Xilinx FPGA does WPC-DCS audio (WPC ASIC)

[beaver]

I have been working over the past few weeks with Martin on an ASIC/
FPGA project. I have been successful with reproducing WPC-DCS using a
Xilinx FPGA. The next effort is to reproduce WPC-95 and its A/V
ASIC. Information here:

http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/wpc_sound.htm

Edward Cheung cARGPB26

[MarcelG]

christ i wish I had spare time like you do.
Very nice work.
Marcel

[chuck]

On Jul 26, 3:39 pm, beaver <e...@edcheung.com> wrote:

Great work.

[dropdea...@yahoo.com]

wahooo!
Great work guys!

[Jack James]

When I grow up I want to be just like you guys !!

Time for the ASIC chips to flood eBay.

Jack James

[CornCob]

Edward,

Very nice techie page on your audio project - it's great to see this
kind of effort put into to one's hobby.

Seeing your design, it looks like your copying raw audio data from rom
sections serially out of the Xilinx part in order to mimic the board
level signals of the DSP/DAC interface. I've had to repair my STTNG
WPC-DCS sound board and remember looking at the very same interface.
But arn't those audio samples compressed?

Going by the fact you mention the next step is to find the IP core for
the Analog Devices DSP then I assume your model only currently plays
single channel audio?

Ping

[beaver]

Yes, the audio is compressed in the ROMs. However, I am not simply
copying them into the D/A. The DSP is the processor that decompresses
the samples prior being sent to the D/A.

Regarding your other question, my prototype does have the DSP, so it
is identical in performance to a WPC-DCS board. The DSP IP core being
available would allow me to incorporate the DSP inside the FPGA as
well.

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

[Peter Katzmann]

Some guy here in Germany already done the WPC-95 chip.
I think it was andreas from www.pinled.de

peter

[CornCob]

> > Ping- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Edward,

If you cannot obtain the core for the DSP in question then I think you
should consider using an emulation of the DSP from mame or pinmame for
that matter, built for the X86 platform (not the entire binary, select
sources) and then obtaining one of the many Intel/AMD core's that I
know do exist. Basically still an emulator but if your clock on the
FPGA is high enough... well it's something to consider.

When I looked at your design showing the ModelSim output with all of
the DSP signals on it I thought the FPGA included the DSP as opposed
to interfacing to a real DSP.

Ping

[beaver]

Interesting idea to target a x86 core. I will keep it in mind.

I understand the confusion about the DSP. Just to note, those are the
signals at the pins of the FPGA, thus they interface to the physical
DSP.

Thanks for all the other comments guys!

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

[beaver]

I do not think so, but I hope Andreas will chime in with a reply. The
only board I see is a WPC-98 dot matrix controller board, and that
does not include the A/V circuitry, nor the CPU ASIC functionality.

I would be pleased if someone has already done it.

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

[GPE]

"beaver" <e...@edcheung.com> wrote in message
news:1185478791.6...@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

Looks like my mess that I had when I did a Gottlieb System 80 on a Spartan 3
board. Had all the CPU, RIOTs and logic insice the Spartan 3 FPGA with room
to spare. Quite a fun job but never had time to implement into something
real.

-- Ed

[beaver]

Once parts for those boards become NLA, you may be taking it back out
of the closet 8-).

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

[PT]

Amazing work Ed.

Any plans for adding or changing the music in a particular game? Or
maybe an external interface to connect an MP3 player and disable the
onboard music calls? How about a headphone output with volume
control?

That logic analyzer looks really nice! Nothing like having the right
tools!

John

On Jul 26, 3:39 pm, beaver <e...@edcheung.com> wrote:

[GPE]

"beaver" <e...@edcheung.com> wrote in message

news:1185737067.6...@19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com...

> Once parts for those boards become NLA, you may be taking it back out
> of the closet 8-).
>
> Edward Cheung CARGPB26

I thought about that. But both NiWumph and Pascal have their versions of
System 80 boards out there. IF and when I could get to work on these again,
I'm sure these guys would have the market flooded.

-- Ed

[Mark C. Spaeth]

beaver <e...@edcheung.com> wrote:
: I have been working over the past few weeks with Martin on an ASIC/

Very cool...

...but it seems like it'd be hard to productize a design that uses
a BGA FPGA (unless you've got your own placer, of course).

--
Mark Spaeth msp...@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 msp...@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

[beaver]

No, I do not intend to do those things.

Note that what I have created is not new, but a copy of the old. My
purpose was to make options available in the future should the
hardware we have start to fail. What I have done does not make the
ideas you state any more difficult or easy. Anyone is still free to
pursue those ideas.

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

[beaver]

I have found someone that can assemble boards with BGA parts. Of
course, the inaccessibility will make poking at test point more
difficult. We will have to keep that in mind in the future.

You would know the answer to this Mark. Do you know of a cheap/free
IP core for the DSP-2105?

Edward Cheung CARGPB26

On Jul 29, 5:43 pm, "Mark C. Spaeth" <mspa...@mit.edu> wrote:
> beaver <e...@edcheung.com> wrote:
>
> : I have been working over the past few weeks with Martin on an ASIC/
> : FPGA project. I have been successful with reproducing WPC-DCS using a
> : Xilinx FPGA. The next effort is to reproduce WPC-95 and its A/V
> : ASIC. Information here:
> :
> :http://www.edcheung.com/album/album07/Pinball/wpc_sound.htm
>
> Very cool...
>
> ...but it seems like it'd be hard to productize a design that uses
> a BGA FPGA (unless you've got your own placer, of course).
>
> --

> Mark Spaeth mspa...@mtl.mit.edu
> 50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspa...@mit.edu