Super Duper Propeller Computer (SDPC) Project
Rayman
Posts: 14,668
Wanted to share some thoughts about a new Propeller board project I've just started...
Want to combine Propeller, for easy programming, SSD1963 for VGA graphics, and VNC2 for USB interface.
Going to attempt to use FT232RL (or maybe FT231X) to program both Prop and VNC2.
Also, going to try using 2X SQI chips on the 8-bit data bus of the SSD1963 to allow direct transfer between the two.
If it works, should have GUI speeds and resolution that resemble earlier versions of Windows or Unix...
Here's how the Prop Pins might be used:
P0..P13 SSD1963 and SQI
P14..P17 micro SD
P18..P21 SPI connection to VNC2
P22..P23 PS/2 mouse
P24..P25 PS/2 keyboard
P26..P27 Stereo audio out
P28..P29 I2C bus
P30..P31 3-way Serial connection to Prop and VNC2 and FTDI chips
Not sure about the size of the board... Maybe I could go tiny and use a 4-layer board to pack it in tight, maybe on both sides of the board...
Or, I could go big (ExpressPCB gives me up to 21 square inches for fast turn boards).
Or, maybe better to replicate size and layout of Propeller Proto USB board...
Any suggestions?
(about the name... I may have been watching too much Super Why! with the kids...)
Update: Well a lot has changed and the pinouts will be different and it will comprise a Propeller Platfrom and a shield now, but hopefully a lot of these goals will be met soon.
Want to combine Propeller, for easy programming, SSD1963 for VGA graphics, and VNC2 for USB interface.
Going to attempt to use FT232RL (or maybe FT231X) to program both Prop and VNC2.
Also, going to try using 2X SQI chips on the 8-bit data bus of the SSD1963 to allow direct transfer between the two.
If it works, should have GUI speeds and resolution that resemble earlier versions of Windows or Unix...
Here's how the Prop Pins might be used:
P0..P13 SSD1963 and SQI
P14..P17 micro SD
P18..P21 SPI connection to VNC2
P22..P23 PS/2 mouse
P24..P25 PS/2 keyboard
P26..P27 Stereo audio out
P28..P29 I2C bus
P30..P31 3-way Serial connection to Prop and VNC2 and FTDI chips
Not sure about the size of the board... Maybe I could go tiny and use a 4-layer board to pack it in tight, maybe on both sides of the board...
Or, I could go big (ExpressPCB gives me up to 21 square inches for fast turn boards).
Or, maybe better to replicate size and layout of Propeller Proto USB board...
Any suggestions?
(about the name... I may have been watching too much Super Why! with the kids...)
Update: Well a lot has changed and the pinouts will be different and it will comprise a Propeller Platfrom and a shield now, but hopefully a lot of these goals will be met soon.
Comments
I want one ... sounds perfect to me ...
add a xbee wifi to have telnet/ip and power it with parallax rechargable Power-Pack.
I have a 3d-Printer and may be able to print some enclosure...
I like the name.
enjoy!
Mike
That has inspired me more than once. Sounds like a fun board.
Kids shows certainly can mess with your thinking. Mine are fans of Mr Maker (UK)... he has a segment where he makes stuff in a minute, complete with circus style music. It has me wondering what prop stuff we could make in a minute.
console/controller for some kind of system. Want to have a nice GUI that can show photos and things.
And, maybe it could be for fun too.
Probably need a codename if I ever want to sell them though...
I'm thinking about "SDPC: Simple Deterministic Programmable Controller"
BTW: Another nice thing we get using the SSD1963 is that the display will stay on if you want to task switch and load in a different Prop program off of the SD card with a bootloader. So, you can just show an hourglass symbol or something while it boots a different program... The user wouldn't necessarily be aware that the Prop was rebooting...
Ray, I would suggest keeping as much as possible of the "demo board standard" stuff in their original places (aligned to 4 pin boundaries also?).
Even if that splits remaining pins for new stuff in two ranges, it should make using existing drivers a bit easier.
Maybe something like this:
P0..P9 SSD1963 and SQI (1)
P10..P11 Stereo audio out
P12..P15 micro SD
P16..P19 SSD1963 and SQI (2)
P20..P23 SPI connection to VNC2
P24..P25 PS/2 mouse
P26..P27 PS/2 keyboard
P28..P29 I2C bus
P30..P31 3-way Serial connection to Prop and VNC2 and FTDI chips
This board is going to be great. Excellent graphics and modern connectivity with a single propeller, and in a single board. :thumb:
I'm wondering if I should do a small Quickstart plug-in first, without the VNC2, to flush things out and also provide lower cost access to the core functions...
On the fence about this idea though...
Hi Rayman,
I've been thinking about this some. Having 2x Quad SPI or SQI (whatever) devices on a Propeller VGA could mean some very rich background graphics with 5 or 6 MB/s transfers.
Would that also leave performance head-room for text boxes, labels, and sprite overlay, etc... ?
Looking at the differences between the Winbond and SST chips, the setup time for the SST parts is very short in quad mode. Is it possible to send an address during blank time? Maybe that is only possible at the beginning of the video update?
Thanks,
--Steve
So, I can copy stuff from flash to display RAM as slow as I want... The SSD1963 will just keep writing to screen in the background...
But, of course, I want to update as fast as possible...
So, the plan is to copy font and GUI elements (in 24-bit color) to the flash before hand and then copy them as needed directly from flash to SSD1963.
After the setup, all the Prop has to do is toggle the clock pins.
At least, that's the idea...
I do really like the idea of having a big old buffer and controller available to make video, but i was wondering if Propeller could also accomplish the task for which it is well known with a few simple and cheap parts.
Thanks,
--Steve
The native VGA output is the whole reason I started working with the Prop.
That said, there are some things that I haven't been able to do due to graphics memory restrictions...
Offloading graphics memory to flash and SSD1963 will let me do more things.
One will have to weigh that against the added complexity and cost...
Plus, this project was looking way to easy anyway and this will up the degree of difficulty at couple notches...
So, the I2C to SPI bridge will let me us the VS1003 MP3 player with just the I2C bus on P28&P29. That will save the 2 pins that I was going to use for audio.
Also, this gives me a microphone input, so I can use Phil's speech recognition to listen for me to say "Super Duper Computer"...
If I also throw a PCA9554 I/O expander on the I2C bus, then I can free up two SPI channels on the SC181S602.
Think I'll use one for the VNC2 interface. That gives me back 4 Prop pins.
Probably use the other for an ENCJ28 ethernet connection...
So, I should be able to save 6 Prop Pins this way...
So, now drawing up something to be called "SDPC: Core".
This is all that can fit onto the ExpressPCB MiniBoard (3.8"x2.5").
There's no room for flash or SRAM, so that will have to go on an expansion board...
Here's the current layout (needs a lot of work still):
But now, I've broken things into 2 boards. One is a Propeller Platform compatible board (Propeller Platform Express) and the other is a VGA Graphics Shield.
Together, they do everything I wanted to do here, but it was much easier to lay out this way: