2010-03-18 20:37:22
Today we solved two problems. The first was a problem with getting the Videl picture on the SuperVidel after power on. It used to require pressing the reset button about 3 times. But now we get the picture immediately! :)

The second problem had to do with the SuperVidel answering some reads of the old Videl registers. This is necessary to allow us to expand the functionality of the Videl, so we can restore a high SV resolution when an old game or demo restores what it thinks is a Videl resolution. We have simply selected an unused bit in the register 0xFF82C0, which is read as '1' when a special SV resolution is running, and '0' when an old Videl resolution is used. So a game/demo which reads all Videl registers before setting its own resolution, will automatically read our "magic" bit and remember it. When the game/demo exits, the bit will be restored together with the Videl registers. The SV checks the magic bit to see if it should set the Videl resolution or restore the high SV resolution.

2010-03-13 16:01:47
Today we also tried running Henrik's dogfight game Aces High, which uses a rather unorthodox VGA-resolution of 384x250 in 60Hz using the 32MHz video clock (normally used by RGB modes). This works perfectly. :D

2010-03-12 23:58:10
During the last two weeks there has been some major development progress on the Videl emulation again. We have got both Mono and 8-bit (256 colors) modes working in all VGA resolutions: 640x480, 320x480, 640x240 and 320x240. So now we have full support for 1,4,8 and 16 bit pixels on VGA.

We have fixed minor but hard-to-find bugs that sometimes caused "skewed" bitplanes.

We have run some demos that use 256 colors to see that our Videl cloning works. We have only run VGA 60Hz, since our LCD monitors can only handle this. In one demo we selected 100Hz VGA, and the monitor reported that it couldn't display "100Hz, 31.4kHz". This is good news for us though, since it proves that our Videl register translation code translates 100Hz correctly! :) We need to try it on an analog VGA to see it for real.

RGB resolutions is still untested.

2-bit color mode seems to become a larger issue, since the Videl supports this only in ST-mode, and we have no working translation code for this yet. The question is: Should we really put a lot of time into this now, when we have other more basic/urgent features to do before production, like JTAG updating and RGB support? After all, how often do you use 2-bit mode?... :P

2010-02-28 16:03:24
WE HAVE NOW SUCCESSFULLY CLONED THE VIDEL OUTPUT to the Supervidel output when running 640x480x4bit and 320x240/480xTC!!!! :D
We have not yet made mono, 2-bit and 8-bit work, but hopefully they shouldn't present any bigger obstacle now.

We're currently moving our 256-colour palette from the old address at 0x80020000 to 0xFFFF9800, where it will snoop the old 256-colour palette. We will also make the VGA timing block active from power on, so you will get the boot picture directly out thorugh the Supervidel.

2010-02-27 16:50:11
Right now we're working on the Supervidel VHDL code again. This time Torbjorn has come to visit me (Henrik) in Gothenburg and also Pep (Peter Persson) is here. Since we managed to repair Torbjorn's CT60 last weekend, during the last week we tested the Videl compatibility code. But then we encountered a bug in our STRAM snooping code that would freeze the falcon. Now we've restructured some parts of the VHDL code to prevent this and we're just about to test it. :)

2010-02-20 19:38:58
We have just successfully repaired Torbjörn's CT60! :) After replacing the ABE chip the 060 mode didn't boot, so we spent a few days measuring the bus signals. But what made the CT60 boot at last was that we did some additional soldering on the back och left side of the ABE. Apparently when you keep removing and inserting the CT60 some ABE pin solders develop cracks when the PCB is bent and eventually the CT60 won't boot. We now believe this is the problem with Henrik's CT60 too. Finally at last we can try out our Videl compatibility code in the Super videl...