PC Vector-generator card

Just an FYI (maybe Zonn cares, otherwise I'll just get this into the
archive in case anyone needs it later on).

I worked on a design for some binary rate multipliers over the weekend. It
looks like all four of the 7497 BRM's from Asteroids/Deluxe/OmegaRace, etc.
fit in a single Lattice 2032 CPLD. (I did the design in Scenario.)

I have a feeling that a 2032 probably costs more than the 4 7497's (well,
maybe not-- Jameco wants $2 a pop for those), but this will re-target to
lots of other programmable logic too. There's tons of gates left in the
2032 at this point-- although pincount is getting a little low. If I go to
the 2064 (same basic guts as the 2032, just an 84 pin package instead of 44
pins. 70 I/O's vs. 35) I could probably fit all the counters and most of
the rest of the Vector Generator in there too.

Heh... Looks like these Binary Rate Multipliers will be good out to about
135MHz. Kinda overkill compared to the 3MHz clock that Atari used, but
hey, speed is good. :-)

-Clay

Clayton N. Cowgill Engineering Manager
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Received on Tue Dec 9 11:07:42 1997