Ant64 System Overview

A federation of specialised subsystems — each focused, each deterministic, all connected.

SG2002 / SG2000 SoC — 256 / 512MB SiP DDR3

The main application processor is a dual-core RISC-V SoC. The two cores have deliberately different roles:

Big Core — C906 @ 1GHz (Bare metal · No OS)

Music Workstation App (C++)
    |
    +--> Dear ImGui  -->  FireStorm renders all pixels
    +--> Patch management / Sequencer UI
    +--> QSPI --> FireStorm (control plane)
    +--> MIPI x4 x2 --> FireStorm (future data plane)
    +--> SPI master --> DeMon (slave)

Little Core — C906 @ 700MHz (AntOS)

AntOS kernel
    |
    +--> Luau scripting · DBFS · Shell
    +--> Gossip P2P · TCP/IP networking
    +--> Debug server & client (TCP)
    +--> MIDI routing · File management
    +--> Hardware Mailbox IPC <--> Big Core
    +--> Hi-speed UART <--> DeMon + Pulse

FireStorm FPGA

GoWin 138k · ~$26/chip · 22nm (GoWin 60k on Ant64S)

The FPGA is not a peripheral — it is a co-processor fabric containing four dedicated engines:

FireStorm Execution Engine

Audio DSP — 128+ Voices (Fixed-point only)

• Reverb · Delay · Chorus / Flanger · Distortion / EQ
• WM8958 / WM8960 codec — directly driven from FPGA
• GoWin 7 series (11nm) upgrade path — voice count scales, same architecture

2D Rasterizer (ImGui draw list backend)

Big Core  -->  draw list (no pixels)  -->  FireStorm Rasterizer
                                                   |
                                    Triangle setup + scanline fill
                                    Gouraud colour interpolation
                                    Font atlas in BRAM
                                    RGB12 framebuffer (138k)
                                    HDMI / VGA timing generator

The CPU never touches pixels — all rendering is offloaded to FireStorm.

Memory System — 3 Buses · Zero Contention

DeMon — RP2350B (System Supervisor)

DeMon is the glue — it boots, watches, bridges, and debugs everything else.

• JTAG → SG2000 + FireStorm (programming & debug)
• QSPI → FireStorm
• SPI slave ← SG2000
• Hi-speed UART ↔ SG2000
• SPI master → Pulse
• Boot sequencing · Watchdog · Debug proxy
• WiFi / BT via ESP32-C5 · LoRa optional
• RTC — MCP74910
• 8MB PSRAM
• USB host — keyboard, mouse

Pulse — RP2350B (Audio · MIDI · Control)

Pulse is the hands-on interface — every knob, dial, and MIDI socket lives here.

• MIDI — DIN In/Out/Thru (Ant64C) + USB MIDI host + USB MIDI device + MPE support
• 8× jog dials with integrated push buttons + RGB LEDs
• Joypads · Audio sequencer
• QSPI → FireStorm (control)
• 4-line PIO → FireStorm (fast data transfer)
• Hi-speed UART ↔ SG2000
• SPI slave ← DeMon
• SAM speech synthesizer
• 4× 3.5mm trigger / CV inputs (Kick · Snare · Sync · Foot)

Outputs

Audio

Video

Network & Connectivity

Storage & I/O

• 256GB internal SD
• Cartridge port (30-pin)
• USB keyboard / mouse
• 4× 3.5mm trigger / CV inputs

Interconnects

Software Stack

+--------------------------------------------------+
|  Music Workstation App  (C++ / Dear ImGui)       |
|  DX7 .syx import · Wavetable upload              |
|  Patch browser · Gossip patch sharing            |
+--------------------------------------------------+
|  AntOS  ·  Luau scripting  ·  DBFS               |
|  TCP/IP debug server / client                    |
+--------------------------------------------------+
|  FireStorm EE  ·  Audio DSP  ·  2D Rasterizer    |
+--------------------------------------------------+
|  DeMon (supervisor)  ·  Pulse (MIDI/control)     |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Model Comparison