[Coco] An FPGA GIME project, and CoCo FPGA Experimenter's Board

[Marcelo Cannella]

Ed. Very good projects!

2015-10-26 17:15 GMT-03:00 Mathieu Chouinard <chouimat at gmail.com>:

> sound really interesting
>
> On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 4:13 PM, Zippster <zippster278 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > A little bit of my planning for the board...
> >
> > So far for features to be included on the board I have…
> >
> > Fully implemented bi-directional interface to the CoCo through the
> cartridge slot,
> >                 with FPGA control of level-shifter ICs where useful
> >         - 42 pins
> >
> > VGA output, 3 bits per channel resistor DAC
> >         - 11 I/O pins
> >
> > RS232 I/O via Maxim 3238 serial transceiver
> >         - 9 I/O pins
> >
> > Stereo Sound out jack - 2 channel PWM
> >         - 2 I/O pins
> >
> > ADC input - ADC128S022CIMTX (Texas Instruments)
> >         - 4 I/O pins
> >
> > SDRAM (32MB)
> >         - 39 I/Opins
> >
> > 2x 16-bit shifters (32 pins) + shifter controls (8 pins)
> >                 (for TTL level inputs or LVTTL outputs)
> >         - 40 I/O pins
> >
> > ~25 pins left - (will likely end up being unshifted general I/O)
> >
> > A few ideas I’ve had include…
> >
> > Implementing a hardware sound function via PWM, that as has been
> suggested before,
> > would allow for sampled sounds to be played on cue from the CPU without
> tying it up for actual
> > sound generation.  Basically you'd upload your sounds to the hardware
> sound system when
> > loading your program code and then just call a sound as needed.
> >
> > Implementing a WordPak style interface allowing for an 80 column or
> greater text output
> > on a second display (VGA) for text-intensive things.  Of course there’s
> the possibility of
> > implementing graphics modes as well.
> >
> > It was suggested by Camillus to use a layout for some of the I/O headers
> that will be compatible
> > with Arduino style shields.  I think this is a good idea, and I’ll try
> to do that.
> >
> > I realize a project like this will probably only be of interest to a few
> people other than myself,
> > but I think it may be an important one as it could lead to a few
> different hardware options for
> > the CoCo.  At the very least it should be an excellent learning tool for
> interfacing FPGAs
> > to an 8-bit microcomputer.   :)
> >
> > So I’ve put a page here I’ll post updates to for those interested…
> > <
> https://sites.google.com/site/thezippsterzone/coco-fpga-experimenter-s-board
> <
> https://sites.google.com/site/thezippsterzone/coco-fpga-experimenter-s-board
> >>
> >
> > - Ed
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Oct 22, 2015, at 8:36 PM, Zippster <zippster278 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I think I will do the Experimenter’s board first.  It shouldn’t take
> too long,
> >> will give me some practice with the BGA packages, and may prove to be a
> >> useful tool in developing the GIME project.
> >>
> >> I think I have the interface to the CoCo port (level shifters) all
> figured out.
> >> A couple of things I want to put on the board for sure will be a VGA
> port, and sound
> >> out (resistor DACs).  So it could be configured as a video card similar
> to a
> >> WordPak, or a sound board (among a multitude of other things).
> >>
> >> It looks like the interface to the cart port will use up 42 FPGA pins,
> so there
> >> will be 130+ for other stuff!  I think you could probably make the
> ultimate I/O board
> >> out of this thing.  :)
> >>
> >> - Ed
> >>
> >
> >
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>
>
>
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