Apollo Team announces the Vampire V4

[Gulliver]

There is no name calling nor bad wishes against you.
It is just a dissagreement between two people, nothing serious. Live with it.
I think you missinterpret my postings.
Anyway I wish you well.

[utri007]

There should be rule to prevent people to post more than 2 posts to one thread.

[kolla]

Hey, since when does being IT professional mean anything here?

[kolla]

Mapparium:  https://youtu.be/mgFx6HwsHjI

Are you sure you are not joking? Considering how the author has been treated over at the apollo-core forum and IRC, I find it ironic to use mapparium as an example. Also, it is not using AMMX, it is just trying really hard to not use FPU.

There is a new implementation of Mapparium in pure MIU/Zune code which makes the whole program much faster especially on 68k Amiga. It still needs an RTG card but a non_FPU version is included, but if it is too slow (especially with tracks and routes showing do not blame me, buy a FPU) On the long run MUIMapparium will replace the Mapparium, at the moment it does not have the same features (but rather close)

https://blog.alb42.de/programs/mapparium/

Meaning - the version of mapparium that runs on Vampire is crippled by the lack of FPU.

[kolla]

As a snide remark, I can say, as a Vampire user, there is one single piece of code that uses AMMX that I find somewhat useful, though still very limited, and that is FEMU.

[amyren]

Given that the vampire v3 is said to be faster than a 68060 at 100Mhz, what can we expect from the V4?

And what about the those IO headers, what are they capable of. Could they be used as some kind of expansion port?

I've been browsing the altera productpages to figure out the speed difference between the FPGS series II and V. It was stated that the Cyclone V was 4000 MIPS, but I could not find a speed comparisation between the Cyclone III and V.

I did find it interesting though that on the Cyclone V development board there was specified 1GB RAM and and also PCIe x4 available.
May this be a possible expansion in a later Vampire revision, or perhaps they will move to Cyclone 10 at some point?

[ferrellsl]

Are you sure you are not joking? Considering how the author has been treated over at the apollo-core forum and IRC, I find it ironic to use mapparium as an example. Also, it is not using AMMX, it is just trying really hard to not use FPU.



https://blog.alb42.de/programs/mapparium/

Meaning - the version of mapparium that runs on Vampire is crippled by the lack of FPU.

No, you are incorrect.  A non-FPU version of Mapparium called MUIMApparium was created with the Vampire in mind.  The author also created versions for MOS and AROS.
 https://blog.alb42.de/2017/04/22/muimapparium-to-try/

And Mapparium is too slow to run on a bog standard classic Amiga anyway, so your point is moot.

And here is the author's thread about MUIMapparium over at the Vampire Forums:
http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=1¬e=5079


Quote from the author's YouTube page:

Published on Apr 21, 2017
New implementation of Mapparium in native MUI/Zune, finally it's fast enough to use on a real Amiga 600 (with Vampire). More informations on https://blog.alb42.de

And here is the video of the author running it on an A600 Vampire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgFx6HwsHjI

[PPC]

As a snide remark, I can say, as a Vampire user, there is one single piece of code that uses AMMX that I find somewhat useful, though still very limited, and that is FEMU.

FEMU does not use AMMX (yet)

[Iggy]

Hey, since when does being IT professional mean anything here?

I don't discount someone's work and educational experience that lightly.

And while we don't always see eye to eye, I understand SF's point about the primary attraction of Amiga being its retro/legacy components.
Honestly, any arguments for the practicality of using this platform in the new millennium are a bit 'out there'.
Its only likely to appeal to the hobbyists with past Amiga experience.

So the V4 has a lot of appeal for a large number of Amiga enthusiasts.

I, for one, was entirely impressed with the recent demos of AmiKit running in 16 bit color via a Vampire board.

[TheMagicM]

Hey, since when does being IT professional mean anything here?

hey hey hey.. it means stuff and things!  LOL

[Iggy]

hey hey hey.. it means stuff and things!  LOL

Well, unless you assume his employers are idiots, what it means is that his work is valuable enough to earn him a living.

$$$ Slightly more than 'stuff and things'.

I'm a big fan of economics, and companies don't spend money without a sound economic reason.

So...you're all entitled to your opinion, but Steve gets paid for his, and his work in the field.

[Pat the Cat]

Hey, since when does being IT professional mean anything here?

It means something when you actually start earning money from IT, thus, it depends on the individual.

Fondly I remember my first IT lesson at school... old school teacher, learned on computers with round screens that used to be used on radars... George Cantello his name was.

His first words? "The first and ONLY true rule of Information Technology is, you do NOT EVER give away information!

You sell it!" :laughing:
 
 Needless to say, I didn't believe him. Then, now, or at any point in between.

[kolla]

FEMU does not use AMMX (yet)

So what's special about the apollo version?

[kolla]

And Mapparium is too slow to run on a bog standard classic Amiga anyway, so your point is moot.

Define "bog standard classic Amiga", please.

It is not untrue that it is crippled by the lack of FPU.

[ALB42]

No, you are incorrect.  A non-FPU version of Mapparium called MUIMApparium was created with the Vampire in mind.  The author also created versions for MOS and AROS.

Thats actually not true, the only reason I had "Vampire in mind" is because thats my only real Amiga with a GFX card. So to test the speed I only have that to try. UAE is very unreal and sadly there is no other GFX card for keyboard Amigas currently.
(This was my main reason to buy a Vampire, the GFX card)


I got response from people use MUIMapparium with 68060 and GFX Card (even one crazy guy use it on a 68030, notice also no FPU here).

The implementation was also not triggered by Vampire, I wanted to learn MUI/Zune and overcome some (speed and not speed related) problems on all Platforms. The initial implementation was done with ARM-AROS on a Raspi3 (on vacation, a little computer to take with me). The Video for it was just to show that it is even fast enough to make it run on a real Amiga, no relation to Vampire. (as I said just because its the only one with GFX card) so on the NG platform it will just be very smooth, but this is hard to show in a video.

I really like my Vampire (and MUIMapparium :lol:) but to take MUIMapparium as a example program for Vampire is a little bit strange. There is no special stuff inside for Vampire and will never be.

The thread you mentioned there is the MUIMapparium thread I guess, which was not opened by me, I just responded to it and later add some updates because some people asked for it.

But what I did especially for Vampire was testing the FreePascal compiler... There should be a thread as well from me. I even thought about to include some better support for it on the long run (AMMX,..), ... now... nah ... you you can guess how big my motivation is to do something on this topic.

[ferrellsl]

Not sure if anyone here has seen this yet, but Gizmodo and The Register have picked up stories about the Vampire:

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/08/theres-a-new-amiga-coming-out-this-year/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/09/new_amiga_to_land_in_late_2017/