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      /  68K FPGA Question
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Trekiej 
68K FPGA Question
Posted on 28-Nov-2018 20:23:02
#1 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

If someone were to put a 68000 cpu on a FPGA, would there be enough space left for Fast Ram?

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billt 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 28-Nov-2018 20:38:58
#2 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 24-Oct-2003
Posts: 3205
From: Maryland, USA

@Trekiej

I would not think of Fast Ram as something to fit inside an FPGA. I would think of Fast RAM or Chip RAM as something outside of the FPGA, as DDR perhaps. There is some amount of memory in many FPGA chips, but generally small bits to be used as FIFO buffers and very small code things for microcontrollers like MicroBlaze or NIOS, or perhaps as some logic thing where inputs are really addresses for the intended data for outputs.

I believe that all the FPGA-Arcade, Minimig, Vampyre, MISTer, Suska (Atari) etc. boards have memory chips external to the FPGA, even when the CPU is a softcore internal to FGPA.

Last edited by billt on 28-Nov-2018 at 08:47 PM.

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OneTimer1 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 28-Nov-2018 21:43:56
#3 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 3-Aug-2015
Posts: 962
From: Unknown

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:
If someone were to put a 68000 cpu on a FPGA, ...


Not only one, there are many.

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:
would there be enough space left for Fast Ram?


There should be enough space left around the FPGA for Fast RAM.

Last edited by OneTimer1 on 28-Nov-2018 at 09:45 PM.

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 28-Nov-2018 23:06:07
#4 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@OneTimer1
@ billt

Sure I know that there are 68K FPGA cpu's.
It would be cool to have at least 1 MB of ram in an FPGA and external fast ram.
The speed could be quite fast. I think.

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gregthecanuck 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 1:33:18
#5 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 30-Dec-2003
Posts: 846
From: Vancouver, Canada

@Trekiej

On the Vampire one big use of the FPGA's on-chip memory is for the 68080 CPU caches. On the V2 models that means 32KB data and 16KB instruction cache. This is an improvement over the 68060 8KB/8KB setup. On the upcoming V4 I don't know if the caches are being enlarged.

http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/apollo_core

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bison 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 4:53:29
#6 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Dec-2007
Posts: 2112
From: N-Space

@Trekiej

I'd be more interested in using any extra space on an FPGA for Amiga custom chips, since RAM is a commodity item and Amiga custom chips are not.

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 5:38:08
#7 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@gregthecanuck

I will go with that.
I need the A500 version.
@bison

Okay, I am eyeballing a TF530 board.
I wonder if it has a place for Kick Start.
I need to read some more on it.

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megol 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 15:05:16
#8 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 17-Mar-2008
Posts: 355
From: Unknown

@Trekiej
Just use an external "ROM" (EEPROM of some sort) for kickstart and use external RAM, SRAM if limited memory is fine (expensive but easy to work with) and DRAM (DDR3 probably) otherwise.

Costs increase quickly with increased internal SRAM and most resources of the FPGA would be wasted anyway.

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 20:52:14
#9 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@megol

Thanks, I guess an FPGA accelerator that fits the 68K socket will be the solution.

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OneTimer1 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 22:12:31
#10 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 3-Aug-2015
Posts: 962
From: Unknown

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:

It would be cool to have at least 1 MB of ram in an FPGA and external fast ram.


FPGAs have logic cells you can use them for the CPU, for glue logic or for RAM.

If you use them as RAM you will waste precious resources you can buy elsewhere, especially if you still want to attach external RAM.

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OneTimer1 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 29-Nov-2018 22:49:46
#11 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 3-Aug-2015
Posts: 962
From: Unknown

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:


Thanks, I guess an FPGA accelerator that fits the 68K socket will be the solution.


The Vampire 2 for A500 might fit into your A1000.

Look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H8RLoCi2no

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megol 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 30-Nov-2018 12:13:15
#12 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 17-Mar-2008
Posts: 355
From: Unknown

@OneTimer1
All but the smallest FPGAs out there have dedicated memory blocks however those are costly.
For example to have 512KiB RAM on an Xilinx FPGA the cheapest chip is listed at $110 on Digikey, an Artix-7 XC7A100T. The cheapest series (Spartan-7) have a maximum of 480KiB.

Of course moving to the more expensive segment (Kintex-7) one can get 2MiB+ internal RAM (plus some spare) for just $1600 (XC7K355T).

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 14-Apr-2019 22:34:52
#13 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@thread

Are there any FPGA computers being sold in a Micro ATX form factor?

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Samurai_Crow 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 15-Apr-2019 13:03:26
#14 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Jan-2003
Posts: 2320
From: Minnesota, USA

@Trekiej

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:
@thread

Are there any FPGA computers being sold in a Micro ATX form factor?



As far as I know, MicroATX is much bigger than what most FPGA motherboards need. There are no boards to plug in to them other than basic Ethernet or WiFi therefore there are no card slots. Also they often have no need for DIMM or SODIMM sockets since they are fully RAM expanded at the start.

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OneTimer1 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 15-Apr-2019 18:26:39
#15 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 3-Aug-2015
Posts: 962
From: Unknown

Quote:

Trekiej wrote:


Are there any FPGA computers being sold in a Micro ATX form factor?



There is (was) the Mini-ITX MiniMig Version 2.0:
http://www.illuwatar.se/project_pages/minimig2/minimig.htm


But the cheapest currently available Amiga Clone using a FPGA is Mister:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki


chipset variants : OCS, ECS, AGA
chipRAM : 0.5MB - 2.0MB
slowRAM : 0.0MB - 1.5MB
fastRAM : 0.0MB - 24MB
CPU core : 68000, 68010, 68020
kickstart : 1.2 - 3.1 (256kB, 512kB & 1MB kickstart ROMs currently supported)
HRTmon with custom registers mirror
floppy disks : 1-4 floppies (supports ADF floppy image format), with normal & turbo speeds
hard disks : 1-2 hard disk images (supports whole disk images, partition images, using whole SD card and using SD card partition)
video standard : PAL / NTSC
supports normal & scandoubled video output (15kHz / 30kHz) - can be used with a monitor or a TV with a SCART cable
peripherals : real Amiga mice, real Amiga joysticks, USB keyboards, USB mice, USB gamepads, MIDI in / out
could potentially support anything that can be connected to USB (ethernet, RTC, USB Flash, ...)

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 15-Apr-2019 21:39:46
#16 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@OneTimer1
What was the name of the A500 mini-itx or micro ATX?

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Trekiej 
Re: 68K FPGA Question
Posted on 15-Apr-2019 21:45:49
#17 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Oct-2006
Posts: 890
From: Unknown

@Trekiej

Amy-itx

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