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Author Topic: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.  (Read 7433 times)

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Offline mfilos

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2005, 10:01:00 AM »
OK, I believe that the whole project can't really be done easily. Jens is planning for quite some time a new A600 board and he's done a GREAT deal of work in CAD. Maybe he'll manage to produce it ! (I hope!)
Working in a Coldfire project by yourself will need a great deal of inventment for producing these boards.
I hope that I'm wrong and everything will be smooth in creating this accelerator for any of A500 or A600 miggys.
Good luck anyway

Visit my Amiga blog here
- A600: Vampire V3, 128MB, A604n, 16GB CF, Indivision ECS, RapidRoad, MAS-Player + Custom Audio Mixer (internal), HxC SD + Slim floppy (internal)
 

Offline hppacitoTopic starter

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2005, 10:04:00 AM »
@alexh:

If you can not do it, doesn't mean that no one else can not do it. Try to remember that before you post next time.
(With regard to KISS, I know the principle, pls: read about proto).

Rest:

Regarding the amount of many that costs, can be sell to. As is a hobbyst project, not a "I wanna make zillons of Euros with it nd save myself", I'll risk the money to make a proto and a final version. That's why the idea of small runs if somebody else is interested.

A500/A600 issue:

If from the start both processors are taken into account, that can be accoplished without that much trouble. But the limits of the board should be kept in mind.

A600 memory expansion:

That is not at all that difficult to make. (Wondering which DRAM chips are still available at low cost...). I'll see What can be done.

Emulationlayer: Everything depends on how fast you want it to run. If 1 MIPS is enough, can be done perfectly, if you want 100... let's look to something else.

Chipram: without a new Agnus... more than 1MB is a bit tricky. I'm not planning anything here.

Will be great to have a new A600. The custom chips, should be feasible in FPGA. I don't know if the amount of info available is enough to sytesize them. I wish I knew.
2x A500 1MB ;-)
1x A600
3x PCs
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Offline toca180

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2005, 11:15:54 AM »
Hi

Count me in for a 500 one. Id love a faster 500, my favorite Amiga!

Good Luck with it. Keep us all posted with the progress.

Robert
A1200 (Dead :-(  OS 3.1/3.1, 030@33, 882@33, 2/8MB RAM, 1.4GB HDD
A500 OS 3.1/3.1, 020@14, 882@14, 0.5/6.5MB RAM, A590 2GB SCSI HDD, CD ROM, Mas Player
A600 OS 2.1/2.05, 000@7, 1/0MB RAM

Commodore
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64C 1541, 1530
128 1530
C16 1531
 

Offline Argus

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #17 on: November 16, 2005, 11:19:22 AM »
@hppacito

Count me in for at least one!  And Jens, if you're reading, please, please do the A600 project....bitte

Also, I wouldn't mess with Colffire.  My suggestion would be to make a 68040/68060 board with jumper selectable processor.  You could ship the board w/o processor and let the user install his/her available chip.  Also, 128MB ram is *highly* recommended as would some kind of ide/scsi port.  RTG would be cool but, that's going to be a busy card.
posted on A2500+ C=2620 14MHz/8MbFast/1MbChip
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Offline X-ray

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2005, 01:55:05 PM »
I'll settle for an 020, standard SIMM socket (most of us have SIMMS lying around) and a CF slot. Problem solved, that is a nice A500 then.
 

Offline Tahoe

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2005, 02:03:47 PM »
There is actually an auction on Ebay germany now (ending in 3 hours or so) selling 330 (!!!!) 68EC020 chips, factory sealed actually meant for a C= A1200 order.....

Shame it is Germany only.... Could be a nice base for an accelerator...
Greetings from Wilnis, The Netherlands
Now owning ALL Amiga models and most; if not all; flavours of them...My Amiga Museum
 

Offline leirbag28

Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2005, 02:47:58 PM »
@hhpacito

 Hi there!

 Would definitely Definitely Definitely be interested............but Why ColdFire?  theres no Software for it on the Amiga.

