Raspberry Pi and an A500 expansion thought experiment

[Zardoz]

guys, it can be done. but it's slow as you would have to use the a500 serial port that is limited to 19200 bps speeds. basicly you set up ppp connection on the rpi you would need a USB2Serial cable and a null modem cable then set up a ppp between them.

might be a youtube on it...

*ADDED*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEonOb5SkEg
http://jmp.no/blog/cheap-overkill-amiga-network-adapter
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67150

[QuikSanz]

Was thinking of something a bit more like Amikit's "Alice". To be able to go back and forth without switching OS.

[psxphill]

Was thinking of something a bit more like Amikit's "Alice". To be able to go back and forth without switching OS.

Run an emulator like Alice on the rPi then. Maybe you could convince amikit to get it ported. Something like Siamese RTG over RS232 is the only way you'd get anywhere near close, good luck getting someone to write that code (if you can track down the Siamese source code then you may stand a chance).

[QuikSanz]

Maybe, in the future some expansion connector on the vampire. Won't hold my breath.

[psxphill]

Maybe, in the future some expansion connector on the vampire. Won't hold my breath.

I think the best you could hope for is Ethernet. I'm surprised nobody has made one for the a500 tbh.

[kolla]

Plipbox already does this on the parallel port, the arduino also can handle the signal voltage of the Amiga.

The Vampires could really benefit from a simple USB host controller hooked to the FPGA, like the MIST has.

[Ratteler]

I just started looking into this, and found...

https://www.abelectronics.co.uk/p/54/IO-Pi-Plus?CatName=0&c=0

You can stack 4 32 bit I/O lines for 128 total. More than enough for every pin on a ZorroII card monitor.
The only question is will they be fast enough?

We would also probably need some kind of ROM to make it autoconfig.

Ideally, since we can emulate a whole Amiga on a Pi, we would just emulate just the peripherals that there are already drivers for. To the Amiga it would be talking to things it already knows. The Pi would do the work of telling the Amiga what it wants to hear.

I wouldn't bother with acceleration. I think we would be taxing the Pi enough trying to make it RAM, mass storage, and networking.

These are fairly generic needs for any system and I don't know how well Amiga OS support multi monitors. We're essentially looking for an RPi Bridgeboard.

[Louis Dias]

What irks me is that a quad core 1.2Ghz ARM Pi3 with 1GB ram, 6 USB ports, serial I/O, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, microSD slot, Ethernet and HDMI output and can run Kodi costs $35 but we can't create a 100Mhz Amiga for less than $500....

Are you kidding me?

$35 and it's now my home web and email server...  Well, my kit was $79 with a 32GB microSD card, case and wireless USB keypad/touchpad...  But seriously...wtf!!!

[polyp2000]

I use mine as a network level ad blocker.

https://pi-hole.net/

Installed it and basically forgot about it top stuff!

N

[QuikSanz]

. To the Amiga it would be talking to things it already knows. The Pi would do the work of telling the Amiga what it wants to hear.

I wouldn't bother with acceleration. I think we would be taxing the Pi enough trying to make it RAM, mass storage, and networking.

These are fairly generic needs for any system and I don't know how well Amiga OS support multi monitors. We're essentially looking for an RPi Bridgeboard.

A BridgeBoard is the answer but is it possible?

[polyp2000]

A BridgeBoard is the answer but is it possible?

I don't have the technical know-how to do this - but i am reminded of the nay-sayers regarding Majsta's FPGA pursuits. They said it couldn't be done - yet he persevered and he proved them wrong. Someone who has the desire , enough time , money and will power to give this a shot!

Nick

[psxphill]

I don't have the technical know-how to do this - but i am reminded of the nay-sayers regarding Majsta's FPGA pursuits. They said it couldn't be done - yet he persevered and he proved them wrong. Someone who has the desire , enough time , money and will power to give this a shot!

Who said it couldn't be done? I don't know anyone that he has proved wrong.

Using a raspberry pi to respond to 68000 bus cycles using gpio is pretty crazy. I won't say it can't be done, but any result will probably not work very well. Those IO Pi Plus 32 channels are connected to i2c, I don't think desire/time/money/will power will cut it. You could stick a bridge between the amiga and the pi, which may as well be Ethernet. It would be pretty cheap to make an a500 PIO Ethernet adapter, a DMA one would be preferable and likely more costly.

What irks me is that a quad core 1.2Ghz ARM Pi3 with 1GB ram, 6 USB ports, serial I/O, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, microSD slot, Ethernet and HDMI output and can run Kodi costs $35 but we can't create a 100Mhz Amiga for less than $500....

Are you kidding me?

If you could create an amiga that was as cheap to manufacture as a raspberry pi and would also sell the five million the raspberry pi has sold. Then you could get one for $35 dollars. The raspberry pi is just an existing chip put on a board though, so the development cost was low. Therefore you'd need to figure out how to get someone to design all the chips and masks for free.

Give me a billion dollars and I'll build you a 1ghz $35 dollar amiga which would be the same as a PI but feature 68060 and SAGA. If you want an actual computer you may want pci express and possibly pci/zorro (although those may be better suited as external bridges).