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Great project. I’ll be following it closely! Rob Smith Dev is also working on implementing a Floppy Drive on the MiSTer Minimig core. Have you considering exchanging notes? Could help accelerate both projects…
The floppy I am using is PC FDD Samsung SFD-321B, however this floppy is modified to be Amiga compatible. Having said that I can change AmiCube interface to be PC-Floppy compatible, so no modification is needed. In fact we can make a switch - Amiga/PC floppy.
Fantastic! Looking forward to the Amicube. It seems to be the best of both worlds (real classic hardware and newer, modern FPGA hardware). A nice minimal Amiga esk case is also welcome 🙂
Nice to see the development progress! Is there a chance also for an IDE interface? So looking forward for the AmiCube with AGA, Floppy and possibly the IDE interface for a real HDD. I already have the Checkmate case ready for it which will replace my PI4 setup.
Sorry for being offtopic, but i wonder if since the board is programmable, do you think it would be possible to implement a kaillera like system which would allow people to play over the internet? It's just that this week we got the confirmation that A600GS has it planned, but it is a complete emulation system, and I thoughthow could it be to play in real hardware, connecting people from all over the world! We once played in each others homes, it would be nice to being that spirit back 😊
Floppy is a regular PC HD floppy - SFD-321B, however this floppy drive modified to be Amiga compatible. Good news is we can make new FDD interface for AmiCube that can support unmodified PC FDD! It is easy.
@@amicube I haven't tried it myself, the real deal, but I had the gerber files and the kicad project and was trying to do a 3d render out of it. It had a pretty modular concept which I loved. There inno cpu onboard, you relly on the accelerator board, and the gfx part of amiga is modular. Quite neat if you ask me!
Indeed! I'm really excited about the capabilities of my chosen hardware. The S100 package is a gem, offering an abundance of IO pins that gives me flexibility for various interfaces and expansions. As for the FPGA itself, the Spartan 7's fabric size is impressive, providing ample room for complex designs and future enhancements. One major upgrade in my development process is the shift to Vivado from older Xilinx tools. It's a game-changer - the modern interface, powerful synthesis engines, and advanced debugging features have significantly streamlined my workflow. This new environment not only speeds up development but also allows me to implement more sophisticated designs with ease. I'm confident these choices will translate into a more capable and refined end Amiga.
Good question. If we are talking about ReAmiga 1200, this board is trying to be replica of the original design. I assume this is the reason Chucky decided to follow this path.
Have some spare LilyGO T01 C3 ESP32-C3 WiFi Modules, they have WiFi Connector for external Antenna too..can you shed some light in how to configure them for the Minimig?
Here is a good website, this example is for MIST mut same is applicable for Minimig. hackaday.com/2019/07/03/amiga-in-the-mist-gets-online-with-an-esp8266/
How to setup the PiStorm SD for Minimig would be nice to know, can I use the kick.rom from there(initram) or does it need to be commented out in the config.txt - Chris said all RAM needs to be disabled except CHipRAM... is that so in 1.98? How to choose the right .bin file, I renamed minimig1.bin to minimig1.bin.old and copied a pistormsomething.bin to minimig1.bin but am unable to boot ...
I will use something that is compatible with AmigaOS. I am not sure if these on-board ICs are useful for our Amiga implementation. Perhaps something like KSZ8041RNL-TR?
pinout of that high density connector is done that way so that u can use RMII RGMII over it aka giga internet maybe even 2.5G it is signal integrity. AS for the floating ones what else would u do with the ones left?
Thank you for your insight! I understand your explanation, but I'm still curious. Since this is a development board, why not utilize all available pins (aside from this FMC LPC)? I have sufficient I/O for my current needs, but I wonder about the reasoning behind this design choice. Perhaps Xilinx (now AMD) has compelling reasons. Could it be related to the PCB form factor, the intended purpose of this platform, or something else entirely?
@@amicube hmm i think it is lore like if you need more get a way larger board and or make one. Since at some point it gets turned into a module from a devboard. ALSO you will probaly want some IO to be 1V8 some 2V5 and maybe some 3V3 and making it all so customisation is hard + at that point u are expected to solder on the board and so on .... ASK and i will try to respond BTW there are some modules with a lot of bare IO exposed like a RPI CM4 module but that also has a lot of limitations....
If you are referring to SP701 development board, price is about 830$ usd before tax and shipping (from Xilinx). As for the FPGA part itself XC7S100, price depends on how many units you purchase. If you buy one, you are looking at about 160$ usd. If you buy thousands price can drop significantly, depending on the vendor.
@@muhdiversity7409 I whish this was UltraScale(+) part :) However this is still mid-range, same as S50 for example. I was testing the board using WebPack so looks like free version is a go. Limit is only imposed on the X000$+ parts.. I assume logic is, if you need UltraScale you can afford the license for sure and perhaps you need all advance features of Vivado.
@@amicube Ok, that is good to hear. I could afford to pay the license but I cannot justify it. Good luck with the project. I have subscribed and will be following. Cheers.
@@amicube That's awesome news! I have never owned a MiniMig for that particular reason - it has always lacked proper Ethernet connectivity. Having a true wired networking solution on the PCB is a game changer! For your next video update, can I please ask you to showcase it?
@@amicube Great! Please be advised that if I have been waiting for Ethernet for years, than I'm confident others have too! In the upcoming marketing for the MiniMig, please take this into account. Really well done, by the way!
The PLL blocks of these 7 series Xilinx FPGAs can be dynamically reconfigured to the required frequency, so you only need one of them for a core clock. Pick your required speed, apply the required configuration and wait for the PLL to lock. You’re better off using MMCM resources though, they now include a PLL so can do all that it can do, plus give you the equivalent of a DCM also.
Okay, so this I know now is the new development that will soon replace the minimig! Thank you so much for this video. I hope to see many more as you developer the AmiCube or Minimig v2. It's going to be exciting!!!
Is there a way to attach/hook up a floppy drive to this? Jim Drew and Rob Smith have been making great strides with floppy drive compatibility with winuae as well as making flux backups of old disks of a variety of old computer systems.
The way I did it is with a new module that creates floppy functionality directly on the fpga. So signals are going from Paula and CIA directly. I am still working on this module but as of now I have 95% compatibility achieved. For AmiCube I would like to have df0 and df1 on-board. Adding external floppy connector is also easy and possible at this time.
Fantastic work on this latest iteration of the Minimig! What is that Amicube board I saw come into view on this video? Is that going to be the Minimig v2 that support AA and AAA chip sets? Also question about the outputs on the back of the minimig v1.98itx. Does it have two different video outputs, one from vga and another from hdmi? How does that fit in with monitors with hdmi connections, it works out of box with minimig cores? Or do we have to push this video signal (hdmi and vga) through something like the OSSC for conditioning the signal for modern displays? Actually when I look at the board itself, I see no hdmi. But when I look at the itx case it shows some board in it with an hdmi connection? Possibly the minimig v1.98itx with an accelerator card that pushes video out of an hdmi port?
Thank you! The Minimig uses strictly RGB output. The new AmiCube boards feature HDMI, but I'll retain RGB as an option for AmiCube since it is, after all, a retro-computer. With Minimig, you can use an OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter) to connect to HDMI displays. In fact, that's the setup I'm currently using.
