BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Progress on our FPGA cores.
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Cyprian
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by Cyprian »

exxos wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:55 pm
Cyprian wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:47 pm how much for such a fpga blitter?
Not sure yet.. The blitters I was selling before were a silly £28 due to high costs in obtaining the things, I don't expect the cost to be more than that.. but could be close.
excellent
exxos wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:55 pmWith such a coded core.. it is of course possible to add functions.. not sure what, that's up to the coders to think up what might be possible/useful..
how much % of core will be free for additional fuctions??
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rpineau
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by rpineau »

Don't you need JTAG pins too, and a serial eeprom to load the blitter code in the FPGA on boot ?
Working ones : MegaSTE (68020) / TT030 / Falcon with AB040 & Eclipse / 1040STF
Need testing : Falcon with CT2
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by mrbombermillzy »

exxos wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:55 pmWith such a coded core.. it is of course possible to add functions.. not sure what, that's up to the coders to think up what might be possible/useful..
From a games programming point of view and if it is at all possible perhaps the following...

First, the awesome stuff that all great 2D graphics chips were made of:

1. Hardware sprites (or at least HW collision detection)
2. Hardware realtime alpha blending (at least 2 blend types would be great!)
3. Hardware realtime rotation/scaling.

Now some (possibly) easier to accomplish options:

4. TT compatible 8bpp mode (even if its 320x240)
5. 12bpp colour modes
(the above two may need changes to memory mapping/TOS)
6. Chunky mode or at least an onboard (hardware) P2C conversion.

If any of these could be implemented, or at least some sort of hardware assistance towards that, it would be amazing.

Or maybe some sort of task processor (like the Amiga copper) for blit tasks which would free more CPU time.

Is that enough 'thinking up?' ;)
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dhedberg
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by dhedberg »

What about a LINEMODE (for drawing lines) like the Amiga blitter?
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by exxos »

Well, one thing to bare in mind , is the blitter "isn't" a video generator of any kind.. it doesn't really know anything of resolutions and colours.. its a device to basically shift and edit blocks of data to and from ram quickly... There may not be any other functions which could be added...

https://mikro.naprvyraz.sk/docs/ST_E/BLITTER.TXT

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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by exxos »

rpineau wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:23 pm Don't you need JTAG pins too, and a serial eeprom to load the blitter code in the FPGA on boot ?
ah yep :( Can't find any info on how the eprom is supposed to be wired up :roll: Thats the problem with things being all on a "demo board".. theres like loads of info how to use the thing but nothing on how to make your own :roll:
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by rpineau »

Is this stil based on the 10M02SCE144I7G ?
If yes then you're ok as the MAX 10 has an internal flash that can be programmed via JTAG :
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/p ... config.pdf
Working ones : MegaSTE (68020) / TT030 / Falcon with AB040 & Eclipse / 1040STF
Need testing : Falcon with CT2
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by exxos »

rpineau wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 11:30 pm Is this stil based on the 10M02SCE144I7G ?
Yes.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by rpineau »

Good. so you only need JTAG on there apparently based on the doc I linked in my previous edited post :)
Working ones : MegaSTE (68020) / TT030 / Falcon with AB040 & Eclipse / 1040STF
Need testing : Falcon with CT2
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Re: BLITTER RE-CREATION THOUGHTS

Post by exxos »

rpineau wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 11:32 pm Good. so you only need JTAG on there apparently based on the doc I linked in my previous edited post :)
I'm confused :( JTAG according to videos & FPGA will lose the program when powered down, which is why the external eeprom is needed.. but for the MAX10, I'm not really seeing anything about it :roll:
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https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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