Atari Jaguar in FPGA

[sh3-rg]

Found these videos on YouTube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6KWd-LPwKg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk850f7ICVM

 

He's been involved in PC Engine and Megadrive in FPGA going by his other videos.

 

Torlus' site

 

https://github.com/Torlus

 

README.txt
JagNetlists (c) 2013 Gregory Estrade
All rights reserved (until I sort out the licensing stuff).

================================================================================
About
================================================================================
This project is a port of the Atari Jaguar chipset to a Stratix-II FPGA.
It features the Tom & Jerry chips, and a 68000 core.
Tom & Jerry designs have been converted from the original "netlists" files
to Verilog HDL, using a compiler/translator tool that I wrote.
It runs on a Nios-II Development Kit - Stratix edition (RoHS) board, with the
addition of a daughterboard that features a 24-bit VGA DAC.
The 68000 core (J68), the daughterboard and so much more are courtesy from
Frederic Requin a.k.a frenchshark. I owe much to him, as this project would
not have seen the light of the day without his advice.

================================================================================
History
================================================================================
A year or so ago, I found myself getting interested in the Jaguar console (don't
ask why). I started a rewrite of the chipset in VHDL, as well as writing the
translation tool, that was solely intended to simulation and verification.
I got myself a bit familiar with the Jaguar's architecture, but I eventually
went into a dead end, as I didn't own at this time a FPGA board powerful enough.
Also, it seemed to me that the time and effort required to get a reasonable
accuracy was way too high...

Then, at a retrocomputing event (VieuMikro), Frederic and I were talking about
our projects, and from this moment, many things happened:
- Frederic was (is) working on an Amiga core, and for this purpose designed
the J68, a lightweight but full-featured 68000 core written in Verilog.
- He switched from VHDL to Verilog, and convinced me to do so, because of the
largest set of tools available, especially Verilator, which is amazing.
- Apart from the J68 core, he developed some cool software to use with
Verilator, such as a 68000 disassembler.
- Finally he found an eBay shop selling these Stratix-II boards for a low
price, and I purchased one of them.

It was then the right time to give this project a new try. And when I got myself
into what was possible with Verilator (due to its easy software integration and
speed), I then thought that using the original netlist could be possible not
only as a reference, but for synthesis as well..

================================================================================
Gregory Estrade, 05/10/2013

[+CyranoJ]

But is it buggy?

[swapd0]

I always wanted to do this (with bugs fixed and some write buffers to improve performance) but I've no idea about hardware or VHDL.

[+Gemintronic]

Well, buying an FPGA Jag would probably be the same price as a skunkboard. I use my Minimig more than an actual Amiga. I approve!

[GroovyBee]

Brilliant project!

 

But is it buggy?

 

It should have the same bugs and bottlenecks assuming he didn't fix anything in his Tom/Jerry "netlist" to Verilog translator.

[Torlus]

Don't worry, bugs are still there, I may have added a few myself

Some changes have been made to the netlist, most of them were done to cope with the weakness of my compiler/translator.

I had to change a bit the memory controller to handle a "RAM ready" signal, but it may be unnecessary now (I had to "map" the 64-bit DRAM access logic of the original design to the 32-bit SSRAM available on the FPGA board).

[Shamus]

Very nice work! Maybe those Jaguars-on-a-PCIe-card are not so far fetched after all?

 

I noticed in the videos that there was a blank band on the left side of the screen, is this an artifact of the tools you're using?

 

Also: Is the DSP -> I²S interface functional? If so, I would imagine it would require some support hardware to actually hear anything from it though.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Shamus

[Torlus]

The blank band comes from my scandoubler (for VGA output) miscalculations of blanking periods

About sound, joystick, etc. I still need to connect Jerry's I/Os to something... It shouldn't be too hard to do

[Fredifredo]

Congratulations !

Very impressive work !

[TXG/MNX]

This is awesome can you add compatibitity with the Maximumforce hardware aswell this was also based on the jaguar hardware ?

 

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=778

 

http://kick-ass.dynd...aguar/cojag.htm

COJAG Arcade Games

 

Atari Games licensed the Atari Jaguar's chipset for use in its arcade games. The system, named COJAG (for "Coin-Op Jaguar"), replaced the 68000 with a 68020 or MIPS R3000-based CPU (depending on the board version), and added a hard drive and more RAM. It ran the lightgun games Area 51 and Maximum Force, which were released by Atari as dedicated cabinets or as the Area 51/Maximum Force combo machine. Other games (3 On 3 Basketball; Fishin' Frenzy; Freeze; Vicious Circle) were developed but never released.

