MiSTer on DE10-Standard - needed?

[mazsola2k]

PDP1 MiSTer Core ported to Altera DE10-Standard, DE1-SoC and Arrow SoCKit:

PDP1 for DE10-Standard:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/PDP1_MiSTer
PDP1 for DE1-SoC:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/PDP1_MiSTer
PDP1 for Arrow SoCKit:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/PDP1_MiSTer

[mazsola2k]

Altair 8800 MiSTer Core ported to DE10-Standard, Arrow SoCKit and DE1-SoC FPGA-s:

Altair 8800 Core for DE10-Standard FPGA:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard ... 800_Mister

Altair 8800 Core for Arrow SoCKit FPGA:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/ ... 800_Mister

Altair 8800 Core for DE1-SoC FPGA:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/Altair8800_Mister

[mazsola2k]

MiSTer XS-D v2.4 / v2.5 SDRAM Boards are now available to be used on DE10-Standard, DE1-SoC and Arrow SoCKit FPGA – through SDRAM Riser

If you want to play for example with Metal Slug 3 under NeoGeo, so 100% of NeoGeo games, beneficial to use a 128MB ram expansion.

You can find the technical details in this blog post:
http://modernhackers.com/128mb-sdram-bo ... ram-riser/

You only need to download the latest updated Cores:

DE10-Standard:
Updated Main MiSTer:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/Main_MiSTer
MiSTer Menu Core for External SDRAM Board Support on JP1 GPIO pin port:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/Menu_MiSTer
MemTest release for 128MB Ram on JP1 GPIO pin:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/MemTest_MiSTer
NeoGeo core release which supports 128MB SDRAM Board on JP1 GPIO pin:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/NeoGeo_MiSTer

DE1-SoC:
Updated Main MiSTer:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/Main_MiSTer
MiSTer Menu Core for External SDRAM Board Support on JP1 GPIO pin port:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/Menu_MiSTer
MemTest release for 128MB Ram on JP1 GPIO pin:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/MemTest_MiSTer
NeoGeo core release which supports 128MB SDRAM Board on JP1 GPIO pin:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/NeoGeo_MiSTer

Arrow SoCKit:
Updated Main MiSTer:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/Main_MiSTer
MiSTer Menu Core for External SDRAM Board Support on J2 HSMC card port:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/Menu_MiSTer
MemTest release for 128MB Ram on J2 HSMC card port:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/MemTest_MiSTer
NeoGeo core release which supports 128MB SDRAM Board on J2 HSMC card port:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/NeoGeo_MiSTer

[Sorgelig]

if make SDRAM specifically to de10-standard, then original connector on SDRAM can be soldered with space to board. And then you will be able to insert it into shrouded male connector. Or can solder straight connector and then board will be placed horizontally

[Sorgelig]

I wonder what frequency is passed on Arrow board with HSMC board.

[mazsola2k]

I wonder what frequency is passed on Arrow board with HSMC board.

In short run it is passing with 120MHZ, I ran few additional hours on the Arrow SocKit with HSMC daughter board and got only 1! red error on 120MHZ, so that is the maximum MHZ rate I bet.

[mazsola2k]

The following new MiSTer Cores available on DE10-Standard/DE1-SoC/Arrow SoCKit

• Mattel Aquarius
  Atari 800XL
  Atari 5200
  Commodore 16, Plus/4

http://modernhackers.com/mister/

[AwesomeDolphin76]

Is anyone else having trouble with the SNES or NeoGeo cores?

So far the other cores seem to be ok, but I'm hitting different issues on both:

SNES: Audio crackle on some games. "Out Of This World" tries to destroy my poor speakers. "Mr. Do" has the crackle at certain points. It's as if there's a certain operation that goes bad, because some music never triggers it.

NeoGeo: Everything is wrong. It usually crashes on startup with a hardware error. If it gets past that, it gets an exception and quits anyway. If it gets past THAT, the graphics are badly corrupted.

It feels like one or both of these could be bad SDRAM, but the DE10 Standard is new out of the box. My first guess was SDRAM, but I can't make the SDRAM test included with the DE10 fail. I'm tempted to send it back, but what kind of a return is, "Well, it doesn't run this other person's code...."

[mazsola2k]

Is anyone else having trouble with the SNES or NeoGeo cores?

So far the other cores seem to be ok, but I'm hitting different issues on both:

SNES: Audio crackle on some games. "Out Of This World" tries to destroy my poor speakers. "Mr. Do" has the crackle at certain points. It's as if there's a certain operation that goes bad, because some music never triggers it.

NeoGeo: Everything is wrong. It usually crashes on startup with a hardware error. If it gets past that, it gets an exception and quits anyway. If it gets past THAT, the graphics are badly corrupted.

It feels like one or both of these could be bad SDRAM, but the DE10 Standard is new out of the box. My first guess was SDRAM, but I can't make the SDRAM test included with the DE10 fail. I'm tempted to send it back, but what kind of a return is, "Well, it doesn't run this other person's code...."

