Obviously it'll be great when Saturn will get released, but Mister doesn't need this or that core to "survive".
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:15 pm
by Lightwave
Duffygag wrote: βMon Jul 19, 2021 9:08 pm
Obviously it'll be great when Saturn will get released, but Mister doesn't need this or that core to "survive".
If you are responding to ThroAU, I think you misread the comment. The point was Saturn surviving as a platform by being preserved, not MiSTer.
throAU wrote: βTue Jul 13, 2021 3:37 am
Having the Saturn in FPGA will open it up to a far larger audience, and ensure it survives as as platform; the hardware itself is both limited in availability, dying and as you say - difficult to emulate.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:06 pm
by Duffygag
Ah ok that was more convoluted than I thought then
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:57 pm
by throAU
Yeah I was referring to the Saturn being opened up to more people and surviving. The mister will do just fine already.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:23 pm
by Xbytez
Another update from Sega Saturn core update from Sergey, fixes in VDP1 and VDP2.
Was wondering what license you will be releasing this under...? (Wondering because cps3 apparently has same CPU and if you would allow portions of your work to be imported to other cores)
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:18 pm
by FoxbatStargazer
There's also video of the BUG demo playing, including some sound.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2021 11:13 am
by SSR852
so so so so so good! Just joined his Patreon!
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:39 pm
by throAU
this has had so much recent progress in such a short space of time.
iβm sure development has been going on for a long long time, but given the recent steps with actual running commercial software, surely itβs getting close now.
softtest9 wrote: βTue May 11, 2021 4:54 pm
I don't think the Saturn has that much RAM.
Would likely be more about bandwidth than capacity
Not just bandwidth, but the ability to have consistent access timings with the various concurrent things that are happening. There are 6 physically independent RAMs if I haven't somehow double-counted: CPU async RAM, CPU+SCU SDRAM, VDP1 RAM, VDP2 RAM, framebuffer RAM, sound RAM. A bunch of later games also have cartridge ROM/RAM, but I'll bet that's fine being in DDR3 (I'm not aware of anything that actually runs directly from cartridge space).
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 5:41 am
by Slipard
ExCyber wrote: βSun Sep 12, 2021 6:45 pm
I'm not aware of anything that actually runs directly from cartridge space).
KOF and Ultraman?
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 9:22 am
by throAU
Given rom is generally slower than ram it should be fine with the slower shared ddr3 - laymanβs guess.
I just remember a thing back in the day with PCs was to shadow the bios into ram to speed it up for DOS doing bios calls into it.
ExCyber wrote: βSun Sep 12, 2021 6:45 pm
I'm not aware of anything that actually runs directly from cartridge space).
KOF and Ultraman?
I haven't specifically looked at games, but Sega told developers to never store code in cartridges, and graphics/sound assets would need to be copied to an internal RAM before use. Action Replay obviously runs code stored on a cartridge, but I believe it also copies itself to RAM before actually running.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:03 am
by Captain FPGA
Daytona USA outta nowhere! Daytona USA outta nowhere! There I was enjoying my day and then I stumble upon this. I believe it's by the same wonderful developer bringing us this core.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:50 am
by Chris23235
Captain FPGA wrote: βTue Sep 14, 2021 3:03 am
I believe it's by the same wonderful developer bringing us this core.
Captain FPGA wrote: βTue Sep 14, 2021 3:03 am
I believe it's by the same wonderful developer bringing us this core.
Yes it was linked in the last Patreon post.
I know decided to post it here too.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 4:48 pm
by douglasamcintosh
When (if) this core is released will it accept CHD files like most of the other disc based consoles?
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:00 pm
by cathrynmataga
Woah, did this guy build the CPU and the graphics chips both from scratch? Saturn has a pretty oddball CPU.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:07 pm
by zakk4223
douglasamcintosh wrote: βTue Sep 14, 2021 4:48 pm
When (if) this core is released will it accept CHD files like most of the other disc based consoles?
CHD and BIN/CUE support is implemented entirely within Main_MiSTer, so it's basically independent of the core. There's a bit of 'glue' in Main that's specific to each core (since they all have some quirks) but the majority of the heavy lifting is non-core specific.
Assuming this core is implemented like other CD based cores, if the initial release doesn't include CHD support I'll add it like I did for the current CD-based cores.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:22 pm
by jdeberhart
cathrynmataga wrote: βTue Sep 14, 2021 5:00 pm
Woah, did this guy build the CPU and the graphics chips both from scratch? Saturn has a pretty oddball CPU.
All of the CPUs in the Saturn are normal CPUs: it uses a pair of Hitachi SH-2s, an SH-1, and a 68000. Maybe you're thinking about the VDPs? Most machines of this and previous generations used custom chips for the graphics, but the CPUs are all normal parts that are used in many other devices.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 8:10 am
by mic_
The SH family isn't all that common though - nothing like the M68k. So I could well imagine that srg wrote his own SH-1 and SH-2 implementations. Fortunately they have pretty small instruction sets, so as far as processors go, those should be pretty easy to implement. At least that's my experience from writing software emulators, though I don't know how well that carries over to FPGA development.
Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development
Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:38 am
by throAU
mic_ wrote: βWed Sep 15, 2021 8:10 am
The SH family isn't all that common though - nothing like the M68k. So I could well imagine that srg wrote his own SH-1 and SH-2 implementations. Fortunately they have pretty small instruction sets, so as far as processors go, those should be pretty easy to implement. At least that's my experience from writing software emulators, though I don't know how well that carries over to FPGA development.
The SH-2 has an open source implementation now (J-Core) as Hitachi let the patents expire.