PC Vector generator card... (and ESB update)

Yeah, I'm still working on this, but now I've found *THE* chip to use.
:-)

I've decided to use the ADSP2181. (It's a DSP) Turns out it's REALLY
cool for this application.

Basically the DSP sits more-or-less directly on the ISA bus connected
through the "Internal DMA" port. This allows the PC to get at the 80K
bytes of data/program memory in the DSP. The PC can boot-strap the
DSP's program memory, plus load the data memory (with vector data). The
DSP is free to run its internal program (draw vectors) completely
asynchronously from the PC's access to the DSP RAM.

The DSP has a second external bus that connects to an EPROM (for local
vector "shape" storage if the internal RAM isn't enough, or program
bootstrapping) and two high-speed serial ports for connection to D/A's.
There's a bunch of dedicated parallel I/O pins and an I/O bus for
mapping in some color latches and whatnot.

The 2181 is about 33MIPs with a 16.67MHz crystal, so it's total
processing power overkill for a vector generator. Lots of "oomph" left
for splines and complex stuff. ;-)

So anyway-- not much game content here, but I was excited about it so I
had to talk it up. *grin*

-Clay

P.S. The new ESB-kit design is going well. I've got a 27C010 and a
27C512 on a single daughtercard with two PALs that eliminates all the
rest of the EPROMs on the CPU board. (No need for bending pins out of
the EPROMs and running wires.) The card just plugs into the 6809 socket
like the Sega Multigame does in the Z-80 socket. There's also a spot for
a Dallas battery-backed SRAM instead of those finicky 2212 NOVRAMs.

I could probably use a single 27C020, but the logic gets more comples
and I've got hundred of 27C010's and 27C512's that need something to be
used in. ;-)

Clayton N. Cowgill Engineering Manager
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Received on Mon Mar 23 14:02:29 1998