Here’s a cool open source FPGA graphics accelerator board by Andy Brown. Check out the full write-up here:
In this project I’m going to attempt to design and build a sprite-based graphics accelerator that will function as a co-processor to an MCU. Using cheap off-the-shelf components I’m hoping to achieve a level of gaming performance that compares well to popular commercial hand-held gaming consoles.
I’m hoping that I’ll learn a few new tricks along the way, and, if the ideas currently zinging around inside my head all land the right way up and in the right order then I should be able to write a demo or two, maybe even a small game as a proof of concept. Naturally this project will be entirely open source so if you feel the need to copy, extend or just kick some tires then you’ll be doing so with my blessing.
All project files and source code are available on GitHub.
Check out the video after the break.
what price infos do you have at this stage?
What would be a rough idea of the price of a board including connectivity to Arduino, the fpga and the lcd?
It’s an amazing project, but read the linked article carefully, it’s a sprite engine, and may be a bit too specific to be repurposed. Note the very high FPGA utilization, the project made the most use out of a very cheap (for FPGAs) XC3S50, but a XC6SLX4 might offer a lot more scope for adding features. The SRAM holds one frame, bitmaps are streamed from the SPI FLASH, these are limitations if you are thinking of extending the thing.
Arduino? 8-bit Arduinos may be a bit underpowered for this thing but if you have been through the 80s 8-bit microcomputer revolution it might be acceptable…