This FPGA board for the Arduino could be hacked and become a GPU for the 6502.

•4096 color VGA port
•Two joystick ports for Atari, Commodore, and classic arcade joysticks.
•Two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse.
•Stereo Audio Jack for high quality Delta-Sigma DAC output.

This board can accept up to 16MB SRAM.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135 ... f=category

It's nice to dream isn't it?

Are you thinking of using this?

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

I'm more than dreaming. I already soldered the Sparkfun joystick for the Gameduino and I had to buy a new soldering iron kit because my Radio Shack soldering iron was too big for through hole soldering so I have some rough connections but I'm much better now with a new soldering station kit that I started using half the way through with this lead free solder (hard to work with):

http://www.bradsprojects.com/forum/view ... f=17&t=391

The Papilion FPGA board was described as a way for beginners to learn FPGA and I am skeptical only because I know how long it took me to learn how to program. What does he mean by beginner? A beginner with programming knowledge or someone who is a complete beginner?

What do I find interesting with the board? The board has 4096 colors and that is impressive in itself.

I already invested in a soldering station, an Arduino, the Gameduino, a 4x20 LCD and I'm currently ready to start soldering one of the LCDs to pin headers tonight so that I can get working and maybe later I'll have some pictures of my finished unit soldered and connected to a breadboard. I've already finished soldering the Sparkfun joystick shield for the Gameduino / Arduino. I still have to order some PS/2 to breadboard connectors for what I want to do. I was already told by one member of the Arduino community to scale back my plans in making the Arduino more computer like so that I can take my design to the Maple Leaf. Basically, I just want to read a keyboard and display it on an LCD and go from there which should be easy. I have more parts to order and I'm already cataloging surface mount resistors, crystals, capacitors, etc., so I'm doing pretty good for a beginner because there are few that actually want to teach for beginners in this hobby.

Since I already invested in the Gameduino, I'm not sure if I want to get the Papilio shield and I'm already interested in the FPGA that is used in the Gameduino.

The creator of the Papilio FPGA has a lot of good tutorials on learning FPGA which I think is more than from any other sources I've found:
http://papilio.cc/index.php?n=Playground.Playground

We have to dream or there wouldn't be new products.

Program what device?...
Let me ask you this: How good are you with schematics? How much experience do you have designing I/O ports with TTL/CMOS discrete components and making a 6502(or any CPU) circuit/system work? (i.e. tri-state data busses, adress decoding, etc.).

Yes! I 100% agree. My questions are not meant in any way to put you down, just to gauge where you're at...

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

I am college educated and have taken courses on programming. I've owned several computers and I've tutored people on computers in college for free.

I have played with wiring and kits when I was younger but I'm a total beginner and don't know everything when it comes to electronics. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on for the last two years.

I've abandoned the 6502 in favor of the Arm Cortex M3 although I haven't totally ruled the 6502 out.

My dad worked for General Electric for years and years and has given me help. I have several other friends with electronics experience and one of them is a teacher, another is a former student and another is retired and still tinkering and they help me.

I have the book "Electronics for Dummies" by Cathleen Shamieh and Gordon McComb and "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest Mimms.

I might not build something complex right away but there is this whole DIY movement and they offer people help. One of the things I'm overcoming is that I don't always know what is involved so I spend a lot of time thinking about things and asking questions. If I don't know how to do something, I go to the library, ask other experts, watch the youtube or other electronic videos, etc. Or I'll go to the bookstore.

If I think I can do it, I can.

What are you doing here then? WE here program 6502 type systems and 6502 assembly is so easy to learn. I started with Commodore 64 Basic. The made a simple 6502 M/L routine and I could not believe the speed increase. So I am hooked on speed where 6502 systems are concerned... Jeez man, I'm preaching, gotta shut up now...
IMO screw the dummy books, I prefer datasheets, reference manuals and real life experimentation.
Then do it!

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

I was just looking for help in getting started and I kind of lost my way.

...But if you aren't really familiar with the 6502, then one of those high speed ARM's are probably best for you. I like the 6502, and like you have been digging into alot of info about Xilinx CPLDs and FPGAs and have some very basic practical experience working with them. To me it is fascinating that one can put a 6502 "softcore" into one of these FPGA's and get speeds approaching 100MHz...
But if you would like to learn about the 6502, I would recommend buying an older system, maybe an old atari or C-64, or even Daryl's SBC. Check out his thread.

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

I have a C-64. I owned a 128 and an Amiga 500. The Amiga doesn't work right now.

The reason I gave up on the 6502 was that even though I have Jim Butterfield's book on programming in ML, I don't know enough about bootstrapping a 6502 (hardware and software) and I wasn't finding enough help here. I'm not mad nor do I think anyone here should get upset reading this.

I bought a few books but they didn't offer enough help. It is an old system and people who are willing to help me don't remember back that far. I tried researching the parts but they are not easy for me to find.

I don't have enough for an Apatco kit and for the Eprom burner so it is partly financial because I think I'm getting more for a Maple Leaf and there are Microchip parts that offer a lot with one of them being the parts in the Maximite computer (you can google it). The other issue is that I want to learn something myself without infringing on whom I learned from so I guess it is partly pride.

The Maple Leaf has more speed and the cost is lower for a system.

I soldered my 20 x 4 LCD and it is now breadboard ready for testing.

It has an expansion port. What have you done with it?


Heh, let's see what you've got... ASCII interface?


Ah, bootstrapping. I don't like the word either. From what I know it is a word applied to a minimalist type system. One where, like in this thread this guy is hitting buttons to advance an address, set a data value then burn it to the EEPROM. This is a nice way to learn the absolute very basics. Let me repeat the words "nice" and "very basic"...

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

Because I value it and I want my son to learn on it, I'm probably going to do nothing with it since the C-64 can't be easily replaced apart from VICE.

The LCD tutorial I'm starting with is this:
http://www.ladyada.net/learn/lcd/charlcd.html

When I figure out all I can do with it, I'll see if I can move on.

Like probably a lot of people, I have a few C64's here, a couple of 128's, and a lot of books and accessories I would like to give to someone who will value them and use them. The easier thing would be to put them in the E-waste recycling, but I definitely don't want to do that. So even if you don't take mine now, go ahead and use your 64 knowing that there are more available.

That is very nice and generous of you but we already have two C-64's and we don't have a lot of room because we have too much clutter taking up room. I'm not use to accepting things. I want to thank you for the offer though. You could get more money selling it on Ebay but there are a lot of rules and you have to be careful and it is hard to find someone at Ebay willing to settle disputes. They really are a treasure so you might want to consider keeping it and they are perfect for teaching someone like kids or grandkids how to begin programming which is a lost art today because computer clubs changed and were focused on how to use the internet or how to setup Outlook Express. Thank you.

Have you looked into building up one of Darryl's SBC projects yet? those are pretty cost effective with good bang for the buck.

The bootstrap is pretty simple in ml. you set the top 6 locations with your starting locations for 3 vectors: program start, aka the reset, the irq and nmi locations. Then your program runs from the reset location...

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"My biggest dream in life? Building black plywood Habitrails"

I sent an email to inquire about the bulk order. I don't know if I will have the funds or what will happen so nothing is definate.

I was really hoping to work on my own project as I wanted to build something that I could call my own.