Best AGA implementation on FPGA? - Page 5

chaos · 26 May 2015, 21:49

robinsonb5 has lately made some great speedups available on the CPU side, see here:

(pictures borrowed from user Fenio from atari forum)

I'm also fixing the AGA core, many games with sprite and color problems are being fixed.

The AGA core on the MiST board is not perfect, but we're (slowly) getting there

Any minimig-mist users here can post bug reports about non-working games / demos here (no account required):

https://gitreports.com/issue/rkrajnc/minimig-mist

Currently, I'm mostly interested in games that might have scrolling issues.

Thanks!

eXeler0 · 28 May 2015, 15:04

Great to hear.... but...
Did anyone talk to MikeJ @ fpga arcade yet? I may see things a bit differently than the people actually doing the work, but to me its a waste of precious resources that two teams are basically doing the same thing.. ;-)

chaos · 01 June 2015, 21:31

Quote:

Great to hear.... but...
Did anyone talk to MikeJ @ fpga arcade yet? I may see things a bit differently than the people actually doing the work, but to me its a waste of precious resources that two teams are basically doing the same thing.. ;-)

Yes, well ...

there are somewhat mixed messages comming from the fpga arcade team - one time they are using the TG68 CPU core, next time they have their own core, one time MikeJ said he is only rewriting the minimig core from Verilog to VHDL and adapting it to his board, now they say that the amiga core is a completely new design and they might not share the code ...

I don't mind anything they are doing or how they are doing it, and I can only wish them good luck, but I don't want to get involved unless the terms are more clear - not that anyone invited me to join, mind you - well, maybe they never even heard of me

I only started working on the minimig AGA core because I've been waiting for years for the fpga arcade team to release something, and I just got tired of waiting.

So at least for now, I guess we will all work on the same thing ...

Plus, I hate VHDL language

03 June 2015, 08:38

Hi!
Sorry, just saw this thread.
The FPGAArcade website has been in need of some attention for a while. It's undergoing a rewrite, and we started to sync the developer repository to a public mirror.

A few points :

1 - I never suggested the MIST code was in any way based on my implementation.

2 - I am still using the T68K CPU (with my own cache) and contribute any bug fixes back. I am working on my own CPU which is smaller and faster, but that will need to wait until things are stable.

3 - The code was always going to be released, and has always been available to interested parties. I started a lot of this FPGA open source stuff, it's not going to change now!

4- The main effort was coming up with a clean framework I can use for all the cores. There is a lot of stuff in Minimig which needed improvement. It has got a lot better since I looked at it however. I mostly work in VHDL, so when I rewrite stuff it ends up in VHDL.
90% of my Amiga code is in VHDL now.

5 - um, that's about it. I'm tidying up for release now, shipping boards and fixing up the website. I want to finish the cache optimizations, but the timing is somewhat tricky. Currently the complete design is timing clean (I am an ASIC designer by trade) and the system is hence extremely stable.

/Mike

p.s. any questions, just email or ask on my forum.

03 June 2015, 08:41

oh, one other thing. I have designed an AGA daughterboard with the real chip set and a 68020 CPU which connects to the Replay board. This will be used to debug any remaining issues with the core. This is nearly ready for manufacture now.
/Mike

03 June 2015, 08:52

The daughterboard is certainly not "mystical". The photos below are for the first version. I need to respin it to fit on the production revB base board (with the double height joystick) connectors. I'm just waiting to see if there are any last issues with the design. I have a licensed copy of Chris' USB stack running.

I did an LCD daughterboard with touch screen just for fun (no plans to make a commercial version though).

/MikeJ

eXeler0 · 03 June 2015, 20:01

Thanx for the update MikeJ, as you said, its been a little quiet on the FPGA arcade site. Nice to hear about the advancements made regarding stability etc.
Btw, did you ever find a good, reliable source for 060s for the daughterboard?

03 June 2015, 20:41

I have a way of screening them (zif socket on daughterboard) and reading out the chip ID.
Low yield so far.
/Mike

chaos · 23 June 2015, 09:03

For any MiST users here, there is a new release of minimig-AGA v1.0 for the MiST board available.

Grab your copy here:

http://somuch.guru/minimig/minimig-mist/

Enjoy!

Dejavu · 24 June 2015, 23:20

Great news Rok... Thanks.

Dejavu · 25 June 2015, 05:30

I installed specified files to the root of sdcard. I also update the firmware with most recent one you provided. I renamed newcpu.rbf to core.rbf. Although this updating process ended without problem but after i got "out of range" error from my lcd. The boot screen, rolling amiga ball with some text can be seen when mist switched on.

