Motorola 68060 FPGA replacement module (idea)

[Iggy]

The XC7Z010 is $63.75 in single quantities.

Are these even in production yet?
There is no speed rating listed for the 10 component.

Other then that, it looks like a neat device.

[billt]

TobiFlex had the TG68 core running on an A500 about 3 years ago.

http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20223

Someone called Shadowfire did something similaf as well:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=52364&highlight=fpga

And yet we cannot buy a widget of our own.

[Hattig]

Doing these things, posting about them, and then leaving the work done to die without sharing the VHDL and schematics is very frustrating. They have the right to do it, of course, but it's like being shown a slice of delicious cake and then being told you can't have it.

Edit: Ah, Shadowfire put his work in the EAB file repository.

[freqmax]

@Hattig, Which is why I don't spend time on projects that may go bust without fork

When it comes to soldering there's really no way out. You need a special mechanical socket and FPGA glue because no ARM/x86 premade board is going to have that kind of interface.

[bloodline]

Yes.  Some glue logic (Mach or some type of small FPGA) and probably a bit of dual ported RAM would make a great 680x0 emulator.  The performance could be quite impressive even with an older x86 CPU.  The x86 CPU would be not much more than a state machine and floating point processor.  This is a project that makes sense to me... and since I have written a 68040 core in x86 assembly, I could probably lend a hand.  

Hmmm... That's interesting!

[freqmax]

And x86 need lot's of peripherals to run.

[Iggy]

Yes.  Some glue logic (Mach or some type of small FPGA) and probably a bit of dual ported RAM would make a great 680x0 emulator.  The performance could be quite impressive even with an older x86 CPU.  The x86 CPU would be not much more than a state machine and floating point processor.  This is a project that makes sense to me... and since I have written a 68040 core in x86 assembly, I could probably lend a hand.  

Wow, bloodline's right, you have a crucial piece of the puzzle.
There, of course, would still be a lot of work designing the hardware.
But a super fast '040 sounds ideal.

So which socket do we aim for?
The dip or the square '040/'060 type?

It might be easier to design a processor card, but then we'd be limited to A3000s and A4000.

[bloodline]

Wow, bloodline's right, you have a crucial piece of the puzzle.
There, of course, would still be a lot of work designing the hardware.
But a super fast '040 sounds ideal.

So which socket do we aim for?
The dip or the square '040/'060 type?

It might be easier to design a processor card, but then we'd be limited to A3000s and A4000.

Indeed!

Though I personally think that what might be more fun is to have the x86 interface directly with an FPGA large enought to take the MiniMig core, and bring out the Amiga compatible I/O (as the MiniMig does)

[wawrzon]

And x86 need lot's of peripherals to run.

therefore im hammering on using an available module. prefferably one available in longer therm. anyway its the easiest way to approach.
thats what tobiflex did
thats how ratte tried to approach (http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6745&highlight=ratte+holzbrett)
thats what shadowfire and otheres had in mind apparently.
this is the easiest way to proceed i guess. none here will be able to develop x86 accelerator from the scratch together with mem controller and all periferials people wish.

[wawrzon]

Indeed!

Though I personally think that what might be more fun is to have the x86 interface directly with an FPGA large enought to take the MiniMig core, and bring out the Amiga compatible I/O (as the MiniMig does)

sounds even better perhaps, a x86 cpu module for fpgaarcade?? there would be no doubt about interface, and the original amigas might stay what they are, which is what im fine with.

[Bobo68]

It might be easier to design a processor card, but then we'd be limited to A3000s and A4000.

and towerized A1200

[Iggy]

sounds even better perhaps, a x86 cpu module for fpgaarcade?? there would be no doubt about interface, and the original amigas might stay what they are, which is what im fine with.

Yes, that is a better idea and we don't have to worry about 20 year old equipment.
It also might simplify the design.

[Lurch]

@ChaosLord, How can you be absolutely sure there's no 1333 MHz capable RAM ..?
(but signal integrity will be a pain)

DDR = Double Data Rate. So a 1333MHz stick is running at half.. 666.5Mhz. However as it's double data rate RAM it can transfer twice as much data on one I/O bus clock, than the actual IO frequency so in fact it works out at 1333MHz.

So to if I break it down. 1333MHz is the data transfer rate. The I/O clock is 666.5MHz.

However 1333MHz is outdated by today's standards and the fastest DDR3 RAM is DDR3-3000.

3000MHz is acheived by overclocking from the factory. However MHz isn't the entire picture as you have SPD Latency which if far more important.

[Bobo68]

DDR = Double Data Rate. So a 1333MHz stick is running at half.. 666.5Mhz. However as it's double data rate RAM it can transfer twice as much data on one I/O bus clock, than the actual IO frequency so in fact it works out at 1333MHz.

So to if I break it down. 1333MHz is the data transfer rate. The I/O clock is 666.5MHz.

and memory clock is 166 MHz

[djos]

And x86 need lot's of peripherals to run.

What about AMD's Geode line of x86 SoC's?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor)

The Geode LX in particular would be perfect imo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor)#Geode_LX

[Iggy]

What about AMD's Geode line of x86 SoC's?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor)

The Geode LX in particular would be perfect imo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor)#Geode_LX

There are more powerful processor (including processors with more then one core which could aid in hardware emulation), but the XP-M based versions of the Geode aren't bad and might be powerful enough.