Gold 2.7 release for the Vampire accelerators

[grond]

@Niding

Oh, c'mon, don't confuse kolla with facts, he's having the party of his life because he can piss on other people's free work of an entire year...

"'Quake-enabler'! Brilliant! I need to post this on as many forums as I can!" There goes a happy troll...

[grond]

It's not free.

Oh, yes, it is. Firstly, this is not a paid update. Try replacing an LC040 for a 040 for free. And the price you pay is for the hardware, the core developer team hasn't got a penny.

[grond]

Your argument might hold water if you could go out and buy a non vampire card and run apollo on it.

Even if a buyer of the card were _entitled_ to a free upgrade, it doesn't turn the team's work into PAID work. Join the team and try it for yourself. As already mentioned before, nobody in the team got a penny for a year's worth of work on the core.

And, as a matter of fact, the core has been offered for license, it's just that nobody has been wanting to make any non-Vampire cards. Furthermore, you can also put tg68 on your Vampire and enjoy the speed of an 020/030 (without FPU, of course) instead.

[grond]

You can? Is the source for that available?

tg68 is an open-source 68k core. If you want to put it in the Vampire, I'm sure the team would be happy to help you with pinouts.

[grond]

I am sorry for you, but somebody has then been making profit out of your free work for over a year: as we all know, Vampires arent sold at cost.

Ah, yes? How do we _know_ that?

[grond]

I totally think that MUIMapparium is something remarkable! There is not that much modern Amiga Software of a similar quality.

[grond]

What I _know_ is that a lot of money has been _sunk_ into this project. Yes, some or most of it probably has been recovered by now. However, there is still a substantial risk involved for the people actually buying parts and paying manufacturers upfront and writing off non-functional units. Putting this into the balance, it will still take quite some time until we can consider some surplus money "profit".

[grond]

I would not dare to use it for anything else than what Gunnar dictates.

Yes, just imagine what could happen if you rendered a scene in Lightwave using this "FPU"!!!

This needs a public statement: please don't use this core to control a nuclear power plant, missile silo or eurofighter, let alone any Amiga FPU software that is not a demo or game!

[grond]

So you're saying that the statements I referred to are BS? If so, maybe they should be changed.

No, the BS was the "would not dare" and "dictates" parts of your comment.

[grond]

As a developer, I really feel unwell to see something like this...  so there is no room for legit complains? no Bug reports, no feedback at  all...

Come on, you should know the difference between trolls that only bash the product without ever giving constructive feedback (other than "for running BSD an MMU is required!") and people giving useful bug reports (such as you did). The latter are always welcome and appreciated on forums.

[grond]

You can emulate a cpu with 74ls chips if you really wanted.

No, the correct technical term for this would be "implement".

[grond]

Only if you don't know what emulate means.

You clearly have no clue. A CPU built from discrete gates IS a CPU and thus not an emulation. Hence, it is _implemented_ using gates, not emulated.

[grond]

Still what do you call something that "implements" after documentation instead of a real 1:1 copy of the real thing?

I don't understand the question. "Implements after documentation"?

[grond]

yes.  as it is not done as an exact copy.  it relies on the documentation of the cpu.  and we all know that documentation and real stuff is not always really true.

Which is why we even tested stuff that is documented as "undefined" on 020, 030, 040 and 060. Turned out that the undefined stuff was different on 020, 030 on the one hand and 040, 060 on the other. In such cases it was done as on the 040. You seem to have a very naive idea of how the 080 is being developed...

[grond]

no  I just want to point out that it is done as an interpretion how it works.  so as it is not a 1:1 replica that is improved.. I have a hard time to call it an "implementation"  more interpretion.

The 080 is an implementation of the 68k ISA, not of the 68040 or 060 or whatever. Just like the 060 is an implementation of the 68k ISA.

ACTUALLY! I have a hard time why it is so bad that it is called "emulation" as it ISN'T a 1:1 copy..  most of us does accept emulated stuff anyway?

Why insist on using a technically incorrect term? You can call a "current source" a "voltage source" but it will be wrong. But on the positive side it shows everybody that is skilled in the art that you have no clue.