NES Overclocking Experimentation

[Epicenter]

For anyone who cares, the NES is stable at 2.3 MHz, over the standard speed of 1.79 MHz. I'm going to push it further soon, past 2.5/2.7, and hopefully up to 4.0 MHz. This will completely obliterate lag in ANY game. Per EdOscuro's specifications for his machine, his will be cooled with a Peltier thermoelectric cooler. It has a hot and a cold side, the hot side cooled by a fan and heatsink, and the cold side keeping the CPU around -30c, or colder. This will give plenty of headroom for the overclocking. I've also cut a hole in the top of the case for ventilation, though it looks nice also, if you ask me. :) The inside of the case will be lit by 3 ultra-bright blue LEDs pointed in different directions. The clock speed will be selectable via switch mounted under the window.

Here's some concept art. ;)
http://www.epicgaming.net/bull/nes_diagram.png

[Ed Oscuro]

This thing will be more powerful than a SNES, essentially, minus the 16 bit registers and RAM, as Epicenter said, and of course without those extraneous bits like Mode 7 and the Sony sound. The base processor, however...will be faster than a SNES's.

Interesting note: Nintendo thought about making the SNES compatible with NES games; it seems that when that didn't pan out they kept the CPU. Thanks to Epicenter for clueing me in on the fact that the SNES has the same processor as the NES (modified) :D

[Ze_ro]

Wow... this thing is like the Honda Civic of 80's consoles. The LED's are total ricer fare :P

I wonder if you could actually hack a 65C816 into a NES...

--Zero

[Bratwurst]

I hope condensation won't be an issue with that Peltier. Also, with that hole in the top wouldn't the cartridge (and loading bay itself) be in the way of the air flow? I'd like to see everything fit in there personally, not saying it couldn't be done of course.. :P

[Epicenter]

The peltier is well sealed so condensation should not be a problem. The peltier is all that needs cooling, and as we all know, heat rises. So, It helps a lot.

[Ed Oscuro]

I wonder if you could actually hack a 65C816 into a NES..

This is the first time I've seen that processor mentioned. Looks like it has hardware emulation of the NES chip and can run up to 20MHz...that would be an interesting hack!

http://www.atarihq.com/danb/6502.shtml < link

[Ed Oscuro]

Ooh, 16 MBytes addressing range:

http://www.westerndesigncenter.com/ch816S.html

[spoon]

I can't wait to see how these work out. I am very interested in getting an overclocked console from epiccenter. The pics aren't working for me though.

[Ze_ro]

This is the first time I've seen that processor mentioned.

The 65C816 is what's in the SNES... they also used it in the SuperCPU addon for the C-64.

--Zero