using an FPGA to emulate a vintage computer
in [FPGA]
|
From: Eric Chomko on 5 Feb 2010 13:19 Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect.
From: (see below) on 5 Feb 2010 13:51 On 05/02/2010 18:19, in article badc12c3-cb2b-4ce9-9543-237d60fc22d5(a)o8g2000vbm.googlegroups.com, "Eric Chomko" <pne.chomko(a)comcast.net> wrote: > Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I > was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and > compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't > even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect. I think such a project would valuable, and perhaps even more valuable if it aimed to recreate a machine of the "heroic" era -- a 7094, an Atlas, or a KDF9, say. Perhaps even a Stretch. KDF9 had about 20K transistors, a few K logic transformers, and a comparable number of diodes; less than 50K devices in total. I imagine this would be easily accommodated on a modern FPGA. The big question would be whether to go for functional equivalence, or whether to try to replicate the original internal structures. Documentation would be the main challenge for the latter. -- Bill Findlay <surname><forename> chez blueyonder.co.uk
From: Michael Schwingen on 5 Feb 2010 14:13 ["Followup-To:" set to comp.arch.fpga.] Eric Chomko <pne.chomko(a)comcast.net> wrote: > Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I > was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and > compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't > even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect. There are several such projects, eg. this Atari ST clone: http://www.experiment-s.de/en/ so most systems from the 8-bit era should be no problem at all. cu Michael
From: james on 5 Feb 2010 15:10 On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 10:19:25 -0800 (PST), Eric Chomko <pne.chomko(a)comcast.net> wrote: |Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I |was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and |compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't |even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect. John Kent has done a lot of work using Xilinx chips and synthesizing a 6809 version of the SWTPC onto a chip. See his webpage here http://members.optusnet.com.au/jekent/system09/ There is also a yahoo group that is centered around the Tandy CoCO3 on a Digilent Spartan 3 starter board with the XC3S1000 chip option. The yahoo group is known as CoCo3fpga I think. james
From: glen herrmannsfeldt on 5 Feb 2010 16:57
In comp.arch.fpga Eric Chomko <pne.chomko(a)comcast.net> wrote: > Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I > was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and > compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't > even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect. I haven't done it yet, but I am interested. I have a Digilent Spartan3E board for that purpose. I think it is big enough for the whole system for many of those machines. -- glen |