Full Speed N64 Emulation!

[atomicthumbs]

I knew that would catch your eye. Anyways, I had an idea that wouldn't just work for N64 emulation, it would work for all sorts: Take a look at this.

Mips on an FPGA

If somebody made an FPGA board that had a MIPS CPU programmed onto it, and communicated through serial or USB, I think N64 (and maybe full speed playstation/other hard to emulate consoles) would become a reality! You could have the GP2X's ARM cpu handle the actual drawing on the screen, and offload the real load to what would be an actual copy of the CPU.

Edit: There are a bunch or core designs that could help at http://www.opencores.org/browse.cgi/by_category

Edit #2: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/25/2350229 has some interesting info in the comments.

 

[Megatog615]

So you're saying an add-on to the GP2X? What's the point?

 

[KingCheese]

Look: that's no bad idae at all, but..... I don't see any sense to do such weird things. Maybe the thought of fullspeed N64-emulation stimulated you , but even if the structure on both systems was the same, there wouldn't be a fullspeed-emu. Maybe we could get the same results as the psp has... but even that is not sure <_< .
Don't bother this forum with N64-emu wishes, because we've had enough of them h34r: . What I want, are fullspeed or near fullspeed emus, and as I know there won't be one for the psx I don't want such a 10fps-emu at all. But that's just my point of view.......

The topic is crap.....

 

[Exophase]

The FPGA would also need memory and the correct memory map programmed into it. Unless you translated the code to allow for HLE you'd need the coprocessor too, which is pretty sophisticated. And there's little saying that GP2X can do the N64's 3D acceleration comfortably in software while emulating the rest of the hardware as well.

And the communication between the FPGA and the GP2X would have to be very fast or it wouldn't stand a chance of working.

 

[atomicthumbs]

KingCheese, You're missing the point, an FPGA addon for the GP2X (with dynamic reprogramming with different cores) would make it much easier to emulate certain hardware, as you wouldn't need to emulate it at all: it would actually run on the FPGA as an actual processor. The FPGA could be a video decoder chip for H.264, a DSP, and any number of other things as well: it's only limited on how well you know Verilog.

 

[Nickmon]

ebay n64 = £10 !

 

[KingCheese]

KingCheese, You're missing the point, an FPGA addon for the GP2X (with dynamic reprogramming with different cores) would make it much easier to emulate certain hardware, as you wouldn't need to emulate it at all: it would actually run on the FPGA as an actual processor. The FPGA could be a video decoder chip for H.264, a DSP, and any number of other things as well: it's only limited on how well you know Verilog.

OK - have to read that site more exactly, but my point was not really the low qualities of such an 'n64'-emu, but more the really really slow progress that this emu could have. It is actually a lot of work and it would take the hell of a programmer.
So if you think this could be doable and you can't do it yourself just go on and ask zodttd, squidge, notaz or exophase.
Don't you forget: I'm the last one dissing such a project, if our masterminds (the 4 programmers above) say that this is hopeful....

stay cheesey...

 

[craigix]

I think it might just be easier to wait for the gp3x (or whatever).

 

[atomicthumbs]

It'd still be fun for the hack value. I can't code worth anything at all. Ah well, it was just an idea.

 

[aapje89]

I think it might just be easier to wait for the gp3x (or whatever).

yep, but if someone made it, damn that would be the mod of the year B)

 

[atomicthumbs]

I think it might just be easier to wait for the gp3x (or whatever).

yep, but if someone made it, damn that would be the mod of the year B)

AGREE'D

ANyway, H.264 would be cool. Hell, with a lot of hard work, you could probably brogram another ARM cpu in there.

 

[kardasan]

Somebody, please close that topic or change it's title. It's missleading

 

[nubie]

I knew that would catch your eye. Anyways, I had an idea that wouldn't just work for N64 emulation, it would work for all sorts: Take a look at this.

Mips on an FPGA

If somebody made an FPGA board that had a MIPS CPU programmed onto it, and communicated through serial or USB, I think N64 (and maybe full speed playstation/other hard to emulate consoles) would become a reality! You could have the GP2X's ARM cpu handle the actual drawing on the screen, and offload the real load to what would be an actual copy of the CPU.

Edit: There are a bunch or core designs that could help at http://www.opencores.org/browse.cgi/by_category

Edit #2: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/25/2350229 has some interesting info in the comments.

This was suggested numerous times in the GP3X threads.

Yes, I said GP3X, as in a new console.

I think that an MMSP2+ would be smarter, what with the Floating point math unit and the 3D (Also good for 2D acceleration, I see you DaveC :blink: )

See my sig for the CPU in the GP2X, the MMSP2+ is an evolution of the concept, it is also on the MagicEyes webpage.

Please do a search for the old thread so you can see the discussion and we won't be repeating ourselves.

 

[sam fisher]

I recommend the i.mx31 for the next GPH console.

 

[FarazParsa]

ebay n64 = £10 !

 

[atomicthumbs]

Lol @ whoever changed the topic title for me. I would have done it, but I had Science class. Oh, and the OGP (Open Graphics Project) proves that you can do 3D with an FPGA.
http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Open-Graphics

Edit: Never mind, I wouldn't have done it. I've been spending too much time in other message board software

 

[Squidge]

People forget that emulating the target processor is only half the battle. Every memory location that the original processor can talk to must be emulated also, and if there's co-processors in there, those would have to emulated too, and at the correct speed. Trying to sync an FPGA and ARM processor together would be a hell of a nightmare, and slow down the emulation considerably as they battle for access to main memory.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Squidge: I forgot about the address space. Just shows why I can't handle programming, to many details for me to remember. I'm more of a "know how things work, make them work again when they break" rather than a "make new things" person.

 

[Anhaedra]

I don't see why everyone just says wait for GP3X, since we don't even know if there will be one... This seems like a really good idea, if it could be used as a coprocessor it could speed up just about any homebrew, couldn't it?

 

[Mudi]

People forget that emulating the target processor is only half the battle. Every memory location that the original processor can talk to must be emulated also, and if there's co-processors in there, those would have to emulated too, and at the correct speed. Trying to sync an FPGA and ARM processor together would be a hell of a nightmare, and slow down the emulation considerably as they battle for access to main memory.