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Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:53 am
by RascalUK
Thirded. If that's a word :-)

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:41 pm
by decod81
I would mostly just want the VGA scroll bug fixed where the screen is not drawn all the way and is missing a few pixels depending on the per pixel panning.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm
by Malan
+1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:46 am
by -N2
Malan wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm +1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!
is there enough IO to support multi-monitor outputs?

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:51 am
by -N2
Bas wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 5:21 pm What would be cool for this core is an Adaptec 1542 SCSI controller..
yeah along with something like a Mountain CD7 External SCSI 7 Disc CD-ROM Changer!

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:58 pm
by Bas
SCSI would be very useful for compatibility with niche OS'es and the emulation of stuff like tape drives, also interesting for other architectures like VAX.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:15 pm
by HMPoweredMan
Malan wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm +1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!
It used to be working just fine until Sorgelig forced the core through VGA scaler.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:03 pm
by Malan
HMPoweredMan wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:15 pm
Malan wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm +1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!
It used to be working just fine until Sorgelig forced the core through VGA scaler.
Well, I'm not very familiar with core programing, but I'm sure he has a good reason to force it off, maybe it was dangerous for the hardware or something? I don't know. Still, I hope we could get it back one day.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:09 pm
by lordoftime79
would 3dfx be a valid wish? I mean I know thats a little later than 486 I had it with my pentium 166 but this is pretty speedy core

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:01 pm
by cursedverses
Malan wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:03 pm
HMPoweredMan wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:15 pm
Malan wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm +1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!
It used to be working just fine until Sorgelig forced the core through VGA scaler.
Well, I'm not very familiar with core programing, but I'm sure he has a good reason to force it off, maybe it was dangerous for the hardware or something? I don't know. Still, I hope we could get it back one day.
I can't remember but it was maybe down to certain DOS games running at 70Hz, which is largely unsupported with more modern monitors...?
I could easily be wrong here.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:01 pm
by cursedverses
lordoftime79 wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:09 pm would 3dfx be a valid wish? I mean I know thats a little later than 486 I had it with my pentium 166 but this is pretty speedy core
I'd love to see 3dfx, but not sure it'd be feasible. I'd prefer an FPU first...

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:52 pm
by Zacpod
Bas wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 5:21 pm What would be cool for this core is an Adaptec 1542 SCSI controller..
OOOooo!
That would fix so many things! It'd let OS/2 and BSD boot!

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 2:09 am
by -N2
death5126 wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 11:40 pm good afternoon, all

after running the ao486 MISTer core for some time. i have a few items wish-list items that seem to be missing.

-- a clone of the intel 486dx
-- on bored cash 128kb
-- ram size options 4mb / 8mb / 16mb -- its 64mb at current witch is over kill and lowers compatible titles
-- ibm os2 support
-- support for direct draw

-- an 16 bit ISA add-on would a nice inclusion for sound and video cards

the amount of work on this core to this point is amazing, and has been an amazing experience with on point compatibility, my thanks to every on who has worked on this core so far and all of the ongoing projects on the MISTer.
if you really want ISA slots this might be an option, http://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isar.html

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Sun May 02, 2021 3:08 am
by -N2
another thought I just had was having a ISA adapter card made so the DE-10 nano could be plugged into a passive backplane board. the spec sheet claims there are 145 user configurable GPIO pins available. perhaps this could be configured to work with the SDRAM by way of a CPLD chip.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 4:27 pm
by cognitivegears
A few wish-list features while we are throwing them out there :)

* Math co-processor support
* Dynamic VHD
* CD Audio

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 8:52 am
by Beeble
FPU would be nice
VLB for the Tseng ET4000
Some more Muscles for the CPU

Can a Raspberry assist here like it does for the Amiga 500 now?

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 9:05 am
by luishg
What about SSD/USB boot, so you don't need the SD?.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 11:15 am
by Caldor
For the Minimig core, it seems its possible to emulate the 68K CPU on an ARM CPU, making it work a bit like PiStorm for the Amiga.

PiStorm is a Raspberry Pi expansion for an Amiga that plugs into the CPU slot in the Amiga and then the Pi emulates the Amiga CPU. Usually the problem with emulation is that when emulating on a CPU, you cannot run every single chips instructions in parallel, which adds some possible flaws in the emulation because the timings will be off a bit. But when you only have to emulate the CPU that is much less of an issue since you wont have to deal with audio and graphics chip emulation all at once and it is much more likely to be cycle exact and have no added latency and other possible problems.

