MiST - FPGA ST
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
yea, cross fingers, as sometimes with the FPGAs the video issues can be a real bitch.
for example I have a Philips (15") that has vert. 56-76 Hz and works like a charm with any core of the c-1,
but there is NO way to see picture on an widescreen one -vert. scan 50-75 Hz !
for example I have a Philips (15") that has vert. 56-76 Hz and works like a charm with any core of the c-1,
but there is NO way to see picture on an widescreen one -vert. scan 50-75 Hz !
Re: MiST - FPGA ST
We'll know in a few days... I *really* don't want to go looking for another monitor, obviously!
Reality is that, which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. --P.K.Dick
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
As you can see there : https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wi ... tCoreWorks
the video output can be switched between 50Hz / 56Hz (and 72Hz for the mono).
So IMHO I think is ok.
I also noticed that there is a "color 640/320x200 at 60Hz" mode, I assume this is NTSC.
the video output can be switched between 50Hz / 56Hz (and 72Hz for the mono).
So IMHO I think is ok.
I also noticed that there is a "color 640/320x200 at 60Hz" mode, I assume this is NTSC.
Re: MiST - FPGA ST
I was reading this doc last night; frequency-wise it looks ok, what worries me is the low resolutions. Have never tried something like that...
Yeah, the 60Hz must be NTSC, it'll be interesting to see if this gives any speed boost as is done with games consoles...
Yeah, the 60Hz must be NTSC, it'll be interesting to see if this gives any speed boost as is done with games consoles...
Reality is that, which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. --P.K.Dick
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- johncarteronmars
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
any update on status and availability
of the MIDI add-on for the upcoming MIST Board????????????????????????????????
Waiting on the board but REALLY waiting on the add-on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
of the MIDI add-on for the upcoming MIST Board????????????????????????????????
Waiting on the board but REALLY waiting on the add-on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- MasterOfGizmo
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
I don't think the demand for that is too big so i may simply build a few of them and sell them myself. Send me a PM if you want one. Price of course depends on demand. E.g. the empty pcb in a quantity of 10 already is ~10 Euros. Plus parts plus shipping ...johncarteronmars wrote:any update on status and availability
of the MIDI add-on for the upcoming MIST Board????????????????????????????????
Waiting on the board but REALLY waiting on the add-on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MIST board, FPGA based Atari STE and more: https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki
- jcgamestoy
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Hi, I recently bought a "Mist Board" (I'm waiting for it to arrive)
I am interested in programming this thing and I have a lot of questions.
- This page (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/TheBoard) said that the board has 32 MB of memory, but in this one (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/FaQ) says it has only 16. What is the right amount?
- According to the diagram board, SDRAM memory is connected directly to the FPGA and is accessed from the ARM through SPI How much ram is available from the IO controller?, What is the clock frequency of the IO controller?
- Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
Congratulations for your great job.
PS: Sorry for my bad English but I'm Spanish
I am interested in programming this thing and I have a lot of questions.
- This page (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/TheBoard) said that the board has 32 MB of memory, but in this one (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/FaQ) says it has only 16. What is the right amount?
- According to the diagram board, SDRAM memory is connected directly to the FPGA and is accessed from the ARM through SPI How much ram is available from the IO controller?, What is the clock frequency of the IO controller?
- Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
Congratulations for your great job.
PS: Sorry for my bad English but I'm Spanish

Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Megadrive? I don't think so, as the +5v is on pin nr 5.- Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
On the "standard" atari (c64/amiga etc) joysticks , the +5v is on pn nr 7.
MegaDrive:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/Mega_Drive_Joystick
Atari:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/Atari_Mouse/Joy
Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Ah damn, I didn't even think about it, but now I wish I could use my HoneyBee XE-8 arcade stick (MD) with MiST...xc8 wrote:Megadrive? I don't think so, as the +5v is on pin nr 5.- Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
On the "standard" atari (c64/amiga etc) joysticks , the +5v is on pn nr 7.
MegaDrive:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/Mega_Drive_Joystick
Atari:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/Atari_Mouse/Joy

Reality is that, which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. --P.K.Dick
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
alternative its possible to build an adaptor (one female + one male DB-9) that swaps the pin 5 to pin 7
- jcgamestoy
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
I know they are not electrically compatible, but in boards like the V6Z80P they are (http://www.retroleum.co.uk/v6z80p/)
In the C64 if you use them, you can damage the IC and then it will not work on the Megadrive http://www.minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=426
In the C64 if you use them, you can damage the IC and then it will not work on the Megadrive http://www.minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=426
Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Interesting project. 
I have a few cores that could be ported to this board, the PC-Engine one could be a good candidate.

