Current roadmap 2018
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:53 am
First of all, this project isn't dead.. far from it..
Current status of the motherboard is I need to add caps and manually route the RGB drivers.. but Eagle doesn't allow "stop" layers internally, so it messed thing sup routing wise
Once above is finished, the board can actually go into production for testing.. BUT. this is going to be expensive, and will need a few people willing to buy a board and built it up themselves to test it all works.
Meanwhile as people know I am working on the STFM SEC DESIGN which will ultimately be integrated onto future motherboard revisions.
Blitter is impossible to find now, so needs a FPGA board creating and testing for that.. likely be some time before I get chance to work on that. Again this be tested on the STFM first and will be included on new motherboard in future revisions.
Speed up of MMU is next step to clone in FPGA (will use suska core) which will run at 50MHz with CPU. Meaning 50MHz CPU & ST-RAM. 14MB ST-RAM should be possible.
Then we have higher bandwidth to shifter for more colours and video resolutions. Of course needs new shifter for that also..
GLUE logic should be easy to replace, we can add TOS206 decoding on there also..
Also check out the FAQ & suggestions https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =19&t=1028
Also current draft layout is here https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=19&t=15
So once my SEC design is finished and I caught up on peoples machine repairs and web store items, I hope to dedicate my time to this project.. but of course, really need some people to invest some time and money into testing the board out so I can work on next revision rather than spending time on current ST clone which almost anyone should be able to build and test.
Ultimately the MMU & GLUE will likely be integrated into a single FPGA. So as the SEC CPU needs a bit of support logic, I hope to mash that into the same FPGA also.
Long term, the DMA will be replaced with a higher speed FPGA so DMA transfers can operate at much higher speeds.
Current status of the motherboard is I need to add caps and manually route the RGB drivers.. but Eagle doesn't allow "stop" layers internally, so it messed thing sup routing wise
Once above is finished, the board can actually go into production for testing.. BUT. this is going to be expensive, and will need a few people willing to buy a board and built it up themselves to test it all works.
Meanwhile as people know I am working on the STFM SEC DESIGN which will ultimately be integrated onto future motherboard revisions.
Blitter is impossible to find now, so needs a FPGA board creating and testing for that.. likely be some time before I get chance to work on that. Again this be tested on the STFM first and will be included on new motherboard in future revisions.
Speed up of MMU is next step to clone in FPGA (will use suska core) which will run at 50MHz with CPU. Meaning 50MHz CPU & ST-RAM. 14MB ST-RAM should be possible.
Then we have higher bandwidth to shifter for more colours and video resolutions. Of course needs new shifter for that also..
GLUE logic should be easy to replace, we can add TOS206 decoding on there also..
Also check out the FAQ & suggestions https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =19&t=1028
Also current draft layout is here https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=19&t=15
So once my SEC design is finished and I caught up on peoples machine repairs and web store items, I hope to dedicate my time to this project.. but of course, really need some people to invest some time and money into testing the board out so I can work on next revision rather than spending time on current ST clone which almost anyone should be able to build and test.
Ultimately the MMU & GLUE will likely be integrated into a single FPGA. So as the SEC CPU needs a bit of support logic, I hope to mash that into the same FPGA also.
Long term, the DMA will be replaced with a higher speed FPGA so DMA transfers can operate at much higher speeds.