Minimig Discussion Forum

Hi,

I have just uploaded new firmware for the Minimig. It's still work in progress and not all intended modifications have been already implemented. Nevertheless it's a small step forward. Please report any incompatibility which you encounter.

Main features:

- a lot of changes to improve compatibility (included text file contains more detailed description)
- support for 4 (with ARM mini-board) or 2 floppy drives
- selectable floppy drive speed (double or normal)
- support for hard disk emulation (hardfile support) with soon to be released ARM mini-board
- 28 MHz CPU turbo mode (works also with 16 MHz 68SEC000 parts)
- fast blitter mode
- selectable PAL and NTSC mode from the OSD menu
- OSD menu control with Enter, Esc and arrow keys
- ADF files are not alphabetically sorted but can be selected by pressing a key with the first letter of their name
- support for 2 MB of Chip and 1.5 MB of Slow RAM (hardware modification required)
- scan-line emulation effect

Binary files can be downloaded from here (please read the included manual).

Sources available from here.

A description of how to install extra RAM chips can be found here.

Have fun,

Jakub

Wow great work, thanks! I will test it as soon as possible

PS: "// 2008-12-12 - useless scanline effect implemented"... I love you too

Excellent! Even without the ARM board the additional floppy support will be very useful.

Do you know if any of the new options have an impact on the power requirements of the Minimig v1.1 board? I'm currently building a portable/laptop based on the Minimig and am wondering if the faster clocked m68k or fast blitter options would reduce battery life at all?

btw, very nice documentation!

Sounds interesting
To different power consume I will do some testing but I dont think there will be much difference between 7.09 and 28.36 MHz. Perhaps a few xx mA but nothing to worry about. Allthrouh the neat Minimig only need approx. 135mA
in normal operation. A peek of 200mA while the FPGA internel reset cycle is running but only for about 0.2 sec.
Additional ps2 keyboard and mouse power consume depend on each model.

Just made some testing, as I was curious too. With only keyboard attached, and showing the cracktro of SotB, my board consumes 189 mA at 7.09 MHz and 199 mA at 28.36 MHz. Mine's fitted with a 16 MHz rated CPU. Toggling normal/fast blitter has almost no effect, though I had the impression that it drops by 1mA in fast mode.

Keyboard/mouse/joystick will affect consumption.


Thanks (Though the real beauty is in Yaqube's code)

Edwin

Hi Jakub

Just excellent work !!

After the ARM finished, you give us this update, you're a master

I haven't tested it yet but I'm sure it's a great update

P.S. : please take a look at your private messages too

Thanks for going on development for this funny board
Laurent aka Faranheit

Wow, all of 10mA! I think the 2 extra LED's I was planning on installing in my case to indicate battery or dc power would be more than that! Nothing to worry about there then!

Hello all.

@Yaqube
I've tried your new firm and it's incredible, it works really good! I'll try some games that doesn't work with the previous version to see if works now (SDI, Zeewolf, Zeewolf2, mission elevator, and so...)
Thanks for your work and effort.

Regards

EDIT: ISE 10.1 is working fine again and is able to translate the core