I've made a request to Admin... I alone can do little...

I made a request yesterday, but now I post. I post to see who else is interested.


It's concerning a new FPGA/CPLD Topic addition to the Index under the Hardware section. It would exist to pass on good information: links, schematics, ideas, etc. about FPGA/ CPLD development in regards to the 65xxx family. There have been MANY excellent posts about advances that is pertinent to 6502 fans. Those links should be there!

More importantly, in a parallel Index, there should be a Software section that would contain posts about VHDL, Verilog, and/or other software related issues/creations regarding FPGA/CPLD's.

What do we think?

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

As long as it is related to 65xx processor, I'm fine with it.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I'm all for the 6502. How do you get started? What is the minimal investment? How do you program these things?

Can we talk about other things as well? I was interested in interfacing the 65816 with the Chumby after reading this post on Hackaday:

http://hackaday.com/2010/10/13/chumby-t ... rst-steps/

"...454Mhz processor, 64MB of RAM, 2GB of expandable storage and a USB host port..."

"This opens the doors to people who can write in Basic or who have written for the C64 or Apple][. You can see a video of this guy in action after the break."

It also does composite video which is what we need:

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/29/composit ... om-chumby/

I think an FPGA or CPLD forum would work but could it be open to other microprocessors too? I just think there needs to be more ways forward.

The down side of the Chumby is the bad reviews it has received on Amazon because some have said they can't pick up their router or FM radio station. Adafruit.com does sell a Chumby hackerboard and the manufacturer encourages you to hack the Chumby. Should there be FPGA or 65C816 support inside?

I'm sure there are other programmable-logic forums. Letting this 6502.org forum get watered down with non-6502-related material and attracting new members who have no interest in the 6502 would weaken 6502.org's raison d'être. I have no doubt however that there will be discussion on new, very powerful 6502-family processors too, not just support logic. Several years ago there was the 65GZ032 project (on the 65GZ032 Yahoo forum) which they made good prgress on and had working hardware (although they never finished the job), but I was disappointed that the only 6502-related part seemed to be that it had a low-powered 6502 mode similar to the 65816's emulation mode, apparently so they could start it running in a Commodore 64 on the 64's ROM to set things up, and then it would go into its own mode which didn't look anything like a 6502 and they lost my interest. There's also Rob Finch's (what haapened to him??) bc_cpu Yahoo forum which has had no posts since 2006. He is a member of this forum too.

I posted a lengthy description of a microprocessor-design book I got an offer for in the mail, here

I do look forward to Mike Naberezny's approval and creation of the new forum section.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Yes, This is 6502.org! THE one and only.. But now we can make him Better... Faster... Stronger.



All these questions are very basic and will be answered. They should be re-answered in the new proposed Index. Your questions have been answered before actually!

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Done.

What is the minimal investment for FPGA?

XESS 1M FPGA + USB program adaptor = $199 + $49

Godil 250K FPGA 49 EUR
Godil 500K FPGA 59 EUR

(Not sure how much the programming cable is for these)

Xilinx Webpack ISE is a free (but huge) download.

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Andrew Jacobs
6502 & PIC Stuff - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/
Cross-Platform 6502/65C02/65816 Macro Assembler - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/dev65/
Open Source Projects - https://github.com/andrew-jacobs

Minimal investment for a CPLD is on the new topic: viewforum.php?f=10 . Much cheaper, and less intimidating than FPGA's.

However, if you're up for the FPGA challenge you will need a development board, or some adapter sockets because FPGA's typically have more pins and are surface mount devices. Also FPGAs have multiple voltage requirements. At least 1 for core, and 1 for I/O.

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Please see http://shop.trenz-electronic.de/catalog/default.php?cPath=30. I bought the (now) 91 Euro because that was the one offered for the Godil. I don't know if the 63 or 28 Euro one could work as well. Much cheaper is the LPT variant. But most new laptops and computers don't support the LPT port anymore (which I think is a big miss).

The big advantage of the Godil above development boards: it has 48 pins that can be used for your project, all bidirectional, 5 Volt. You can program your development board into a VIC-20 for example, but except for maybe a joystick and hopefully an IEC bus, there are certainly not enough pins for attaching a cartridge.

And what counted as well: the Godil was much cheaper then development boards with the same/equivalent FPGA.

Of course I am willing to share my experiences with the Godil and VHDL.

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Thank you!

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viewtopic.php?t=1492&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

-EyE

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

The new forum sure has taken off, huh?

What do you think Garth? Are you thinking it was a bad idea?

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

Obviously its popularity means it was high time to create it. I'm glad you asked for it.