1541 Ultimate II vs. chameleon 64

[psxphill]

the Chameleon offers a lot more functions and you can actually order it. It took 8 months for me to get the U2 and the Chameleon I got in less than 1 month.

The 1541u2 has functionality that the chameleon doesn't, so it's not clear cut. Being able to use it on a c128 and either use a real or virtual datasette swung it for me.
 
If you want a real hardware retro experience then get a 1541u2, if you want more then I'd probably get an fpgaarcade.

[psxphill]

If the 1541U II had the CPU acceleration, together with the REU and floppy drive emulation, I would buy it hands down. I really want and accelerated CPU to use it in the C128d 80 column mode.

The 1541u2 is open source, so CPU acceleration is entirely possible.
Gideon would have probably done it himself but he's short on time these days.

[psxphill]

Gideon has released the code that runs on the 1541u2 but not the FPGA source.

That is not true. The 1541u2 documentation includes how to install the xilinx tool chain and build everything. http://www.1541ultimate.net/content/doc/1541U2Doc_v0.3.pdf
 
If I had the time to learn about fpgas then I would.

[psxphill]

@Omnicron You make a point about SuperCPU and the need of an internal board. I don't know as much about the c128 hardware architecture as I do about the different amigas out there. But I would guess that the 1 to 2 mhz switching on 8502 and the subsequent Z80 switch for CPM would make a CPU accelerator tricky without an internal board.

The internal board the supercpu needs for a c128 is for the MMU, because the cartridge slot just gets the 64k view of memory.
 
However the chameleon isn't compatible with the c128 at all because of the way it does the vga output. It doesn't have to be this way, it could be made to work. They just don't want to.
 
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/chameleon_64/message/126
 
The PLA problem Jens talks about is because of how they achieve dual head output (VGA+VIC), you could work round this by only supporting VGA output. At which point you don't need to write to main memory at all, so the MMU problem goes out the window. 80 column output would still work, just no VIC.
 
If you want a real c128 to go faster in c128 mode, then your only option is a supercpu v2 with an mmu adapter. Expensive, but it'll work.

[psxphill]

Could they make a non VGA version? Sure but that was not the point of the Chameleon.

My suggestion was the opposite, keep the VGA and ignore the VIC. The Chameleon already supports generating VGA output without VIC, so the amount of work would not be huge.
 
I've already got a 1541u2, so I'm not going to buy a chamelon so I can add c128 support. I doubt the OP will either, who clearly wants a chameleon but can't because he wants to use it with c128 software.

[psxphill]

I am not sure that would work. The "magic" that allows the Chameleon to know what the VIC sees does not seem to work on the C128 so how would the Chameleon display the VIC output?

The chameleon has a VIC emulator for when it's not plugged into a c64. It can use that.
 
If it can drive the 80 column chip in the c128 instead then you'll end up with a really powerful system.
 

You have talked me into it. I am going to get the chameleon 64!!!

You do know it won't work at all with your c128d?

[psxphill]

You have talked me into it. I am going to get the chameleon 64!!!

You do know it won't work at all with your c128d?