FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

So in essence the fpga arcade should be a more powerful a1200 with a high compatability rate.What percentage of compatability to old software should we expect.Will it be able to function as essentially a new and faster aga amiga computer? Also the other accelerator ram upgrade thingy project for the a500 looks sweet.Lots of cool miggy stuff about now.What to buy.With lorianos case+daughterboard+fpgaarcade this will be a wallet drought.

We aim for 100% compatibility, but with additional features which can be enabled or disabled.
High resolution video out (DVI/HDMI), new audio DAC, USB, ethernet etc.
/MikeJ

[Darrin]

Correct, the final mask revision had greater timing margin and some chips can be run at >100MHz perfectly reliably.
/MikeJ

Will the daughterboard have an option for setting the running speed for those who might add their own CPU and require a slower setting?

[Darrin]

So in essence the fpga arcade should be a more powerful a1200 with a high compatability rate.What percentage of compatability to old software should we expect.Will it be able to function as essentially a new and faster aga amiga computer? Also the other accelerator ram upgrade thingy project for the a500 looks sweet.Lots of cool miggy stuff about now.What to buy.With lorianos case+daughterboard+fpgaarcade this will be a wallet drought.

I started testing software on the base FPGA Arcade along with the Minimig v1.1 and Chameleon64 (obviously I was testing AGA versions on the FPGA Arcade and OCS/ECS versions on the others).  I was launching them from WHDload first and if that failed then I would try from ADF files.  Most software worked, but as Mike was about to release a new core I shelved the testing because I didn't want to have to retest stuff all over again.

any chance of the core update Mike?

[Darrin]

When I can get back to testing I'll try and publish something like this:

[ShapeShifter]

I started testing software on the base FPGA Arcade along with the Minimig v1.1 and Chameleon64 (obviously I was testing AGA versions on the FPGA Arcade and OCS/ECS versions on the others).  I was launching them from WHDload first and if that failed then I would try from ADF files.  Most software worked, but as Mike was about to release a new core I shelved the testing because I didn't want to have to retest stuff all over again.

any chance of the core update Mike?

I'm in much the same situation.  I'm immensely impressed by the Replay project, as I can see the potential of this.  To my mind, it exceeds the potential of the Natami project.  There's nothing the NatAmi guys are doing which couldn't be done by coders working with the Replay Board.

What's holding me back right now is the partial 68020 compatibility, and the lack of a way of using graphics card modes, essentially limiting me to 68000 only and native Amiga modes.  I don't want to spend a huge amount of time setting up a system stripped-down to meet these requirements (e.g. WB3.1+ClassicWB) only to then have to start again from scratch with something like OS3.9 + AmiKit or AmigaSys, etc. once I have faster CPU and gfx card support.

So for the time being, and with some sadness, I am not using my treasured Replay Board.  This will change the very instant I have the daughterboard and the new core, as I will then be able to do so much more with it.  I'll feel a lot better about investing a lot of time and energy into setting up a highly customised system once I know I won't have to restart all over again.

I remain very, very impressed by what MikeJ has been able to achieve, and the Replay Board itself is an incredibly professional, solid, reliable unit with a lot of potential.  It's amazing what one man with a dream can achieve.  It amazes me (and I've told Mike this) that Amiga, Inc. can't produce an Amiga board of their own, or even an OS of their own, with apparently millions of dollars of investment funding, yet Mike's being able to do this working completely on his own and without angel investors (I'm talking of the hardware unit itself - I'm not overlooking the considerable amount of software development done by core developers such as Jakub, of course, who've also done considerably impressive work too.)

Just can't wait to really get going with it.  If only we could clone MikeJ so that he could take care of the mundane stuff like attending the day-job and paying the mortgage, so that our Mike could dedicate himself 24/7 to developing the Replay Board (minus maybe a few hours a day for sleep and pizza!)

[Darrin]

@ Shapeshifter:

I agree.  If Amiga Inc had half a brain they would have offered to fund or at least sell Mike's project and given themselves a chance to sell SD cards containing official HDF files, Kickstart files, ADF files etc.  Plus they could use their shop to sell more ADFs of games or other custom HDF files.  At least they would have been selling something "Amiga" for minimim effort on their part.

[amiman99]

@ Shapeshifter:

I agree.  If Amiga Inc had half a brain they would have offered to fund or at least sell Mike's project and given themselves a chance to sell SD cards containing official HDF files, Kickstart files, ADF files etc.  Plus they could use their shop to sell more ADFs of games or other custom HDF files.  At least they would have been selling something "Amiga" for minimim effort on their part.

I think Amiga Inc is done making anything for the Amiga platform. The only ones who make something new are few big players like Jens, MikeJ, and some small ones like Kipper2k and others.
The Amiga Inc just stands in a way, they could at least release the ROMs to public domain so others could pickup the pieces and sell complete systems.

Cant wait for the FPGA Replay Board being a complete product with 060 board and if the final price is right for me, I definitely going to get it.


My 2c.

