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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Lockon_15 on February 03, 2010, 10:44:45 AM
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New, updated core firmware update arrived (v1.0)
I'm putting feature list (translated from German original).
Indivision ECS can now directly use the video memory!
And with the following features:
- 8-bit, 15 bit, 16 bit chunky pixel modes (15 bit & 16 bits are converted) to 12 bits.
- Resolution from 320x200 to 1024x768.
- Video memory can be directly described by DMA chipset (up to 7,15 MB / s)!
- Sprite for hardware cursor.
- Addressable storage for multiple video image buffer.
- Dual screen on two Indivision ECS.
This new feature extends to Indivision ECS functions, which are so far available only in expensive Amiga graphics cards. This is that the video memory in the SDRAM, the Amiga Chip Bus NOT be charged. Graphics data can either be transferred to the CPU, or you can select different transmission modes use DMA to copy data directly from the chip RAM.
This can be done with a speed of up to 7,15 MB / s second, enough bandwidth to create a 320x200 8-bit framebuffer to update in liquid speed on a A3000.
Complete info on:
http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16679&page=33
(http://www.a1k.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=22991&thumb=1&d=1265063098)
Outstanding work!
Greetings to Jens & Oliver.
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Cool :)
Hopefully the AGA version can be updated in a similar fashion.
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The AGA-version just sees the digital output of Lisa + a few "holes" in the chipset to which it can be reprogrammed.
The ECS-Version allmost completly replaces Denice in FPGA makeing all those things possible.
Read the ECS-version is the more advanced one.
But then, you can allready run the AGA-version in resolutions up to 1280x1024 in 256 colors or HAM8. These modes are available for every OS-friendly app, while the 12Bit-modes on the ECS-Indi are only supported by SW written for it ..... unless you plan to write/port an RTG-system to it ...
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I didn't know this was in the works, but I knew it was possible with the ECS design. That's why I was always careful the specify the full name of the Indivision AGA in the other thread... :)
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I didn't know this was in the works, but I knew it was possible with the ECS design. That's why I was always careful the specify the full name of the Indivision AGA in the other thread... :)
Would have loved this back in 1995 in my A3000 with Warp Engine 040 and 64 megs of ram.
Makes the A3000 THE perfect amiga. Heck an A500 with an 030 becomes perfect with this thing inside it.
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Tell me that's 1024x768x4096 on a SECOND monitor in the same system... or is the rights screen from the A1000 on which it is sitting.
Also, what expansion is that being used on the A500 with the CF?
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No, A1000 gets native res on DB23.
AlphaData AlphaPower500 on side.
Thnx for A530, mate.
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@LoadWB
One can stack 2 Indivision-ECS resulting in 2 independent screens (this feature has allready been announced some time ago), so that is what your are seeing.
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@kronos
Right screen is CBM1084, so I guess it's indeed a single IECS.
Also, there would be 2 ribbon headers trailing out of case, right ?
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So now we need a talented programer to develop a Picasso96 driver for the IndivisionECS.
Cool!
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Really, an RTG driver for that would be very cool indeed. It's one of the few thing that's still unavailable for machines like the A600.
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@LoadWB
One can stack 2 Indivision-ECS resulting in 2 independent screens (this feature has allready been announced some time ago), so that is what your are seeing.
Are you sure? I thought that feature required both displays to be at the same resolution and colour depth. That doesn't appear to be the case in the image above.
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Amazing, so how fast would 1024x768 be with a 030 CPU if there was P96 drivers?!
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Amazing, so how fast would 1024x768 be with a 030 CPU if there was P96 drivers?!
I guess that rather depends on how it works (of which I'm not sure). 7MB/s isn't a very fast path into it, but if it stores the chunky frame buffer locally and has the ability to do block copies/fills directly then reasonably well, I imagine. Most Zorro 2 cards have a similar bandwidth limitation and it doesn't stop them being usable.
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@Karlos/Lockon_15
Yeah, my bad.
@cv643d
There is no HW-accelaration and no direkt memory-mapping, so I'd say rather slow. One might get away with a better CPU but aslong as they don't atleast include some sort of blitter it won't be really suitable. On might get better results with http://aminet.net/package/driver/video/a2410src ......
Mind you, that might even be used as a staring point for eveloping a WB-EMU as getting an DDK for P96 or CGX seems to be impossible these days.
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I really am going to have to get my A600 fixed now, aren't I?
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The Picasso96 developer kit is very easy to find: It comes together with the AMIGA Developer CD 2.1 which is being sold for a few bucks on Vesalia. Anyway, if someone is willing to at least try to make Picasso96 drivers for the IndivisionECS, i will gladly email them the corresponding Picasso96 developer archive. :)
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Yes, I seem to recall seeing it on DevCD2.1, too.
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Actually, I think it's just the application-level SDK, not the driver level.
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Just checked you are right, it is only an app sdk. Anyway, i have just emailed P96 authors to ask them for that driver development kit.
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A bounty might be a good incentive for someone to do the P96 Indivision work.
It has worked very well for Aros, OS4 and MorphOS, which probably all have a smaller user base than the classic OS .
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As I said before, i emailed the author of Picasso96 about the driver development kit. What follows is his answer:
Sorry, development of Picasso96 has stopped years ago, its code base has been integrated into the sources for the next Amiga OS releases, and to be honest I do not even have the necessary files accessible any more because of inaccessible hardware. And besides I could not give you any support you would surely need because I probably have forgotten all about it.
I am really sorry, but you are about ten years too late... ;-(
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Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Tobias Abt
But still, i am not gonna give in so easily. There have been many users which have created drivers and hence used this driver development kit. I will ask them for it. I might get lucky.
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How the hell do they get 7+ Mbytes/sec when they are plugged into the Denise socket? I guess they are doing absolutely nothing else?
Perhaps I do not understand the bus architecture of the Amiga but I would imagine that they are constrained by everything else happening on the chip-ram bus? Does the Denise register interface live on a separate bus?
I imagine the author of the P96 UAEGFX plugin knows enough about the design of a Picasso96 RTG driver to give help on constructing a new one. Toni Wilen?
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As I said before, i emailed the author of Picasso96 about the driver development kit. What follows is his answer:
Sorry, development of Picasso96 has stopped years ago, its code base has been integrated into the sources for the next Amiga OS releases, and to be honest I do not even have the necessary files accessible any more because of inaccessible hardware. And besides I could not give you any support you would surely need because I probably have forgotten all about it.
I am really sorry, but you are about ten years too late... ;-(
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Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Tobias Abt
But still, i am not gonna give in so easily. There have been many users which have created drivers and hence used this driver development kit. I will ask them for it. I might get lucky.
i actually find those sorts of replies quite disappointing. i mean sure the authors have moved onto other things, but how hard is it to make a back up on a CD-R or two? especially for something as significant as this.
Wish you the best of luck.
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If I understand right, this lets you run 4096 colour workbench?
A thought occurs here: AGA is actually WORSE. I really hope the next batch of indivsionAGAs are this capable.
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The IndivsionECS and the AGA are very different, one is a reimplementation and the other is a scan-doubler :)
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Hello,
any news ?