To Vampire or not

[Zooz]

The work on the core is just going well, everyone who connects to the IRC knows on what the guys are working at moment, and no it is not a 'club', like if it was 'closed'. They are just some amiga enthousiasts, like we all are. There are IRCs for plenty amiga stuff, the apollo-team is just one among others, and is not as close as some seems to think, many vampire users also owns another amiga config. I myself have a morphos machine, a 1200 + blizz, and yes a vampire, all 3 are just excellents systems in there areas. FPU is tiring discussion as some here have no idea of what are the current investigations / brainstormings / core remaining spaces / ... FPU exists but do not fits in current shape, some choice are done, not because team is unskilled or mad or stupid or frightening but because she had to do with constraints; all developers knows of what can be constraints. So please, be patient, be smart and just nice. One other thing, it seems people still thinks that the core is a "one-man core" made, public should change their mind about this. Some members actually works on the core, at VHDL level, i would like also thanks these guys who are doing great work silentely and contributes to bring visible progresses and open-minded spirit inside core team. 4 or 5 brains are always better than 1, be sure the team is aware of this.

About the initial question, A2000 and Vamp, i advise anyone interested in to watch ShK videos, that use a V500 daily in an A2000, aside some real amiga hardware (Delfina, X-Surf, Prisma, PIV, Oktagon, ...). Looking at them can convince or not, dependings of what is wished at end. But at least it proves it works and well - with some clean system (as for any amiga system/configuration). Core is much more compatible than people seems to think.

For example (and sorry if already pasted) :

https://vimeo.com/200954816

https://vimeo.com/185116764

https://vimeo.com/206998554

https://vimeo.com/195123926

Looks carefully at the videos descriptions.

[Zooz]

So many speculations here.

Of course that the team knows what to test for FPU. Members are not idiots, they are Amiga users. And for sharper tests they also have testcases, and knows how to write validation code. Just it takes time. When FPU will be on the work in the core, progress will be fast. At moment, the team works on something else, so we could speaks of this during 10 pages again that wont change _current_ roadmap. Let the team finish their current work instead of feeding speculations. For example, the internally 64bits or even 128bits float processing is just speculation; that this have been discussed does not mean it will. That were early discussions. That gunnar is not good in communication is a fact but that does not mean he can't change his mind, the team is more opened than that. Also, i have to tell again that FPU exists but does not fit well in the current shape and chip, but could with some strategy. You guys, Team, Members, and Users wants FPU, so there will, it can't be another way. Only thing that is true and reality is The "How" which is not yet answered.

Although I will admit AGA has appeal, certainly more than new multimedia instructions or 16 bit sound (both features that aren't supported by ANY existing software unless you consider NG software).

About the Paula improvements, there is software yet, EaglePlayer developer is working on a Pamela-Amplifier that is already working well, it is able to output modules (mods/xm/digi/...) in digital 16bits. That is not vapor-feature. It is used as a validation testcase and will be nice feature for vampire owners. Consider it brings to Vampire some Sound-card abilities, like any new soundcard on Amiga, there is no existing software, at starts, just it needs drivers or engines (like a AHI driver for example). So it seems really naysaying on this particular point.

Please, just wait that team can focus on this FPU before so much discussions.