I have a few cores that could be ported to this board, the PC-Engine one could be a good candidate.

Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Good idea, and then you could run a PC-based Atari emulator like STeem and.... oh wait...Torlus wrote:Interesting project.
I have a few cores that could be ported to this board, the PC-Engine one could be a good candidate.
STE: Desktopper case, IDE interface, UltraSatan (8GB + 512Mb) + HXC floppy emulator. Plus some STE's/STFM's
- DarkLord
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Dal wrote: Good idea, and then you could run a PC-based Atari emulator like STeem and.... oh wait...

Welcome To DarkForce! http://www.darkforce.org "The Fuji Lives.!"
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- delvis
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
I think this is very cool.
Off the wall question. Can this board be adapted to fit inside a PC or Mac laptop case? Near me is a "Computer Works Goodwill" that collects all the scrapped computers from everywhere. You can go in and find lots of long lost older PC and Mac stuff. (Use to carry Atari 10 years ago but not now)
So my thought was if the laptop case offered the space would it be very hard to adapt this MB into it.
* Connect to a LCD and keep the external VGA connector
* power the back lite of the LCD panel
* tie into the keyboard of the laptop
* support the laptop battery and the AC power supply
I think this would make a heck of a cool ST laptop mainboard
The scope might be too great but it might be worth looking to. If Dell Model XYZ laptop was the best match and a hack could be created to make it work in side the case...
I know on the Firebee design there is all kinds of places to connect cables ect. If this had a way to do some stuff like that you could hook up alternate cases.
Off the wall question. Can this board be adapted to fit inside a PC or Mac laptop case? Near me is a "Computer Works Goodwill" that collects all the scrapped computers from everywhere. You can go in and find lots of long lost older PC and Mac stuff. (Use to carry Atari 10 years ago but not now)
So my thought was if the laptop case offered the space would it be very hard to adapt this MB into it.
* Connect to a LCD and keep the external VGA connector
* power the back lite of the LCD panel
* tie into the keyboard of the laptop
* support the laptop battery and the AC power supply
I think this would make a heck of a cool ST laptop mainboard
The scope might be too great but it might be worth looking to. If Dell Model XYZ laptop was the best match and a hack could be created to make it work in side the case...
I know on the Firebee design there is all kinds of places to connect cables ect. If this had a way to do some stuff like that you could hook up alternate cases.
Delvis
Atari User since 1982
400 / 800/ 1200XL / 800XL /65XE / 130XE
520ST / 1040ST / MegaST4
Atari User since 1982
400 / 800/ 1200XL / 800XL /65XE / 130XE
520ST / 1040ST / MegaST4
- MasterOfGizmo
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
You are extremely welcome to do so. I'll try to help as good as possible ...jcgamestoy wrote: I am interested in programming this thing and I have a lot of questions.
Oops. Fixed the FaQ. 32MBytes is correct, but the 68000 can only address 16MB.jcgamestoy wrote: - This page (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/TheBoard) said that the board has 32 MB of memory, but in this one (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/FaQ) says it has only 16. What is the right amount?
The IO controller has 64kBytes of own internal RAM and 256kBytes flash. The IO controller runs at 48Mhz.jcgamestoy wrote: - According to the diagram board, SDRAM memory is connected directly to the FPGA and is accessed from the ARM through SPI How much ram is available from the IO controller?, What is the clock frequency of the IO controller?
I never did that. The IO controller has the horse power to handle things like that transparently in the background meaning that e.g. the Atari or Amiga wouldn't even recognize that it's a different joystick. But as already said, you might habe to build an adapter to not fry anything.jcgamestoy wrote: - Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
I know this hurts my businessdelvis wrote: Off the wall question. Can this board be adapted to fit inside a PC or Mac laptop case? Near me is a "Computer Works Goodwill" that collects all the scrapped computers from everywhere. You can go in and find lots of long lost older PC and Mac stuff. (Use to carry Atari 10 years ago but not now)
...
The scope might be too great but it might be worth looking to. If Dell Model XYZ laptop was the best match and a hack could be created to make it work in side the case...

