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Forums > CSDb Discussions > Extreme Cartridge - New Universal Cartridge - Need Help!

2009-02-01 20:31

saehn
Account closed

Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 44

Extreme Cartridge - New Universal Cartridge - Need Help!

Some of you may have seen this on the PETSCII forums, but for those of you who haven't:

Someone going by the alias of AdoreWare is producing a new universal cartridge---"Extreme Cartridge"---for the 64/128. Like the 1541 Ultimate, it will emulate cartridges, as well as providing mass storage, etc.

http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=d..

However, for complete cartridge compatibility, he needs some information on the Action Replay 6 hardware. Can anyone here help? I'll gladly put you in contact with him if you so desire. Thanks:

"I don't want to sound like a broken record, but does anyone have information on the GS38AC325PK01 44 pin IC on the Action Replay V6 cart? If I knew what type of chip it is (CPLD or PLA), I might be able to read the contents. I don't even know what the pin out is. The PLA file already available on various sites is for V5 and is not the same thing."

2009-02-01 20:39

chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11114

you can tell him, the v5 and v6 hardware _IS_ the same thing. exactly the same even. the "custom" chip on the newer ar6 hardware is nothing but the ttl logic found on earlier hardware in a single chip. there is also no difference between the pal and ntsc hardware.

2009-02-01 21:52

saehn
Account closed

Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 44

Thank you very much Groepaz, I will pass this along! :-)

2009-02-02 00:30

chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11114

btw another thing you can pass along... the reversed v5 schematic that is floating around on the net is buggy. he should look at a v5 board and crosscheck it (i forgot what exactly the error was, but it was easy to spot) he might also want to look at the vice sourcecode, you can easily see how ar hardware works in there, depending on his way of doing fpga programming it might be easier to simply translate the code from vice into vhdl. (just two registers, quite simple actually)

2009-02-02 14:25

saehn
Account closed

Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 44

Hmmm, I think that your first answer might not have been what he was looking for. I'm PM you with John's address (if anyone else wants it, just let me know). I'll mention what you said about schematic though.

I won't post pictures here (there at the address below), but here's his response:

http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=g..

"The top three photos going left to right are version 6 top, version 5 bottom, version 5 top. The photo on the bottom is also version 5. There are two different version 5s. The earlier version (bottom) has 5 ICs (28S129 PLA, 74LS74, 74LS163, 74LS273, 74LS02) while the newer version (top) has the 44 pin GS38AC325PK01. This chip contains all the logic of the 5 ICs on the earlier board including the 28S129 PLA. Version 6 ONLY comes with the GS38AC325PK01 and is exactly the same as the newer version V board. All three boards have the same Ram (circled in green) and Rom (circled in blue). The only difference is the footprint is PLCC on version 6 and DIP on both version 5s. The schematic I have is for the older version 5 which contains the PLA and as mentioned, I'm not sure if the schematic is correct. I own version 6 and have reversed engineered the schematic, but it does me no good if I don't know the logic inside the GS38AC325PK01. I do understand that there are registers that can be used, but this is not as accurate as reproducing the actual logic in the FPGA. A perfect example is Epyx Fast Load. VICE uses registers, but the character ROM is not visible during disk IO in Vice because there is a delay controlled by a capacitor on the PC board that holds a line hi (or low, I cant remember) for a few micro seconds after IO access. Sorry for the long winded explanation, but the bottom line is that I don't use registers if I don't have to. If the schematic I have doesn't work and I don't have the GS38AC325PK01 logic, then I'm at a stand still.

One more thing, the AR5 and 6 are the same hardware wise, but the fastloader is different in the ROM. I have patched ALL ROM versions to use the latest NTSC fastloader (Ver 5). I can do the same for PAL if anyone needs it."

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