 I really think it would be beter if it was a 68060 or 68040 with some sort of Extra ChipRam and 16 Million colors still via RGB port and in NTSC or PAL video OUT (Not RTG)  kinda like a souped up Graffiti Card but internally on the board your designing with Workbench drivers of course......this would make a Super High powered Amiga ready for Desktop Video as it was meant to be.....Maybe as Good as a Toaster?  thats what mattes most....as everythig else wll fall through............Games would look awesome..........Apllications will look awesome and run smooth.........imagine running DVD video on such a board.........its all possible and I think you could do it. There is ways of Cheating bigtime and saving tons of cash...............for instance............how does a company manage to make DVD players (With obviously DVD decoding hardware) and sell the DVD players for $39.00?  Ive seen even cheaper than that............so all one has to do is add these same cheap chips to the A600/A500 upgrade board and walla! I would be willing to pay an extra $39.00 just for that!.........its kinda like what Dirk Conrad did with the MASPlayer MP3 decoder for the parrallel port.........supposedly these are the same chips found in portable MP3 players..............

It can be Done! Dont follow what every one else says....plus negative comments saying "Its Impossible"  it is not!

 I believe one can accomplish such a board including all the Features I said plus 256Mb RAM minimum and release it for $95.00...................nevertheless, I would be willing to pay double that for such a board.

Think of it as a Graffiti with 8Mb chipram, CD32 FMV card with MP3 and MPEG2, and 68060 board all rolled into one.

Good Luck!
CD32 is actually the best Amiga ever made by Commodore!...
 

Offline _ThEcRoW

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #21 on: November 16, 2005, 03:02:13 PM »
Count also with me for a a500 one. I definitely would want to see my 500 accelerated and upgraded this way.
Amiga 1200 desktop. Apollo 030/50 Mhz 8mb ram + ClassicWB + Wb 3.1
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Offline hppacitoTopic starter

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #22 on: November 16, 2005, 03:06:32 PM »

@leirbag28:

I'd love if every comment is like yours !  :-)

The only 060 that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, is the EC060 @50MHz, only 88.79 for qty: 1000 !. Here, they run for a bit more :-(, and units.

Those cheap DVD players... Or they are stolen, or they get some kind of license. But volumes are what count regarding electronics.

Look, a 512kx8 SRAM chip costs 4.7 Euro per unit, if you go to 100, the cost just 3.20 Euro.

I'm auctioning for those EC020, hope I get 'em. I don't want to resell them, most stuff I think is bought by resellers, how is that they have 1000s of items purchased then ?, unglaublich  8-)
2x A500 1MB ;-)
1x A600
3x PCs
1x Gf  :crazy:
 

Offline roguebeck

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #23 on: November 16, 2005, 03:33:49 PM »
I'd be in for one for sure...
 I like the idea of onboard RTG too! Fantastic Ideas, I hope it works out!
A500 - A501, Supradrive 500XP
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Offline alexh

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #24 on: November 16, 2005, 03:42:02 PM »
@hppacito

Quote
If you can not do it, doesn't mean that no one else can not do it.


I am not saying I couldnt do it, or that you couldnt do it. I am an ASIC engineer, I've worked on multi-layer Set-top-box PCB's in the past. I have access to Protel, Orcad etc. I am sure that I could do it, but I have no real incentive to do it.

In my opinion, and it's just that, it's too complicated for a first time project. What you are planning will take a long time, require a great investment of time and money and in the long run there is no real chance of any recompensation, and lots of chance it will require an expensive re-spins.

I would say all of this if it was a 680x0 board, but a coldfire board makes it 2x as risky again.

The FAST RAM expansion for A600's on the otherhand is a very feasible idea. The PCB will be relatively simple, the cost to produce will be very low, you stand a greater chance of enjoying such a project, finishing, and even though there are not that many A600's out there you stand a good chance of selling a few.
 

Offline hppacitoTopic starter

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #25 on: November 16, 2005, 04:04:20 PM »
@alexh:

great !

Quote
I am not saying I couldnt do it, or that you couldnt do it. I am an ASIC engineer, I've worked on multi-layer Set-top-box PCB's in the past. I have access to Protel, Orcad etc. I am sure that I could do it, but I have no real incentive to do it.


