FPGA Replay Board

[whiteb]

Um, no - I've been in a field in Derby at a music festival.
Once I have straightened myself out again I'll be back to board testing.
/MikeJ

Yeah, let the dude get over his hangover

[mikej]

Hey Mike, for many of us who have been on your list for 2 years or more, will you be contacting us when the boards are ready for shipping from your list?  I have been hiding this stash of cash from my wife for quite a while now, and she is getting suspicious about this damn smile I got on my face as I should not be this damn happy :banana:.  So, let me know when I can make payment.

Thanks,
Mike

For sure - I have a list of everybody who has contacted me and asked to be notified.
I will be working through this as I test the systems.
Cheers,
Mike

[mikej]

@MikeJ, Question, is the FPGA-chip used a stepping 0 or stepping 1 version ..?

They are supposed to be stepping 1s, I should read out the chip ID to confirm actually.
/Mike

[mikej]

Yeah, let the dude get over his hangover

It will take a while to recover - I'm still dealing with the hangover from last Thursday never mind the weekend
/MikeJ

p.s. I need to get this done and shipping before Glastonbury (end of June) as that takes even longer to recover from ...

[NovaCoder]

p.s. I need to get this done and shipping before Glastonbury (end of June) as that takes even longer to recover from ...

I bet it takes a bit longer each year

[freqmax]

Bewerage meditation #80056454

[LonesomeAmiga]

Just wanted to say THANKS and nicely done for making the FPGA Replay board MikeJ :-D

Truly a thing of beauty - hopefully I can buy one later in the year :-)

(also looking forward to seeing what the '060 daughterboard can handle, although I'd like to do more than just Amiga stuff with this setup once everyone looks at more cores!)

[freqmax]

What is the cycle time on the wires to the DRAM chip? Took a look at the clock generator. And it's only 27 MHz, which should mean that EMI issues are few. Compared to any standard DVI-VGA-LVDS TFT controller board which seems to be full of series and parallell impedance corrections using passive components (DVI seems transistor boosted however).

[mikej]

What is the cycle time on the wires to the DRAM chip? Took a look at the clock generator. And it's only 27 MHz, which should mean that EMI issues are few. Compared to any standard DVI-VGA-LVDS TFT controller board which seems to be full of series and parallell impedance corrections using passive components (DVI seems transistor boosted however).

266Mbit so 133MHz max freq.
Board is fully EMI (CE / FCC) certified.
/MikeJ

[freqmax]

I meant the physical kind of EMI such that the signals reach their destination in "good shape" at all. The EMC regulation is more like a letter of indulgence payed to the emperor.

The reason for asking is that I had a look at the more powerful A/D converters available. The catch is that they demand a solid signal integrity on the PCB and anything more than dual layer co$t..

[freqmax]

Is it still a 64 MByte DDRx16 memory ? (so the drawing says)

[mikej]

I meant the physical kind of EMI such that the signals reach their destination in "good shape" at all. The EMC regulation is more like a letter of indulgence payed to the emperor.

The reason for asking is that I had a look at the more powerful A/D converters available. The catch is that they demand a solid signal integrity on the PCB and anything more than dual layer co$t..

Replay is a six layer board with solid ground and power planes in this area. The trick to getting low EMI is minimizing any impedance mismatch - so controlled trace impedance, termination and FPGA drive control.
/MikeJ

[freqmax]

How few layers would you think could make a functional FPGA Arcade? I wonder how far one could push signals (MHz-wise) on a 2-layer board. Otoh, it's the dV/dt that is the catch not the cycle time per se.

[Johan Samuelsson]

No news? Still hung over?

[AmigaClassicRule]

Hey Mike? Why not just start selling the FPGA Replay board in Amigakit.com now...until you get the daughterboard ready for release? This way...EVEN IF the daughterboard never...ever...ever...ever happens and never get released...at least this is an improvement and better version of MiniMag...and we could enjoy using a 030 processor in this FPGA Replay with better CHIP RAM, RTG support, DVI support and so on. At least if you do that...then we will buy the FPGA Replay and you can discontinue the MiniMag as this is better than the MiniMag...we can even consider it MiniMag II for example. And when you do have the daughterboard ready for release....people will upgrade their toy with this superb 060 processor. There are two reasons why this I may consider a good idea....

1) You start generating revenue which would help in further development and for the daughterboard
2) You get a statistical idea of how many people ARE REALLY interested in this item and you may even consider if it is worth manufacturing the daughterboard if there are only a handful sale.

Another good reason why this is a good idea..people who are enthusiastic and willing to buy it now...we will spend right away...but the longer it takes for release the less that person becomes enthusiastic and the more there are reasons to spend this money else where. Bills, student loans, etc.

I mean if I was you I would release it today than tomorrow...and see what happens. That is my thinking on this matter.

What do you guys think?

[freqmax]

Asfair, the reason for the delay is that the boards need to be checked and shipped. The motivation is not profit per se. I think the mailed requests shows quite clearly how large the interest is.