Gadget Factory

1st RetroCade Synth Prototypes! RetroCade MegaWing, Arcade MegaWing 2.0, and Papilio Pro!

— by

Jack Gassett

The PCB’s for the RetroCade Synth prototypes arrived early this week which was way faster then expected. I put together a bill of materials (BOM) this week and put in a parts order to verify everything. The parts arrived last night and I built the first prototypes this morning!

Here is a video showing the first RetroCade Synth prototypes:
 

 
I will be testing everything next week and if all goes well I will be placing a larger parts order once the Kickstarter funds are released by Amazon. For everyone who backed at the prototyper level this means that I will hopefully be shipping your first boards out in just a couple weeks!

Jack.

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Responses

  1. andymanone Avatar
    andymanone

    Dear Jack, some news or progress with the Retrocade Project?
    How was the first tests? Hope, everything sucessfully :)?
    Btw., do you have there anywhere a blog or twitter or anything, where I can find the latest news about the progress of the Retrocade? Regards, andY

  2. Asbjørn Mikkelsen Avatar
    Asbjørn Mikkelsen

    Is it Papilio Pro or Papilio Plus?
    Btw, what is the differences between Xilinx Spartan 3-500 and Spartan 6 LX9?, fpga is unknown for me, but after reading a lot, and watching your videos etc, I just gotta have one, but when looking at the newer 6 series, they seem to have totally different way of specifying the capacity?

    1. alvieboy Avatar
      alvieboy

      Hi Asbjørn,

      This is Papilio Pro. It’s similar to Papilio Plus, but instead of a 512MB SRAM it includes a 4MB SDRAM. Also the power supply is different, this new board uses a DC-DC converter, instead of the always-heating LDO present in other boards.

      Regarding the FPGA question, indeed there are a few differences between S3E and S6. Let me try to enumerate them (the ones I find more relevant):

      * Less power drawn.
      * MULTSIO18 are replaced by DSP48A blocks.
      * Block ram can be split in two for convenience (although some bugs exist)
      * Faster. Expect a 5-10% increase in performance.
      * Dedicated serializers in IO blocks (ISERDES/OSERDES).
      * LUT are 6-bit input, and 2-bit output.
      * PLL present, in addition to DCM.
      * Design size is similar to those of S3E.

      This is what comes to mind right now. Lots of changes from previous versions exist, check Xilinx site for more details.

      Just a note: calling S6 “newer series” is perhaps incorrect, the new 7 series are already shipping, but still unavailable to hobbyists, unfortunately.

      Best,

      Álvaro

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