Saturday, January 28, 2012

The SIDboard

I've been working on a new hardware project. I had been successfully intefacing the SID soundchip last year. Now I'm building my own SID synthesizer. I know, there's the HardSID, Catweasel and many such projects on YouTube. However, this is for fun and for learning. This particular board will have the following features:
  • Support for up to 4 SID chips
  • Support for both, the old (6581) and new (8580) SID in all slots.
  • Jumper-selectable filter configuration
  • Serial Interface (including RTS/CTS flow control)
  • Full MIDI interface (IN, THRU and OUT)
  • 3 x 16 character LCD
  • Real Time Clock
  • Extension Port
Schematics:


I've already designed a PCB. I couldn't fit it all on a single PCB so I split it into two boards that will be put on top of each other like a sandwich. This helps to separate digital and analog circuitry and keeps the bus lines short.