Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.

[hppacito]

Hallo everyone,

As I'm in the process of developing a new accelerator for A500s and A600, in the performance range 10 to 15 MIPS, based on a ColdFire chip.

The prototypes will be quite light in features (ColdFire, ram, flash, 68k connector, maybe ide port). But I'd like to make something better suited for day-today use.

The idea is:

SDRAM soldered to the MB (because DIMMs are 64 bits, so 1/2 would be wasted) 16/32/64/128 MB (decide the best number)
IDE port, 2 devices with DMA support.
CF port.
10/100 Ethernet port

any ideas ?

[Zac67]

hppacito wrote:
based on a ColdFire chip.

Which one?

[HyAmi]

Maybe an onboard RTG chip. Even if it's a simple one (like S3 Virge + 4MB or other basic sets), it would be very nice. What kind of price would you expect for such a product?

How realistic is such a project? I do not mean IF it would be useful (to me it would definitly be and probably others too, and I would be in the market for one) but HOW sure are you that you can release such a product?

[hppacito]

The prototype will be done with a MFC5206E with 4 or 8 MB SRAM.
The following will be with a MFC5271, MFC5208 or MFC5407. I'll decide at a later stage. I'm more inclined with the first two.

How realistic ?, mmm, I'll know after the prototype is done. Anyway I'm planning to do small runs, 5 or 10 boards at a time.

An estimated price, just for the parts rounds 80 Euro or so (+- 30%). As we say in my country "at flying pig".

Btw. The software emulator will be under the GPL.

[HyAmi]

Sounds interesting. In what kind of time will you be able to build your prototype?

Just another idea: some flashchip area to replace the kickrom so we can have a 3.9 kickrom

You mention a software emulator. What kind of structure will it be? Will it work like some kind of co-processor or will the processor emulate a 680x0 processor?

[leofoe]

I would be interested.

[Tahoe]

Interested!!!!

[Cyberus]

Of course, I'd be interested in one for the A500 {will you be able to make such a device fit in an A600?).

[Effy]

About the memory, make sure it´s 128 Mb, not less  :lol:
The IDE port, to avoid power problems you can mount CompactFlash-to-IDE interface. Is fast enough and doesn´t consume power  :-)

[hppacito]

For the proto I need to buy some components, make a PCB ;-). Roughtly a couple of months.

This will work as a replacement for the original processor. So
the emulator will run 68020 software, enough to be able to run OS 3.9 (processor-wise).

Native drivers for the IDE controller and ethernet, should bring better load times than the integrated IDE or external HD in the case of the A500, and better connectivity. A native stack may be can also be implemented.

The A600 has only some space constraints, but basically is very similar to the A500, and the same technique can be used to release the processor. The problem arises because the processor is PLCC and is soldered.

The flash will have the simulator, the kickstart will be copied to fast memory and run from there.

[alexh]

It would be too expensive to make one that will fit both A500 and A600 since the A600 has a square PLCC surface mount 68000 and the A500 has the Rectangular socketed DIL 68000.

Keep it to A500/CDTV/A2000 if I were you.

Unless you are a PCB designer I very much doubt that you'll ever get this done. The NRE for such a project will be 2 or 3x the amount of money you'll ever make.

K.I.S.S. "Keep it simple stupid". Go with an ultra simple CPU + RAM only design to start with.

[Doppie1200]

I would be happy when there was a cheap board that adds 4MB of fastram and clips over the A600's CPU.

It would allow me to play WHDLOAD games and have the PCMCIA free.

It is just a fasram upgrade and that is much easier to accomplish. If you'd create that you might even finish it some day.

[Effy]

Thought I had to get rid of my 3 A500´s but if you are really gonna make that board then I shall surely keep them !!!
You mentionned a CF slot ? Guess you can dump that for the A600 version as it already has a pcmcia port and CF adapters are really cheap these days.
But one question, what about the Chip Ram Most A500´s only have got 512 Mb Ram, A500+ has got 1 Mb Chip ... does your project include 2 Mb Chip like the A1200  :-?

[Lemmink]

hppacito wrote:
Btw. The software emulator will be under the GPL.

Well this is the most interesting part. Do you write the emulator ? Or is there allready such an emulator available under GPL for the embeded system marked for those that switch over from the 68k line ?
The 68k Emulationlayer is what gives me the most doubt about the feasability of the Dragon.

[mfilos]

OK, I believe that the whole project can't really be done easily. Jens is planning for quite some time a new A600 board and he's done a GREAT deal of work in CAD. Maybe he'll manage to produce it ! (I hope!)
Working in a Coldfire project by yourself will need a great deal of inventment for producing these boards.
I hope that I'm wrong and everything will be smooth in creating this accelerator for any of A500 or A600 miggys.
Good luck anyway