I have been using this monitor with beta aga core without any problem.

So what is the issue? Have you got any idea?

gulliver · 25 June 2015, 15:03

I am still looking for an Amiga FPGA solution that provides some form of network conectivity (serial, usb/ethernet, etc). Is the Mist capable of that?

Dejavu · 25 June 2015, 21:28

there are some usb ports on it but they don't have support for other than HID hardware.

gulliver · 26 June 2015, 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dejavu

there are some usb ports on it but they don't have support for other than HID hardware.

What a pitty!

Anyway, I have just read somewhere that it has an Atari midi port (which is an inexpensive optional), I wonder if it could be used as a standard Amiga serial port (when using the Amiga core, of course!). It would solve the conectivy limit these devices have.

Any clue on this?

chaos · 27 June 2015, 15:04

MIDI is supported on the current minimig core, together with real Amiga joysticks and mice.

Serial connection is theoretically possible, but the current production boards don't have any external serial ports.

The MiST board already supports USB ethernet adapters with the ST core and there is no reason why the minimig core couldn't support it too, it just needs a driver and some support logic written. All in good time

gulliver · 27 June 2015, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaos

MIDI is supported on the current minimig core, together with real Amiga joysticks and mice.

Serial connection is theoretically possible, but the current production boards don't have any external serial ports.

The MiST board already supports USB ethernet adapters with the ST core and there is no reason why the minimig core couldn't support it too, it just needs a driver and some support logic written. All in good time

Interesting...
I will keep an eye on the Mist progress to see when/if USB ethernet on the Amiga gets supported.

chaos · 29 June 2015, 13:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dejavu

I installed specified files to the root of sdcard. I also update the firmware with most recent one you provided. I renamed newcpu.rbf to core.rbf. Although this updating process ended without problem but after i got "out of range" error from my lcd. The boot screen, rolling amiga ball with some text can be seen when mist switched on.

I have been using this monitor with beta aga core without any problem.

So what is the issue? Have you got any idea?

Did you try both cores available - the newcpu and the regular one? Do you have anything in your mist.ini config file? For how long is the boot screen shown? Is the minimig config (CPU, RAM, ...) shown on the bottom of the boot screen? Does the OSD menu still show up if you press F12?

Dejavu · 29 June 2015, 21:20

i tried both.
at the end, i found cause of the problem.
in ini file the parameter for scandoublerdisable was 1.
i remember it enables 15kHz output for vga.
so changed to 0 and ta..ta..ta..tam

kolla · 08 July 2015, 10:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaos

Serial connection is theoretically possible, but the current production boards don't have any external serial ports.

Ouch. So what happens when AmigaOS wants to speak with the serial port, for example for ROM-wack/SAD?

The serial port on the Minimig is what makes it so versatile, for null-modem gaming, for terminal use, for PPP, for MIDI... and by flipping a jumper, for programming the Minimig hardware. Really, I took it for granted that MiST has serial port!

chaos · 08 July 2015, 16:50

There is a serial port on the MiST board, BUT:
- it is either inside the case, not available as a connector on the case
- or, it is used by the MIDI ports

If you feel like hacking a little bit, you could add a few wires and make a hole in the board, or alternatively, make a MIDI-to-serial adapter (MIDI is of course connected to the minimig serial port).

Another option is to implement some code to handle a USB serial adapter, AFAIK it is already working on the Atari core.

03 June 2015, 08:52	#86
mikej Posts: n/a	The daughterboard is certainly not "mystical". The photos below are for the first version. I need to respin it to fit on the production revB base board (with the double height joystick) connectors. I'm just waiting to see if there are any last issues with the design. I have a licensed copy of Chris' USB stack running. I did an LCD daughterboard with touch screen just for fun (no plans to make a commercial version though). /MikeJ Attached Thumbnails

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26 May 2015, 21:49	#81
chaos Registered User Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Slovenia Posts: 138	robinsonb5 has lately made some great speedups available on the CPU side, see here: (pictures borrowed from user Fenio from atari forum) I'm also fixing the AGA core, many games with sprite and color problems are being fixed. The AGA core on the MiST board is not perfect, but we're (slowly) getting there Any minimig-mist users here can post bug reports about non-working games / demos here (no account required): https://gitreports.com/issue/rkrajnc/minimig-mist Currently, I'm mostly interested in games that might have scrolling issues. Thanks!