MIST board, FPGA based Atari STE and more: https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki
- delvis
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Makes sense to keep it within the realm of what it was designed to be.
Delvis
Atari User since 1982
400 / 800/ 1200XL / 800XL /65XE / 130XE
520ST / 1040ST / MegaST4
Atari User since 1982
400 / 800/ 1200XL / 800XL /65XE / 130XE
520ST / 1040ST / MegaST4
- jcgamestoy
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Thanks for the info.MasterOfGizmo wrote:You are extremely welcome to do so. I'll try to help as good as possible ...jcgamestoy wrote: I am interested in programming this thing and I have a lot of questions.
Oops. Fixed the FaQ. 32MBytes is correct, but the 68000 can only address 16MB.jcgamestoy wrote: - This page (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/TheBoard) said that the board has 32 MB of memory, but in this one (https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/FaQ) says it has only 16. What is the right amount?
The IO controller has 64kBytes of own internal RAM and 256kBytes flash. The IO controller runs at 48Mhz.jcgamestoy wrote: - According to the diagram board, SDRAM memory is connected directly to the FPGA and is accessed from the ARM through SPI How much ram is available from the IO controller?, What is the clock frequency of the IO controller?
I never did that. The IO controller has the horse power to handle things like that transparently in the background meaning that e.g. the Atari or Amiga wouldn't even recognize that it's a different joystick. But as already said, you might habe to build an adapter to not fry anything.jcgamestoy wrote: - Can use Megadrive controllers on DB9 ports without problems?
One more question ¿The Micro USB conector for power and firmware flash can be used to debug the firmware?.
- MasterOfGizmo
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
The Micro-USB is currently only used to power the board when the main firmware runs.jcgamestoy wrote:The Micro USB conector for power and firmware flash can be used to debug the firmware?.
But there's no particular reason for this. The firmware could be modified to do the debug output there instead of the rs232 connector. It can potentially be used for other things like presenting the Ataris RS232 as a virtual USB com port to the PC or to present the Atari joystick as a USB joystick to the PC or give it card reader like functionality to allow access to the inserted SD card or ... or ... or ... way more possibilities than time to implement them. But that's why i enjoy if people plan to develop on/with the board.
You could probably even run a gdb stub over the micro usb and then connect with a debugger to the arm controller. Thinking of this: You could even add a gdb stub to the tg68 core and then debug and trace via the arm controller using a debugger on the PC. This is sure everything but simple, but it's possible. Wouldn't that be cool?
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- jcgamestoy
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Cool
The firmware update over USB is implemeted?

The firmware update over USB is implemeted?
Re: MiST - FPGA ST
So the USB port is a full one, not just the power wires? Wow, lots of possibilities, even though using the board as a joystick adaptor for the PC is a bit... well, degrading
Maybe write a web server to run off MiST and communicate with the net through the PC!

Maybe write a web server to run off MiST and communicate with the net through the PC!

Reality is that, which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. --P.K.Dick
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- MasterOfGizmo
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
It's not "implemented". That's just an inherent feature of the ARM controller used. You need to set a jumper and do some power-on power-off magic. But you don't need more than the USB cable for emergency flashing.jcgamestoy wrote: The firmware update over USB is implemeted?
Normally you don't even need that. Instead you can just update the firmware from sd card using the MIST itself.
More infos here:
http://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wik ... heFirmware
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- MasterOfGizmo
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Re: MiST - FPGA ST
Yes!Gryzor wrote:So the USB port is a full one, not just the power wires?
Before that i'd suggest to use the PC as a network interface for the MiST. And if you're done with that replace the PC with the raspberry Pi and you have a networked MiST. Or you write a driver for one of those USB/Ethernet dongles.Gryzor wrote: Maybe write a web server to run off MiST and communicate with the net through the PC!![]()
MIST board, FPGA based Atari STE and more: https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki