MiSTer IO board v5.5 added a USB jack that is used as a direct serial link to the FPGA core, for ultra low-latency (32ns) inputs, to be used for things like controllers, MIDI, etc. ElectronAsh & rattboi are already working on a controller add-on board with DB15 (Neo Geo MVS/AES/CD, and Arcade), DB9 (Genesis, Atari, etc), & RJ45 (MC Cthulhu standard) inputs. RJ45 dongles could be made for any controller under the sun as long as code is added to support them. This would bypass the need to use USB controller adapters (which all add some lag) to plug in native controllers. The new controller board could be used with pre-v5.5 IO boards as well, by just adding a cable.
The MiSTer IO board already features zero-latency analog video output (RGB, RGBS, Component, etc, etc), so near-latency-free controller inputs would really sweeten the deal.
The New USB 3.0 port is: NOT actually using the USB 3.0 (or any USB) protocol in any way, just the physical connector. All it really does is break out 6 of the last few IO pins from the FPGA, via the “Arduino” style header. (plus Ground, 3V3 and 5V.) So, it can be used for things like direct serial connection from the cores (with a TTL to USB serial, or TTL to RS232 adapter), or the low-latency controller stuff for JAMMA, standard console joypads / joysticks, spinners, trackballs or whatever. And MIDI, and there should be enough pins to handle both MIDI and the joypad stuff, and possibly serial at a push. For the joystick and arcade stuff, you can just use shift registers to shift in tons of IO, and read from ADCs for paddles etc.
-ElectronAsh
DE10-Nano Kit
#Mister, #Mist, #controller, #board