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thejayman77 ec82764bef Initial commit: retroDE_ps2 — first-of-its-kind PS2 GS FPGA core (DE25-Nano / Agilex 5)

RTL (GS rasterizer, EE core stub, platform bridge, LPDDR4B path), sim regression
(272 TBs), docs, and tooling. Copyrighted PS2 content (BIOS, game code, GS dumps,
and all dump-derived textures/traces) is excluded via .gitignore and stays local.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-06-29 20:10:50 -04:00

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Source Log — Supplemental Pass

Research pass date: 2026-04-16 Pass author: Claude (second research pass, after Codex)

This log covers sources introduced by the supplemental pass. It does not re-list sources from ../source_log.md; see that file for the Codex pass.

Official Sony manuals

GS User's Manual v6.0 — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. URL: https://usermanual.wiki/Pdf/GSUsersManual.1012076781/html Notes: primary register reference for the Graphics Synthesizer. Authoritative for 0x12000000 privileged block and GS packet-form registers. Confidential in origin.
VU User's Manual (Emotion Engine Vector Operation Unit Guide) — Sony. URL: https://studylib.net/doc/25815876/vuusersmanual.158394566 Notes: primary reference for VU0/VU1 pipeline, register files, memories, micro/macro modes, and VIF coupling. Confidential in origin.

FPGA prior art (adjacent consoles)

MiSTer-devel/PSX_MiSTer — Robert Peip (FPGAzumSpass) URL: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PSX_MiSTer Notes: closest real-world methodology template. Methodology = cycle-accurate software emulator first, RTL second, with emulator as golden model.
PS-FPGA/ps-fpga URL: https://github.com/PS-FPGA/ps-fpga Notes: alternate PSX FPGA project. Useful for comparing module decomposition.
pgate1/PlayStation_on_FPGA URL: https://github.com/pgate1/PlayStation_on_FPGA Notes: smaller-scale PSX FPGA. Reference for minimal scaffold shape.

Architecture studies

Rodrigo Copetti — "PlayStation 2 Architecture: A Practical Analysis" URL: https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/playstation-2/ Notes: high-level pedagogical writeup. Onboarding reading, not a spec.
psdevwiki PS2 section URL: https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps2/ Notes: community-maintained counterpart to ps2tek. Strong on IOP modules, SPU2, peripheral protocols, and hardware revisions.
VPU Thesis — "A Study on the Feasibility of ... VU [on FPGA]" URL: https://gamehacking.org/faqs/VPUThesis.pdf Notes: academic FPGA-feasibility study specifically on the VU. Directly relevant to Codex workstream 4.
Wikipedia — PS2 / Emotion Engine URLs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2_technical_specifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine Notes: orientation only.

Community consensus threads

MiSTer Forum — Advanced cores for MiSTer future FPGA hardware URL: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=4884
MiSTer Forum — What Do You Think Will Happen Once MiSTer Reaches Its Limits? URL: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=2512
Time Extension — MiSTer Pi and next-generation FPGA gaming URL: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/03/the-next-generation-of-fpga-gaming-could-be-just-around-the-corner-thanks-to-mister-pi

Notes: capture the current community baseline. No public PS2 FPGA core exists; consensus view places PS2 beyond current MiSTer-class fabric; only active public effort is a hybrid PCIe-FPGA + host-CPU arrangement.

Search deltas vs Codex pass

Sources Codex covered and this pass does not re-log:

ps2tek, DobieStation From Bits to Pixels wiki, ps2dev, ps2sdk, gsKit, PCSX2, DobieStation, Play-, pcsx2/Memory.cpp.

Sources this pass added that were absent from the Codex log:

Sony GS User's Manual.
Sony VU User's Manual.
PSX_MiSTer, PS-FPGA, PlayStation_on_FPGA (adjacent-console FPGA prior art).
Copetti architecture writeup.
psdevwiki PS2 section.
VPU thesis.
MiSTer community consensus threads on PS2 feasibility.

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