Hi, fellow VB hardware hackers. I just learned about a line of products that have very intriguing possibilities in the creation of new VB-related hardware, such as advanced flash carts and even peripherals added to the VB itself.

It’s basically an upgraded form of the PAL/GAL “glue-logic” devices that have been around for decades, but with the addition of mixed-signal (analog+digital) components like comparators and timers, and all in a very tiny form factor.

In case you’re unfamiliar with PALs/GALs, they’re basically chips that can be reprogrammed to act as custom digital logic circuits. They’re great for compacting a bunch of large, power-hungry, standard chips into one or two small, efficient ones.

The new chips are called GreenPaks. Rather than learning some esoteric programming language, you reconfigure them using a fancy GUI CAD program with drag & drop. They’re surface-mount and small enough to fit many of them inside a VB cart or controller, and the best part is: they’re 5V-compatible!

Okay, sorry to geek out on you like that, but I’m just really excited about these things! 😀

Yeah… I’ve been wanting to use those for quite a while (the GreenPAK4 recently came out… the others have been out for a while). Like you, I was REALLY excited about them when I saw them, but I STILL haven’t come up with a good use (I’ve tried to find a use for them at work so I could get paid to play with them too 😉 ).

I’ve put them in the “solution without a problem” bin for me… they’re probably useful for something, but nothing has hit me yet. The best thing I’ve come up with is for making a Sega Master System 3D glasses circuit: http://www.smspower.org/forums/14635-SegaCardFor3DGlassesCircuit . Have you thought of any good uses?

I like that they can run at 5V, though I really wish they could do level translation. If they could be a level translator, and perform all those cool functions, I’d have a lot of uses (it’s not clear from the datasheet, but the inputs may be 5V tolerant when run at lower voltages). The internal oscillator is also a very nice feature (one of my favorite features of the small Lattice FPGAs). And though the parts are cheap, I don’t like that they’re OTP. I’m sure I’d go through a bunch trying to get it just right.

I have been tempted to order one of their dev kits to play around with since they’re only ~$60, but figured I’d wait for a project that needed one, rather than just picking up yet another toy that I don’t need. 😉

DogP

Other than half-formed “pie-in-the-sky” ideas for add-on hardware, the only real idea I had for them is as address decoders to allow lots of small, cheap SRAMs and a small flash boot-loader to coexist on the ROM bus, to allow downloading code through the link port and shorter development cycles.

I didn’t even look through the datasheet enough yet to know they were OTP. That’s kind of a bummer, but if you prototype what you’re doing with discrete logic, it shouldn’t be too hard to convert stuff to greenpaks on the first try (after you study their quirks). I wonder if anyone has simulation software/SPICE models for them, yet.

I realize this is sort of unrelated, however I often see people wanting the 3D glasses for the Master System and it doesn’t seem like people are aware that there are other ways to view it in 3D. Since it is using field sequential 3D you can just use the video synchronization box that comes with this set.

It will work the same on a CRT as watching field sequential DVDs or VHS tapes. The 3D Famicom games (not NES) should work as well, however I haven’t tried it my self. Frankly, emulating them on a Dreamcast does work too as long as you are using composite video, again I am pretty sure you could emulate the 3D Famicom games this way too, as for other systems I am unsure.

In the end though, I am pretty sure this is known and making a Sega Master System 3D glasses circuit would likely be for fun or ease of use. I just thought I would point this out in-case someone wasn’t aware. Also, if the video synchronization box cannot be obtained on it’s own I would highly recommend the IMAX set in the link over the low budget “horror” set that is out there.

DogP wrote:
I like that they can run at 5V, though I really wish they could do level translation. If they could be a level translator, and perform all those cool functions, I’d have a lot of uses (it’s not clear from the datasheet, but the inputs may be 5V tolerant when run at lower voltages).

BTW, it seems that they’re listening. 🙂 I saw a few months ago that they released their “Dual Supply GreenPAK”. I ordered the kit and played around with it… it’s really cool! The software and dev board are really great to work with. The one thing I didn’t realize is how TINY the chips are. I mean… they’re workable, but certainly not prototyping friendly (20 “pins” in about the size of a 1206 resistor).

I haven’t designed this into anything yet, but definitely plan to give them a try as at least just a cheap tiny level shifter on a future project.

DogP wrote:
And though the parts are cheap, I don’t like that they’re OTP. I’m sure I’d go through a bunch trying to get it just right.

I didn’t catch this the first time I read the datasheet, but while the chips are OTP, they do actually let you configure the chips without burning the NVM… so you can test your circuit in the dev board before burning.

DogP

Oooh, can’t wait to see what you come up with!