MiniMig
Developer: Dennis van Weeren
Project start date: January 2005
Project end date: Summer 2007 |
The MiniMig is a re-implementation of the original Amiga chipset,
used in the A1000 and A500 using modern technology. The motherboard
is designed using FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) - a method
of programming hardware to operate in different ways, even mimicing
the operation of other hardware.
MiniMig is the brainchild of Dennis van Weeren, a Dutch electrical
engineer, who developed it as a cost effective method of running
Amiga software, without the need to source original Commodore hardware.
The project began in January 2005 and has, at the time of writing,
reached a stage when it can replicate Amiga 500 environment. On
completion of the work, Dennis will make the software available
under an open source licence, enabling hobbyists and businesses
to develop FPGA-based Amigas.
Hardware
The current prototype consists of Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA board featuring
a 400K gate FPGA, 1MB SRAM, PS/2 interface and power regulators.
It is connected to three daughterboards: a processor board fitted
with a Motorola 68000 (7.09379 Mhz); a clock circuitry board; and
an interface board fitted with MCC flashcard interface, joystick
interface, and videodac and audiodac connectors. The Amiga Original
ChipSet (OCS) and CIAs are emulated in the FPGA itself. A PIC18LF252
microcontroller sits between the FPGA board and the MMC interfaces,
that serves as a method of supporting the FAT16 filesystem. The
Amiga Kickstart ROM and floppy disk are stored as image files on
the MMC memory card.
The Future
If released, the MiniMig will serve as a fantastic introduction
to the world of Amiga. Although it is likely to primarily appeal
to the retrogamer market, the hardware may be used as a low-end
Amiga desktop machine that can interface with a range of third-party
hardware (e.g. genlocks). Subsequent work may also result in the
development of ECS or AGA support.
Web Links
MiniMig Wikipedia
page
Amiga
Hardware - MiniMig page
Announcement
of the MiniMig on Amiga.org
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Last Update: 12/12/2006
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