MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi friends,

Sorry if this is not the right place, I'm trying to find the right core (if exists) for the previous generation of the 286 computers.

Looking for some information about my neighbor's computer, where we played Digger, Golf, Livingstone on a monochrome monitor. I found this "Mitac PC portable".


Is there any core to replicate this?.

The AO486 is your closest bet, but it's a lot more powerful than a 80C88. At least it should run your software though.

A 8088 implementation in VHDL exists: https://github.com/nsauzede/cpu86.

But a PC is far more than the CPU, one would need at least
8237 direct memory access controller (DMAC)
8259 programmable interrupt controller (PIC)
8254 programmable interval timer (PIT)
8255 programmable peripheral interface (PPI)

and of course RAM, ROM and a way to access files.

A PC XT core would be nice to have... although setting ao486 to run at 15Mhz works for many games.

The Atari Portfolio, the world's first palmtop computer (also featured in Terminator 2), also runs on an 80C88 CPU with its own variation on MS-DOS.

It is a pretty limited system, not sure how much work it would be to create a core for it. Maybe it could help with a basis for an eighties PC core.

Yeah, the ao486 core isn't really great for XT era stuff. Half the games I'd want to play do not run on it and the other half run noticeably too fast unless you use DOS programs have further limit the clock speed. It would be super nice to have something cycle accurate.

ao486 also isn't that great (but better) for the 286 & PS/2 era, but most of the games in that era are covered by there being better versions available on the Amiga core.

I think what we really want is a Tandy 1000 core as a ton of games from that era support Tandy 3 channel sound and 16 color graphics modes. We would probably also still want CGA, MGA and Hercules graphics modes for best compatibility.

Yes, a 8088 core would be very appreciated!

luishg wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 10:45 am Hi friends,

Sorry if this is not the right place, I'm trying to find the right core (if exists) for the previous generation of the 286 computers.

Looking for some information about my neighbor's computer, where we played Digger, Golf, Livingstone on a monochrome monitor. I found this "Mitac PC portable".


aqjYbpN.png


Is there any core to replicate this?.

To follow up on this old thread: MiST has a port of the Next186 core since July. See https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-bina ... es/next186.

I tried it on my MiST clone, it is running stable. Speed can be adjusted, but VGA compatibility is somewhat limited, which breaks quite a few games.