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Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:42 pm
by mikeb
Chema wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:54 pm It is a bit surprising that nobody in this community started such a project, or even a core for those already working on FPGAs... but that is another matter.
I know for a fact that someone did do a VHDL ULA model, I came across it while looking for ULA related material.

It was dated some time after my original 1996 ULA reverse-engineer was published/released, and included signal names in there which were "fictional" ones that I made up to describe signals (most of which are still re-used in the current ACTUAL reverse engineer, as we will probably never know what the signals were really called by Oric's devs).

It also seemed to duplicate some of the mistakes I made, while others had been noticed and corrected, as they would have caused mis-operation of the resulting chip.

The VHDL comments made no mention of being derived from the document I put out, and had copyright notices on it asserting it was someone else's work.

Obviously someone out there has spent a lot of time independently duplicating the work I already did earlier. :roll:

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:28 pm
by iss
Well guys, I'm totally surprised by today's speed of PCB prototyping!
After I ordered a cheap batch of above pcb's with cheap shipping I realized that I'll not have the patience to wait long,
so on Monday I re-ordered new 10 pcs with express delivery and today I have in my hands the ready pcb's with really
beautiful white color :).
20181213_170627.jpg
20181213_170758.jpg
20181213_170839.jpg
Now, let's the soldering begin :).

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:15 pm
by Dbug
That's some quality looking PCB :)

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:56 pm
by iss
Dbug wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:15 pmThat's some quality looking PCB :)
20181213_201619.jpg
And it's Oslo compatible! I just tested the drink - 40% strong and rich taste only the quantity was not enough,
which is good reason for a travel :).

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:17 pm
by Dbug
I'm honestly not fond of Aquavit, but I don't like strong alcohol as a rule, so nothing specific for the Norwegian liquor :)

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:57 pm
by iss
20181217_000837.jpg
OricExos with attached extension - everything works exactly as expected!
Now I have to replicate it 4 times and write the 'driver' for parallel communication.
Meanwhile the video mixer will be ready and ... the hardware final is really close!
Ideas for real X-mas demo are welcome!

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:09 am
by ibisum
Wow, this is amazing progress .. All I can think about is multi-timbral synthesis. I want to build an Exos just for that purpose.

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:17 pm
by Dbug
iss wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:57 pm OricExos with attached extension - everything works exactly as expected!
Congrats, it's nice when complicated things all come together and actually do work as expected :)
iss wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:57 pm Ideas for real X-mas demo are welcome!
Maybe something simple but that shows the power of the machine, and related to the period: Like for example a landscape with a small house and some pine trees outside, snow falling, and some Christmas music midi song playing on 12 channels :) ?

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:40 pm
by iss
Some update to project - 3 slave extensions ...
1.jpg
... and the master one with attached cumulus buffer board:
2.jpg
Master extension needs little "patch" to make the reset from cumulus working more reliable,
but in general everything is fine so far.
I'm still waiting for the delivery of the last chips for the mixer. They should arrive in a week... hopefully.

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:05 pm
by Dbug
It looks soooo clean :D

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 12:04 am
by iss
OricExos-preview.jpg
OricExos with extensions, PAL encoder board and cumulus - everything works!

As you can see the PAL encoder board has Composite, S-Video and RGB outputs.
The signal amplitude from the RGB output is bit low, so I have to add an extra video amplifier - AD8013.
This was the last chip which I waited so long but now I have it!

So, I'm playing with the mixer board (not in picture) and ... the hardware of OricExos will be finished! :)

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:05 am
by Voyageur
Whaou !

What a nice job !
Looking forward to be see the demos outgoing of this tower of Oric' MoBo ! :D

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:47 am
by Symoon
Amazing work.
I just can't even start to imagine what can be done with it, waiting for the wizards now ;)

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:07 am
by Dbug
Awesome :)

So, two questions:
- What did you finally came up with for the soundchips: Mono, Stereo (and if Stereo, how is it split?)
- What are the video mixing algorithms you have implemented

So basically I can start thinking about what I can do :D

Re: OricExos - making the impossible

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:17 pm
by Chema
You are all mad :)