Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
"The Thing": Homemade FPGA + STM32 board, "Multicomp" compatible
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Just4Fun:
Hi all,
this is "The Thing", an homemade FPGA board with an Arduino STM32. It is also "Multicomp" compatible ("Multicomp" is a modular VHDL design to "run" some famous retro 8 bit CPUs made by Grant Searle) giving the option to "run" easily a VHDL SOC with a Z80/6809/6502 CPU and I/O, including HD (on SD) and a color VDU. Just to start to play with HDL languages and softcores...







Here The Thing in action "running" a Multicomp Z80 with CP/M 2.2 as OS:
https://youtu.be/j8qfqlEfJm8

More info here.

Regards.
J4F
SiliconWizard:
Thanks for sharing.

Just a thought, but do I see a Cyclone II? It's a 14-year old device... ::) I don't really know how much longer Intel is willing to maintain this series, now that it's Intel.

Any reason you didn't select something a tad more recent? I don't know the Altera line well, but something that seems roughly equivalent but already significantly more recent at an equivalent price would be the EP4CE6E22C8LN (Cyclone IV). The Cyclone V seems more expensive. Maybe the new MAX10, but it would probably be a bit more expensive too although I don't know how they would compare to a Cyclone II.

Or maybe it's part of the retro thing, in which case don't mind me.  ;D
tsman:
Looks to be because Multicomp uses a cheap EP2C5T144C8N board from China. The Thing is using the same Cyclone II for compatibility.
Just4Fun:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on February 03, 2019, 06:14:01 pm ---Any reason you didn't select something a tad more recent? ...

--- End quote ---

Right. You "must" use no more than Quartus II v13sp1 for that.
I have chosen that because it is cheap and you can find it easily "around". More, it has only two supply voltages, so it is easier to route for a 2-layer PCB.

I have already some Cyclone IV on my bench, and I'll use them in a next version for sure...  :-+
...but before some VHDL fun...  8)
Just4Fun:

--- Quote from: tsman on February 03, 2019, 06:29:25 pm ---Looks to be because Multicomp uses a cheap EP2C5T144C8N board from China. The Thing is using the same Cyclone II for compatibility.

--- End quote ---

Yep. Anyway I've found some Cyclone IV Multicomp enhanced versions. So I'll use those in the next Cyclone IV version...
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