New MSX FPGA board by 8bits4ever

What a nice surprise!

Have you made any changes/improvements in the sound circuitry? I've read some comments about noise in the zemmix neo clone.

I've never had any MSX2+ issues with KdL's firmware on the OCM so I bet this one is just MSX2+ as well...

I did have sound issues on the OCM and heard that the different Zemmix ones were nothing better. This issue should be addressed. Making the error once (Ese) is a pity, making the error twice (the 1st zemmix) is a bit of a silly pity, making the error for the third time (the second zemmix) is kind of bad. (how many different zemmix were there?). Making the error again would be a reason to either not buy it or rma it.

Good thing to know: Will there be a backplate?

The audio amplitude will be fine from OCM-PLD v3.6 and later. The issue was inside the VHDL code.

Good news! Looking forward to it

yeah my printer could make a nice case for this.

One question: is that an IDE connector? So could we have IDE support integrated into FPGA?

nice that first image! but no updated bigger fpga? not one with extra space for future hardware?

I can see from the concepts that one of the joystick ports is routed to the back of the case. But I think it might also be interesting if the joystick ports and/or cartridge slots could be routed to something on the front?

Like one of those front panel USB hubs: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4-Port-USB-3-0-Front-Panel-HU...

No SCSI please. The IDE would be a great improvement.

CD-ROMs are cheap and always-ready medias to store and fetch data.
Copy several times different files on SD is frustrating... so the native IDE support is very welcome, to me.

Indeed it would but,

The problem is most of SD slots on a PC case (those 3.5'' multi-readers) are USB devices and would not work with this board (or any OCM clone for that matter). So you cannot use those.

If we want to extend the SD card slot to the front of a PC case, a small board has to be made together with some sort of case to fix it to the PC drive bay, and of course the cable extension. It is possible but again, this will add more production costs to something not everybody will use.

Whats more likely is we add a header for connecting one of those arduino SD modules. Something like this:
https://www.ebay.es/itm/Micro-SD-Storage-Board-TF-Card-Reade...

So it's sort of a 1Chip MSX, but in a different format ?

There's quite a lot of debate about FPGA v.s. emulation v.s. the real thing.
My question would be: In a blind test between the three:
1) Real MSX, FPGA like Zemmix and openMSX, which one would get closer to a real MSX?

This kind of debate is a bit nonsensical, IMHO.

Say you have an IC which implements a logic gate. You can put this IC in your circuit. Now say this IC isn't available anymore, for whatever reason. You can put discrete components at its place to perform the same function. Do you call these discrete components a logic gate emulator? I don't think so. Say someone implements the logic gate using programmable logic and you put this implementation in your circuit. This is not an emulator, this is just another implementation of the same circuit.

Of course, when you talk about much more complex pieces of hardware like CPUs, video and sound chips, the implementation complexity grows exponentially. This makes it possible that the implementation itself may be incomplete or imperfect, which doesn't detract from the fact that it really is another implementation, not some kind of emulation. MSX-Engines reimplement a lot of MSX chips functionality with varying levels of fidelity (and even some different, missed or added features) and no one dares to call them emulators.

So this blind test doesn't really say much about what is closer to a "real MSX". You could find, for example, that openMSX is "closer" to a "real MSX" than an actual real MSX, depending on whatever you consider to be the baseline. For example, if you compare an MSX with the Toshiba T6950 VDP with a generic MSX1 on openMSX, you can find the later to be "closer to a real MSX" because its colors may look more like what you remember, since you probably aren't used to its different palette (color 9, for example, is clearly more vivid on a T6950 than on a TMS9918).

Similarly, if you test VDP timings you may find openMSX to be more perfect than Zemmix Neo, while if you test sound Zemmix Neo may sound more authentic since you can hear the processing noise. It's not as clear cut as you may think. And this is to be expected, since the MSX hardware specs support enough variety that this whole discussion is moot. All MSXs are not created equal. Some have different VDPs, some have different PSGs, some have different CPUs and some of these are implemented in FPGA, which doesn't make them "less real".

I hope you can appreciate my point of view. Sorry about the wall of text.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I believe you're mistaken: we shouldn't care as much for the so-called accuracy since MSX is not this one big, monolytic thing. One of the coolest things about the MSX is that it can be so varied, and it was so ahead of its time that good, well-designed and well-behaved software will work just as well in any MSX.

I also think you underestimate both the ability of hardware developers like KdL, Manuel Pazos, Eugeny Brychkov and others, and the work that was put into emulators like openMSX and BlueMSX to make them accurate enough. Plus there's no direct relation between the difficulty of a problem and the quality of the solution. Maybe a more difficult problem will attract more talented people to solve it. We can't really know.

And of course nothing stops you from using a really good USB keyboard. Why settle for a crappy one?

More to the point, I'm curious about something: have you seen a Zemmix Neo/OCM with KdL's latest updates? They are amazing machines, very complete, very accurate for most applications, work with real MSX cartridges and game controllers, can be plugged on any TV or monitor, have mass storage. Why negatively compare it to openMSX? Both are awesome.

So, just to be clear, this pre-release also doesn't include the 20 pin ATX power connector,right?

Received a mail from 8bits4ever today that the SX-1 is finally available.

Costs are 130.-€ for the SX-1 board and another 30 bucks for the cartridge board.
Order the on the 8bits4ever homepage.

Ah, I will brick one. Hey zett, let's make a competition! Everyones invited, I will do a newspost article, if there are some creative users?

i gona design a case for it and print it

Got a board a few weeks back, from the first preview batch. It's working a treat so far! Though any worries I might have had about inserting cartridges fall to the wayside; those things are in there tight! Perhaps a bit too much so.... I some times worry about having to pull really hard to get them out!

@dumfrog, I might recommend one of those online e-mail services, which keep track of page updates. That's how I set up a notification, to know when the boards went on sale. It just monitored for any changed to the "out of stock" button, and I was notified immediately.

@Haze : thanks for the tip, I'll get a try on this solution.
Can't wait to get one !

just tested it. works nice. only not a standaard keyboard layout. its jo. but works nice on vga. got me a nice 8"lcd conected to it. now lets make me a sd card

yeah gona do that.

hmm those white leds on the board are realy bright. and the diodes are getting nice hot.
lets see some one hase a flasher .

on the board there is a pin out for a usb. can i connect the usb keyboard direct to that?

if tryed some games(like breaker radarsoft) and some demos. but it would not run good. and i cant get my mfr working on it.... owww....

Thx dude for the info!.

Yes, VGA is nice.

But slots are what makes a MSX go round, aren't they?
Do you use the Philips printer port cartridge? And do you gonna use the printer port for printing or other ways?

There is a chance to get one in eBay, case including.

It seems to be this one....

Steel mini HTPC Case

Looks a lot better with an MSX inside. ;-)