FPGA Replay Board

[freqmax]

In court what says is invalid. What counts is written agreement.

[wawrzon]

@freqmax: right, i wouldnt relay on words of some freescale guy except ist written down with signature. but nevetheless i dont think reverse engineering is prohibited. aros mimics amiga api and is legal. softcores may mimic 68k instruction set and be legal. i dont think there is any problem.

[Dozer]

Just to add my 2c

I have a real Amiga 1200 with an 060 and even I can't run all 060 demos so I don't see how anyone could expect an FPGA based system to run everything.

All 060-demos should run on your computer. However, you might need OxyPatcher AND setpatch, and startup with no startup-sequence.

[Darth_X]

Basic compatibility is good but supporting every poorly written program is ludicrous. We can patch what is important and make videos of troublesome demos.

Exactly!

[OlafS3]

News on the page:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63060

Jason shows Aros on FPGA on Amiwest...

[Johan Samuelsson]

dozer, darthx, why go through all the effort and make an a1200 clone if it ain't compatible enough to run all sw designed for the a1200?
patching/capping stuff sounds like a very lame approach. not an option if you ask me.
then i would be better off with uae.

[matthey]

dozer, darthx, why go through all the effort and make an a1200 clone if it ain't compatible enough to run all sw designed for the a1200?
patching/capping stuff sounds like a very lame approach. not an option if you ask me.
then i would be better off with uae.

The fpgaArcade will *attempt* to run all software for a *stock* Amiga 1200 using the cycle exact 68020 CPU core. Asking for full compatibility of a modified Amiga is like heavily modifying a sport car with a souped up engine, turbocharger, NOS, all the bolt-ons, custom body panels and paint job, racing seats, racing gauges, a lowered suspension, and low profile tires and wheels and then going back to the dealer and asking for support when you have a problem. Some of us here are asking for a whole new sports car built to a high spec with an enhanced engine (CPU) and body (custom chips). We know it wouldn't be the same as the old model, but the drive ability and controls would be similar but better .

[freqmax]

dozer, darthx, why go through all the effort and make an a1200 clone if it ain't compatible enough to run all sw designed for the a1200?
patching/capping stuff sounds like a very lame approach. not an option if you ask me.
then i would be better off with uae.

It will over time run more and more software for the A1200. It's not perfect but rather a work in progress. Otherwise you can always give us those chipmasks for the Amiga chips

The big problem is that existing machines fail more and more. Entropy is a harsh master.

[Dozer]

Ok, this might be a completely moronic and stupid question, but I'll ask anyway

I see that more and more people use FPGA-stuff to revive old platforms. Are the cards somewhat compatible, or will complete rewrites be needed?

The thing I'm wondering in particular, is if we can use the Replay Board to run C64-stuff, since that seems to be relatively complete right now

http://www.syntiac.com/chameleon.html

So, will I need to buy the Chameleon to do C64-stuff, or will the Replay Board support the same cores? (most likely, there will have to be a few changes, but that should be feasible I hope)

[Hattig]

Ok, this might be a completely moronic and stupid question, but I'll ask anyway

I see that more and more people use FPGA-stuff to revive old platforms. Are the cards somewhat compatible, or will complete rewrites be needed?

The thing I'm wondering in particular, is if we can use the Replay Board to run C64-stuff, since that seems to be relatively complete right now

http://www.syntiac.com/chameleon.html

So, will I need to buy the Chameleon to do C64-stuff, or will the Replay Board support the same cores? (most likely, there will have to be a few changes, but that should be feasible I hope)

Someone will have to port a C64 FPGA implementation to the FPGA Arcade, but once that's done, it should work fine. That's one of Mike's design aims, and he wants it to be easy to create new cores to recreate other systems besides the Amiga and various arcade games.

I expect that all systems up to and including fast expanded A1200s and Atari Falcons will be reimplementable on the FPGA Arcade. Maybe even the 3DO.

[psxphill]

The fpgaArcade will *attempt* to run all software for a *stock* Amiga 1200 using the cycle exact 68020 CPU core.

What Amiga 1200 software will only run properly using a cycle exact 14mhz 68EC020?

[Dozer]

Someone will have to port a C64 FPGA implementation to the FPGA Arcade, but once that's done, it should work fine. That's one of Mike's design aims, and he wants it to be easy to create new cores to recreate other systems besides the Amiga and various arcade games.

I expect that all systems up to and including fast expanded A1200s and Atari Falcons will be reimplementable on the FPGA Arcade. Maybe even the 3DO.

Fantastic

Someone should really make a page with some generic info on the fpga; since most of the really good info is buried way deep in this thread, and probably a few other places aswell.

.. Or even a Wiki, with a few test-setups, howto's and so on. Does this exist already, or is it something that will have to be done? (and, is an outsider like me welcome to set this up, or should it be done by the devteam when they have the time?)

[amigadave]

I see the following options :

7.14 MHz 68000 (cycle accurate with original CPU and chipset)
14.28 MHz 68020 (")

xxx MHz enhanced 68020 FPGA mode - single cycle as much as possible, cache, ~100MHz
xxx MHz 68060 (>100MHz) or until it blows up.
??
/MikeJ

p.s. I'm in Beijing but I'm told a whole load of chips for Replay production just landed at my place

FPGA chips, or are the chips that just arrived 68060 chips for the daughter boards?

I need to find me one of those last revision 68060 chips that is capable of being pushed up to and some times beyond 100MHz, because the only spare 68060 chip I have is only capable of 50MHz to 60MHz.

I hope a new firmware file is available soon that will allow us all to run AROS 68k on our FPGA Arcade Replay boards.  Any news regarding a firmware update MikeJ?

[matthey]

What Amiga 1200 software will only run properly using a cycle exact 14mhz 68EC020?

Probably not much. The 14MHz speed would slow some games down to a playable speed but I expect the following would matter more:

1) Caches the same as the 68020
2) VBR in original location
3) No fast memory

[Hattig]

Fantastic

Someone should really make a page with some generic info on the fpga; since most of the really good info is buried way deep in this thread, and probably a few other places aswell.

.. Or even a Wiki, with a few test-setups, howto's and so on. Does this exist already, or is it something that will have to be done? (and, is an outsider like me welcome to set this up, or should it be done by the devteam when they have the time?)

I think a Wiki would be a really nice feature to be added to Amiga.org actually. It wouldn't be the first time a forum website has added a wiki-based information base.

[freqmax]

I see that more and more people use FPGA-stuff to revive old platforms. Are the cards somewhat compatible, or will complete rewrites be needed?

Provided the number of gates (CLBs etc) that the soft-core requires is less than the available on the particular FPGA it's essentially just a matter of declaring which I/O to use and then route those correctly. A few hours work perhaps. So it's in essence just a reconfiguration issue.

However you need the HDL-sources to be able to "recompile" or synthesize as it's called. HDL-sources will survive time, platforms will not.