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VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:12 am
by Jeff Pare
Considering how many of the Commodore 64's part just die of old age, it's been a joy to see people creating very good modern replacements for problematic chips (PLA, SID). I learned today of someone working on an FPGA replacement for the VIC-II.
Here's the video
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:03 pm
by TomXP411
This is pretty great.
At this point, all of the C64 components have an FPGA version (and there are obviously full system FPGA cores, at least 3 that I know of.) At this point, someone could build a brand new Commodore 64 using FPGAs to replace all of the custom chips...
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:13 pm
by calcmandan
I watched part of the video. The replacement is far and away superior to the original vic2. more colors, etc. Not sure if the loyalists of the original c64 would dig it that much. and only newer software could exploit the features.
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 7:50 pm
by Dmian
Randy is amazing! Both the VIC-II Kawari and the BMC64 are wonderful retro projects. And you can see he knows exactly what he’s doing.
You can replace the SID, the PLA, the ROMs and now the VIC-II.
The CPU you can kind of replace with a 65C02. Are there replacements for the 6526 CIAs, though?
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 4:36 am
by kelli217
8 hours ago, Dmian said:
Are there replacements for the 6526 CIAs, though?
Someone is working on it:
https://1nt3r.net/j-cia/
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 5:40 am
by BruceMcF
On 2/8/2021 at 12:36 PM, kelli217 said:
Someone is working on it:
https://1nt3r.net/j-cia/
Yeah, it's got to be do-able, WDC sells FPGA cores of their VIA's.
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:43 pm
by Jeff Pare
Adrian's Digital Basement on this Vic-II FPGA prototype. It's cool to see Adrian try it out.
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:47 pm
by Jeff Pare
Latest update - "final" VIC-II Kawari board is ready and Randy is looking for beta testers -
Go check the video here. If you haven't, go look at the previous videos - I especially liked seeing a nice 80 column mode on a C64.
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:15 pm
by Kalvan
It seems to be tripped up by the limits of a stock 6510.
I wonder what would happen if the 64K version was stuck into a Commodore 128...
VIC-II FPGA prototype
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:35 pm
by Scott Robison
18 minutes ago, Kalvan said:
It seems to be tripped up by the limits of a stock 6510.
I wonder what would happen if the 64K version was stuck into a Commodore 128...
The 128 would be confused because the VIC IIe has more pins to support extra functionality that they added to the VIC II for the 128. Off the top of my head I think the VIC IIe was a 48 pin package vs the 40 pins of the original. {checks}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_VIC-II#The_VIC-IIe