skill is to know just how much detail to give when asking a question and when giving an answer. If you get that wrong then you're just wasting your time.
 
If you get an answer you don't like, you need to understand why the other person gave it as one or both of you might have misunderstood what the other was saying.

[wrath of khan]

The bare FPGA supports HDF files (hard drive images) on the SD card (supports 2 drives).  Last time I spoke to Jakub, his daughterboard was suposed to have a micro SD card slot which would act like a real hard drive (not a HDF).

This is sounding more promising to me now.Coupled with lorianos miggy case this could be sweet.How powerful will this be?Any chance of getting a browser to run etc? I hope mike gets the new website up soon and provides more info.

[Lord Aga]

The bare FPGA supports HDF files (hard drive images) on the SD card (supports 2 drives).  Last time I spoke to Jakub, his daughterboard was suposed to have a micro SD card slot which would act like a real hard drive (not a HDF).

Sooo how will I add (software) stuff to my FPGA Arcade system ? Or transfer work (pics, codes) from it to other systems ?
Floppy drives are not an option, right ?

[Darrin]

This is sounding more promising to me now.Coupled with lorianos miggy case this could be sweet.How powerful will this be?Any chance of getting a browser to run etc? I hope mike gets the new website up soon and provides more info.

As my A4000 surfs the net OK using iBrowse2 and a 68040, it shouldn't be an issue with an FPGA Arcade with a daughterboard & 68060 (It will have USB if you want a USB-Ethernet dongle, plus a networking port IIRC) and we'll have the RTG modes for the display.  

[Darrin]

Sooo how will I add (software) stuff to my FPGA Arcade system ? Or transfer work (pics, codes) from it to other systems ?
Floppy drives are not an option, right ?

If you have the daughterboard then you can use a USB memory stick, USB CF Card Reader, USB-SATA/PATA adapter or a USB floppy drive with high density PC formatted floppies.

Alternatively, you can simply use UAE.  I keep a profile on UAE for each of my "Minimigs" (Minimig v1.1, Chameleon64 and FPGA Arcade).  That way I can take the SD card out of each machine containing the HDF files, boot them in UAE and copy any files onto the HDF while running Workbench or drag any ADF images onto the SD card.  Backing up my "Minimigs" just means creating a folder on my Windows desktop and dragging the contents of my SD card over.

Another option could be to set up a simple network between your Minimig and PC via the serial port using something like "Amiga Explorer".

Personally I find the UAE option the easiest.

[freqmax]

Does AROS 68k run on FPGA Replay currently?

[Darrin]

Does AROS 68k run on FPGA Replay currently?

Haven't tried it yet.  It is on my "to do" list.

[Lord Aga]

If you have the daughterboard then you can use a USB memory stick, USB CF Card Reader, USB-SATA/PATA adapter or a USB floppy drive with high density PC formatted floppies.

Alternatively, you can simply use UAE.  I keep a profile on UAE for each of my "Minimigs" (Minimig v1.1, Chameleon64 and FPGA Arcade).  That way I can take the SD card out of each machine containing the HDF files, boot them in UAE and copy any files onto the HDF while running Workbench or drag any ADF images onto the SD card.  Backing up my "Minimigs" just means creating a folder on my Windows desktop and dragging the contents of my SD card over.

Another option could be to set up a simple network between your Minimig and PC via the serial port using something like "Amiga Explorer".

Personally I find the UAE option the easiest.

Thanx
Well, I wasn't planning on buying the daughterboard (at first). Too much dough. So, I guess Win UAE is the best option. But... if the board is enclosed it may not be so convenient to get the SD card out.
Hmmm... I'll have to think of something

[freqmax]

Btw,..  how much of the FPGA "space" is used currently?

[OlafS3]

As far as I know owns Jason (the maintainer of Aros 68k) one of the FPGA Boards. So I think the chance that it at least will is pretty good :-)

[wrath of khan]

mike mentions on his site about a guy wanting to sell the fpga arcade in a case assembled.Must be loriano pagni id say.This is the way i will go with this.Would the daughterboard fit in the case with the fpga arcade or would it be seperate.Pardon my ignorance.

[Darrin]

Btw,..  how much of the FPGA "space" is used currently?

Hopefully Mike will answer that one with regards to the updated core.

Wizard66 quoted this a while back:

Minimig FPGA: 400K gates
FPGAARCADE FPGA: 1600K gates
FPGAARCADE FPGA Full 60% minimig core+softcore (CPU).

So "currently" it uses 60% if the space including the softcore.  I guess the space uses by the softcore could be recoved if using the daughterboard with a real 68060.