🚀 AmiCube v1 - Early Testing 🎉

After reviewing the schematics, routing, and the original Minimig core, I knew we had everything in place for an early FPGA port and test. To my surprise, everything worked right out of the gate! 😲🎯 Of course, there are a few minor tweaks needed, which I’ll be fixing in AmiCube v1.1.
🔹 Board Specs:
🖥️ MiniITX Form Factor
⚙️ Spartan-6 SLX100 FPGA (BGA Package with over 100,000 LEs! 😍)
💾 Normal Mode, 35MHz Turbo Mode, and PiStorm/68000 CPU all running smoothly!
🔧 Major Challenges:
🔸 Implementing new DCMs for Spartan-6 (since they differ significantly from Spartan-3) ⏳⚡
🔸 Switched the system crystal from 4.4MHz to 20MHz 🕰️, requiring adjustments to timing and clocking
🔬 There’s still a lot of Verilog development ahead, as the transition from Spartan-3 to Spartan-6 brings new challenges. In the next board revision, I’ll also be using dedicated clock pins and making some minor schematic corrections to improve stability and performance.
💡 It’s an incredible feeling standing next to this beautiful machine, knowing that the experience I’m gaining will help me create even more stunning Amiga-compatible computers in the future! 💾🔥
Thank you for watching, and forgive me if I look a bit tired-it’s been a busy few days for obvious reasons! 😅 Hope you enjoy the video! 🎬
👉 Like, Subscribe & Stay Tuned for More Amiga Magic! ✨
#AmiCube #Amiga #FPGA #RetroComputing #Spartan6 #Minimig #Verilog #ClassicComputing 🚀💾

[@VK2FVAX]

Indeed. Canada is where new Amiga's are Born. Very exciting.

[@shoesworkbench]

Canada? You mean the new USA!? 😂

[@VK2FVAX]

@@shoesworkbench No. Canukistan. Get it right.

[@grahamparker325]

Very impressive. It's getting there nicely. Great to see Workbench on the screen. The AmiCube branded pre programmed PiStorm 68k is a nice addition to include, and will be amazing.

[@amicube]

Thank you, I'm happy with the progress so far!

[@ChristofferLilja]

This was indeed whats I was thinking as well. Amazing progress.

[@erichey6394]

I am very excited to see Workbench running. Can’t wait to follow you through the next stages. Take your time to make this the ultimate Amiga FPGA platform.

[@amicube]

I appreciate your encouragement! I’m committed to making this the best Amiga FPGA experience possible.

[@mattkaczorowski3099]

Subscribed! This looks fun. I never had an Amiga growing but, but I find them fascinating. They seem oddly powerful for their time.

[@shoesworkbench]

Your passion is admirable and very inspiring.

[@Jody_VE5SAR]

Amazing progress in such a short time!

[@amicube]

Thank you! It's been a lot of fun putting this together.

[@isimongardner]

Hell yeah with that full screen action.

[@JamesEzell]

Can't wait! Only thing I would love to see is the ability to connect a real Amiga keyboard to it. Everything else checks all my boxes. Would love to put this in my A3000 case with a A3000 keyboard :) Will be buying one one released. Another idea for the next broad you create - Addition of an expansion port.

[@ffsireallydontcare]

I'm guessing probably not as so few exist and they're getting rarer, short of building one of the incredibly expensive recreations. What you could possibly do (I haven't tried it) is go Amiga Keyboard -> USB -> PS2. The Amiga to USB adapter is available out there, and tripplite or startech make active USB to PS2 adapters.

[@pju28]

Nice and wonderful work! DVD media drive would be fine. How much memory is standard? And how much can you add additional? - I know it all takes time and step by step. Greetings from Austria 🇦🇹

[@AppliedCryogenics]

It's so interesting that most of the chips are recreated in the FPGA except for the MC68000, level-shifters, and RAM. I don't have a feel for programmable logic, but it seems like a 1979 CPU should be easy to implement in the FPGA. I can see how having the actual chip on the board could provide some street cred, though. 😊 I have noticed how dang expensive fpgas are, though. Maybe using the real chip was a big cost savings.

[@deborahberi3249]

More great work Ranko! -Mark.

[@ProteusMega]

Looks and sounds great! This and the new retro monitor and we have a whole new ball game! :-)

[@apaczi1]

This is super cool, idea of cube shaped case is amazing, however maybe board should be a bit smaller, to have small cube on a desk

[@andreaspfeil8682]

