FX68K: an open source 68000 cycle accurate FPGA core #VintageComputing #FPGA #Gaming

Via the Atari forums, ijor (Jorge Cwik) has released a Motorola 68000 cycle exact compatible FPGA core. At least in theory, it should be impossible to distinguish functionally from a real hardware 68K processor.

On Cyclone families, it uses just over 5,100 LEs and about 5KB internal ram, reaching a max effective clock frequency close to 40MHz. Some optimizations are still possible to implement and increase the performance.

The core is fully synchronous. Considerable effort was made to avoid any asynchronous logic. Written in SystemVerilog.

SystemVerilog sources: http://fx68k.fxatari.com/fx68k-Source.zip, FX68K is released under the GPL open source license.

For vintage computing fans, the Motorola 68000 (68K) was among the first 16 bit microprocessors to go mass market. It was used in the Atari ST, Amiga, Mac Classic, and more.

Check out twitter, the atari forums, and the video below for more info.