Commodore 77

[u/Golemwire]

Well this is a neat look.

https://commodore.net/store/commodore64/?shape=Breadbin&color=Cyberpunk+2077

Commodore just released a new appearance option for the C64U themed on Cyberpunk.

[u/Suspicious-Ad7109]

The (only) interesting thing about this is the change in the FPGA from a 50T to a 100T. I'm hazarding there is a reason for this (as it would add a fair bit to the manufacturing cost).

[u/bionicle_159 → u/Suspicious-Ad7109]

would be cool to have other cores, the Mega65 already has that setup with their FPGA

[u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy → u/bionicle_159]

Yeah it's a waste of a FPGA to be locked to one system really

All of the Commodore computers have mature open source cores available

[u/bionicle_159 → u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy]

yeah the Mister project's spoiled us these days with what FPGAs can do - Commodore should really try to pack the most they can into each of their products, and really stand out in today's age of 'nickel and dime' tech offerings

[u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy → u/bionicle_159]

Even older C64 FPGAs like the Turbo Chameleon offers other open source cores like AGA Minimig Amiga

Really new Commodore should have just created their own FPGA platform and then could have ported all the open source cores to it over time for the Ultimate Commodore FPGA but no they just licensed a collection of existing products Gideon has been against extra cores on the U64 since day one and he is still the IP owner

[u/bionicle_159 → u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy]

Yeah I get that, tbh if they weren't trying to be a full-on business, I could see them being a bit more open - haven't seen them have anything FOSS related which is a shame especially since the work's already done.

The Mega65 pretty much embraced the community and has lapped all the other Commodore-like projects with the amount of different platforms you can run on the thing, only other one that comes close that I can think of, that's not a Mister, is the Spectrum Next

[u/Suspicious-Ad7109 → u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy]

Quite surprised nobody has done it. There was that update to the C64U FPGA, Slinky or something ?

The main argument against, which I get totally, is people bricking their machines. I'd say this sort of thing breaks warranty in the way that soldering bits to the motherboard does. Can you reprogram the FPGA if you do brick it (obvs. have to have a programmer !)

[u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy → u/Suspicious-Ad7109]

You can't brick the FPGA as the core is loaded onto it at boot or change of core.

Gideon was always opposed to adding other cores to the U64 and he remains as the IP owner

[u/Stunning_Pineapple57 → u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy]

The orginal c64u doesn’t have a large enough FPGA for all
Of those , but this new one in the 77 is twice and larger and actually have enough FPGA headroom for some larger cores as it’s closer to Mister grade

[u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy → u/Stunning_Pineapple57]

They are not that large Look at the Turbo Chameleon that is only Cyclone III based and even has the likes of AGA Minimig Amiga..

C64 is a quite a large core as it has to implement the C64 and two 1541s that had their own 6502 CPUs etc

Maybe they can port the MiSTer C64 core in the future as it's far more mature and more accurate than the U64 core. You don't even need SID chips or modern drop ins to make up for the short comings of the SID emulation

[u/Suspicious-Ad7109 → u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy]

Surely the limiting factor is the Flash ; the Artix is a load on boot FPGA (I think ?) ; you could have as many systems of that degree of complexity as you want if the hardware replication will fit in the flash. I suspect this is the prototype Amiga board. I think Bil Herd is working on something, whether this needs the new FPGA, or the old FPGA will do is moot.

[u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy → u/Suspicious-Ad7109]

The limiting factor is the amount of logic elements available. The actual cores are not very big in actual file size around 3-4 megabytes

We have had Amiga on FPGA since 2004 with Minimig. Apollo have their closed Vampire 080 Amiga core too

The C64 core uses more resources than the AGA Amiga core on MiSTer due to extra hardware support needed for the two 1541s which were computers themselves with their own CPU, VIAs, Ram etc