I loved my Tekmagic 2060/128Mb ram til it died. Now back on the old GVP 030/40 combo. Would really like to see a big step up!
Chris
Hey Chris!
I sold one of my 2 TekMagic 2060 accelerators a couple of years ago, but still have one of them installed in my trusty A2000 with the modified Agnus chip for 2mb of Chip RAM. If you really want a 68060 accelerator for your A2000, you might be able to talk me into selling it. I doubt I would sell it to anyone else right now though, but since you are a close friend..........?
I have lots of fond memories from when I was using my A2000. I spent a small fortune on that Amiga and probably spent more time per day on that system than any other Amiga (probably any computer period). I once used all of a $3,000 zero interest loan from work for computer gear & software, plus some of my own money on that A2000, on a single order from Creative Computers in Santa Monica, Calif. I purchased an IVS Vector 2000 68030@25MHz accelerator w/SCSI & 32mb Fast RAM, Vortex Golden Gate 386sx Bridgeboard w/16mb RAM, DCTV display enhancer/slow scan digitizer, PicassoII video card, AdPro2.0 graphics conversion & effects software, and a few other items I can't remember were on that order. Luckily the people at work who were responsible for checking to see that the zero interest loans were only used for hardware & software that was compatible with the software being run at work weren't looking too closely, or did not know what they were looking at, so the loan was approved and I got to buy all those goodies at the same time. It was like Christmas in July for me that year!
As for interest in an ACA2000, I would want to see what happens first with the "Apollo" FPGA accelerators that are supposed to run at speeds equal to a Morotola 68000 clocked at 400MHz or more. I had read that the Apollo Team is proposing accelerators that will fit inside almost all Amiga models, but I think their first model is aimed at the A500, CDTV, and will also work inside of an A2000, and possibly an A1000 with a riser adapter, which all use the same socket for the original Motorola 68000 chip. Not sure if they are going to go through the trouble and extra expense to design an Apollo accelerator that fits into the A2000 accelerator slot, if the one for the A500 & CDTV fits and works in the A2000?
I do like the ACA accelerators and believe that Jens of Individual Computer's makes superior hardware projects (usually) as a general rule. It would be nice if all of the Amiga hardware designers could share some of their work and code, so all FPGA projects could take advantage of the newest and fastest 680x0 Soft-Core's being worked on by a handful of programmers. But then the guys doing most of the work should get some kind of licensing royalties from that code, to pay them back for their time spent writing and testing it.
@OldsmobileMike, I am sure that the 68000 Soft-Core that is reported to run at 400MHz or more already has some of the 68020 instructions integrated, or will have some, or most of the 68020 instructions implemented in the near future. That is the great thing about FPGA Soft-Core CPU's, is that the programmers writing them can enhance them with extra instructions, or improved instructions. I don't know if we will ever see 680x0 Soft-Core CPU's that include all of the 68040 and/or 68060 instruction sets, but perhaps the programmers working on these Soft-Core designs will be able to add the most used and needed instructions, so that 90% of the software optimized for 68040 and 68060 CPU's will be able to run on these FPGA accelerators and stand alone systems using Soft-Core CPU's.
