Gate Array decapped (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2016/04/18/gate-array-decapped/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=gate-array-decapped)
18 April 2016, 8:30 pmDo you know the Visual6502 (http://visual6502.org/) project? The 6502 CPU was decapped and reverse engineered to retrieve more information about the way it works and get a better emulation. On the page you will also find an emulator, which shows you how the CPU works on the chip level. Well, why speaking about this project? Because it is about getting information by reverse engineering the chip and that’s what happened to the Gate Array aka “Amstrad 40010” and some other chips. Robcfg sent some of them to Sean Riddle (http://www.seanriddle.com) who was kindly enough to decap the chips and provided the photos. The Gate Array is a custom made chip by Amstrad, which provides e.g. clock frequencies or the colour information for the CRTC. With the photos it is possible to do a reverse engineering and hopefully extract a schematic of it. Maybe it is possible to build a replacement in the future, too.
(http://www.octoate.de/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Amstrad-40010-612px-am2_metal-300x294.jpg)
If you want to help or want more information about it, have a look at the thread in the CPCWiki forums (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gate-array-decapped!/msg124586/#msg124586).
© Octoate for The Amstrad CPC news portal (http://www.octoate.de/wp), 2016. | Permalink (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2016/04/18/gate-array-decapped/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=gate-array-decapped) | No comment (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2016/04/18/gate-array-decapped/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=gate-array-decapped#comments) | Add to del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.octoate.de/wp/2016/04/18/gate-array-decapped/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=gate-array-decapped&title=Gate%20Array%20decapped) Post tags: 2016 (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/2016/), amstrad 40007 (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/amstrad-40007/), amstrad 40008 (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/amstrad-40008/), amstrad 40010 (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/amstrad-40010/), gate array (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/gate-array/), hardware (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/hardware/), robcfg (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/robcfg/), Sean Riddle (http://www.octoate.de/wp/tag/sean-riddle/)
(http://cpc-live.com/topsites/button.php?u=Octoate) (http://cpc-live.com/topsites/) Related posts:
- EAGLE library for 8bit hardware (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2014/03/13/eagle-library-for-8bit-hardware-2/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=eagle-library-for-8bit-hardware-2)
- ACID inside (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2012/01/19/acid-inside/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=acid-inside)
- ACID Verilog code release (http://www.octoate.de/wp/2011/04/15/acid-verilog-code-release/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=acid-verilog-code-release)
Source: The Amstrad CPC news portal (http://www.octoate.de/wp)
---
This news item first appeared on Octoate's Blog and was aggregated through RSS for the forum.