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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: bomrat on September 05, 2018, 05:59:45 PM
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hi, is the vampire ever going to happen?
thanks
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I hear you.. I gave up on the A1200 Vampire and am going to do something different with my A1200 now and hopefully pick up the Vampire standalone if it ever moves beyond vaporware..
Only thing more disappointing has been the Tabor... Been waiting with cash in hand for what 3 years now? Ridiculous..
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I feel your pain but I'm more confident the vampire standalone will arrive soon. As for Tabor if it's not released at Amiwest then I feel it might as well be scraped.
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From what I know, the team is working on the Standalone Vampire System first. Most of the development from the Standalone project will be applicable to the A1200 board.
Whilst I'd like to add one of these boards to my A1200, I will happily buy the standalone system.
FPGA RULES!!!
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I feel your pain but I'm more confident the vampire standalone will arrive soon. As for Tabor if it's not released at Amiwest then I feel it might as well be scraped.
Unfortunately, I agree.. If the Tabor isn't present at Amiwest this year I think it is done.. (Hell I think it is probably done already, but I am still hopeful)
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I also am patiently awaiting the A1200 Vampire; but if the standalone arrives first that’s still good enough for me.
Great work going on with the AGA core, looking forward to the final product(s).
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I think the V1200 board will be a different design? In which case you would want to wait for a debugged V500/V4 before changing the design/form factor for a 1200 version.
Having said that, there have been hints at "surprises" at some upcoming shows. Who knows? :)
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Think they should do a ATX form factor version.
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It will happen and I am sure its being worked on. The issue is the team and testers are asked not to share any unannounced info. The team is just slow at reporting things as they focus more on getting cores stable. Personally, I think its a bit overrated, but a lot do love the Vampires.
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The place to ask/check this question is at the Apollo Forum at http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php (http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php). And this question has been asked many times already. It was always the plan to release the A500 and Standalone versions of the V4 as stated here: http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/faq (http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/faq). The A1200 would come after that. They Apollo Team have said this many times.
Being a forum, I am allowed to speculate a little, and so this is my conjecture. I believe that it will come. But to my mind it makes no sense to do that immediately, despite how long we have waited already. Why? Keeping a project as simple as possible is key to ensuring its success. Complexity kills (and there are enough of us here who do project work professionally who know this first hand). The scale of what is being done in the Apollo Project and Vampire cards is not to be underestimated. Implementing a new version of the 68k CPU with all of the new features and performance benefits it brings is no easy thing. Coupled with the fact that they also developed an AGA re-implementation which is nearing release (there are plenty of youtube videos demonstrating this feature). Maturing these technologies is crucial before spinning too many iterations in the form of accelerators. Making a A1200 version of all this (the V4 I mean), before a single other version has had time to solidify, would in my opinion over complicate things. My supposition is that once the stand-alone and A500 have been released and had the time to benefit from real-world use and the bug-fixes that will naturally ensue, the A1200 would have a better chance of being a reliable release. Also spreading ones resources too thinly across too many endeavours, no matter how similar, is not going to speed anything up either.
The clues are already there though. Look at what we already see and know. The Apollo Core (CPU and RTG implementation) has matured a lot already and is in use on the V2 cards. We already know that the standalone and the A500 versions exist as internal test units and several testers have posted videos showing them working. We also know, from the activity Apollo Team's last monthly activity report, that they sought the advice of Altera to help with V4 and a few months prior they mentioned they had solved a long standing timing bug. My guess is that these issues were a big source of the delays. We also know that Majsta (the guy who designs and produces the hardware), went to great lengths to source A1200 connectors. If I were a betting man, I would bet that we might see the stand-alone and A500 versions in there full glory on the 21st of September as the "surprise" they mentioned. And then it would be reasonable to ask the question to the Vampire guys: So are you going to produce an A1200 version now?
I am sure it will come one day.
The clues are here:
https://youtu.be/F-egp3pWr1w?t=2245
http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/faq (http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/faq)
http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php (http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php) (various posts from BigGun and Majsta speak to the A1200 version)
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hi, is the vampire ever going to happen?
thanks
You can forget it as the AGA chipset is near impossible to accurately emulate. Even the current gen vampires do not have good classic compatibility alot of things break. They work hard but its a major challenge.