$69 FPGA 'Tang Console' Can Double As A Retro Gaming Handheld

Support NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Genesis and Amiga

by Damien McFerran 11:30am

This $69 FPGA Retro Gaming Device Can Double As A Handheld 1 — *Image: @SipeedIO*

Sipeed has revealed its FPGA retro gaming platform, Tang Console.

Billed as an expandable and versatile rival to the MiSTer FPGA project, Tang Console starts at just $69 for the 60K version (the 138K one is $99) and, at 65x56mm, it's roughly half the size of a MiSTer.

Supported consoles include NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Mega Drive / Genesis and Amiga, and the platform will be able to run community-made FPGA cores.

Sipeed is clearly aiming this at the retro gaming community, but the company stresses that its small size and low cost mean it can be used for other non-gaming projects, too.

The company is also offering free units to FPGA developers who are interested in creating content for the device.

[source x.com]

1
RetroGames
11:35am

An interesting project. Curious to see where it goes from here.

2
avcrypt
2:35pm

I'm a fan of the Sipeed folks. I've chatted with them a few times on some projects and they've always come across as down to Earth people who support the indie side. That said, they are effectively a marketing arm of GOWIN, which is fine, but it's no Altera (Intel) or Xilinx.

I'm not sure this will be able to meet where the Mister or MisterPi is simply due to the FPGA on board having a rather paltry fabric speed. I've never been able to achieve the switching speeds their speed classes claim, and I'm unsure if that's due to GOWINs awful router or if the chip itself just can't do it. I know I'm not the only one either, and I've met several others in the same boat. I see that as a big hurdle to getting anything beyond the SNES running at parity.

I'm sure Sipeed wants some of QMTech's Mister pie, but I'll need to see how the community adopts it (if they do at all).

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