[wrath of khan]

We aim for 100% compatibility, but with additional features which can be enabled or disabled.
High resolution video out (DVI/HDMI), new audio DAC, USB, ethernet etc.
/MikeJ

Sold! Im in.Gotta have one.will wait till its commercial though as I want one set up with the daughterboard in lorianos awesome miggy case.Hope you update the website soon as im eager to learn more about this project.

[wrath of khan]

I started testing software on the base FPGA Arcade along with the Minimig v1.1 and Chameleon64 (obviously I was testing AGA versions on the FPGA Arcade and OCS/ECS versions on the others).  I was launching them from WHDload first and if that failed then I would try from ADF files.  Most software worked, but as Mike was about to release a new core I shelved the testing because I didn't want to have to retest stuff all over again.

any chance of the core update Mike?

Cool.Thanks darrin.This should be a nice new toy for me.

[ShapeShifter]

@ Shapeshifter:

I agree.  If Amiga Inc had half a brain they would have offered to fund or at least sell Mike's project and given themselves a chance to sell SD cards containing official HDF files, Kickstart files, ADF files etc.  Plus they could use their shop to sell more ADFs of games or other custom HDF files.  At least they would have been selling something "Amiga" for minimim effort on their part.

I fully agree with you, my friend.  I can think of a good dozen ways Amiga could've made some easy money with their brand, but for some reason they don't even bother to try.  So much waffle, yet no action.  I honestly am of the suspicion that a certain individual just wanted to live the high-life; put lots of money into his bank account, drive fast cars, etc. and his shady friends were just along for the ride.  I honestly don't think they ever had any real interest in the Amiga or it's community - or even particularly cared about producing new products.  I think the community, the people - we were just considered useful assets.   Until we weren't relevant to their plans.

If I was running Amiga these days, I would be licensing the technology to anyone who expressed an interest in Amiga, and would be approaching hobbyist projects to see what we could do to help; people who are designing things like MikeJ's Replay Board, the Pi Foundation's board, and so on.  I would also use my connections with venture capital firms to help these projects secure any kind of funding and connections they need to really take off, and designing networks of people which could help support various projects.

It's not hard to get out there and create something, if you've got the money for it.  Goodness knows Amiga, Inc. must've had the money for it, if they had $5 million to buy the rights to Amiga.  But you know, when I think of it today, it seems very hard to believe that someone put so much money into Amiga when they did absolutely *nothing* with it.  Did they ever produce one line of original code, or one piece of hardware? AA was Elate, written by Tao Group.  What else did Amiga do other than rebadge Elate?

Did Amiga even really pay $5 million for the assets? I know this is what they've claimed, but given everything else they've said is a lie, I wonder if the $5mil claim itself was even true.  For all we know, Gateway just *gave* the Amiga name to Fleecy & Bill and said "get these annoying people off our backs, and 20% profit of whatever profit you make." I'd like to see the paperwork, at least.

Anyway, this is going off-track somewhat.  I just wonder where we could've been today with an Amiga which had someone like MikeJ as Head of Engineering.  I certainly suspect Mike could do a heck of a lot better with a budget of a few million to create products!

[wrath of khan]

Maybe mike J should use a kickstarter campaign if he needs to help fund fpgaarcade in some form or another.Heres hoping for another miggy project from mike j in the future.A handheld miggy/would be sweet.Hell if someone made the fpga arcade board into a handheld id bite.

[Darrin]

@Shapeshifter:

I seriously doubt that $5m figure too.  Either that or there are a lot of investors out there licking their wounds.

[wrath of khan]

Mike J. Any eta on the new fpgaarcade website? This project is really cool.

[NorthWay]

Any "SD card emulators" that lets you wire a card thing to your PC and let it behave as one?

To sin and follow up myself:
There seems to be a new SD standard with built-in WiFi just around the corner.

I have found references to 3 products of this type
- EyeFi (not following the standard I believe, but they were out before it)
- FlashAir from Toshiba
- Flucard

They all seem very focused on sending data _out_ of the card, and not so much for getting data _in_.
I'm waiting for reviews to see if these are useable.

[freqmax]

Different from SDIO I presume?

Toshiba FlashAir only mentions being able to read from the card when inserted in a digital camera. Same with EyeFi but Flucard seems to support some P2P receive mode. The control is done with manipulation of "picture files", definitly an ad-hoc hack.

[psxphill]

Different from SDIO I presume?
 
Toshiba FlashAir only mentions being able to read from the card when inserted in a digital camera. Same with EyeFi but Flucard seems to support some P2P receive mode. The control is done with manipulation of "picture files", definitly an ad-hoc hack.

Yeah my understanding is the cards are intended to sync pictures to a PC and when the card is full they delete old pictures that have already been synced. No device will expect the card to change in real time, so before making changes it will have to simulate the card being ejected.
 
They are expensive because they are aimed at professional photographers, they use them for instant previews on large monitors in a studio. They aren't that new, just rare because of the cost.
It's entirely possible that they are generic enough to work with any type of file.
 
I would imagine that you'll be able to get remote access to the card from your PC eventually anyway.