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Author Topic: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expansion, Chameleon delayed  (Read 7944 times)

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Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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As announced in january of this year, delivery of our flickerfixer "Indivision AGA" for the Amiga 4000 (desktop version) and the CD32 has begun this week. In order to start sales worldwide at the same time, we have shipped a few units a little earlier to our partners in the USA. The first customers in the US and Germany have already recieved their pre-ordered board. Delivery to customers in Sweden and England starts today.

Indivision AGA brings the Amiga's graphics output to a modern monitor or flat screen. The user can choose almost any model on the market, because Indivision AGA doesn't only double the frame rate, but even displays a PAL screenmode at more than 60Hz flicker-free. For every screenmode, the full colour depth of 24 bits is displayed.

Indivision AGA is available from our resellers for 129,- EUR(*). We're especially happy to have a new partner in Switzerland. Relec Hardware and Software delivers both versions of Indivision AGA with a French manual.

Indivision ECS under development
The next version of our popular flickerfixer will be made for Amiga models with OCS- and ECS-chipset. Since the older chipsets only work with a colour depth of 12 bits (4096 colours), we're expecting a slightly lower price for this model. It is meant to work with the Amiga models A500, A600(**), A1000, A2000 and A3000. All known technical data will presumably be in Indivision ECS: All screenmodes will be output with more than 60Hz, and the S-Hires modes of the ECS chipset will be displayed in full resolution. Indivision ECS will be installed on the socket of the Denise chip of the target computer. We're expecting the first prototype in about three months.

New memory expansion A603 for A600
In 2006, we already introduced a memory expansion for the smallest of all Amigas, the A600. To our surprise, the demand for this expansion is still high, so we didn't just make a new production run, but made a further development. The new expansion offers 1M of additional chipmem, a real-time clock and a clockport for connection of A1200 expansions. In addition to that, the A603 offers a socket for installing Indivision ECS. The new memory expansion will be available from our resellers before the end of april 2009 for 39,90 EUR(*). For operation of the real-time clock, a coin cell (type CR2032) is required, which is not included. Installing the expansion requires mechanical work on the metal shield of the computer.

Chameleon delayed
The new multi-functional cartridge for the C64 with flickerfixer, memory expansion, floppy-emulation, freezer- and turbo-functionality has experienced multiple changes during recent development that have delayed mass-production. In addition to that, several semiconductor vendors have disappointed us with extremely long delivery times, so we had to make more changes in order to keep quick mass-production possible.
Development of Chameleon is our top priority at the moment and it does not depend on chip delivery times any more. If you want to test Chameleon before it's release, you can do that with the C-One. A Chameleon core is available for free download.

(*) recommended retail price including German sales tax of 19%. Prices at our retail partners may vary. For mail ordering, shipping may be added.
(**) memory expansion A603 required.
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2009, 10:41:21 AM »
wait till you have to install it - the A600 case is extremely small, the disk drive needs to go in order to make room for Indivision ECS.

Also, the A603 will only fit if you remove or at least modify the metal shield. Installation purely through the trapdoor slot is NOT possible; the computer must be opened.

Many A600s have been shipped without the metal shield, so this is not a big deal, but if you have one of the rare models with metal shield, it's a lot of work to avoid a short circuit.

Jens
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2009, 04:36:59 PM »
HighGFX also works on ECS chipset. Not all that colourful, but still better than the standard screenmodes.

Indivision ECS uses a totally different concept - again. It's not taking the picture data from the Denise video output, but it's taking the data that comes through the DMA channels from Agnus. In theory, we'd have the freedom to invent totally new screenmodes, but that's rather pointless with little to no software for such a toy.

We might play a little with a custom mouse pointer, but that's all I'd go for. I really don't want to create a new platform.

Jens
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2009, 07:44:20 AM »
Any cable between the flickerfixer and the Denise socket would introduce signal noise, and the flickerfixer would only work unreliably - if it works at all.

If you want to use a cable, do it on signals that are meant to go over cables, such as the floppy drive. There are nice and extremely flat laptop disk drives that you may be able to hack into the case of an Amiga.

Jens
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2009, 06:16:31 PM »
Quote
You cannot get the MCA 182-pin edge connectors anymore. Certainly not ones in RoHS plastic.


I have a few samples here. When I paid the tooling for the A1200 CPU-Slot connectors, I made sure that the tool is flexible enough to also make different kinds of Raster-1.27mm-connectors. The A603 80-pin connectors were made on that same tool. I can deliver pretty much any 1- or 2-slot connector between 2 and 182 pins. When I was in Taiwan in 2007, the tool was updated to increase the withdrawal force on each pin to 15 grams per contact pair in order to ensure a contact resistance of less than 0,03 ohms. In other words: These connectors are higher-quality than anything that has ever been used in the Amiga market before.

Development of a mem expansion for the CD32 requires lots of money - I'd need a couple of hundred pre-orders. Also, "just memory" wouldn't do the trick, you'd surely want a CF card connector and a harddrive on it, right? Oh, a keyboard would also be nice.. see, we're quickly approaching an SX32. More money to spend...

Jens
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2009, 10:57:46 PM »
alexh wrote:
Quote
And the wonderful jerky scrolling that goes with it.


It's not all that jerky, because it's not exactly 60Hz, but 62.5Hz. The tearing that goes with such a frequency is always in the same place, which makes things MUCH better.

Jens
 

Offline SchoenfeldTopic starter

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Re: Individual Computers: New Indivision models, A600 expans
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2009, 06:44:48 PM »
Voyager wrote:
Quote
So what about a animo check?


The difference between people saying they want to buy and people who actually buy is too big, I've had bad experience with this. I need a single partner who places the order, someone who signs a contract and pre-pays a certain amount - that's the way I can start spending time and money on a development that I personally don't really believe in.

The way to make be believe is to put money on the table. This is where 99% of suggested projects fail. I've had wrong feelings before, such as the A600 chipmem expansion. In 2006, AmigaKit ordered them, and they were sold out pretty quick. Now I'm making new ones, and it seems like it was a _very_ good idea to make them. Despite my doubts.

Jens