Wonderful! I especially like the new floppy interface! But - why not add an IDE interface, too? You mentioned that you are planning different cases - like a cube shaped one - that is great! But why only have two 3.5” floppy bays? I have used a 5.25” external floppy back in the days, too. And if you could add a IDE drive connector, we could connect this to an CD-ROM drive, too. The AmiCube Board is in mini-ITX format and has it’s switches at the front. It’s from factor allows it to be installed into a standard mini-ITX case, but in this case, one would need to be able to connect the front panel header (power/reset button, power/HDD LED). I don’t know exactly, but maybe the headers behind those switches are for this purpose? And finally, my last idea: Why not add all of the Amigas legacy I/O interfaces like LPT/parallel port and an external disk drive port and one serial port? Maybe you can use more of those double connectors or break out cables? My perfect Amiga would be your board with an original 68000 CPU running at 7/32MHz in one of your Cube shaped cases (hopefully in Amiga beige with an Amiga style design) - equipped with one 3.5” drive and one 5.25” floppy drive and one (slim?) CD-ROM drive. I would also like to use a rotating IDE drive (just to hear the hard disk sounds). I love your project - keep on with your great work! Too bad that we are not neighbors, otherwise you would have another hardware engineer in me who would surely show up on many Saturdays and help you with your project!

[@peoyli]

Is there any room and possibility to add a mini-DIN for a real Amiga keyboard on the production version ? That's the only thing missing for this one to be called a "new Amiga" (besides less usable parallel and serial ports)

[@Mooheda]

I've been watching with interest, is there anyway to get sound in (sound sampler)?

[@jeremykays]

I wonder if it could be squeezed into an A500 case

[@ProteusMega]

Is it possible to get som sort of compact flash interface? USB?

[@eugenios2006]

This work is truly amazing and getting more and more exciting... The addition of Floppies is also a great addition to the project. I can't wait to get my hands on one of the completed boards as i would like to build a Amiga Tower And being its ATX this opens up so many possibilities but we will need a io shield as well. I have a couple of questions and i know this is a work in progress and more functionality i'm sure will be added. but is it also possible to add IDE to the main board. i know its a an old format.. and this can be solve with some of the SATA to IDE converters. And also brings this project closer to the CD32 as well. Now the PS2 changed to a USB would be even better but the Hid2ami can be used to help on that issue. i wish i had tons of $$$ i would set you up at 3370 Pharmacy Ave, Scarborough, ON M1W 3K4

[@Romanujan]

I have some questions (but, to be clear - I think this is a great project and I intend to get one device even if the answers are all negative!): 1. What is the chip RAM access speed reported by SysInfo when using PiStorm? Is there any chance to reach A1200 speed? 2. Is there going to be a way to connect a CD-ROM drive? 3. Is it going to be possible to use mouse and keyboard connected via a KVM switch (a hub from the perspective of USB bus)? I am rather short of desk space as I have already 3 development machines; I would prefer to just use the existing mouse+keyboard. 4. Would it be possible to output audio/video from both AmiCube and RaspberryPi using a single HDMI port? I'm asking, because the PiStorm team is working on a hardware accelerated Warp3D implementation, so it would be great if we could use this; AFAIK they are planning the AHI driver too. 5. Regarding the MIDI - have you considered adding a PC sound card wavetable header, so that we could use the DreamBlaster X16GS as a MIDI instrument?

[@lordreefer]

Another update. Dude don't you sleep. I can't believe how quickly this is progressing. Are you going to add scan doubling/flicker fixer or RTG modes after you get AGA up and running?

[@ffsireallydontcare]

A couple of things. Please make the PiStorm 68k optional. I haven't yet been able to justify the cost of the current MiniMig ITX given the additional eye watering cost of shipping out of Canada, this will no doubt be more expensive and bundling the PiStorm will compound it for people who only want to use a real 68k. I think you'll probably lose customers, whereas if it's optional you'll get both. Second, how easy is it to disconnect the real CPU from the FPGA? I'm wondering because I can see this becoming a real multi-computer "mister" type platform given that you've got fully programmable floppy interfaces. I can see this running PC cores, Atari cores, Acorn cores, TRS80 cores, even other Commodore cores, all with real floppies connected but using a FPGA based CPU.

[@ffsireallydontcare]

Something else I noticed.. In a future version of the PiStorm 68k it would be a good idea to flip the orientation of the 68k/pistorm jumper. Assuming you haven't changed it already, having the jumper on the left for the CPU on the right, or the jumper on the right for the pistorm on the left will be confusing for those who don't break it out to a switch. I'm sure it will trip up a lot of people.

[@ffsireallydontcare]

Sorry to be clear, I understand the price is what it is. I'm not complaining about it, I just can't afford it at the moment. After rereading my first comment it can be interpreted as me whinging.

[@g4z-kb7ct]

@@ffsireallydontcare You are not missing anything. I have about 30 Amigas incl CD32 and CDTV (I repaired all, some multiple times) many with accelerators and I don't use any of them. There are better ways to play Amiga games at full speed using emulation for free.

[@ffsireallydontcare]

@@g4z-kb7ct I have an almost full set of Amigas as well, dating back to my second computer after my C64. I like running the real thing, but I also like running real updated hardware. I have Jeri Ellsworth's C-1, a mister as well as TheA500, but I've never bought a MiniMig. I'd like one, but I can't justify the cost at the moment.