FPGA Project Recreates 3dfx Voodoo Graphics

As first reported by nand2mario via Hacker News, the developer has built zSST, which is a SystemVerilog-based implementation of the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics (SST-1) GPU. When paired with the z486 CPU and supporting PC hardware, the project forms the z486 XL, a DOS PC running on a Xilinx KV260 board.

The zSST implementation focuses on recreating the fixed-function pipeline of the original Voodoo card, which utilized two ASICs: the texture mapping unit (TREX) and the Frame Buffer Interface (FBI). The project supports central features including mipmapping, texture filtering, fog, alpha and depth tests, and blending. While the original hardware operated at a 50 MHz graphics clock, the z486 XL runs the CPU and renderer at 100 MHz.

Nand2mario utilized several references to build the system, including the Glide source released by 3dfx in 1999 before NVIDIA acquired its graphics assets in December 2000. Other resources included the SST-1 specification, 86Box, MAME Voodoo work, and Glide traces and screenshots provided by SpinalVoodoo.

The developer noted that the Xilinx KV260 board was required for the project due to its DDR bandwidth, on-chip memory, and DSP blocks, as the DE10-Nano lacked sufficient room for the graphics addition. Currently, hardware testing is concentrated on the game Tomb Raider, which runs using its original 3dfx renderer.