28 May 2015, 15:04	#82
eXeler0 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Sweden Age: 50 Posts: 2,946	Great to hear.... but... Did anyone talk to MikeJ @ fpga arcade yet? I may see things a bit differently than the people actually doing the work, but to me its a waste of precious resources that two teams are basically doing the same thing.. ;-)

03 June 2015, 08:38	#84
mikej Posts: n/a	Hi! Sorry, just saw this thread. The FPGAArcade website has been in need of some attention for a while. It's undergoing a rewrite, and we started to sync the developer repository to a public mirror. A few points : 1 - I never suggested the MIST code was in any way based on my implementation. 2 - I am still using the T68K CPU (with my own cache) and contribute any bug fixes back. I am working on my own CPU which is smaller and faster, but that will need to wait until things are stable. 3 - The code was always going to be released, and has always been available to interested parties. I started a lot of this FPGA open source stuff, it's not going to change now! 4- The main effort was coming up with a clean framework I can use for all the cores. There is a lot of stuff in Minimig which needed improvement. It has got a lot better since I looked at it however. I mostly work in VHDL, so when I rewrite stuff it ends up in VHDL. 90% of my Amiga code is in VHDL now. 5 - um, that's about it. I'm tidying up for release now, shipping boards and fixing up the website. I want to finish the cache optimizations, but the timing is somewhat tricky. Currently the complete design is timing clean (I am an ASIC designer by trade) and the system is hence extremely stable. /Mike p.s. any questions, just email or ask on my forum.

03 June 2015, 08:41	#85
mikej Posts: n/a	oh, one other thing. I have designed an AGA daughterboard with the real chip set and a 68020 CPU which connects to the Replay board. This will be used to debug any remaining issues with the core. This is nearly ready for manufacture now. /Mike

03 June 2015, 20:01	#87
eXeler0 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Sweden Age: 50 Posts: 2,946	Thanx for the update MikeJ, as you said, its been a little quiet on the FPGA arcade site. Nice to hear about the advancements made regarding stability etc. Btw, did you ever find a good, reliable source for 060s for the daughterboard?

03 June 2015, 20:41	#88
mikej Posts: n/a	I have a way of screening them (zif socket on daughterboard) and reading out the chip ID. Low yield so far. /Mike

23 June 2015, 09:03	#89
chaos Registered User Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Slovenia Posts: 138	For any MiST users here, there is a new release of minimig-AGA v1.0 for the MiST board available. Grab your copy here: http://somuch.guru/minimig/minimig-mist/ Enjoy!

24 June 2015, 23:20	#90
Dejavu Registered User Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: İstanbul/Turkey Age: 46 Posts: 33	Great news Rok... Thanks.

25 June 2015, 05:30	#91
Dejavu Registered User Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: İstanbul/Turkey Age: 46 Posts: 33	I installed specified files to the root of sdcard. I also update the firmware with most recent one you provided. I renamed newcpu.rbf to core.rbf. Although this updating process ended without problem but after i got "out of range" error from my lcd. The boot screen, rolling amiga ball with some text can be seen when mist switched on. I have been using this monitor with beta aga core without any problem. So what is the issue? Have you got any idea?

25 June 2015, 15:03	#92
gulliver BoingBagged Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The South of nowhere Age: 46 Posts: 2,358	I am still looking for an Amiga FPGA solution that provides some form of network conectivity (serial, usb/ethernet, etc). Is the Mist capable of that?

25 June 2015, 21:28	#93
Dejavu Registered User Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: İstanbul/Turkey Age: 46 Posts: 33	there are some usb ports on it but they don't have support for other than HID hardware.

27 June 2015, 15:04	#95
chaos Registered User Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Slovenia Posts: 138	MIDI is supported on the current minimig core, together with real Amiga joysticks and mice. Serial connection is theoretically possible, but the current production boards don't have any external serial ports. The MiST board already supports USB ethernet adapters with the ST core and there is no reason why the minimig core couldn't support it too, it just needs a driver and some support logic written. All in good time

29 June 2015, 21:20	#98
Dejavu Registered User Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: İstanbul/Turkey Age: 46 Posts: 33	i tried both. at the end, i found cause of the problem. in ini file the parameter for scandoublerdisable was 1. i remember it enables 15kHz output for vga. so changed to 0 and ta..ta..ta..tam

08 July 2015, 16:50	#100
chaos Registered User Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Slovenia Posts: 138	There is a serial port on the MiST board, BUT: - it is either inside the case, not available as a connector on the case - or, it is used by the MIDI ports If you feel like hacking a little bit, you could add a few wires and make a hole in the board, or alternatively, make a MIDI-to-serial adapter (MIDI is of course connected to the minimig serial port). Another option is to implement some code to handle a USB serial adapter, AFAIK it is already working on the Atari core.

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