This same logic is being experimented with for the Minimig core and while its not fully working, it is working though. It boots and can run benchmarks and such... and even add MMU and FPU.

So I was thinking the same thing might be possible to do with the AO486 core and be a way for us to see a nice leap in performance, and get FPU as well. Possibly even more advanced features as well. On the Minimig core they are using QEMU, which already has x86 emulation as well.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 1:16 pm
by Neocaron
Caldor wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 11:15 am For the Minimig core, it seems its possible to emulate the 68K CPU on an ARM CPU, making it work a bit like PiStorm for the Amiga.

PiStorm is a Raspberry Pi expansion for an Amiga that plugs into the CPU slot in the Amiga and then the Pi emulates the Amiga CPU. Usually the problem with emulation is that when emulating on a CPU, you cannot run every single chips instructions in parallel, which adds some possible flaws in the emulation because the timings will be off a bit. But when you only have to emulate the CPU that is much less of an issue since you wont have to deal with audio and graphics chip emulation all at once and it is much more likely to be cycle exact and have no added latency and other possible problems.

This same logic is being experimented with for the Minimig core and while its not fully working, it is working though. It boots and can run benchmarks and such... and even add MMU and FPU.

So I was thinking the same thing might be possible to do with the AO486 core and be a way for us to see a nice leap in performance, and get FPU as well. Possibly even more advanced features as well. On the Minimig core they are using QEMU, which already has x86 emulation as well.
Yeah this is the most exciting part of going hybrid. It will do wonders for the A0486. We can even imagine having a GPU running on the FPGA while the arm is running the CPU. It could probably go on to emulate a pentium 1 or 2 on the arm while you run advance features on the FPGA. And while I'm sure some people will scream "Blasphemy" most will be very happy,

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 1:18 pm
by caffeinekid
Tempest 2000 please, and X-Quest if it's in the exodos. I tried to look at the catalogue pdf but the site was timing out - can't think why? :D

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 4:54 pm
by deepthaw
Malan wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:03 pm
HMPoweredMan wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:15 pm
Malan wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:05 pm +1 for native VGA output with the I/O board. It would be insane!
It used to be working just fine until Sorgelig forced the core through VGA scaler.
Well, I'm not very familiar with core programing, but I'm sure he has a good reason to force it off, maybe it was dangerous for the hardware or something? I don't know. Still, I hope we could get it back one day.
Before it was forced through the scaler, I could get the native resolutions on my CRT via the Analog IO board, but how clear the screen appeared was based on what speed the core was running at. I'm certain that's a major part of it.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 6:05 pm
by akeley
deepthaw wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 4:54 pm Before it was forced through the scaler, I could get the native resolutions on my CRT via the Analog IO board, but how clear the screen appeared was based on what speed the core was running at. I'm certain that's a major part of it.
It works rather well now, thanks to this custom mister file: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2375

There is no jitter and scaling is 1:1, at least in the most common resolutions.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 1:13 pm
by mahen
Hi !

Apart from some more speed I'd vote for a Gravis Ultrasound implementation. It would be fantastic for the demoscene.

An FPGA implementation of the MT-32 but as the mt32-pi is officially supported, it must mean it's kinda out of scope :)

Of course, I'm just dreaming aloud :) I'm already very happy with the current state of the core.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 3:03 pm
by FoxbatStargazer
I've had problems with fluidsynth even keeping up sometimes depending on the soundfont used... would bet something timidity-based would need even more CPU. Almost like something worth offloading to the Pi. Not sure how you would communicate the GUS samples though.

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Thu May 20, 2021 12:53 pm
by NovaCoder
Would love to see a bit more performance, even 10-20% would make a difference to the early 90's games I play :)

Re: ao486 wish-list

Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 4:34 am
by scyto
another +1 for gravis ultrasound - and not just for demo scene.

I once owned one of these along with a sound blaster and LAPC-I and the gravis, in the games that supported it has:

1) interesting different set of wavetable synthesis - different to LAPC-I etc
2) higher quality sample rates IIRC
3) more digital voices (32 IIRC)
4) ability to use (and the memory management hell that was) SBOS, MegaEM and Ultramid to apply GUS sounds to non-GUS sounds.

I saw someone say adlib and MT32 covered all we needed to cover, that is so wrong from a history point of view.
http://www.gravisultrasound.com/files/d ... /GLIST.TXT

There is a reason gravis cards are quite expensive on ebay....

(now off to test my brand new misterMT32 with LAPC-I firmware and compare against the SC-55mkII I have on my desk here :-) )