NML32 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Wow, foft you are one busy guy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanfanel Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I have the FPGA ARCADE, and now I have a reason to get a proper ITX case for it now. IN CRE DI BLE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blues76 Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Hello, I was wondering what is the ideal hardware to get this running. Altera DE1? Can you please provide some list to get this up and running. This is an exciting project! thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 DE1 is a good choice but needs a 'minimig adaptor' to connect joysticks. It needs a wire adding to use sio2pc. It has lots of spare io. I'm building a breakout board for it to add cart socket, sio port, joysticks with paddle support etc - slowly! MIST and MCC216 have built in joysticks but no spare io (eg for connecting drive etc). No sio2pc on these. MIST has USB support. It is available from Lotharek. Replay has built in joystick ports, sio2pc serial port and spare io. It is hard to get hold of - for now. They all run the core pretty well and have (basic, first cut) sd card drive support. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blues76 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Ok, for what I gather, the DE1 plus your board should be enough to get it a full functional atari 8 bit up and running, right? Here is the DE1 description, so it already has memory built in http://www.altera.com/education/univ/materials/boards/de1/unv-de1-board.html How about the other ones, like DE2? overkill? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yes they all have memory built in. DE2 you'd have to port it to, but the advantage is no hardware mod needed for SIO2PC. I'd actually suggest a SOCkit over a DE2 though since I have one and will (eventually) port to it. Terasic also make a HSMC - 40 pin adaptor so the IO is similar to on DE1/DE2. I wouldn't hold your breath on my board:-) As it stands it needs a level converter board (I have some - or you can do another solution) in addition since the DE1 is not 5V tolerant. Actually I'm thinking about adding them, but not sure I can fit them - will have to see. Its a 4 layer board so I could put them on and route via the internal layers. I should probably take Candle up on his offer to help with this... :-) Note the other boards don't require additional hardware to run. Just connect a monitor, keyboard, joystick and go. The DE series are more about playing with electronics and learning about FPGAs. The others are more focussed on using old computers standalone. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blues76 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) This one, right? http://parts.arrow.com/item/search/#st=sockit;reJGzy So, I could "build" your project to run is MIST too? thanks Edited March 23, 2014 by Blues76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 Yes. It will run on SOCkit by the end of April. Afraid I don't understand your question. It runs on MIST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NGFrankW Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) DE1 is a good choice but needs a 'minimig adaptor' to connect joysticks. It needs a wire adding to use sio2pc. It has lots of spare io. I'm building a breakout board for it to add cart socket, sio port, joysticks with paddle support etc - slowly! MIST and MCC216 have built in joysticks but no spare io (eg for connecting drive etc). No sio2pc on these. MIST has USB support. It is available from Lotharek. Replay has built in joystick ports, sio2pc serial port and spare io. It is hard to get hold of - for now. They all run the core pretty well and have (basic, first cut) sd card drive support. Please let me know when the MCC216 edition is ready for tests I have the VGA version. Frank Edited April 5, 2014 by NGFrankW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 The MCC216 first edition is likely to come out around the end of April. Its been quiet here recently because I've been working on a big merge and clean up of all the ports, to make it more maintainable. This will allow: i) When I fix/change the core all versions will be automatically updated. ii) It will be _much_ easier/cleaner to port. iii) All code will be subversion for simpler change tracking/ latest code will be available without me doing any work. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NGFrankW Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Great idea to create a common source code for all supported platforms.Are there big differences between the DE1, MIST, MCC216 and the Replay boards ? Will you create an abstraction layer for the differences ? Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted April 7, 2014 Author Share Posted April 7, 2014 Each board typically has different: I) Joystick connections (pins order, inverted, some over spi) ii) Keyboard connection (PS2, USB via spi, configurable matrix emulator) iii) Video (VGA, Svideo, alternative scandoubler, reclocking to standards) iv) Audio (codec conf over i2c, 1-bit ds dac, custom dac) v) Memory (own/shared sdram/ddrram, sram) vi) SD (direct access spi, custom spi slave query, custom loading via ini file and DMA) vii) Firmware needs (own CPU/ file selector/osd etc) So quite a bit varies. So I've made an Atari xl level that is shared. Just the top level will differ and in that layer I'll share as much as possible. Firmware side, yes I'll have an abstraction for eg the drive emulator. ie it can get file data from many places. File selection distinct from file data etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NGFrankW Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Hope you are still busy with your great project!Have discovered also your two nice ATARI 800 and ATARI7800 ProSystem emulators for the Gizmondo on your website.Perhaps I can re-animate my Gizmondo an try them Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 (edited) Yep still busy with this:-) I've got things in much better order now, but there are still a bunch of significant regressions to fix before releasing. I had to build a battery (well, modify...) to re-animate my Gizmondo. The Atari 800 is a port of the great "atari800" emulator, with a few small(ish) patches I did when porting it to the GP32/GP2X. I'm not sure of the origins of the 7800 emulator - its a very quick port of a port done by someone else to the GP2X! Edited April 25, 2014 by foft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanfanel Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 How're things going on the reborn Atari 8bit hardware front, foft? I've tried to find the latest version of the core today, to test it on the DE1, and I can't find it for download anymore on your scratchmeta page. Any news on this INCREDIBLE project are good news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted May 29, 2014 Author Share Posted May 29, 2014 All going well, though no releases for some months. STILL busy merging these boards into one common version. Getting pretty close now... All the boards run but I need to put the drive emulation into all the targets. I've just put my website back online. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanfanel Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 The project to get all the different boards together with a common codebase is very exciting! It's as the Atari 8bit hardware is going to live on forever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_33 Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Wow! I've been reading this from page 1 and it's quite something What I don't understand is; what will the end result be with this project? The title reads POTENTIAL NEW HARDWARE, but I am not sure if it's the Atari 8-bit base, or if it's the A8 base and a host of upgrades, bringing the 8-bit up to the level that the Amiga was or better(?). I'm very interested in VBXE features, very interested in a semingly overclocked CPU (may it be 20x as fast or 50x), and even more interested in the prospect of enhanced sound capabilities! I remmeber the soundboard discussion from 2012 that I read quite religiously and that was rather interesting (project from Candle?). The idea was to implement SID (or dual SID) and OPL features. Mind you, there is so much more that can be done, implementing sample playback, but also, if you get to the same level as say an ENSONIQ DOC3 soundchip, now THAT would be absolutely crazy in terms of potential for sounds! I have over here the Ensoniq SQr that has the DOC3 chip, which plays 16 bit samples, and it is a beast. Each voice has 3 LFOs and 2 ADSRs as well as LP/BP/HP/notch filter qith Q, and a host of other stuff that makes it that much interesting. Anyhow I have no clue if the goal is to build a new 8-bit computer with the basis of the Atari 8-bit or a new form of mutating computer that builds itself on emulating a bunch of loved hardware That's all gravy to me Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Wow! I've been reading this from page 1 and it's quite something What I don't understand is; what will the end result be with this project? The title reads POTENTIAL NEW HARDWARE, but I am not sure if it's the Atari 8-bit base, or if it's the A8 base and a host of upgrades, bringing the 8-bit up to the level that the Amiga was or better(?). I'm very interested in VBXE features, very interested in a semingly overclocked CPU (may it be 20x as fast or 50x), and even more interested in the prospect of enhanced sound capabilities! I remmeber the soundboard discussion from 2012 that I read quite religiously and that was rather interesting (project from Candle?). The idea was to implement SID (or dual SID) and OPL features. Mind you, there is so much more that can be done, implementing sample playback, but also, if you get to the same level as say an ENSONIQ DOC3 soundchip, now THAT would be absolutely crazy in terms of potential for sounds! I have over here the Ensoniq SQr that has the DOC3 chip, which plays 16 bit samples, and it is a beast. Each voice has 3 LFOs and 2 ADSRs as well as LP/BP/HP/notch filter qith Q, and a host of other stuff that makes it that much interesting. Anyhow I have no clue if the goal is to build a new 8-bit computer with the basis of the Atari 8-bit or a new form of mutating computer that builds itself on emulating a bunch of loved hardware That's all gravy to me Cheers! Has anyone implemented the Ensoniq chip in VHDL before? They sound great but reverse engineering something like that would take some time. Even running a 6502 at 8MHz makes a huge difference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_33 Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 (edited) Has anyone implemented the Ensoniq chip in VHDL before? They sound great but reverse engineering something like that would take some time. Even running a 6502 at 8MHz makes a huge difference. I honestly do not know how you implement in WHDL, but I do know there is extensive work done in MAME by Aaron Giles on excactly that soundchip http://mamedev.org/source/src/emu/sound/es5506.c.html I think it is a question of taste and requirement wether you choose the DOC3 (OTTO) or DOC2(OTIS). ES5503 (DOC, 1st version) http://www.buchty.net/ensoniq/5503.html The Gravis Ultrasound I believe used the OTTO, while the Apple IIgs used the DOC2 or even earlier versions of the DOC chip. Things to know about the first DOC chip is that it doesn't have filters. The Ensoniq Mirage and ESQ series used to have their setup as an 8 channel with 8 analog filters. Personally I have an SQR which is a DOC3 in hardware so I can really test the features but with an internal sample bank. Now a 6502, is great for shuffling data for a small game, but when you want to handle a more massive type of game like say a very detailed and busy side shooter like a Metal Slug, things kind of gets out of hand. 65816 is a much better choice, and Nintendo knew that when they created the SNES, so did Apple for the IIGS. And a 65816 say at 100mhz is probably enough power for every 2D platformer project you can imagine. It's particularly sad to think so few people ever really took advantage of Apple IIgs's full potential! Edited June 9, 2014 by _33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic1975 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) Where can I download Atari 800 core? There is link on Mist page but it is not working. Is someone willing to make TI99/4a core? Edited June 19, 2014 by Manic1975 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NML32 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) Where can I download Atari 800 core? There is link on Mist page but it is not working. Here you go. http://ssh.scrameta.net Edited June 19, 2014 by NML32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) Finally I think all the cores are running. The current auto build from svn is here: http://www.scrameta.net/autobuild/20140619/ Please see instructions.txt - new rom directories etc. Note I've only tested a few of these cores from this build. However I believe they all work... So please post here if you have issues. @_33: I think the 65C816 would come before that sound chip. This is one big missing feature of this core since a lot of people on real hardware seem to be considering/using 65816 accelerators and there is no working public soft core. NB: Autobuild MIST core needs new firmware - to be released tomorrow. Edited June 19, 2014 by foft 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greblus Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Foft thank you! Can't wait for the firmware upgrade to test it. And the intriguing is that for MIST you made separate cores for PAL/NTSC RGB, VGA and VGA_CS output. If only remaining cores could support RGB output I'd get rid of this cheap VGA to Composite converter (my TV set doesn't have VGA port). Could you write something more about it? Will it output RGB from MIST directly, so only a cable is needed to use it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greblus Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Update: first test: used this firmware update for MIST: https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/source/browse/trunk/bin/firmware/firmware_140620_r283.upg?spec=svn283&r=283 - roms shouls go to: atari800/rom - disk dir is atari800/user and tried your latest core for PAL / VGA. Noticed two things: - F12 hangs keyboard (nothing happens and keyboard stops working), system menu is not showing up - Joystick port is switched (Mist is numbering ports as ST does, second port is used for joystick, atari800 is using the first one). This can be a feature Now it's time to play some games! Edited June 20, 2014 by greblus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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