Sipeed has revealed its FPGA retro gaming platform, Tang Console.
Billed as an expandable and versatile rival to the MiSTer FPGA project, Tang Console starts at just $69 for the 60K version (the 138K one is $99) and, at 65x56mm, it's roughly half the size of a MiSTer.
Supported consoles include NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Mega Drive / Genesis and Amiga, and the platform will be able to run community-made FPGA cores.
Sipeed is clearly aiming this at the retro gaming community, but the company stresses that its small size and low cost mean it can be used for other non-gaming projects, too.
The company is also offering free units to FPGA developers who are interested in creating content for the device.
[source x.com]
Comments 8
An interesting project. Curious to see where it goes from here.
I'm a fan of the Sipeed folks. I've chatted with them a few times on some projects and they've always come across as down to Earth people who support the indie side. That said, they are effectively a marketing arm of GOWIN, which is fine, but it's no Altera (Intel) or Xilinx.
I'm not sure this will be able to meet where the Mister or MisterPi is simply due to the FPGA on board having a rather paltry fabric speed. I've never been able to achieve the switching speeds their speed classes claim, and I'm unsure if that's due to GOWINs awful router or if the chip itself just can't do it. I know I'm not the only one either, and I've met several others in the same boat. I see that as a big hurdle to getting anything beyond the SNES running at parity.
I'm sure Sipeed wants some of QMTech's Mister pie, but I'll need to see how the community adopts it (if they do at all).
Worth mentioning that the NEStang and SNEEtang cores for GOW1N tang FPGAs have existed for a while.
This is really nice and hopefully a sign that they will make bigger boards available for further interactions that could compete with Mister Pi.
The Gowin IDE isn't bad either, free version and Sipeed provide an easy license (used to have to sign up manually).
I've been watching YouTube Shorts from a guy who has been building cores for this series of FPGA. I believe Atari ST core is also available.
Ok, so, for someone who doesn't have a scooby about this sort of thing, how does it work? I use anbernic stuff & have a retroid pocket 5, so I understand emulators, Retroarch, roms etc but how do these kinds of thing work exactly?
Damian, do you like tang? It's what the astronauts have been drinking for 60 years.
@CopyX1982 if you're asking how FPGAs work, they're chips that can change their internal configurations based on the specific cores to replicate old game consoles on an electrical level. Essentially, if the core is properly done, the end result is basically a one-chip version of a game console that would function the same way the console would. This can lead to higher accuracy with lower overhead, but also lacks some of the convenience features you get with software emulation.
IF it runs Neo geo too I'm in
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