Retro-Computing with BlackIce

[ken.boak]

Hi All,

Last weekend I attended the retro-computing fair in Cambridge, and demonstrated some of the fine design work that David Banks has ported across to myStorm BlackIce hardware.

The following designs are now available from David's github repository:

1. Acorn Atom (6502)
   https://github.com/hoglet67/Ice40Atom

2. BBC Micro Model B (6502) with BBC BASIC
   https://github.com/hoglet67/Ice40Beeb

3. Jupiter ACE (Z80A with FORTH)
   https://github.com/hoglet67/Ice40JupiterAce

4. CP/M Platform - Z80A with either serial terminal connection or colour VGA /PS/2 Keyboard
   https://github.com/hoglet67/Ice40CPMZ80

David has included binary files for each of these designs that need to be programmed into the STM32L433 using DFU-UTIL. These binary files contain the ROM data and make the design file "sticky" - i.e. resident in the STM32 flash - so on power on the FPGA boots to whichever retro computer you have chosen.

For each of these designs you will need a Digilent VGA pmod (£8.99 from Farnell http://uk.farnell.com/digilent/410-345/pmod-board-video-graphics-array/dp/2768189)

This plugs into Pmods 7/8 and 9/10.

You will also need a PS/2 keyboard - which requires a trivial adaptor (4 resistors) plugged into Pmod 11/12 or can be bought from Digilent here:

http://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Digilent/410-094/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMsF1ODjcwEocGEoetGlDts14V4qfo%2fFYIE%3d

You will see from the datasheet for the PS/2 connector - that it is a very simple circuit.

Below is our display at the Centre for Computing History - with the BlackIce board hosting a BBC B running a sphere demo in BBC basic.

[BigEd]

Great showing at the show Ken, and good to meet you there. Here are some timings and a slightly different listing of SPHERE:

The Sphere benchmark times were:

No coprocessor, Master 128 - 24.1s
Internal 65C102 Coprocessor @ 4MHz - 10.93s

10 TIME=0
15 MODE 4
20 CLS
30 S%=400
40 VDU29,640;512;
50 MOVE 0,0
60 FOR A=0 TO 126 STEP.25:DRAW S%*SINA,S%*COSA*SIN(A*.95):NEXT
70 PRINT TIME/100

[tony1tf]

I get 43.09 secs for this Sphere benchmark with David's current BBC implementation.
Tony

[BigEd]

Oops - I should perhaps have noted, that the timings on a Master are implicitly using Basic 4, which does have much faster trig routines than the Basic 2 we usually find on a Beeb. (This is something which often causes benchmarking confusion...)

[BigEd]

(I've just found that we measured 42.99 in one case, which matches very well your result on BlackIce.)

[glcraig]

Does the Jupiter Ace have a boot.raw file to load up the ROMs, or how could I compile one on Linux?
Same goes for the CP/M Z80A.
I was thinking of doing a UK101 later. I converted one from one Altera board to another Altera board.

[hoglet]

Does the Jupiter Ace have a boot.raw file to load up the ROMs, or how could I compile one on Linux?

The ROMs were small enough to fit in BRAM on the FPGA.

So you just need to build the .bin file.

git clone git@github.com:hoglet67/Ice40JupiterAce.git
cd Ice40JupiterAce/blackice2
./build.sh

Dave