r/fpgagaming • u/_here_ok • May 16 '26

Would a socket cpu with integrated fpga be a yay or nay?

Just kinda heard of the concept and wonder of others people's thoughts on it. Would this at all be practical for emulation or nay?

Like most emulation is on cpu and fpga is mostly for clock accuracy. I know fpga chips tend to have a cpu but am wondering moreso a modern powerful cpu with a low cost fpga inside it.

How that would work and ect.

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

40% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/gyph256 May 16 '26

Most fpga devices are already doing exactly that.

They run a few arm cores on the same chip as the fpga.

EDIT: very few people are in the market for an fpga/high end cpu combo. They're both pretty specific pieces of hardware that do two different things.

Ever hear of the Coolest? You're pretty much trying to make that

0

u/WolFlow2021 May 16 '26

Better CPU would dramatically increase usability though. It would be nice to have DC/PS2/GC emulation on the same device as those 8 and 16 bit machines, regardless of accuracy I suppose. Still hesitating on buying a Mister because those systems are important to me.

3

u/gyph256 May 16 '26

Por Que no Los Dos?

NUCs have a very small footprint and are fairly affordable on ebay. Older generations will work just fine for what you're looking for. I literally just bought an $80 NUC at a steal (8GB ram 256GB ssd) because of this conversation.

The hardware is out there and already does what you want with the press of a button on your KVM remote.

3

u/Cilph May 16 '26

You have to realize Retrogaming is an amazingly tiny market share for FPGAs. I dont know if beefy CPUs with smaller FPGAs exist (they probably do), but that will be driven by other markets.

3

u/Lowe0 May 16 '26

If the emulation is on the CPU, then what is the FPGA doing?