It runs Doom: Now directly in hardware (on FPGA)

[Redneckerz]

Introduction:

Doom has been run on everything from a game console to an digital camera. But what about FPGA's?

 

EDIT: It-Runs-Doom coverage.

 

One project of this is Leo1313's DOOM_FPGA that accelerates Doom in hardware through an Zynq Ultrascale SoC. Interesting progress, find the Github here.

 

But that's not what this thread is about. What if we not just accelerate Doom on an FPGA, but implement the entire logic of the game in hardware?

 

That's what Sylvain Lefebvre did with his DOOM-Chip. Implementing the Doom algorithm in hardware on a Altera Cyclone V+ with SDRAM. No CPU is used in the process! See the Twitter thread below for a video of how it works, and the follow up explanation (in a spoiler, because it is rather lengthy) on how this was achieved, or (alternatively) read this handy Threader page where the entire Twitter thread is presented in one go.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Redneckerz
Added Threader link.

[Redneckerz]

Update:

This has recieved recognition at Tweakers.net, one of Dutch's largest computer related websites.

 

Again - No CPU is used here. Its directly ported to an HDL, no opcodes, no instruction counters.

 

Ultra nerdy stuff, but Doom definitely runs on everything - Even on things without a processor.