Re: An FPGA card for Apple

[MdntTrain <js@cimmeri.com>]

On Jan 2, 10:33 pm, alex.freed....@gmail.com wrote:
> On Jan 2, 3:47 pm, Mark McDougall <msmcd...@no.spam.iinet> wrote:
>
>
>
> > At least put an Altera FPGA on there so we don't have to use ISE!!! ;)
>
> I wouldn't mind to. At first a Cyclone II appeared to be a perfect
> part for
> the job: EP2C5 in a nice 144 or 208 pin QFP case has enough resources
> for most reasonable application and only needs 2 power sources.
> Unfortunately the PLL needs a 10 MHz minimum input clock and only
> 7 MHz is available on the Apple bus. Using an external (to Apple)
> clock
> makes it less appealing to our sense of harmony :)
> And yes, I love the in system memory editing in Quartus but I'm
> afraid
> we'll have to live with our choice of Spartan 3E.
>
> And you can always use Altium Designer as a vendor neutral tool.
>
> -Alex.

If 14MHz were on the bus, would you then be able to use the Cyclone
II?    If in that case, you could, then in reality, is there no way to
tap the 14MHz off some IC?

I imagine it'd be very difficult to change FPGAs at this stage in the
game, but from a hobbyist perspective, having the same FPGA as your
FPGApple DE1 and Stephen Edwards Apple2FPGA, and being able to use the
better Quartus tools, is very attractive.     But never having done
anything with FPGAs, this is just speculation on my part.

 JS