

BBC Micro on an FPGA - jacquesm
http://www.mikestirling.co.uk/bbc-micro-on-an-fpga/

======
DanBC
Here are some more links to FPGA implementations of other home computers.

Commodore 64: (<http://www.syntiac.com/fpga64.html>)

Commodore PET: (<http://www.stepinfusion.com/projects/pet2001fpga/>)

Mac Plus (incomplete??): (<http://www.bigmessowires.com/category/plustoo/>)

Sinclair ZX81: (<http://zxgate.sourceforge.net/zx81.html>)

Sinclair Spectrum: (<http://www.mikestirling.co.uk/zx-spectrum-on-an-fpga/>)

MSX: (commercial product, I'm not sure if there's any code downloads)
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1chipMSX>)

The popular music ICs from a variety of machines in one box:
([http://www.gadgetfactory.net/2012/06/introducing-the-
retroca...](http://www.gadgetfactory.net/2012/06/introducing-the-retrocade-
synth-a-papilio-based-chiptune-synth-on-kickstarter-now/))

EDIT:

Atari ST: (<http://www.experiment-s.de/en/>)

Atari bits n bobs (<http://hardware.atari.org/vhdl/vhdl.htm>)

A variety of different systems - Videopac; Adventure Vision; Colecovision;
Bally Astrocade: (<http://www.fpgaarcade.com/platforms.htm>)

~~~
vidarh
Hardware to support FPGA re-implementations of Amiga:

\- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimig> (available from AmigaKit and a few
others, or self-build - all schematics and source is available)

\- <http://www.fpgaarcade.com/> (shipping in very limited numbers;
source/schematics have been promised "when ready" but are not available yet)

For both of these the FPGA does the bulk of the work. The Minimig cores have
been ported to other boards (including Chameleon, mentioned below, as well as
Xilinx dev boards I think). FPGA Arcade is also intended to support a bunch of
other machines.

For the C64 and Amiga there's also the commercial C64 Chameleon
(<http://www.vesalia.de/e_chameleon.htm>) that can plug into a real C64 and
effectively replace most of it, _or_ work as a standalone unit.

------
jacquesm
The BBC micro was - and is - in many ways my favorite computer, ever. It had a
structured basic, half decent sound and video, was expandable and had a
fantastic keyboard.

My last one blew up a few years ago when I tried to see if it would still work
(capacitors in the supply had gone, took the board with it). So this project
is really tempting for me, I'll probably see if I can get this to work.

FPGA's are interesting, a kind of half-way point between software and
hardware.

~~~
jgrahamc
Did the capacitors destroy the supply? I managed to repair mine:
[http://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/back-from-dead-with-power-
supply...](http://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/back-from-dead-with-power-supply-
repair.html)

~~~
jrabone
If anyone is tempted to try this without purchasing a suitable kit, make sure
the parts are suitably rated. The 250V non-polarised C2 may be safety critical
if it's a line to line or line to neutral capacitor - look for an "X" or "Y"
marking (I can't tell from the damage evident in John's photos). Lots of
information on line-rated caps at <http://my.execpc.com/~endlr/line-
filter.html>.

------
JonnieCache
More BBC fun: Here's a video of Vince Clark from Depeche Mode/Erasure in the
mid 80s demonstrating midi sequencing on the extremely expensive UMI
sequencer, which was basically a BBC master with a breakout box for midi.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQthcAK9kAg>

~~~
timthorn
The DLD6502 lighting desk was a similar canibalisation of a BBC in the 84/85
timeframe, from the people that would later become Flying Pig Systems.

------
meaty
This is great. I've been considering building a BBC master into an old
ThinkPad chassis for about 10 years now. There's absolutely no way an
efficient unit could be produced with "normal" beeb discrete hardware so FPGA
would be considered. This is motivational at least!

With 16% cell utilisation, I reckon you could get a second processor and
discrete TFT driver in there as well.

