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F18A MK2


matthew180

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On 6/15/2022 at 10:59 PM, aftyde said:

Quick question - is there an F18A supported VT100 / ANSITERM solution for the TI99?  Looking for something a little more industrial grade for use with the TIPI.  Apologies if this is the wrong forum for the question.

As others have stated, there are F18A terminal programs that support the ANSI colors and 80-columns.  TIMXT was mentioned, but I don't know if it is the only one.  However, this is not MK2 specific, especially since it is not available yet.

 

IIRC there is a thread here on the forum that tracks software that has been modified to work with, written for, or take advantage of the F18A's enhancements (mostly to get 80-column support, but certainly other features depending on the software).  Search and you will find, I do not have the link handy.

 

As for the MK2, it is delayed until I can get the parts, i.e. like everything else it is affected by the global parts shortage.

 

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On 6/16/2022 at 11:45 AM, RickyDean said:

Could you link that Facebook post, I'd like to see it. Thanks

Still getting it set up (am ssh'd into my PI in the USA from here in Singapore) - I downloaded this...  https://github.com/rsta2/cpmemu

Logged into the TIPI - downloaded and compiled the code - works very well, and built a fairly complete CP/M 2.2 System Disk which is a hacked up combination of tools from the Xerox 1800, the Commodore 128 CP/M disk and some bits and bytes from other Z-80 CP/M 2.2 distributions.  

Once I have access to my TI-99 console - the trick will be setting up the terminal type.  I have no idea how to do that in CP/M - but should be able to figure it out.

Then get WordStar configured for that terminal...

 

And at that point - I'll load up all the wordstar docs I still have from college (back in the 80's) and I'll be good to go.  Used to run an Apple ][+ clone with a Z-80 card in it.  This should be just as awesome!  :)

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  • 3 months later...

If someone puts forth a design and is willing to do the analog electronics parts, we could have a discussion about how it might work.  If you are looking at the EXTVDP input on the 9918A, then no, probably not that because the NTSC signal is a composite video source, and the F18A is not generating composite video.

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I suppose doing it like the 9928 would work - it just outputs a special level on the video out lines that can be interpreted as 'transparent', to operate an external video switch. For the F18A, having a 'transparent active' output pin might be all it takes (gated by a transparent pixel plus the enable bit). Then external hardware can select either the F18A RGB or a separate RGB stream. Then you just need to sort sync. ;)

 

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A while ago, I started to learn about genlock and transparent overlay. There is a little schematic in the V9938 book.   The 9938 outputs a Transparent digital signal along with its pixel clock (mode bit to enable.) 

 

 genlock between two video chips is done using a PLL. It speeds/slows one  of the clocks until the syncs eventually arrives together. This circuit isn’t in the book, but is a common thing. 
 

You need a fast RGB switch. (Not in the book..) This too is off-the-shelf and the ~25 MHz of VGA is exceeded by many. Here’s one I picked out:  LT1675C

 

 

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Sure hope the chip shortage resolves itself soon. I can deal with it enough at work, but if it impact my hobby one more day I’ll be really sad… Joking aside, the f18a mk2 and the PEB-tipi are the next upgrades that I want and both are impacted by the current events in the world.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

6 minutes ago, Tuxon86 said:

Oooooo, How much?

not sure yet, a couple of the chips were kinda expensive, but let me pull my invoices of what I paid so I make sure I'm not losing any money.  probably be next week before I can reply back as my son has a 2 martial arts tournament this weekend.  Ping me mid next week if I forget.

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18 minutes ago, Shift838 said:

 

not sure yet, a couple of the chips were kinda expensive, but let me pull my invoices of what I paid so I make sure I'm not losing any money.  probably be next week before I can reply back as my son has a 2 martial arts tournament this weekend.  Ping me mid next week if I forget.

If you get another in line, let me know your price too. I've got a machine with bad video processor.

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22 hours ago, Tursi said:

I have a handful of 9918A pulls if you need one.

 

Thank you..(late delay, just got notified here), I thought about replacing one of the 2 bad VDP computers with original VDP, but since I've got 1 machine already with F18A I'll probably just wait and try getting my other 2ea 4A's with F18A as well.

I'm only using 1 all the time. But I appreciate your telling me in case I never get another F18A..

who knows? Prices might be way too much for me anyway, I don't know yet.