Edited May 12, 2013 by TXG/MNX

[Torlus]

Well, before adding support for other hardware, I still need to do the "basics", as connecting a joystick or adding sound output

Also, as it is a bare port of the netlists, it currently runs only on high-end FPGAs. One of my primary goals would be to trim down the reqirements, by removing/enhancing existing logic so it would run on a Cyclone III for instance.

[+Stephen]

Incredible work.

[amiman99]

I just found out about this project, very impressive, but is it progressing?

[wildo2ne]

its impressive but damn those boards are expensive, it is cheaper just to get a real jag

[Clint Thompson]

In the right qty., you can get the Cyclone IIIs for about $20. Then you need to add everything else to wire it up on a proper PCB but really, if done right, we could finally see a JagDuo become a reality and be FAR less expensive than the going price of both used base Jaguar units and JagCD drives. 2016 seems like a solid year for this

its impressive but damn those boards are expensive, it is cheaper just to get a real jag

[Orion_]

This won't lead to a final release, Torlus already made several consoles and computers in fpga, and they never got past the "it's running on my fpga card !" status.

Until someone else take his work and release a final product.

I know someone else working on a similar but improved project, It might be released in the form of buying an already made "cheap" fpga card + a jaguar input/output adaptator, and you will have a new powerful-er jaguar/cd combo.

but who knows when this is will be released... we can still hope.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Orion_

[Zerosquare]

SCPCD has written a from-scratch implementation of the Jaguar in a (rather high-end) FPGA. It's significantly faster than the real one, supports HDMI video output, and compatibility is quite good (even if there are some games that don't work yet).

 

It was demoed at the last AC convention in April:

http://zerosquare.free.fr/ac_2014/DSCI0024.JPG

 

I don't have any idea if this is something he intends to sell one day, or purely a personal project. But knowing SCPCD, I'm leaning towards the second option

[ggn]

SCPCD has written a from-scratch implementation of the Jaguar in a (rather high-end) FPGA. It's significantly faster than the real one, supports HDMI video output, and compatibility is quite good (even if there are some games that don't work yet).

 

It was demoed at the last AC convention in April:

http://zerosquare.free.fr/ac_2014/DSCI0024.JPG

 

I don't have any idea if this is something he intends to sell one day, or purely a personal project. But knowing SCPCD, I'm leaning towards the second option

That's why at next AC we will distract him with poulpes and Nyan cats while the rest of you steal the prototype and stick it up on ebay .

[+CyranoJ]

$80 + SnH ?

 

That's why at next AC we will distract him with poulpes and Nyan cats while the rest of you steal the prototype and stick it up on ebay .

[Goochman]

If he can make a FPGA Jag that can run Super Cross 3D as some respectable speed then Im in!

[Zerosquare]

I believe he tested Supercross 3D and even with the extra speed, the framerate remained bad. And of course, it doesn't fix the game's other shortcomings.

[GT Turbo]

If he can make a FPGA Jag that can run Super Cross 3D as some respectable speed then Im in!

Zero is right, you can't make a hit with a shit.....

[Starcat]

Hmm, with the recent hype of the Mini consoles such as Genesis Mini, C64 Mini, the enormous success of the Mini Nintendo consoles (NES, SNES) with the SNES selling over 2 million units and the very good Analogue devcies (Nt Mini and Super Nt coming soon) which actually use some kind of FPGA implementation in mind...

 

Has any progress been made on the Jag FPGA since? How compatible is it to the original Jag?

 

It's just a dream but I would love to have a Jaguar Mini with HDMI connector similar to the Analogue Nt devices that use original controllers and carts.

It could use a smaller version of the Jag case design too. I always loved that.

[+remowilliams]

Last update I recall was that the core seemed to be doing pretty well but the FPGA required remained prohibitively expensive.

[Clint Thompson]

Last update I recall was that the core seemed to be doing pretty well but the FPGA required remained prohibitively expensive.

 

Almost obscenely so... size aside, you would be looking at more than the going rate of a new Jaguar unit which is currently at $450 from one of the two big guys. Sadly that seems to still be a very long ways off.