FPGA Replay Board

[mikej]

Maybe I can get someone to purchase on my behalf and then send to NZ? Seems crazy though, hoping it's made available for us at the bottom of the world :-(

For regions not covered by the resellers, I will sell direct to.
Drop me a mail, details on the website.
Cheers,
Mike

[JimDrew]

What is the reason to decline business with South america? seems longer distance to deal with Europe from there.

That is the agreement that Mike and I have.  I would be happy to sell anywhere in the world because items shipped from the U.S. to other countries have no VAT.  There may be some import taxes based on the value, but not the typical 19%-30% VAT.

Mike has mentioned about allowing me to sell to other areas.  If that should occur, I will let everyone know.

[NovaCoder]

Not sure if this has already been posted but....


[youtube]sFi_Sh9cQdk[/youtube]

[Lizard]

Not here, but on the fpga Arcade forum.

[Honkybear]

Nice I hadn't seen this video. But all it does is make me do is salivate and want one all the more AAAHHHHHHH. I can't wait any longer.

[JimDrew]

Things have progressed quite a bit in the last few weeks with the Amiga core for Replay.  I have narrowed down the issues with the 68020+ instruction emulation, and Mike is working on fixing that.  Mike and I worked a few days on the floppy support and now there is support for SuperCard Pro (.scp) flux images!  This means that we now have the ability to image *any* disk and use it with Amiga core just like it was a real floppy disk.  So, every disk protection ever created will work with the virtual floppy drives.  The SCP flux level images contain the exact flux data that comes off of the disk drive's head.  So, at this point the floppy hardware emulation is so good that it would be possible to connect a few lines and attach a real floppy disk drive to the Replay.  That might happen in the future.

There are a several blitter modes that are not supported yet, and so there are graphics glitches with some games.  This graphics glitch, along with the 68020+ instruction emulation is preventing AGA mode from working fully.  I expect that as these last couple of things are ironed out that the core will be pretty incredible.

Mike is focused on the replication of the exact hardware, not a simulation of it.  So, since this is built around the A1200/A4000 chipset, it replicates the IDE controller.  Mike just finished a new file handler for the ARM processor giving the core direct access to the SD card.  The result is virtual hard drive (hardfiles on the SD card) transfers of >2MB per second!  Workbench folders open incredibly fast!

I will be attending AmiWest in October, doing a demonstration of the Replay board and all of its cores, and expect the Amiga core to be a very big hit!

[Honkybear]

Thanks for the update Jim. Can't wait

[Dwyloc]

That is the agreement that Mike and I have.  I would be happy to sell anywhere in the world because items shipped from the U.S. to other countries have no VAT.  There may be some import taxes based on the value, but not the typical 19%-30% VAT.

Mike has mentioned about allowing me to sell to other areas.  If that should occur, I will let everyone know.

Every time I have order something from the USA I have been hit with both a VAT and Import duty, plus a handling fee. Last time that added up to 40% to the price instead of the 20% VAT I would pay on anything ordered from inside the EU.

As such if a product is only available from the USA it is effectively unavailable to EU customers such as my self here in the UK unless a company imports in bulk and splits the costs over the hole order.  So I hope you have agreed a EU based dealer for EU orders or you can probably right off Europe as a market for the FPGA Replay Board.

[cunnpole]

Mike is in Europe and at least one of the distributors are too

[psxphill]

Every time I have order something from the USA I have been hit with both a VAT and Import duty, plus a handling fee. Last time that added up to 40% to the price instead of the 20% VAT I would pay on anything ordered from inside the EU.

 I used to avoid charges by getting them sent to work. The courier decides which parcels get inspected and they never could be bothered if it had a work address.
 
 The reason was it cost them too much money while the driver waited for someone to be found who could pay. Now you get a letter through the post and the parcel doesn't get released until you pay customs & excise direct.

[Dwyloc]

@cunnpole

Mike is in Europe and at least one of the distributors are too

That's good to know, as I currently own 2 Minimigs a standard one I use to run ADF based software and a second 4MB one with ARM addon I use to run HD based software, but I will probably upgrade to an FPGA Replay at some point in the future if the price is reasonable.

I dont expect my A1200 based expanded Amigas to last for ever so I want a way to replace them when they finally do fail and I must admit I use my Minimigs far more these days than my A1200's as they are more flexible and just work.  Were as my A1200's need a few hours work each time I move them to get them running stably again.

[Hattig]

Sounds good Jim. Any news on the performance of the CPU soft-core? And on the performance of AGA modes?

[mikej]

Sounds good Jim. Any news on the performance of the CPU soft-core? And on the performance of AGA modes?

Keep an eye on the FPGAArcade forum. I'm working on a few last issues with the blitter/AGA code, and I want to get that stable before I turn the CPU cache on again.
I hope to get a stable, feature complete, version out next week.
I'm moving flat (again) on the 22nd, then I can start testing and shipping boards again.

/MikeJ

[JimDrew]

We have been testing with caches off to try to eliminate one more layer  of potential issues, but the last thing I seem to remember from Mike was  a peak was around 106MHz 020+.  There can be improvements though from  there.  Mike is in the process of actually dramatically slowing down the  entire chipset because that is one of the issues with some games not  working... they bang on the custom chipset bus, expecting the operation to  act as a throttle mechanism.  Right now, there is no throttle!  Mike has  a provision in the OSD (on screen display, which the menu system) for  selecting 68000, 68010, 68EC020, and 68020 CPUs (and there is also the  chipset type there).  I am hoping we can add a 68040 mode w/MMU and  FPU.  There is plenty of space left in the FPGA for that - fortunately,  it's a big FPGA that's used in Replay.  There is also PicassoIV RTG  support.

I am distributing only to North America.  Purchases  outside of North America can be made through one of Mike's  distributors.  I do ship my products world-wide, and mark them so that  there is no (or very little) duties that are due.

[kamelito]

I'm not using my FPGAArcade b/c I wait for this new core. Good to hear that excellent progress has been made. I'd to have a Falcon core too and I'm an Arcade fan. Excellent board.
AFAIR you've to use a keyboard to use the menu I would love to be able to use the board with only the joystick so no need to have and ugly keyboard and mouse below the TV (living room)

Congrats to all involved.
Kamelito

[ElPolloDiabl]

It's good news they are almost ready.

Also, I can't wait till you reach the 200mhz mark. It would be like having the next generation of Amiga 4000.