 

Edited by GDMike
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@PeteE I bought an Efinix devboard and started porting the HDL to see how it would go.  Unfortunately the software (and FPGA) is no where near the capability of the Xilinx tools and FPGAs, but I was hopeful.  I hit a show-stopper with their software though, it is to aggressively optimizing it seems, and is failing to keep signals it will need later (and blows unhelpful unrelated errors).  Their forum is horrible, and support seems limited and random.  Porting the F18A HDL will require a complete rewrite to work with the Efinix FPGAs, and of course the PCB will require a lot of changes.

 

We'll see.  I actually had my Mouser order for Xilinx FPGAs change from 2024 to spring 2023!

 

On 11/12/2022 at 12:10 PM, GDMike said:

Prices might be way too much for me anyway, I don't know yet.

 

Parts are expensive right now, so it is hard to say what the costs will be.

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On 11/11/2022 at 3:01 PM, PeteE said:

One of my coworkers started looking at Efinix FPGAs, since they are in stock at digikey, if you're open to a redesign around a new FPGA.

Looking into those, I read a couple articles and pondered the perspective in this one from 2010:

Why are there no new FPGA companies?

Discusses the barriers to entry in FPGAs. Matthew listed  most of the  reasons above! 
 

On 11/13/2022 at 12:42 PM, matthew180 said:

no where near the capability of the Xilinx tools


Started with this from 2019. 
Efinix: yet another FPGA company  The typical FPGA company story —I feel I have to laugh and cry. 

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On 6/15/2022 at 8:05 PM, Shift838 said:

TIMXT supports ANSI for a terminal program.  if you have a TiPi then if I recall the MXT does as well.

TIMXT only works with rs232, not TIPI

there is a tipi MXT but it has no terminal emulation like ansi or vt100 its just text and doesn't do 80columns

the telnet that comes with TIPI is a subset of ansi and vt100 and work "OK" 

 

Edited by arcadeshopper
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8 minutes ago, Tighe said:

Just a status update on getting one of these, this thread keeps on churning and I don't know if there has been a point of when we can order 1 or 2.  Did I miss out? I have been waiting for years now I believe. 🙂

tl;dr cannot get parts.

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Pheonix said:

Got disconnected for a while... Sorry.  Has an E.T.A. (even a ballpark) been mentioned yet?

Well, it will definitely not be before he can get the FPGA chips, and they now have a Spring 2023 ETA, per his most recent post on the subject. Of course, that only has an effect on the No Earlier Than date--and based on the vagaries of real life commitments, he might need a while to get them out there. From my standpoint, I will be happy whenever the project reaches final state--he's put a lot of effort into it, and I seriously respect that. :)

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Spartan-6 FPGAs are still unobtanium.  Xilinx published a letter to their customers (whoever they are) that outlined their product availability over the next year, plus cost changes.  The MK2 uses the Spartan-6 FPGA, and the status is that the current conditions (i.e. unavailable to mere mortals) for the Spartan-6 will continue through 2023.  To add insult to injury, the cost of the Spartan-6 is going UP by 25%.

 

It seems Xilinx is really trying to kill their lower-end FPGA lines and squeeze people out of their older FPGAs, and I think they might be successful here.  I don't want to wait for them, and I'm sure no one else does either, then have to pay 25% more for a part that is already the most expensive on the board.

 

To that end, for the MK2, I have started working on porting my HDL to a different FPGA (Efenix Trion FPGAs) which are currently available and cost a lot less (at least half of the cost of the Spartan-6).  This is a large effort because, unfortunately, my HDL did not "just work" during my first attempts to get it ported to the Trion.  This thwarts my "fast track" idea to getting the MK2 out the door, with updates later to enabled more features.  It seems I have to do all the work now.

 

However, to also try and ease the situation of there not being any F18As out there, I'm working on trying to get a bulk run of an updated F18A board (I'm back-naming it the "MK1").  However, just like people making the original F18A in small batches, we are all struggling to find even the older Spartan-3E FPGA that the F18A uses.  If I can secure enough non-counterfeit parts, I hope to have some MK1 boards available in... depends.  Late January at the earliest I suspect.  I'll make a new thread when I feel the board is ready for a proper announcement, I really don't like to talk about hardware before it is ready (like the mistake I made with the MK2).

 

Anyone wanting to know the status, just do an Octopart (or any other supplier) search for:

 

F18A / MK1: xc3s250e-4vqg100

MK2: xc6slx9-2csg225

 

The suppliers in China who claim to have thousands in stock do not count, unless anyone is willing to take the risk and pay to buy the FPGAs from questionable sources.  Let me know.

 

Ref:

https://wccftech.com/amd-to-raise-prices-of-xilinx-based-fpga-products-by-up-to-25-percent-starting-2023/

 

xilinx_2022_prices_availability.jpg

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