Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.


Author Topic: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA. (Read 92371 times)

Offline Kapitany

  • EP user
  • *
  • Posts: 295
  • Country: hu
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #30 on: 2020.May.11. 22:11:54 »
Will there be a design for a nice case and keyboard, so that in the trails of the Spectrum Next there could be a Nexterprise? :D If the proof of concept is OK, there should be a Kickstarter project for this as well, don't you think so?

Offline ergoGnomik

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 1291
  • Country: hu
  • Stray cat from Commodore alley
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #31 on: 2020.May.12. 10:25:59 »
That Kickstarter would be sentenced to death. People know what a Commodore 64 or a ZX Spectrum is, but they don't know what an Enterprise 64/128 computer is. People are seldom interested in yet another thing they have no clue about.

Offline ron

  • User
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: es
    • RetroWiki & Cacharreo [RW]
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #32 on: 2020.May.12. 11:27:58 »
The aim of this project  is to preserve the Enteprise in FPGA. It is time to do it.



We are developing the Enterprise core on the MiST / MiSTica / SiDi platform but with the intention that once it is functional, can be ported to other fpga boards such as the MiSTer or those where it fits. There is no point in kickstarting or crowfounding, in this case all that is useless.

This project is public, open-source, totally independent, non-profit and is done unconditionally for pure fun and learning.

So, preservation. Emulation already takes care of this purpose, but we consider that an implementation on gate arrays can offer a more exact and precise view of the Enteprise, without detracting from everything that already exists, since without it this would not be possible. Anyone can help and contribute to improvement

As soon as we have news we will gladly share them with you.

Thanks for all documentation, maybe we will transfer you some questions about timings and specific things, all in due time.

Thank You

Online Zozosoft

  • Global Moderator
  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 14721
  • Country: hu
    • http://enterprise.iko.hu/
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #33 on: 2020.May.12. 11:47:05 »
Is possible when the development done, create new Nick and Dave chips which can be used for repair dead Enterprise machines?

Offline ron

  • User
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: es
    • RetroWiki & Cacharreo [RW]
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #34 on: 2020.May.12. 12:04:02 »
Is possible when the development done, create new Nick and Dave chips which can be used for repair dead Enterprise machines?

Knowing the number of logical gates that each custom chip occupies, you could look for a cpld or fpga that has enough capacity and the necessary pins and could be mounted on a socket or an adapter.

What I couldn't tell you right now is how to take advantage of what is already in place, but I pass the question on to colleagues.

And to the question of whether it can, if the implementation actually meets all the requirements that the Enterprise needs, is YES.

Online gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3607
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #35 on: 2020.May.15. 21:23:24 »
Here I bring you a little video of what is actually happening with this development.

My friend Kyp has some restrictions on his actual FPGA, only 64KB of internal Ram, perfect for Video Ram, but he also needs to put the EXOS Roms there, because he has 4MB of external Ram but no way to put Roms on that space.

A member of the development group has donated Kyp a better FPGA, so on some days we will see more advances. Think that all this work is done on free time.

Kyp:


Details...
I am using the BRAM to share the memory with the CPU and still without timing contention but, just because I have the (EXOS)Rom on the BRAM, I only have 32K of ROM and 32K of VRAM, I have searched which two segments of VRAM the ROM uses to draw on the screen to be able to show some text(still only hardware text mode). And then it can't start... because it needs a pressed key and by now there is no keyboard at all.


Kyp says that the keyboard hardware seems trivial, but to continue he also needs to implement the interrupts.
« Last Edit: 2020.May.16. 12:20:52 by gflorez »

Offline ron

  • User
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: es
    • RetroWiki & Cacharreo [RW]
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #36 on: 2020.May.16. 11:18:46 »
Thanks GFlorez !

From this moment on and depending on the time that rampa069 may take, things will start to go faster and then a point will be reached where the debugging and testing phase will enter.

Remember that core's structure and other elements were already implemented and running.

It is a slow and tedious process, since with FPGAs there is no way of knowing what is happening and it becomes difficult.

Anyway, now is when this turns really interesting. Stay Tuned !

Offline Kapitany

  • EP user
  • *
  • Posts: 295
  • Country: hu
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #37 on: 2020.May.19. 10:06:38 »
Wonderful news! It's nice to see that EXOS can now open graphic channels and display them in windows on the screen, no matter that the graphics mode is a bit glitchy. :) Well done, keep up the good work!

Online gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3607
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #38 on: 2020.May.19. 10:25:04 »
The graphic modes aren't still implemented.... Is for it that the flashing big letters are shown as 0s and 1s, because the "pseudo Nick" thinks it is hardware text mode...

Now a keyboard and interrupts have to be implemented. Also the memory is not properly managed.

Online Zozosoft

  • Global Moderator
  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 14721
  • Country: hu
    • http://enterprise.iko.hu/
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #39 on: 2020.May.19. 10:32:29 »
The graphic modes aren't still implemented....
Palette colors are also not :oops: This is why visible the ERROR at the memory test. It is using the second color pair, and normaly set to black letters, only changed to red when memory error found.

Online gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3607
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #40 on: 2020.May.19. 11:06:07 »
Great clue! Thanks Zozo, I am going to inform about that.

Offline Kapitany

  • EP user
  • *
  • Posts: 295
  • Country: hu
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #41 on: 2020.May.19. 21:39:41 »
So that's why it's worth to show us status videos more and more frequently, so that Zozo can spot such clues that lead to things that might be debugged for endless hours. :D "Who can see into the soul of the EXOS?" :D

Offline ron

  • User
  • *
  • Posts: 85
  • Country: es
    • RetroWiki & Cacharreo [RW]
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #42 on: 2020.May.23. 19:23:47 »
HI there, good news !!!

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Thanks to Kyp !!!

Online Zozosoft

  • Global Moderator
  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 14721
  • Country: hu
    • http://enterprise.iko.hu/
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #43 on: 2020.May.23. 19:43:08 »
Looks good! :smt038

Offline Dr.OG

  • Global Moderator
  • EP lover
  • *
  • Posts: 742
  • Country: hu
  • dr.
Re: Enterprise Deployment Attempt Over FPGA.
« Reply #44 on: 2020.May.23. 20:09:45 »
Amazing progress!
ÉN ekelek, TE keregsz, Ő gyeleg,
MI ákolunk, TI vornyáztok, ŐK lendeznek.