Creating VGA Graphics and Animations with 4000 Logic Gates in Tiny Tapeout 8 Competition
By
a1k0n
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Summary
The article describes the author's participation in the Tiny Tapeout 8 demo competition, where they submitted three ASIC designs using only 4000 logic gates without traditional CPU or memory. The designs include a VGA donut, a C64/Amiga-style intro with starfield, 3D checkerboard, and scrolling text, and a Nyan cat animation. The article details the technical challenges of creating complex visual effects within severe hardware constraints, including implementing trigonometric functions, color mixing, and animation using pure silicon logic gates.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledwhere you submit a 'tiny' ASIC design (room for about 4000 logic gates) that outputs 2-bit RGB to a VGA port and 1-bit audio to a speaker
The intro features a background starfield, a panning 3D checkerboard with colorful tiles, and wavy scrolling text
I submitted two other entries in the Tiny Tapeout 8 demo competition
One was an old school C64/Amiga intro type of thing, and the other was a nyan cat
No CPU, No Memory, Just 4k Gates
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