FPGA Board for small retro computers

This is presentation of an idea to make a small FPGA board to be simple and hopefully affordable for implementing old small computers like Sinclair Spectrum, C64, BBC Micro and others. The board is minimal and key thing is simplicity and ease of use.
Enjoy!
Let me know in the comments if you have questions

[@benish0r]

Very cool! Perhaps you can snatch some ideas from the MISTer FPGA as they've touched a lot of real needs.

[@adaptivedesign8795]

The got a bit pricey with the mister.

[@benish0r]

@@adaptivedesign8795 Indeed, but they also offer a lot. One thing I would ponder on up front would be extensibility; signal/power/control bus, stackable boards and the likes.

[@adaptivedesign8795]

correct! it's all about what you want/need and how much you want tot spend.

[@glennkirilow9015]

Will be a fun little project for you. What tool are you using to design the schematics and PCB and what is the part number for the fpga you are looking to use on the board? Also how are you planning on driving DVI? Is there going to be a custom chip on the board or are you looking to drive the raw signals using the fpga with a bit of analog?

[@adaptivedesign8795]

Hi Glenn,
I'm using Orcad/Allegro (Cadence) - the part number is is a spartan7 (is on the screen in the video). DVI can be driven directly from the FPGA pins (TMDS 3V3) with the only limitation that high resolution are not possible because of the speed of the IOs limited to around 1Gbit/s

[@glennkirilow9015]

​@@adaptivedesign8795 I see, thanks for the information!

[@mmyc5680]

Could you add ethernet ?

[@adaptivedesign8795]

This is the simple version, at the end of the video I'm saying that will be a version with external RAM, FLASH and Ethernet. Lets walk before we run, there is high chance this idea will go tits up.
Like the wise blind man once said: "we'll see".

[@TheArtofEngineering]

I watch a lot of videos. I started “Embedded Systems” in the 18 months of my Mechatronics Eng degree. I had got thru all the hard bits but my brain was fried! I also caught the Ham radio bug again. I did do some sequential and combinational logic on an FPGA (Quartus Prime?) making a MUX etc. I guess I need to dust off the FPGA and start! I would be interested!! 73