Turbohog, on 26 October 2018 - 10:40 PM, said:
While the TinyNES looks cool, I honestly think FPGAs are a better long-term option as you aren't necessarily dependent on having original hardware like the TinyNes project uses.
Hmm... this sets an incredibly large gap for those who wish to contribute though. Also, I don't quite understand the FPGA supply chain? Are you limited to whatever FPGA you use, like a particular brand? While I do believe Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) would be very difficult to find for the original hardware, it very much seems like Sega would have invented the wheel, we use the wheel, we research the wheel, then reinvent it exactly... It really seems like more effort than it's worth, but I
do believe it is an avenue worth taking due to the literal ASICs used in the many different hardware types of Sega BIOSes and arcade components used throughout the years, such as the Lockheed Martin flight simulator tech for the Model2 boards. I don't, however, believe it should be used for the consoles, as the consoles were designed for home entertainment and needed to be designed specifically to handle the entire library of software with any ASICs being integrated on the PCB of the cartridge and interfacing through the board connector. They are mini-computers designed for a specific function, and I believe FPGAs compromise that logic if embedded in a malleable FPGA if that makes sense...
Basically, I believe the high learning curve of FPGAs and the cost excludes participation from the OSH project, but I also believe it is a necessity to run the arcade hardware, as desoldering and remounting SMT ASICs is just going to be an expensive pain in the ass if anyone wants to further any type of Sega arcade hardware. A steady supply chain of 1:1 compatible components spread throughout everyone's findings and research could dramatically reduce the cost of polished, presentable product people can modify and continue on developing.
EDIT: Also, if you have your whole system reliant on one FPGA, and something happens to it, you have to replace it with another FPGA, and not just another IC from ebay or from here on Retro.
ICEknight, on 27 October 2018 - 06:17 AM, said:
So... the best kind of "open source Mega Drive" would be a replica of the very first motherboard, but with all the chips replaced with FPGAs programmed to exactly mimic the original ones?
From what Open Source Hardware should be, you should never be defined to a "replica of a motherboard", especially given the first model of the MD. If anything, I believe the Model 3 Genesis was an efficient use of space, and also is roughly the size of a small external CD-ROM drive for Sega CD loading. But the nature of Open Source allows us to modify however we wanted, so anyone could take, oh let's say we do design a platform based on the scale of the original MD to fit inside current Mega Drives as a replacement board, they could modify this and add connectors and remove whatever they wanted to create their own board sizes and dimensions. Also if you were going to install each IC as an FPGA individiually and not program all the ICs inside the FPGA together, you're talking lots of do$h here.
This post has been edited by biggestsonicfan: 27 October 2018 - 08:37 AM