Vampire 600: FPGA A600 Accelerator Preorder

[NovaCoder]

count me in when you've got an a1200/a3000 version with an 100mhz 060 fpga.

x2

[NovaCoder]

Yep I also think FPGA solutions and Classic hardware could go very well together.

What I'd really like to see is some FGPA projects that have an (open source) active developer community behind them to continually improve the performance.

Other possible projects:

Clock-port/Zorro 16bit mp3 decoder AHI sound cards
Clock-port/Zorro USB cards
Lisa replacement/enhancement board to provide chunky modes and RTG support (like the Indivision ECS but community supported)
Alice replacement/enhancement board to provide improved IDE speed (with a SATA or CF interface built in)

All dreams but you never know what will happen

[NovaCoder]

@NovaCoder

Don't forget Paula replacement/enhancement to provide 16 bit 64 channel audio. The Paula chip is long overdue for a replacement, she missed out on being improved in the AGA chipset.

I don't think there's much point in updating Paula if no software is going to use it's new features, AHI is probably the way to go with an enhanced Paula

It's the same kind of deal with an enhanced FPGA Lisa, apart from adding a scan-doubler and fixer there's probably not much you can do with chunky modes and higher screen depths with existing software (including Work Bench).   Probably the way to go would be add CyberGFX or P96 support and treat it like an RTG card.

[NovaCoder]

So Nova, with this kind of speed (and more) for OCS/ECS machines, are you thinking about some OCS/ECS ports??  ;-)

desiv

Glad you asked

If Majsta can get it up to around 12 MIPS then you'll finally be able to play some cool point-and-click games like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max on a 600 with nice speed.   Hopefully you'll also be able to play my new AmiWolf port if I can get it working properly in 64 colors.

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

This retro hobby is a funny old thing really.

I guess on one end of the spectrum you have a bog-standard machine and on the other you have WinUAE/X1000/AROS.  Everyone has their own idea of where they want to be on this scale.  

Personally, I get a good retro feeling from using the real thing with modern expansions.   I wouldn't get exactly the same feeling from a drop in replacement motherboard or a brand-new FPGA based computer in a new case.

I'm not sure what I'll do when my old A1200 finally kicks the bucket

[NovaCoder]

Isn't the Indivision doing exactly that? It's a FPGA chip programmed to emulate the one on the motherboard, and also adding some nice things like RTG for Workbench. Along with a Vampire you'd actually be running two FPGA systems and emulating both the CPU and the Graphics system. Correct me if I am mistaken...

Only the ECS model supports RTG and a direct chunky mode, it actually uses the direct chunky mode to create the P96 support.