"The Thing": Homemade FPGA + STM32 board, "Multicomp" compatible

[Just4Fun]

Hi all,
this is "The Thing", an homemade FPGA board with an Arduino STM32. It is also "Multicomp" compatible ("Multicomp" is a modular VHDL design to "run" some famous retro 8 bit CPUs made by Grant Searle) giving the option to "run" easily a VHDL SOC with a Z80/6809/6502 CPU and I/O, including HD (on SD) and a color VDU. Just to start to play with HDL languages and softcores...







Here The Thing in action "running" a Multicomp Z80 with CP/M 2.2 as OS:
https://youtu.be/j8qfqlEfJm8

More info here.

Regards.
J4F

[SiliconWizard]

Thanks for sharing.

Just a thought, but do I see a Cyclone II? It's a 14-year old device... I don't really know how much longer Intel is willing to maintain this series, now that it's Intel.

Any reason you didn't select something a tad more recent? I don't know the Altera line well, but something that seems roughly equivalent but already significantly more recent at an equivalent price would be the EP4CE6E22C8LN (Cyclone IV). The Cyclone V seems more expensive. Maybe the new MAX10, but it would probably be a bit more expensive too although I don't know how they would compare to a Cyclone II.

Or maybe it's part of the retro thing, in which case don't mind me. 

[tsman]

Looks to be because Multicomp uses a cheap EP2C5T144C8N board from China. The Thing is using the same Cyclone II for compatibility.

[Just4Fun]

Any reason you didn't select something a tad more recent? ...

Right. You "must" use no more than Quartus II v13sp1 for that.
I have chosen that because it is cheap and you can find it easily "around". More, it has only two supply voltages, so it is easier to route for a 2-layer PCB.

I have already some Cyclone IV on my bench, and I'll use them in a next version for sure... 
...but before some VHDL fun... 

[Just4Fun]

Looks to be because Multicomp uses a cheap EP2C5T144C8N board from China. The Thing is using the same Cyclone II for compatibility.

Yep. Anyway I've found some Cyclone IV Multicomp enhanced versions. So I'll use those in the next Cyclone IV version...

[SiliconWizard]

Alright then!