Regarding NeoGeo, it should work fine, just released a week ago an enhanced port:
http://modernhackers.com/mister/

You need to make sure you are running the latest available MiSTer Menu Core + MiSTer Main binary and NeoGeo Core for DE10-Standard:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/Menu_MiSTer
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/Main_MiSTer
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/NeoGeo_MiSTer

There are two editions of Menu Core and NeoGeo core for DE10-Standard:
menu_XXX.rbf and menu-GPIO-JP1_XXX.rbf
NeoGeo_XXX.rbf and NeoGeo-GPIO-JP1_XXX.rbf

If you are using the in-built 64megabyte SDRAM on DE10-Standard board, you have to use the regular release (menu_XXX.rbf and NeoGeo_XXX.rbf)
In case you have installed an SDRAM expansion ioboard, you have to use the GPIO-JP1 core releases)
In case you using the wrong core / misuse, that can cause your described Symptom.
In case you used the right files and having the same problems, you can do an sdram diagnostics:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/MemTest_MiSTer
When you are running the MemTest for the in-built SDRAM, please use the memtest_XXX.rbf
In case you testing an SDRAM expansion ioboard, please use the memtest-GPIO-JP1_XXX.rbf together with menu-GPIO-JP1_XXX.rbf - to make sure recognized.

Regarding SNES I checked now and also heard the same noise in case of Out Of This World game, maybe the SNES core port is not recent, so I will release an updated Core based on master SNES releases to address this soon.

[AwesomeDolphin76]

Ok, thanks for looking into the SNES thing!

The SDRAM tester ran fine for 2 hours, so that's one possibility eliminated.

I'll check the software I've got loaded on the device.

[mazsola2k]

Ok, thanks for looking into the SNES thing!

The SDRAM tester ran fine for 2 hours, so that's one possibility eliminated.

I'll check the software I've got loaded on the device.

Great, then it should be a simple SW version issue.
Regarding NeoGeo, please use the latest Core+Menu+Main

Regarding SNES: I have released a newer core for DE10-Standard (SNES source is from 2019 August, you can download now.
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard/SNES_MiSTer

By the way, regarding any type of sound problems: please note that DE10-Standard board has Wolfson Audio DAC which is very sensitive in case you overload with too high volume on FPGA/MiSTer side.

If you haven't realized that, please add the following section to MiSTer.ini:

Code: Select all

volumectl=1            ; enable audio volume control by multimedia keys

Then with keyboard multimedia buttons please set the MiSTer audio volume -in case of SNES - not greater than 30-40%, in case of other cores can go up to 60-70%- that user setting keeps stable the Wolfson Audio DAC, then adjust the volume further on your speaker side.

User setting/setup described here:
https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard ... iSTer/wiki

[jhgorse]

Greetings,

My name is Joe. Thank you for this port of the MiSTer project to a dev board I had almost gifted.

I have followed these instructions for bringup:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/Main_MiSTer/wiki

Nothing displays on the vga output.

I did not see a recommendation for BOOTSEL, so I change it back to the default:
BOOTSEL(2 downto 0) <= "101"

Is there a console port to see more about what is or is not going on?

Cheers,
Joe

[mazsola2k]

Greetings,

My name is Joe. Thank you for this port of the MiSTer project to a dev board I had almost gifted.

I have followed these instructions for bringup:
https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/Main_MiSTer/wiki

Nothing displays on the vga output.

I did not see a recommendation for BOOTSEL, so I change it back to the default:
BOOTSEL(2 downto 0) <= "101"

Is there a console port to see more about what is or is not going on?

Cheers,
Joe

Dear Joe,

There are 3 ports of the Original MiSTer DE10-Nano:
DE10-Standard - https://github.com/MiSTer-DE10-Standard ... iSTer/wiki
DE1-SoC - https://github.com/MiSTer-DE1-SoC/Main_MiSTer/wiki
Arrow-SoCKit - https://github.com/MiSTer-Arrow-SoCKit/Main_MiSTer/wiki

Please make sure you follow the right setup guide that matching with your board, for DE10-Standard please follow the MiSTer-DE10-Standard Wiki and not the Arrow SoCKit.

If you want to see on console what is happenning on DE10-Standard you can see on the wiki which one is the Uart to USB port - set the port speed to 19200 and you can see what is happenning through Serial Terminal (Putty for example)

You can find an overview MiSTer FPGA Platform Matrix as well, which core is vailable on which FPGA-s:
http://modernhackers.com/mister/

[jhgorse]

Thank you for writing, mazsola2k.

For reference, it is the Arrow SoCKit Rev C.

I found that my sd card had been corrupt. A fresh reformat to exfat and re-install did the trick. We are up and running! See attached image. =)

The usb uart works at 115200 baud. Logged into root.

