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/  Forum Index
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      /  Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
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KimmoK 
Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 16:14:19
#1 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 14-Mar-2003
Posts: 5211
From: Ylikiiminki, Finland

Because no-one else did it... I just let my R&D thoughts to go loose... :

Lattice XP ideas:
-i386 emulation (or adapter to chip like xcore86)
-3D render node (FPU)
-DSP + digital sound out+in (delfina emulation etc.)
-second CPU controller (Cell/SPE/intel Atom + memory/xcore86)
-physical RAM drive controller (SWAP: drive, RAM2: drive, bootable RAD: drive)
-MP4 encoder/decoder (or adapter to MPEG4 chip)
-video capture/digitizer
-multichannel digiTV receiver (and decryption, cable, terrestial and satellite)
-GPS receiver
-EDGE/GPRS/3G receiver
-GSM base station
-WLAN receiver
-ADSL receiver
-ethernet router + port
-bluetooth receiver
-radio receiver
-Watchdog
-HardPowerOff (to truly shut off ATX power)
-Oscilloscope
-LogicAnalyzer
-DataAcuistion (industry, home automation, car automation)
-Display Controllers (laptop LCD, sevensegment, matrix LED display)
-RetroConsoleEmulator
-Retro ROM module reader
-PATA IDE controller (perhaps even RAID)
-SCSI controller
-Firewire controller/bus
-yet another USB port
-yet another RS232 port
-Gigabit Ethernet
-PCI and PCI Express controller/bus
-Zorro2/3 controller/bus
-A1200 clock port(s)
-Amiga/PC floppydrive controller
-Bridge to Amiga 1200 "local bus" (original AmigaInc&Eyetech kludge idea)
-adaptor for original Amiga keyboards (for example for A500kb or as a version of Keyrah)
-AGA (indivision AGA, NatamiAGA, OCS, or adapter for one of those)
-Car computer connections
-Home automation control bus
-MIDI Ports
-Amiga/Atari joystic ports (eight simultaneous digital joystics)
-Playstation/Xbox Joystick ports
-PC joystick ports
-Parallel ports
-IR port
-Discolights controller
-other future port/bus
-XCore emulator (or only XCore I/O emulator/adapter)
-XMos link (subset of Xorro?)
-Xorro pin functions (perhaps this is similar than XCore emulator above)
-monitor switcher (see details below)
-simple GFX output to a LCD screen (no need for GFX card in the very lowend)
-video out -port
-iPad/iPhone adapter

MONITOR SWITCHER:
A cheap AOS4 controlled monitor switcher, so that SAM M9 output could be switched with the PCI GFX card output in the same way as screens are switched on a single monitor. Then the M9 memory would not be wasted if/when >128M PCI card is also used.
The same switcher could be used to switch between MOS and AOS motherboard that are built inside a single ATX case as well as to switch between the AOSboard and x86 board inside a single ATX case. etc...
btw. is the LatticeXP on the SAM capable to function as a monitor switcher (for DVI signals).

************

I think almost all of these could be implemented also on I2C/Ethernet/USB/PCI or on some other SAM440ep bus. Some would need additional HW to be plugged on the 80 pin extension connector. And some of those surely fit running in parallel in the LatticeXP. And at least one can have different "HW" assist per day (update: not possible, the FPGA can not be reprogrammed on board, unlike xcore/xena).

Any comments? Acube?

XENA UPDATE:
I believe a lot of the ideas above can be done in xena as well.

Some info about xena/xcore:
http://www.leonheller.com/XMOS/Designing%20with%20Software%20Defined%20Silicon%20-%20handouts.pdf
See especially pages 32 (use case 1 and 2 especially relevant to x1000), 36, 37, 13

Also here:
http://ebdlab.en.ntut.edu.tw/ebdlab/file/3293942.pdf
See especially page 5. btw, there's a roadmap on page 6, it seems there's higher bandwidth in the plans ... XS2 might be able to use PCIe ... the reason for xorro-PCIe slot?

Some videos to download:
http://www.xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=439

Developer material: https://www.xmos.com/products/development-tools
(not yet AOS native)

I also recommend people to read A-Eon info about xena and xorro:
http://a-eon.com/x1000.html (theres information about the connections and possibilities)

UPDATE 7/2014, latest around xena:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=768409&postcount=24

Last edited by KimmoK on 07-Jul-2014 at 06:37 AM.
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Last edited by KimmoK on 09-Nov-2008 at 04:15 PM.

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Darth_X 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 17:58:48
#2 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Jun-2003
Posts: 2997
From: Vancouver Island, Canada

@KimmoK

If it could be programmed to be a floppy disk controller to read off old Amiga floppy disks then I would be a lot more interested in the Sam than I am now.

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Daedalus 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 18:35:56
#3 ]
Super Member
Joined: 14-Jul-2003
Posts: 1680
From: Glasgow - UK, Irish born

I like the idea of adding a clock port controller - having some odd-shaped little circuit boards off the SAM would make it feel that bit more like a real Amiga Also, a Geekport like the BeBox would be a great idea for the hardware tinkerers among us. Building gadgets for USB is too much trouble for me, so I still go back to my 1200s with their parallel ports, clock ports and hardware banging

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olegil 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 18:40:22
#4 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 22-Aug-2003
Posts: 5895
From: Work

@Daedalus

clock port and floppy controller surely would be well within limits.

And for me that would already kick ass

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Akiko 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 18:51:03
#5 ]
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Joined: 26-Mar-2004
Posts: 781
From: UK

Something like minimig possible?

Last edited by Akiko on 09-Nov-2008 at 06:55 PM.

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Flystone 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 18:52:37
#6 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 4-Oct-2004
Posts: 174
From: Italy, Northwest

@KimmoK

I like ..
DigiTV-multichannel receiver (and decryption, cable, and satellite terrestial)
-GPS receiver
-EDGE/GPRS/3G Receiver

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RockDemon 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 20:12:47
#7 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 7-Jan-2005
Posts: 217
From: leicester, UK

@KimmoK

Ones i like are:

Amiga disk controller (catweasel?)
hardware accelerated video in/out
clock port

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xeron 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 20:33:45
#8 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 22-Jun-2003
Posts: 2440
From: Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England, UK, Europe, Earth, The Milky Way, The Universe

An amiga compatible floppy driver would be very cool. It would mean that without extra hardware, OS4.x could boot kickstart from HD then read from, write to, or even continue booting from an Amiga 880k/1760k disk.

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ChrisH 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 23:01:20
#9 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Jan-2005
Posts: 6679
From: Unknown

@Darth_X
Do you really still use floppy disks?!? Sorry, I am just amazed at your comment, as I ditched floppy disks 5-10 years ago when I switched to Amithlon, and my latest PC (year or two old) doesn't even have a floppy drive (not have I ever missed it).

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Phantom 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 9-Nov-2008 23:41:04
#10 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 2-Aug-2007
Posts: 2047
From: Unknown

@ChrisH

It's a very good addition to add an Amiga floppy drive even on new Amiga machines. Then you can read/write on our lovely Amiga disks, run E-UAE on AmigaOS 4.1 and then use WHDLoad to play.

I have a lot of original games, so why I need to change them into ADF format?

Last edited by Phantom on 09-Nov-2008 at 11:41 PM.

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ChrisH 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 1:36:46
#11 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Jan-2005
Posts: 6679
From: Unknown

@Phantom
Convert to ADF (or similar) format to (1)save lots of space, (2)convenience (no physical swapping), (3)avoid bit rot (floppies going bad)...

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Phantom 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 8:24:19
#12 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 2-Aug-2007
Posts: 2047
From: Unknown

@ChrisH

1) I like the old way
2) With WHDLoad you don't swap
3) We have DiskSalv v4

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ChrisH 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 12:00:40
#13 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Jan-2005
Posts: 6679
From: Unknown

@Phantom
WHDLoad is even better (that's what I used where possible), but then you don't need your floppies either!

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Gleng 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 12:12:52
#14 ]
Super Member
Joined: 12-Dec-2004
Posts: 1071
From: Blighty

An OCS/ECS/AGA implementation would be sweet. Getting WHDLoad working under OS 4.1 would be killer.

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billt 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 15:00:32
#15 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 24-Oct-2003
Posts: 3205
From: Maryland, USA

I'd like to see some info abotu the SAM's FPGA posted somewhere, a FAQ perhaps.

1. What FPGA is this? (system capacity, pin count, speed grade)

2. What does the FPGA connect to on SAM? (CPU local bus, PCI, headers - connector type and pin count, anything else it connects to anywhere, full list)

Especially answer to 2 will let us know some of what is and is not practical. For example, if we want to put minimig in there, how do we get the audio and video out of it? Does it have any connections to the rear-panel audio ports? Can it be muxed with that and muxed with VGA? Can we get keyboard/mouse inputs into the FPGA? Or are there no connections to these things? If no connections, can they be created and how?

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KimmoK 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 16:25:23
#16 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 14-Mar-2003
Posts: 5211
From: Ylikiiminki, Finland

@billt

Some information can be dug out also from this: http://www.acube-systems.biz/common/Bitplane15.pdf

If the information is valid, the FPGA is connected via 16bit 66mhz bus that has 30 address bits.
But so far that's the best I have found so far. Lattice documents are useless as long as we do not know what LatticeXP model is used. Should we assume the cheapest?? I would not like to assume/guess.


Some SAM440ep owner could check the numbers of the lattice chip. I have a picture of SAM440ep revC but I can not read lattice's text.
Perhaps: "LFXPBC, 4F*256C-II, A8458826 Malaysia ...." hmm ... I have to dig out the Lattice document again...

Last edited by KimmoK on 10-Nov-2008 at 04:33 PM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 10-Nov-2008 at 04:26 PM.

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ChrisH 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 17:57:55
#17 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Jan-2005
Posts: 6679
From: Unknown

@Gleng
I would have thought that it should be *possible* to have a fake WHDLoad for OS4 which was actually a script which started UAE & ran WHDLoad in that... **Might** look into that if I ever get UAE installed on OS4.

Last edited by ChrisH on 10-Nov-2008 at 05:58 PM.

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OldAmigan 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 19:04:16
#18 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 25-Dec-2003
Posts: 683
From: Dumfries, Scotland

@KimmoK

Amiga custom chip implementation so that something like E-UAE wouldn't need to emulate them and be faster and more compatible?


Go here for Lattice XP info

Last edited by OldAmigan on 10-Nov-2008 at 07:07 PM.
Last edited by OldAmigan on 10-Nov-2008 at 07:07 PM.

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ChrisH 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 21:08:31
#19 ]
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Joined: 30-Jan-2005
Posts: 6679
From: Unknown

@OldAmigan
While that is a great idea in principle, you still have the problem of emulating a 68k, not to mention integrating the hardware & software together (a big project IMHO).

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KimmoK 
Re: Ideas for SAM440ep's LatticeXP
Posted on 10-Nov-2008 21:28:30
#20 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 14-Mar-2003
Posts: 5211
From: Ylikiiminki, Finland

@OldAmigan

Yep, that's the .pdf.

Elsewhere JoannaK already decrypted it to indicate: LFXP6C & medium speed chip ... whatever it means.

But in the end, we really need to know a lot more before we know what it really can do. And the fact that different FPGA could be used per production run.

Taking that into account, I think also Gigabit ethernet might be doable...

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