A500 ++ Prototype

[mongo]

Why do a whole new motherboard when an 030 accelerator for an existing A500 would serve the same purpose for a much lower cost?

[mongo]

030 accelerators for A500 are not so common and manage to sell at silly prices due to that.
Apart from that, making a new mobo (if it works) make's sure you got new hardware (with less possibilities of failing), embedded accelerator (plus RAM, or even IDE header etc), Zorro adapter inside etc. Try finding an Viper 530 first... in a decent price second

As you say it might be cheaper to find an 030 for A500 plus an A500 also... but DAMN that mobo is l33t and hurray for new Classic Amiga hardware @ 2010!!!

You've missed the point.

Instead of designing a whole new motherboard, it would be better to just design a 030 accelerator for the A500. That way they could sell it for a much more reasonable cost and far more people would be willing to buy it.

No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

[mongo]

It does offer a benefit when you own an A500 with a dead motherboard.

There would probably be a market for new replacement A4000D mobos too.  I know I wouldn't mind one.

Why purchase a brand new 68030 accelerator to put into a 25 year old computer that could fail at any minute?

Plus, you're also missing the ZII slot (although getting anything to fit in that and be able to close the case should prove to ve interesting unless there is some sort of right angle adapter).

There's not much that can go wrong with an A500 motherboard besides the chips (which you're going to need for the new motherboard) or the sockets (which are easy to replace).

Why buy a whole new motherboard to populate it with 25 year old chips that could fail at any minute?

The side expansion connector on an A500 is pretty much ZII. If you want to use a ZII card on a A500, only a simple adapter is required. You're not going to fit any standard ZII card inside an A500 and still be able to close the case.

[mongo]

That would require A4000 chips, the A500 chips aren't usable with 060.

That's not true at all.

[mongo]

There's a right-angle Z2 adapter shown up the thread you flipper armed mong.

Right angle adaptor or not, you're not going to fit a normal ZII card in there.

[mongo]

If you take a plain 060 on a pin grid holder and just hook it up to all Amiga 500 chips, it won't work.

Neither will an 030.

Or an 020.

[mongo]

I think you talk too much for someone knowing too little.

You would be wrong then.

020/030 bus is nothing like 040/060.

It's not all that different. The 000 bus isn't the same as the 020/030 bus either.

That's why Commodore invented the Zorro 3 bus, to talior the 040 bus specifications.

Wrong.

The CPU bus used on all ZIII machines is the 030 bus. The ZIII bus has nothing to do with the 040 bus.

It's a major design job to interface a 060 to ECS system which was desinged with 68000 in mind. If you think it's a trivial job, please make a project yourself. We will be anxious to see your achievements. :afro:

I never said it was a trivial job, did I?

[mongo]

One thing is replacing a common A500 board for a more usable 030 + FAST RAM one.

 For having PCMCIA and/or IDE you need a soldered PLCC Gayle chip in the motherboard, adding high costs (high-density tracks, 4-layer board).

 Keep the board simple and Amiga 500 compatible and that's all.

 Maybe adding a header for a IDE68k somewhere can be an excellent idea.

Gayle compatible IDE can be implemented with a $2 CPLD.

[mongo]

Yes, but the the motherboard cost will go up like a moon rocket since the CPLD required very near tracks and even a four-layer board in that area.

 Installing a simple CPU header and then the controller over it will spare a lot of money. Ugly? Yes, but cost effective.

You won't need a four layer board.