Code: Select all

/root# uname -a
Linux MiSTer 4.19.0-socfpga-r1 #3 SMP Sun Jun 9 18:32:41 CST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

In the attached image of the setup, you can see the GPIO board from Terasic and an unmodified Arrow SoCKit dev board.

I was surprised to see that there are no regular USB ports, so the USB-OTG is necessary for peripheral support.

Next steps are to (1)connect peripherals via USB-OTG and (2)build/fab the SRAM cache board. USB-OTG to a hub should suffice. I want to get the xbox 360 controller to work.

Onward.

Cheers,
Joe

[mazsola2k]

Thank you for writing, mazsola2k.

For reference, it is the Arrow SoCKit Rev C.

I found that my sd card had been corrupt. A fresh reformat to exfat and re-install did the trick. We are up and running! See attached image. =)

The usb uart works at 115200 baud. Logged into root.

Code: Select all

/root# uname -a
Linux MiSTer 4.19.0-socfpga-r1 #3 SMP Sun Jun 9 18:32:41 CST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

In the attached image of the setup, you can see the GPIO board from Terasic and an unmodified Arrow SoCKit dev board.

I was surprised to see that there are no regular USB ports, so the USB-OTG is necessary for peripheral support.

Next steps are to (1)connect peripherals via USB-OTG and (2)build/fab the SRAM cache board. USB-OTG to a hub should suffice. I want to get the xbox 360 controller to work.

Onward.

Cheers,
Joe

Yes UART works inMiSTer images at 115200, sorry.

Regarding XBOX Controllers, I would recommend instead of the 8bitdo controllers, because works best and not sending "noise signals"
I use 8Bitdo controllers on USB wire directly connected.

[kublai]

Are any of these systems capable of emulating the next gen systems such as N64, PSX, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, etc?

DE10-Standard:
DE1-SoC:
Arrow SoCKit:

[reflex]

Are any of these systems capable of emulating the next gen systems such as N64, PSX, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, etc?

DE10-Standard:
DE1-SoC:
Arrow SoCKit:

PSX is right now in the works. I don't know if it can be fully completed but at least parts can be. Whether it's playable or not we will see. N64 as I understand it is out of range, which of course puts the Dreamcast out of reach. Not sure about the Saturn and where it falls on the scale, my guess is not but I could be wrong.

Feel free to correct me if anyone has info I don't.

[Newsdee]

Capable is one thing, but it also needs a motivated developer.
Why worry about it now?

[kublai]

Are any of these systems capable of emulating the next gen systems such as N64, PSX, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, etc?

DE10-Standard:
DE1-SoC:
Arrow SoCKit:

PSX is right now in the works. I don't know if it can be fully completed but at least parts can be. Whether it's playable or not we will see. N64 as I understand it is out of range, which of course puts the Dreamcast out of reach. Not sure about the Saturn and where it falls on the scale, my guess is not but I could be wrong.

Feel free to correct me if anyone has info I don't.

Thanks for info. I was just curious as I read somewhere that the DE-10 Nano is pretty much at it's limit with the systems it can emulate now so it will not be able to emulate the newer generation of consoles.

[dshadoff]

This is the current utilization:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

You can draw your own conclusions from that. A portion of the utilization will be for framework-related items.
The wild card is how efficiently-programmed they are, and whether the chips are understood at the gate level, or merely at a high level. I suspect that there is a lot that is not yet known, so they probably aren't coming anytime soon.

[kublai]

This is the current utilization:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

You can draw your own conclusions from that. A portion of the utilization will be for framework-related items.
The wild card is how efficiently-programmed they are, and whether the chips are understood at the gate level, or merely at a high level. I suspect that there is a lot that is not yet known, so they probably aren't coming anytime soon.

Wow thanks so much for this information. Very interesting stuff.

[reflex]

Fascinating chart, thanks for the link.

[peepsalot]

Hello, just read through this thread out of curiosity. I don't have DE10-Standard nor do I plan to get one any time soon, but I wanted to point out some info in case anyone is still interested in the topic:

Btw, there is no Altera/Intel documents saying what exactly this number means besides that 6 is less than 7. It's not like SDRAM chip where -6 and -7 means particular delay in datasheet. In FPGA it's more hypothetical than real difference.

I have found that the "Cyclone V Datasheet" (CV-51002) shows various timing info to compare differences in speed grades:
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/p ... _51002.pdf

You can see with "Ctrl-F" search through this PDF for "C7" and find 20 references in various tables comparing the different grades.
Only a couple unrelated/false-positive results towards the end of document for C7 "Member Code" (not "Speed Grade") for Cyclone GX which can be ignored.

I'm not knowledgable enough about FPGA to say how any of it relates to real-world performance, but it seems like a fair bit of data there.

If people working on this think it would be useful, I could possibly screenshot all the relevant parts and stitch together the images of tables, or alternatively create a spreadsheet that puts all the tables into some single sheet. Maybe good info for wiki etc.
I would guess its probably more convenient for others to Ctrl-F through the text/tables in PDF with the full surrounding info vs viewing static images like that though.