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Hey, I don't know much about FPGA. I want to ask what kind of capability would FPGA in this price range have. What is the use case? Is it powerful enough to emulate a m68k?
Jul 08 · 8 weeks ago
🚀 stack [OP/mod] · Jul 08 at 14:12:
@decant_: the 1k model is really more of a toy, but should fit a simple CPU like a 6502 or a picoblaze clone, with an IO port. Internal block RAM is around 8KB, so you are looking at something like an Apple 1, at maybe 50-75MHz.
Nano 4K has has a built-in hard ARM Cortex-M3 (thumb instructions) and 4 times as many 4-input lookup tables/flops...Also, 64MB HyperRAM (whatever that is), and HDMI and camera interfaces.
Nano 9K has room enough for a soft RISC-V CPU and a DRAM controller and enough left over for anything that fits in a 4K (Ithink) -- lots of peripherals and HDMI, etc. Also 32MB flash, 64MB DRAM
20K is more stuff that I'd know what to do with, and is faster.
I think there is an Atari ST project that fits into a 9k (and 20k), with a 68K processor, of course. Search for MiSTer or something like that.
GOWIN Chinese FPGAs — I haven't done much with FPGAs for a bunch of years. Kind of got disgusted by the proprietary hardware, terrible tools, and general awfulness of verilog (and god forbid, VHDL). Also, modern CPUs can emulate most things I want from FPGAs, but much faster and neater (less physical space, which is at a premium)... But I couldn't resist buying a little $10 Sipeed boards with Gowin FPGAs (Nano1K). I should've spent the extra $10 for a much more useful 9K, or even 20K (still...