Building a Cartridge from Scratch

[tepples]

1 - You amercian have an easy acess to many things us european doesn't have unless we pay a lot more

I'd wait for Edge Hypermatter to fill in the "Location:" field in his profile.

[kyuusaku]

1 - You amercian have an easy acess to many things us european doesn't have unless we pay a lot more, so stop flaunting the low price available in america, because this tend to be annoying after a while.

I've bought most of my CPLDs from China on eBay for reasonable prices using PayPal with my bank account, there's no reason why a European couldn't do the same!

2 - Need for over 3 of each different VCC and GND pin, and sometimes (not always trough) with funky voltage like 3.3V is not what I call a standard power supply. Not mentionning all CPLDs are annoying pseudo-modern SMD packages, wich I hate like hell.

CPLD generally need two voltages, a supply voltage and a I/O reference voltage. The chip I suggested uses +5V for both and is 100% NES compatible! It also comes in a PLCC package so you can solder a through-hole socket! What more could you want? GAL are so much harder to use, I know.

[Edge Hypermatter]

Do you think it would be possible to use the code from FunkyFlash's website on the XC9572? If not, is there any code I can use? I'm not really capable of making my own or learning how to code in the short time before school gets out.

[kyuusaku]

Schematics from FunkyFlash can be directly applied to XC9572 if you create your own constraints file using FunkyFlash's names for pins. I would advise against this though because it will take more experience to do than just starting from scratch. If you need help with the actual mapper logic, then you should turn to FunkyFlash, but implement it yourself. Some of FunkyFlash's mappers cannot be used directly on a XC9572 even though they should; they tend to use more resources than they need to. For example I think MMC2 can fit into a XC9572 but FunkyFlash's will only barely fit into a XC95108 due to the use of larger than necessary registers and some logic which doesn't translate efficiently to CPLD architecture.

Please understand that while CPLD are relatively straight forward to use, it will take a while for those new to programmable logic to get caught up to speed. If I were starting over again, I would first get a PowerPak and start designing with that since building your device is 95% of the battle!

[Edge Hypermatter]

Have to build it. No getting around it. So, just to be sure, the final parts list should be:

1x XC9572 CPLD (U1)
2x 62256 32kBit Static RAM (U2, U5)
2x 29C040 4MBit Flash Memory (U3, U4)
1x DS1210 Non Volatile Controller (U6)
1x FT2232C USB Interface IC (U7)
1x 93C46 Serial EEPROM (U8)
1x 10K ohm Resistor (R1)
1x 2.2K ohm Resistor (R2)
1x 470 ohm Resistor (R3)
2x 27 ohm Resistor (R4, R5)
1x 1.5K ohm Resistor (R6)
1x 220pF capacitor (C1)
2x 27pF capacitor (C2, C3)
11x 0.1uF capacitor (C4, C7, C8, C10-C17)
1x 33nF capacitor (C5)
7x 0.01uF capacitor (C6, C18-23)
1x 10uF electrolytic capacitor (C9)
2x 100uF electrolytic capacitor (C24, C25)
1x 6MHz Crystal (Y1)

Correct?

I'll have no trouble getting the basic electronic parts (capacitors, resistors, maybe even that crystal). The chips, however, I may have to buy...

[kyuusaku]

Whoa whoa whoa, I wouldn't build FunkyFlash especially since it's not finished. I thought you just wanted to use the mapper logic. If you don't mind using socketted ROMs (which you must program with a programmer every time) I think you shouldn't try to use FunkyFlashes PC interface, just keep it to a reconfigurable static cart.