I recently bought a Nexys 4 Artix 7 (PSRAM not DDR version) and I'm trying to program the memory device so it boots directly into MEGA65.

I've compiled the latest nexys4.bit and nexys4.mcs files using Vivado 2019.2. Programming the memory device appears to be successful until I do a "Boot from configuration memory device" and then "Refresh Device". It shows a BIT05_0_CRC_ERROR. JP1 is set to QSPI.

So it looks like it's just the ConfigRate setting that needs changing. 33 MHz is too fast so the next lowest setting 26 MHz appears to work okay.

set_property BITSTREAM.CONFIG.CONFIGRATE 26 [current_design]

Now the only remaining issues are clearing and writing to flash from the MEGA65 configuration and having support for PSRAM again so things ike the MEGAMAZE demo have enough extended RAM for textures.

I made some updates to the NetSID project. You can download the full ISE project from https://baker76.com/download/fpga/netsid.zip

There are now two ISE project files NetSID_pipistrello.xise and NetSID_papilio.xise which have the appropriate ucf and clock files. These support the Pipistrello and Papilio FPGA development boards respectively.

Here is a list of the main changes:

1. It now has the latest SID vhdl (with filters) from https://github.com/MEGA65/mega65-core/tree/master/src/vhdl
   • sid_6581.vhd
   • sid_coeffs.vhd
   • sid_components.vhd
   • sid_filters.vhd
   • sid_voice.vhd
2. Added an audio mixer from https://github.com/GadgetFactory/ZPUino-HDL/tree/master/zpu/hdl/zpuino/contrib
   • simple_sigmadelta.vhd
   • zpuino_audiomixer.vhd
3. Added the latest async.v from https://www.fpga4fun.com/files/async.zip which contains the latest versions of async_transmitter and async_receiver
4. Added 2SID and 3SID support
   • There is a demo song included called Earmind_3SID.sid
   • Reading the documentation for the Network SID Device Protocol (https://sourceforge.net/p/jsidplay2/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/jsidplay2/src/main/asciidoc/netsiddev.adoc) the TRY_WRITE command has a 3rd byte which is an 8-bit SID register number from 0x00 to 0x1f. It doesn't mention it but I found by looking at the source that bits 5 to 6 store the SID number when the song supports multiple SIDs.
   • If you run the !play_csid.bat batch file it will run the csid SID player which supports 3SID format so you can compare the results with the FPGA version.
5. Output from "server_v2_HybridSID - handshake.py" now shows the sid_number variable so you know which SID the data is outputting to

Eg.

using COM15
listening on port 6581
connected
    sid count: 3
[0] model: 0
[0] position: 206
[1] model: 0
[1] position: 50
[2] model: 0
[2] position: 206
[0] resampling method: low quality
[0] clock source speed: PAL
[0] clock source speed: PAL
[0] clock source speed: PAL
    sid count: 3
[0] model: 0
[0] position: 206
[1] model: 0
[1] position: 50
[2] model: 0
[2] position: 206
[0] resampling method: low quality
[0] clock source speed: PAL
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[2] 39346 Bytes/s, block size: 288
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[0] 30406 Bytes/s, block size: 316
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[2] 29653 Bytes/s, block size: 332
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[2] 30620 Bytes/s, block size: 300
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[0] 30347 Bytes/s, block size: 316
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[1] 30633 Bytes/s, block size: 316
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...
[2] 29623 Bytes/s, block size: 332
    FPGA requested pause, buffer full...

UPDATE: This project is now hosted on GitHub here

I'm playing around with my iCEBreaker FPGA today. Got output to an RGB Matrix using the LED panel driver Pmod.

I have a project in which I want to create a console in FPGA and was disappointed to find the Papillo project was pretty much dead and did not support the Xliinx 7 series. I found the Bonfire RISC-V (RV32IM) processor and decided this would be a great replacement for the ZPUino.

I recently purchased an Arty A7-35T board so I can run the Bonfire processor. I plugged in a Micro SD and USBUART Pmod. The Micro SD slot is for storing and running Lua applications and the USBUART Pmod is for debugging (more on that in another post).

I successfully flashed the bonfire_arty_rev_v1.2.0_elua_0.9.1_193-gb2bf8f8.mcs image.

The first issue I came across is the Configuration Memory Device is different on my board. Mine has a Spansion s25fl128sxxxxxx0-spi-x1_x2_x4 not a Micron mt25ql128-spi-x1_x2_x4.

The second issue I had was using minicom. I could not get any response from the board until I did the following:

1. Press CTRL-A Z
2. Select "o" (cOnfigure Minicom)
3. Select "Serial port setup"
4. Use F and G to set:
   • F - Hardware Flow Control : No
   • G - Software Flow Control : Yes
5. Press ESC until you are back to the main prompt

So now I have successfully connected to my Arty running Bonfire processor! 😄