RE: Z80 In Circuit Emulation

Craig Yarborough did something like that but only prototyped one for
himself.

http://bitslicer.tripod.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
> [mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org] On Behalf Of James R. Twine
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 10:54 PM
> To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
> Subject: RE: VECTOR: Z80 In Circuit Emulation
>
> Funny... I was reading a bit more about FPGAs and VHDL
> and was wondering if it would be possible to take advantage
> of existing CPU cores (a'la OpenCores) and build a system
> that can emulate a CPU in hardware, as well as give you
> additional control over the system and/or features to aid
> troubleshooting. Kinda like a Fluke 9010 on steroids, but
> with just about any CPU that you could ever need.
>
> I figured that having control of the emulated CPU would
> give you the ability to do things that the 9010 could not,
> such as pause/resume, watchdog handling (i.e. while paused,
> keep writing to memory location xyz), patch RAM, ROM or I/Os
> by redirecting read requests, real-time register and/or
> memory viewer and dumper.
>
> You could even read video memory and render it in some way
> so that you can "see" a board running without a monitor handy.
>
> Of course, you could also implement better memory
> diagnostics and ROM checksumming/hashing.
>
> Just the ability to redirect read requests would be great
> -- something like being able to verify bad ROMs just by
> loading the ROM files into the host's memory and intercepting
> its address range. You would not have to pull a possibly bad
> ROM and burn a replacement to confirm diagnosis. By handling
> reads and writes to certain memory areas, you could confirm a
> bad RAM before breaking out the soldering iron.
>
> I see a few FPGA boards that have on-board USB
> connectivity and enough (5v TTL-compatible) I/Os on them --
> could they be used for something like this?
>
> Of course, I know so little about FPGAs that I am not sure
> if this would even be possible, and if it were, I barely know
> enough VHDL to implement a SR Flip-Flop. But it would be a
> really nice thing to have around, I would think...
>
> Anyway - getting late...
>
> Peace!
>
> -=- James R. Twine, (spam@jrtwine.com)
> http://www.jrtwine.com
> http://www.deletefxpfiles.com
> http://www.checkfavorites.com
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org [mailto:owner-
> > vectorlist@vectorlist.org] On Behalf Of Mark Jenison
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 7:24 PM
> > To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
> > Subject: VECTOR: Z80 In Circuit Emulation
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I've been thinking about creating a setup similar to this:
> >
> > http://gls1electronics.com/galaga/index.htm
> >
> > but for debugging Sega XY boards.
> >
> > Most Z80 in circuit emulators (ICE) are $$$, but I found this one
> > which looks reasonably priced:
> >
> > http://tauntek.com/Z80-In-Circuit-Emulator.htm
> >
> > I'd need to write my own custom software/GUI to simplify testing.
> >
> > Anyone else try a set up like this or have any
> advice/opinions about
> > in circuit emulators?
> >
> > --
> > Mark Jenison
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
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> > ** Please direct other questions, comments, or problems to
> > chris@westnet.com
>
>
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Received on Thu Feb 5 07:40:51 2009