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Author Topic: Fido1100 MCU  (Read 1476 times)

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Offline FantomaTopic starter

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Fido1100 MCU
« on: January 25, 2008, 10:51:57 AM »
I encountered the Fido1100 (http://www.innovasic.com/fido.htm) completely by accident while looking for details on why the Coldfire is different to the original 68k core.  It claims to be completely CPU32+ compatible and from what I can find that means an 020 with a couple of extra bitfield instructions and addressing modes (or alternatively missing those features, depending on what you read).  
I couldn't find any mention of it on the forums so I thought i'd mention it and maybe someone technical can see if it is actually compatible with the 68k and could be used in a Minimig environment.  
 

Offline Kelvin

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2008, 12:31:27 PM »
Looks like its a Microcontroller, which means that a lot of the data/address lines COULD be hidden away and unaccessable for that use, not saying it is in that devices case, but mcu's generally have peripheral devices built in thus reducing compatability with thier cpu counterparts.

(no actuall effort on my part to read a datasheet has occurred    :crazy:)
 

Offline Plaz

Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2008, 01:13:11 PM »
Interesting find. I'm still scanning the pages but can't find information on how code compatible it is. 95%, 99%, 100%? That's the trouble with coldfire. There are 68k instructions that are also vaild on coldfire, but do a differnt task. It would be easier for compatibility design if those instructions were not valid at all on coldfire.

The programmable I/O's of the fido could be very important. I/O is as big an issue as code compatibility when trying to interface with the Amiga buss.

I'll keep reading and I think I'll post this over to the coldfire mail list and see what they think.

Plaz
 

Offline FantomaTopic starter

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2008, 11:21:31 PM »
I don't know about the level of instuction compatibility but after reading a bit more regarding the memory map in the user guide it seems you can relocate all the internal memory and registers *except* for the flash residing at $0->$FFFFF (Only 256K is present however).  That space is reserved for chip ram so it seems like a complete show stopper.

It looked promising too. :(
 

Offline AeroMan

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2008, 11:41:03 PM »
It is a really nice chip! It needs some deep analysis to see it we could use it.
With a quick read I found the flash is mapped at address 0 and can't be relocated. The bus is also different, and it is a 16 bit bus.
This doesn't means an accelerator with Fido is impossible, just means we will have some serious work to do if we try it.

 

Offline madvax

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2008, 04:15:25 PM »
Hello Everyone, My name is Harold Wilson and I am the Field Applications Engineer for the fido1100 at Innovasic Semiconductor in Albuquerque, NM.

I would like to learn more about your application(s) for the fido1100. Also I am ready to answer any questions you may have about fido1100.

I did want to let you know that the fido1100 is completely CPU32+ compatable! If anyone would like a free soft copy the fido1100 Instruction Set Manual please let me know.

my e-mail is hwilson at innovasic dot com

 
 

Offline bloodline

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2008, 04:22:53 PM »
I wonder if AROS's exec could be layered on top of the built in RTOS?

If the flash can be mapped out of the $0 address space then Running AmigaOS's might work...

Offline FantomaTopic starter

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Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2008, 10:09:30 AM »
Even though having the flash at $0 is pretty much fatal I checked with this [http://piru.dyndns.org/~p/coldfire-v4-m68k.txt] coldfire->68k missing features list to find out what to check for.  I figured Coldfire is so cut down that compared to CPU32 nothing else would be missing, someone else with far more patience should be able to find more incomplete features than I could.

I assumed the addressing modes were correct and didn't look into this much as the guide doesn't list any definite info.  (It references 'core addressing modes' but links to nowhere, plus the m68000 reference guide doesn't explicitly say that CPU32 does not have every addressing mode the 68000 does.)

*Opcodes missing sizes* - All OK
*Completely missing opcodes* - Some exceptions
There are only 5 BCD instructions, The Fido has the original '000 ABCD, NBCD & SBCD but does not have PACK & UNPK which first appeared in the '020.
All the bitfield operations that first appeared in the '020 (FCHG, BFCLR, BFEXTS, BFEXTU, BFFFO, BFINS, BFSET & BFTST) are not present.

(From the Motorola M68000 Family Programmer’s Reference Manual - section 7.1)
''The CPU32 can execute object code from an MC68000 and MC68010 and many of the instructions of the MC68020.
There are three new instructions provided for the CPU32: BGND, LPSTOP, [TBLS, TBLSN, TBLU, and TBLUN]).
The MC68020 instructions not supported by the CPU32 are BFCHG, BFCLR, BFEXTS, BFEXTU, BFFFO, BFINS, BFSET, BFTST, CALLM, CAS, CAS2, cpBcc, cpDBcc, cpGEN, cpRESTORE, cpSAVE, cpScc, cpTRAPcc, RTM, PACK & UNPK.''

So to me it appears that the Fido could function as a souped up 66Mhz 68000 but other things that still are a mystery are;
* Freeing up of location $0 - I don't think it is possible to get the Amiga to mark the first 1M as 'do not use' seeing as it is meant to be chip ram?  Maybe if the Kickstart was modified and only system friendly apps were used but whats the point of it if no games will work?
* No floating point unit - Can a 68881/2 be added, there is no mention of it in the user guide.
* External interfacing - The pin outs are odd, full 30 bit address bus but only 16 bit data bus. (plus SDRAM refresh logic is built in?)
* The extra features such as built in ethernet could be useful, what would be more useful would be configuring the UICs to become the extra 16 bits of the data bus.

If someone could get their hands on one they could make a board and get it to replace the cpu on an a500 just as a test.  It says it is 5v tolerant so it could (maybe) work if the addr $0 problem can be resolved.
 

Offline Plaz

Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2008, 09:35:58 PM »
Quote
That space is reserved for chip ram so it seems like a complete show stopper.


Not necessarily. Banking methods might be used to work around this or there might be other built-in ablities we don't know about yet.

I see some one has posted as a "rep" for the FIDO. I'm going to write and see what they can tell us.

Plaz
 

Offline Plaz

Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2008, 09:54:31 PM »
Quote
So to me it appears that the Fido could function as a souped up 66Mhz 68000 but other things that still are a mystery are;


Missing instructions can be handled by trap exceptions, and handled in software, so this is not a killer problem. (yet) A good replacement would have to emulate and 020. Again this might be doable with traps and libs.

It's been the problem in coldfire that some important addressing instructions DO exist but perform a different operation that would crash the system on Amiga 68k code.

I don't want to seem overly optimistic, but FIDO's not dead yet in mind. I'll send a message to Mr. Wilson and see what they're up to.

Plaz
 

Offline Plaz

Re: Fido1100 MCU
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2008, 09:56:53 PM »
@madvax

I'll be sending a PM shortly.


Plaz