FPGA Replay Board

[freqmax]

Asfair, 68060 has builtin MMU so why would it not be available?

[kolla]

There's 68LC060 without functional FPU and 68EC060 without functional MMU+FPU, that's why.

[SamuraiCrow]

I know that the MMU was required on the '040 and '060 to be able to use DMA-based hard drive controllers.  I don't know if that even applies to the current Replay board designs.  I would think that an SD card adapter would be sufficient even with programmed I/O.

[trip6]

This is great news!!! It sound like the next board run might be available around christmas and I might be getting myself a christmas present.

[wrath of khan]

This is great news!!! It sound like the next board run might be available around christmas and I might be getting myself a christmas present.

Will the daddys x500 case be ready by then though as thats what im getting the fpga arcade put in. will it be easy to add the daughterboard later I wonder when its released.

[Dozer]

I've done some searching and reading in this thread, but either I've missed it, or you simply haven't said anything about it

What's the goal when it comes to compatibility for this board? 100% with an A1200, 100% A4000, or?

The thing is, I'm involved with the demoscene, and even though the Amiga-percentage of demos are declining, there is still a few who make good stuff for this platform. The biggest problem with such demos is that you need an A1200 with 060 (or A4000 with 060) or a well-configured UAE to even be able to watch them. Getting proper videosignals for capturing for either of these devices are even harder than ... well, it's not easy UAE tends to loose sync every now and then aswell..

If this device can give us a proper signal on the DVI-port, capturing it would be easy as pie

Don't get me wrong, I've already ordered one, but I keep my fingers crossed for even demo-compatibility

[mikej]

I also was involved with demos on the Atari, and the idea is to be 100%cycle accurate for both cores. A1200 with 020 initially, then overclocked/060 mode.

It will not lose sync as the hardware is very close to the original hardware.
It remains to be seen if we can bend the timing from the original chipset to work with DVI without breaking it - or adding a frame delay which is not ideal. The high-res outputs have customized timing and work well with DVI/HDMI.
/Mike

[michel3105]

It would be awesome if the Replay could set itself as the next standard demo machine.

[kolla]

What I wouldnt give for a really fast and fully featured m68k processor

[Darrin]

I also was involved with demos on the Atari, and the idea is to be 100%cycle accurate for both cores. A1200 with 020 initially, then overclocked/060 mode.

It will not lose sync as the hardware is very close to the original hardware.
It remains to be seen if we can bend the timing from the original chipset to work with DVI without breaking it - or adding a frame delay which is not ideal. The high-res outputs have customized timing and work well with DVI/HDMI.
/Mike

If that is the case, I guess in theory we could have several Amiga cores loaded on the SD card which could be selected at boot time.  One that is 100% accurate and another that takes advantage of additional features, but might have a few issues with certain software.

[matthey]

If that is the case, I guess in theory we could have several Amiga cores loaded on the SD card which could be selected at boot time.  One that is 100% accurate and another that takes advantage of additional features, but might have a few issues with certain software.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but adding new instructions and addressing modes to the fpga would not even affect whether the fpga CPU is cycle exact to a previous CPU, provided none of the new functionality is used. It could affect compatibility where the programmer was relying on certain trapping behavior of illegal instructions or addressing modes but that is very rare. Adding the missing 64 bit integer instructions into the 68060 fpga CPU would be just as incompatible but offer a nice speedup. The Amiga rarely needs cycle exact as it relies more on custom chip timing but the Atari is more reliant on CPU timing. I would think a cycle exact 68000 and 68020 would be all that is needed for game consoles, Atari and a few old Amiga games. In my opinion, a cycle exact 68040 or 68060 is wasting time and resources that would be better spent on making a faster fpga CPU. Think of the new demos that could be created rather than the 2% of demos that don't work because they were poorly programmed. New instructions and addressing modes can provide a significant speedup, code density improvements to conserve memory and better use caches and add modern functionality the 68k was missing. With new fpga CPU functionality, we need standard ISAs in order to gain support in compilers and developer tools, gain support among programmers and users and create a common platform among multiple fpga CPUs that would make an ASIC more likely in the future. A little planning now could make a bright future possible.

[freqmax]

Cycle exact 68000 and 68020 should be enough. If one uses a more powerful CPU, the software ought to be aware that not all computer setups are the same..

[wrath of khan]

hmm this is starting to sound better and better.
Im looking forward to the fpga arcade site being updated with more info about this too. Must fix my miggy 500 too. Might get an a4000 in the future or cd tv.

[amigadave]

If 68060s are turning into rocking horse poo then I'm sure some of us would be happy with a 68040 on the daughterboard.

I already have a 68060/50MHz (RC version with MMU & FPU, IIRC, not XC version), but it is not the last mask revision that can be over-clocked to 100MHz or more and might not be able to run any faster than 60MHz and will require active cooling to do that.  I was hoping that MikeJ could find some of the faster 060's that are capable of easily running at 100MHz, or faster, so I could get one of his daughter boards with the 060 installed and working reliably at the 100MHz or faster speed, directly from MikeJ, but if that is not possible, I am happy to get an "Unpopulated" daughter board and install my own 68060 into the socket, and choose which clock crystal to use myself.  If I can find one of the now rare "FAST" 68060's at a later date, I will install it into the daughter board and remove my slower 68060.

I just hope that the daughter boards will begin to be released by MikeJ soon, with the extra RAM, USB ports and Ethernet port, all working and ready to go.  That is going to be one "Sweet!" small footprint A1200 Amiga, in a Micro ITX case.  

I wonder if it will be possible to get a USB wireless NIC supported under AmigaOS3.9 in the near future?  I actually bought one that uses the Prism2 chipset, but Neil Cafferkey told me that he has not written USB support for any of his Prism2 drivers, so it is unlikely that my USB Prism2 wireless NIC will ever be supported.  I also doubt that MikeJ will ever be adding a PCMCIA slot to the FPGA Arcade Replay board, or it's daughter board to let us use our wireless NIC cards from our A600's, or A1200's.

[freqmax]

Asfair, there's a USB port on FPGA Arcade/Replay and compilers can be found on the internet..

[psxphill]

I know that the MMU was required on the '040 and '060 to be able to use DMA-based hard drive controllers. I don't know if that even applies to the current Replay board designs.

You don't need an MMU, the ATC registers are enough.
 
There are limitations to this approach and that is that all of Zorro II space has to be set to cache-inhibited serialized.
 
It's nothing to do with DMA, it's Zorro II IO cards and chipram that causes the problem. If you have nothing in Zorro II space then it's largely irrelevant.
 
The same thing would happen with the Replay if it used an 060 without an MMU.