We have already launched several mappers: UNROM, AROM, MMC1, MMC3. You can watch this video (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QVSsNDGRLM), showing the launch a Bucky O'Hare game (currently a bug with the mountains has already been fixed). Features:
1. 2 megabytes of RAM for the PRG.
2. 2 megabytes of RAM for the CHR.
3. Cyclone II FPGA as mapper and logic.
4. STM32 Cortex-M3 controller as a co-processor for memory card, SRAM, and FPGA (can be used from 6502 side).
5. 32 kilobytes of battery-backed WSRAM (as 4 pages of 8 KBytes).
6. USB connector, which can be used to communicate with the computer.
7. Support SD/MMC memory cards up to 32GB.
8. You can create your own mapper, and game for it!
And much more.
Yes, it's ROMless. All you need is stored on the memory card. There are special directory in which files are written which generate FPGA configuration for mapper function. Mapper number taken from the iNES header. To support the new mapper just add new file in that folder. The boot menu handled by coprocessor, so it is sorted and quite fast. Downloading a MMC3 game is about 3 seconds (2x 256K + 150K for FPGA config).
The device is still in development for the programming part, but shows its performance.
Parece que dentro de poco se va a poner fin al monopolio de los flashcarts de NES