Tiny Tapeout 6 Bring-Up Party: A Summary of Project Demonstrations

• 0:00:02 Introduction: The stream begins with a welcome to the Tiny Tapeout 6 bring-up party.
• 0:00:32 Simon Says Game Demonstration (Uri):
  • Uri demonstrates a Simon Says game on Tiny Tapeout 6 using the Commander app.
  • The game involves memory recall and utilizes a three-port P-mod for game interface.
  • The project for TT9 has an improved version with 100 moves, compared to 32 in the current version.
• 0:04:37 Oscillating Bones Demonstration (Uri):
  • Uri showcases "Oscillating Bones," a ring oscillator design with four outputs.
  • Output 3, a frequency divided by 8, is measured at approximately 10.8 MHz, close to the expected 80 MHz original frequency divided by 8.
  • Output 2, frequency divided by 4, is measured at 22.7 MHz.
• 0:10:32 Tiny Tapeout 6 Decapping:
  • High-quality decaps of the chip are shown, revealing the Open Hardware and Caravel logos.
  • The pad frame is from Efabless, the middle chunk is user-submitted designs, and "Oscillating Bones" design is highlighted.
• 0:13:31 Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) Demonstration (Pat):
  • Pat demonstrates an ADC design using an FPGA board connected to the Tiny Tapeout 6 board.
  • The setup allows monitoring of the ADC's output via a serial connection.
  • The demonstration involves adjusting the voltage and observing the ADC's response on an oscilloscope.
• 0:16:56 Charge Pump Test (Uri):
  • Uri requests Pat to test his charge pump design using Pat's setup.
  • The charge pump is designed to double and triple the 1.8V supply voltage, achieving around 5V at the output.
  • The output is divided by 6 for the analog pins.
  • The test involves clocking the charge pump at different frequencies (500 kHz, 1 MHz, 2 MHz) and observing the output voltage.
• 0:23:54 Tiny Shader Demonstration (Leo):
  • Leo presents "Tiny Shader," a design that replicates how modern GPUs work by executing a fragment shader for each pixel.
  • The demonstration showcases different shader programs, including moving sprites and a crosshair.
  • The shaders are uploaded while the screen is black, and each shader executes 10 instructions per pixel.
  • Leo mentions plans to resubmit the design to Tiny Tapeout 10 with improvements like clock gating.
• 0:31:06 Risk-5 CPU Demonstration (Jonathan):
  • Jonathan demonstrates a small CPU based on the Risk-5 architecture, designed for educational purposes.
  • A simple program calculating the Fibonacci sequence is run on the CPU.
  • The rp240 on the demo board emulates the RAM for the CPU.
  • The SPI communication between the CPU and the rp240 is monitored using a logic analyzer.
• 0:37:21 Charge Pump Test Continued (Pat):
  • Pat continues testing Uri's charge pump, ramping up the clock and observing the output voltage.
  • The voltage increases with the clock frequency but starts to diminish around 20 MHz.
• 0:40:07 MicroPython on Tiny QV (Mike):
  • Mike demonstrates running MicroPython on Tiny QV, a second Risk-5 processor design on Tiny Tapeout.
  • Tiny QV is compact, fitting in 2x2 tiles, and utilizes an external flash and PSRAM.
  • Mike has forked the Flasher application to work with Tiny QV.
  • Demonstrations include running "Hello World," calculating digits of pi, and flashing an LED.
• 0:46:28 SD Card on Tiny QV (Mike):
  • Mike demonstrates using an SD card P-mod with Tiny QV, possibly the first use of the side headers on the Tiny Tapeout board.
  • MicroPython's integrated drivers for FAT file systems are utilized to access files on the SD card.
  • Mike demonstrates reading and writing files to the SD card.
• 0:56:34 Analog VGA Design Demonstration (Anton, video):
  • Anton presents "T6 Grab Bag," an analog VGA driver design implementing a true-color 24-bit VGA output.
  • The design uses three R2R digital-to-analog converters (DACs).
  • Anton discusses challenges and improvements, including using pulldown resistors to reduce output impedance.
• 1:00:36 Pong Game Demonstration (Tom):
  • Tom demonstrates a Pong game, highlighting a potential issue with the display cropping.
• 1:04:38 Image Processing Design Demonstration (Diana):
  • Diana showcases a design that performs grayscale conversion and Sobel edge detection on images.
  • An external Raspberry Pi is used to process and send pixel data to the design via SPI.
  • Diana demonstrates the design's ability to display the processed images.
• 1:14:14 Game P-mod Discussion (Pat):
  • Pat discusses a new P-mod designed to support two Nintendo-type (SNES) controllers.
  • The P-mod uses a CH32V03 microcontroller to handle the polling of the controllers and report data to the input side.
• 1:15:31 Closing Remarks: The stream concludes with thanks to participants and sponsors (Efabless) and a look forward to future Tiny Tapeout projects.