But I have the incentive to do it. ;-)

I have 10 years of experience with microprocessors, and already did quite a bit of things that more than one thought that were unachivable, anyway I know the risks, I know takes time, and I know takes money. I'm willing to, between some boundaries, put them.

Everything is expensive, but if nothing is done, we don't get anything. And companies don't seem too worried to release something.

The fast ram expansion is of course quite doable. I already considered it. But cheap, cheap, I don't think it is. may be 30 or 40 Euro. Anyway I wanted to do it from day 1, so it is in my pipeline (see my first post).

Let's see, may be you want to colaborate somehow.
2x A500 1MB ;-)
1x A600
3x PCs
1x Gf  :crazy:
 

Offline Tahoe

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #26 on: November 16, 2005, 04:50:11 PM »
Quote

hppacito wrote:
I'm auctioning for those EC020, hope I get 'em. I don't want to resell them, most stuff I think is bought by resellers, how is that they have 1000s of items purchased then ?, unglaublich  8-)


Go for it! Hope you get them, it's a nice start! I thought of bidding, but now I won't...
Greetings from Wilnis, The Netherlands
Now owning ALL Amiga models and most; if not all; flavours of them...My Amiga Museum
 

Offline alexh

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #27 on: November 16, 2005, 05:00:51 PM »
If you are determined to do it, even if it ends up just your own Prototype, talk to Oliver Hannaford-Day, creator of the great CDTV webpage and the last coldfire project.

http://www.cdtv.org.uk/coldfire/1154.html

He was trying to do a coldfire A3000/A4000 accelerator, but software and other things prevented it's release.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amigacoldfire/

He'll be able to help no-end with ideas and how to overcome board related problems.

If you could find a relatively cheap source of E41J 68060 CPU's (the ones that can clock at upto 100MHz) then I would recommend a design with one of those instead of a coldfire. You eliminate the headache of software compatibility.

Also speak to Rodolphe of czuba-tech. He recently did an 060 based design for the Atari Falcon and used an FPGA/CPLD to create an SDRAM controller.

http://www.czuba-tech.com/CT60/english/overview63.htm
 

Offline Doppie1200

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #28 on: November 16, 2005, 05:00:57 PM »
A simple fastram expantion around 40 euro's is something I would buy. Having an 030 board in an A600 is nice but I'm interested in whdload gaming and then all I need is some fastram.

The advantage of having only 4M is that the PCMCIA is still usable.

Perhaps you could add one thing to attract more buyers; an MP3 decoder.
Then the MAS player won't be needed. The decoder could be fed data using some glue logic via a free address in the memory map of the A600. Perhaps where the clockport is on the A1200.

Edit: ofcourse the buyer would be required to connect the audio output of the decoder to something. That could be a drawback but on the other hand creates the hack factor we all love so much ;)


But you must be carefull not to make the board too complex since that is what makes it feasable and affordable.
Regards,
Erno

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Offline alexh

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Re: Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.
« Reply #29 from previous page: November 16, 2005, 05:07:14 PM »
Quote
The advantage of having only 4M is that the PCMCIA is still usable.


Edit:

Yeah unfortunately the standard A600's address range is limited to 24-bits (16Mbytes)

$000000-$07FFFF    Chip RAM
$080000-$1FFFFF    Reserved
$200000-$5FFFFF    Fast-RAM (4Mbyte)
$600000-$9FFFFF         PCMCIA   (4Mbyte)
$A00000-$BEFFFF    Reserved
$BFD000-$BFDF00    PIA B (even addresses)
$BFE001-$BFEF00    PIA C (odd addresses)
$C00000-$DFEFFF    Reserved for expansion
$DFF000-$DFFFFF    Custom chip registers
$E00000-$E7FFFF    Reserved
$E80000-$EFFFFF    Expansion ports
$F00000-$F7FFFF    Reserved
$F80000-$FFFFFF    System ROM


4Mbytes of FAST RAM (6Mbytes in total) is more than enough for a good WHDLoad system.