Programming board (red) connected to an old revision of the SIMRETRO board (green)

SIMRETRO is a board designed by Angel Díaz under the supervision of Jesús Arias for the hardware emulation of old 8-bit computers and / or arcade machines. It requires an additional board, PRGICE, for its programming, but then it can run as an standalone computer.

Features:

• ICE40HX4K FPGA with 7680 logic cells and 16KB RAM
• External SRAM with 128KB and 16-bit busses
• Flash SPI for FPGA configuration and storage
• 16 MHz crystal oscillator
• VGA interface with 4 bit DACs (16 levels for each color component, or 4096 colors)
• PS2 keyboard interface
• Atari style joystick interface. It can also drive a NES game controller
• 1-bit, PWM capable, audio output with integrated amplifier
• SD card connector
• Micro-USB connector for power input.
  

Hardware Sources (rev. 2.2):

• Schematic: SIMRETRO2_schematic.pdf
• Layout:
• Top side:  SIMRETRO2_layout_TOP.pdf
• Bottom side: SIMRETRO2_layout_BOTTOM.pdf
• Gerber files: SIMRETRO2_2 - CADCAM.ZIP
• 3D views SIMRETRO2_3D_1.pdf, SIMRETRO2_3D_2.pdf

New in revison 2.2:

• 4 LEDs
• Reset button plus 2 general purpose buttons
• Separate SPI bus for the SD card
• 3-way jumper for power selection in the Joystick connector.
• 512 KB SRAM supported (the old 128KB is also supported)
• Improved clock oscillator

Programming Board: PRGICE

Features:

• USB to serial interface to PC, CDC-ACM compatible
• 32-bit ARM cortex-M0 for FPGA configuration and Flash programming
• Provides a serial interface to the PC after programming
• Can power the 3.3V section of the SIMRETRO board from the USB connector

Hardware Sources:

• Schematic: PRGICE10_schematic.pdf
• Layout:
• Top side:  PRGICE10_layout_TOP.pdf
• Bottom side: PRGICE10_layout_BOTTOM.pdf
• Gerber files: PRGICE10 - CADCAM.ZIP
  
• 3D views PRGICE10_3D.pdf

Firmware for the microcontroller & linux uploader: lpc11loader.tgz folder listing: lpc11loader