- Joined
- Apr 6, 2001
- Posts
- 3,890
I believe you're not getting the point of doing it with FPGAs. You use FPGA to mimic how the original circuit logic works (along with the ICs, of course) to make it behave exactly the same as the original board.
If you're doing things properly (not slamming an emulator on a chip just to run games) there's absolutely no issue in having two separate boards.
Like, really, none. More encumbrance since the B-Board has to fit onto the original A-Board, but that's really it.
There are already console FPGAs which do this: use an FPGA to emulate the original hardware with a slot for the original cartridges.
Making two separate boards would be definitely less efficient than an all-in-one solution, no doubt about that, the question is how much we're talking here.
Since I'm not an expert on the matter (and you neither are), I'd let neoSD speak on this one since, you know, it's part of their job.
Except for the cost of manufacturing two seperate boards in a form factor that works with original hardware which makes zero sense from a cost standpoint.