The Sinclair QL Forum

Bear in mind that I have zero experience with FGPA.

I got details of this kit in an email, I have no idea if it's good or bad, too cheap, too expensive etc, but see what you think.

https://store.arduino.cc/usa/fpgamazing-bundle (USA)

https://store.arduino.cc/fpga-bundle (Europe)

Cheers,
Norm.

Norm,

Like most things, you pays yer money and you takes yer choice.

Cheap FPGAs can be picked up from Banggood / Aliexpress etc (there are other cheapo Chinese market sites.) for less than £20. They are OK for getting into FPGAs and learning how to "program" them. There are multiple companies producing cheap models and older CPLDs.

Beware though, FPGA "programming" is NOT like normal procedural / event driven / OO programming. You are designing building hardware structures. Takes a bit of getting used to.

I have a number of FPGAs now varying from fairly basic to quite comple3xe. It can be an enjoyable pass-time.

Whopper

Thanks Whopper.

Although it appears that I can't spell FPGA, see title, I do have a vague idea of their uses - but they are not for me. I just thought other, more skilled, people might be interested.


Cheers,
Norm.

I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work). It would be lovely if it got more support for disk images of various sorts, and even QL successors, but it appears there aren't that many people around to contribute to such a project.

Tuna wrote:I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work). It would be lovely if it got more support for disk images of various sorts, and even QL successors, but it appears there aren't that many people around to contribute to such a project.

Tuna,

Is the code written in VDHL or Verilog? Is it open source?

If so could I have a copy please. I have a DE2-115 which is capable of emulating a BBQL easily.

Thanks,

Whopper

Whopper wrote:

Tuna wrote:I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work). It would be lovely if it got more support for disk images of various sorts, and even QL successors, but it appears there aren't that many people around to contribute to such a project.

Tuna,

Is the code written in VDHL or Verilog? Is it open source?

If so could I have a copy please. I have a DE2-115 which is capable of emulating a BBQL easily.

Thanks,

Whopper

The repository is here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/QL_MiSTer - all open source, so if you have a better understanding than me, you might be able to get some good results.

I *think* the project is based on a 68000 core, so it runs a little fast for an original QL, but otherwise it's a really faithful emulation and there should be the basis for emulating later models and clones. The MiSTer project has a number of cores, including ST and Amiga, so there are components out there for emulating floppies, hard drives and various other peripherals in hardware. The DE10-Nano is around £100, plugs straight into a monitor, keyboard and mouse, with SD card support, so it's quite cost effective for an almost 'plug and play' standalone device.

Hi,
it is nice to hear that there is an other QL-FPGA machine other than MiST and Q68.
I have both and both are valid machines even if Q68 represent the future for QL running SMSQ/e (even if a bit slower @ max resolution )
MiST is also a valid alternative specially after the QL-SD driver fix Marcel had released, even if run only Minerva.

MiSTer machine confirm that the future of QL (if any) is definitively FPGA oriented and being myself a QL addicted man and the relatively cheap price (130 USd+ 40 for the ram exp) I bought one that should arrive next days

My review will follow.

Happy new year to all

Fabrizio

Tuna wrote:

Whopper wrote:

Tuna wrote:I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work). It would be lovely if it got more support for disk images of various sorts, and even QL successors, but it appears there aren't that many people around to contribute to such a project.

Tuna,

Is the code written in VDHL or Verilog? Is it open source?

If so could I have a copy please. I have a DE2-115 which is capable of emulating a BBQL easily.

Thanks,

Whopper

The repository is here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/QL_MiSTer - all open source, so if you have a better understanding than me, you might be able to get some good results.

I *think* the project is based on a 68000 core, so it runs a little fast for an original QL, but otherwise it's a really faithful emulation and there should be the basis for emulating later models and clones. The MiSTer project has a number of cores, including ST and Amiga, so there are components out there for emulating floppies, hard drives and various other peripherals in hardware. The DE10-Nano is around £100, plugs straight into a monitor, keyboard and mouse, with SD card support, so it's quite cost effective for an almost 'plug and play' standalone device.

Tuna wrote:The repository is here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/QL_MiSTer - all open source, so if you have a better understanding than me, you might be able to get some good results.

Tuna,

Thanks for the URL. I've downloaded a copy and will have a look at the code, which seems to be mostly VHDL thankfully, next weekend.

Whopper

Tuna wrote:I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work).

The SD support works only with the native SD-adapter (the one on the I/O board) and when the CPU runs with 1x speed because the driver expects certain timing constraints that are broken otherwise by the MiSTer. I managed to overcome this, but when I ran my 68k-core test suite the core proved to be unreliable in any mode faster than 1x. Reason so far unclear, it might be my fix for the SD problem, I didn't have more time back then. At 1x speed the suite takes a week or so to run, but does so successfully

I have a few unpopulated I/O and RAM board PCBs left, but sending them per mail is almost more expensive than ordering a new batch from China

Marcel

mk79 wrote:

Tuna wrote:I've been experimenting with the MiSTer QL emulator built on the DE10 Nano FPGA board - it's a compact and fairly neat implementation of a bare bones QL - with some support for QL SD card images (though i can't get that part to work).

The SD support works only with the native SD-adapter (the one on the I/O board) and when the CPU runs with 1x speed because the driver expects certain timing constraints that are broken otherwise by the MiSTer. I managed to overcome this, but when I ran my 68k-core test suite the core proved to be unreliable in any mode faster than 1x. Reason so far unclear, it might be my fix for the SD problem, I didn't have more time back then. At 1x speed the suite takes a week or so to run, but does so successfully

I have a few unpopulated I/O and RAM board PCBs left, but sending them per mail is almost more expensive than ordering a new batch from China

Marcel

Hi,
I just received the Terasic DE10-Nano and installed the QL configuration, it boot correctly with 896 K Ram and x4 speed using a HDMI Monitor (16:9).
Unfortunately me too, I was not able to make the SD work.
Marcel, I could happily test your suite even if unfinished, if possible.....

Regards

Fabrizio