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Is this VS1011 doable as not-so-heavy addition for the OCM?

Here the same question.

Was mich schon lange interessiert, ist mit was für einem Aufwand wäre es möglich eine eigenen MP3 Decoder in einem FPGA, bzw PLD zu programmieren. Was wäre geeigneter PLD, oder FPGA (kenne leider den Unterschied nicht)? Wäre sicherlich eine schöne VHDL Übung.


Here an answer.

Vergiss es.
Schon das Programmieren eines DSP (Der MAS ist z.B. auch nur ein DSP mit festem Programm) ist schon schwer genug. Und dann willst Du Dir erst noch einen DSP selbst bauen?

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Is the Moonsound ridiculous

No, because the Moonsound isn't 50x faster or better than MSX-audio. Its better, but within the limits

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whould you've said the same 12 years ago?

Not sure. If I was able to get something much faster or better to a competitive price I would probably like it. I think thats sortof what drives the speccy scene in that direction.

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Is it ridiculous to plug a $900 videocard into a $300 PC just to play the latest games at 1600x1200? Should one say: "in such a cheap PC, there should only be a cheap videocard, otherwise get a faster PC" ?

Actually that is close to ridiculous but if fast 3d is the only thing you need I guess its good.

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One of the things that defined the MSX for me was that there were all kinda expansions one could gradually buy.

I kindof agree, but to me its more about doing the best you can from an old system, whether its music, gfx, demos, or multitasking os'es. I've been tempted to port or implement a realtime os to MSX myself (I've been working with developing small OSes for many years).

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offtopic it may be, but not less interesting

It is indeed interesting. And MSX means different things to different people. No thoughts or feelings about it is wrong.

@Wolf: That's really an interesting discussion It's not easy to define the limits. As an example IMHO the SuperCPU for the C64 is crap, as it replaces the complete system core and uses the remaining hardware only as a terminal - there is nothing interesting with it at all, as it is a complete different computer now. It's like having an Amiga with bad graphics - so why should I have a C64 with a SuperCPU?
Regarding SymbOS: The goal was to be able to run it on original 1985 hardware without any extensions, and so it's still retro somehow IMHO
Anyway I have nothing against additional ram and any other cool add-ons. Regarding your comparison with the GFX9000: This card does NOT have any additional internal memory for storing and playing movies without the need of MSX CPU power

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define 'big' .. I think we could bear some..

An usual 3MB MP3 would need about 30seconds or so I guess. For playing MP3 from a playlist this won't be so nice.

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Here the same question. Was mich schon lange interessiert, ist mit was für einem Aufwand wäre es möglich eine eigenen MP3 Decoder in einem FPGA, bzw PLD zu programmieren. Was wäre geeigneter PLD, oder FPGA (kenne leider den Unterschied nicht)? Wäre sicherlich eine schöne VHDL Übung. Here an answer. Vergiss es. Schon das Programmieren eines DSP (Der MAS ist z.B. auch nur ein DSP mit festem Programm) ist schon schwer genug. Und dann willst Du Dir erst noch einen DSP selbst bauen?

Short translation:
Q: Is it possible to develop an MP3 encoder in FPGA/PLD? What would be better, PLD/FPGA (don't know the difference)?
A: Just forget it, too difficult...

Anybody wanting for "MSX cotrolled iPOD" or MP3 player with own RAM I suggest using regular CD-drive. It is cheap to get, it is standard solution, you get same result, you don't need to do PC/Mac/Other -> MSX -> player memory and you get even better sound quality than with MP3. (BTW this idea was already used in Knightmare Gold.)

If we talk about MP3 sound card I very much like these current plans.

This forum indeed is rapidly growing, there is a lot to read (reading is not my strong point unfortunately)... I don't think it is a problem to make the 'buffer almost empty' flag configurable, we just need some free bits in the registers. The registers which can be programmed in the MP3 cartridge are just the registers of the VS1011, some bits which are not used by the VS1011 will be used for these settings instead. I guess it would be nice that also these bits could be read back.

@Dvik: I see your point about the delay in effects. Indeed is it hard to generate effects with this data. There will be a delay, unless you decide to give only small packages of data... If you don't fill the buffer completely, the player does not have more data in the buffer than you sent to it, so there cannot be more delay. If you set the 'almost empty' flag to 512 and you give only 3*256 bytes when this bit is set, you know there is about 5*256 bytes in the FIFO. The physical size of 14*256 is not a problem, there is 9*256 bytes unused and the player ignores it.

@Wolf: If you want to connect the VS1011 to a FPGA, i have seen the timing of the VS1011 is quite sensitive, not the SPI itself but you have to be careful with writing and reading registers while playing music.

About the delay after sending data... The AtMega starts sending the data immediately to the VS1011, but the VS1011 will wait until it receives a complete frame. A frame in a MP3 file starts with FF 8X, then followed by some flags (bitrate, joint stereo etc.) then the frame. There will be some milliseconds delay.

I will try it as a cartridge in the OCM and Turbo-R this friday.

I didn't mean 'connect to an OCM', but 'implement as FPGA in the OCM', VS1011 emulator so to say..

We also need a housing / case for the PCB. Anyone knows were we can get it?
Don't want to destroy my Konami's

Sunrise might have some (cases used for the Moonsound, G9k, CF etc.) .. dunno if they wish to sell tho.

Also, games are being released on new cartridges in Spain by Matra, iirc they make new cart.boxes, perhaps ask there?

I would also accept a naked one, if this would increase the delivery speed

Why not make an ATI Radeon X1700 with an MSX cartridge port? Ow, sorry, off topic

Any news here?

Not yet.

We can now also update the firmware of the ATMEL CPU with the MSX.
We hope to get the PCB's in two weeks. Then it takes another week to make them.

The only problem we got is the case. But i think we don't care if there's none.

asked Matra already? or Sunrise?