Experiment-S is a recreation

Home computer remakes

A home computer remake is a re-creation or re-implementation of classic home computer hardware, usually using updated technology, such as FPGAs....

 of the old Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 / Mega ST home computer

Home computer

Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

 using fpga technology.
The two main boards being prototyped at the moment are:

Suska-III-C

Suska-III-C is a circuit board intended to be a platform for Atari ST/STE/Mega-ST/Mega-STE/Falcon

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 computer emulation . Central element of the circuit is a Cyclone II FPGA from Altera

Altera

Altera Corporation is a Silicon Valley manufacturer of PLDs . The company offered its first programmable logic device in 1984. PLDs can be reprogrammed during the design cycle as well as in the field to perform multiple functions, and they support a fairly fast design process...

. This Field Programmable Gate Array acts as a complex programmable digital circuit and determines the functionality of the computer. The board includes all relevant plug connectors for the older Atari peripherals (ACSI, keyboard, monitors). Furthermore the hardware supports the programming new operating systems by a Bootstrap Loader as well as replacing the FPGA configuration through the USB interface. Most characteristics of the old Atari machines are already implemented. The following list gives an overview of the functionality of the Suska-III-C:

• Motorola 68000
  Motorola 68000
  The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
  
   compatible CPU.
• Floppy Disk Controller WD1772 compatible, HD-enabled.
• Atari Computer System Interface (ACSI)
• SCSI
  SCSI
  Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
  
   via ACSI interface (with Parity and Initiator Identification).
• DMA
  Direct memory access
  Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
  
   Module.
• 68901 compatible MultiFunction Peripheral (MFP) Circuit.
• 6850 compatible ACIAs.
• Atari keyboard interface.
• ST compatible graphics.
• Blitter
  Bit blit
  Bit BLIT is a computer graphics operation in which several bitmaps are combined into one using a raster operator....
  
   (Bit Block Transfer Processor).
• Monochrome LCD interface (Stacy, STBook).
• Glue logic
  Glue logic
  In electronics, glue logic is the custom logic circuitry used to interface a number of off-the-shelf integrated circuits.This is often achieved using ordinary 7400- or 4000-series components. In more complex cases, programmable logic devices like a CPLD or FPGA might be used...
  
  .
• ST / STE compatible MMU.
• A/D-converter interface (Sound-Option).
• IDE interface.
• SD-Card interface.
• CF-Card interface (via IDE).
• Bootstrap-Loader for OS updates.
• Real-time-clock (RP5C15).
• PS/2
  PS/2 connector
  The PS/2 connector is a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987...
  
   keyboard and mouse.
• Ethernet option.
• USB interface option.

Suska-III-T

Another approach for emulating Atari ST computers is Suska III-T (T = Tiny) . This board (in preparation) pursues a different philosophy. While the Classic board implements nearly all interfaces of the original STs, the tiny version is characterised by its 5 USB and single Ethernet interface, enabling the use of modern peripheral devices. Further characteristics:

• 128MB DDR RAM.
• 32MB Flash PROM.
• 2 Micro SD-Card plugs
• Soundsystem with an audio codec
  Codec
  A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
  
  .
• RTC
  Real-time clock
  A real-time clock is a computer clock that keeps track of the current time. Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, servers and embedded systems, RTCs are present in almost any electronic device which needs to keep accurate time.-Terminology:The term is used to avoid...
  
  .
• Radio chip.
• Connector for a LCD panel.
• Touchpanel ready.
• Extension plug for the FPGA board.