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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: DamageX on September 19, 2005, 06:49:30 AM

Title: more A2000 questions
Post by: DamageX on September 19, 2005, 06:49:30 AM
1) Are all Zorro II RAM cards slow like chip RAM (3.5MB/S)?

2) What are my chances of getting a DKB 2632 RAM card (and is there any other A2630 RAM expansion?) ? Would that RAM be the same speed as the fast RAM on the A2630?

3) Failing #2, would it be better to look for a different A2000 accelerator or just get an A4000? (wish I could find Amiga stuff nearby to avoid shipping cost...)

4) I might be getting a bridgeboard and am wondering if there are drivers for video or sound cards. How hard is it to make an RTG driver?
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: orange on September 19, 2005, 10:00:36 AM
1) yes, ZorroII is limited to 3.5MB/s link (http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.amiga.hardware/browse_frm/thread/102c0f00248b6a69/8e9e5f1f5950c6c2?lnk=st&q=zorro+II+speed+amiga+Mb%2Fs&rnum=1&hl=en#8e9e5f1f5950c6c2)
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: Noster on September 19, 2005, 01:05:20 PM
Hi

1) - Yes all Zorro-II ram-boards for the A2000 are slow, fast enough for an A2000 with 7MHz 68K cpu but too slow for an 68030 or faster.
2) - Don't know, have seen such an expansion card only once at german ebay in the last 2 years. But even if you can get one: I think you need ZIP-rams for that board, these are also very hard to find (and expensive).
3) - Depends on your demands: An A4000 with A3630 or A3640 might be cheaper than a fast accelerator card with ram for an A2000. So if you just want to have a fast powerfull Amiga, you should look for an A4000 or an A1200 in a tower-case. The accelerator boards for the A1200 are much cheaper and easier to find than the ones for the A4000.
4) - Depends on your knowledge ;-) If you've never written an RTG driver and you start from zero, I think it will take you several month at least, if you work full time on such a driver.

Noster
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: PaSha on September 19, 2005, 03:09:22 PM
The DKB 2632 uses normal 72-pin SIMMs.
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=988

Regarding sound, there are GoldenGate2+ drivers for the "TrueSound MP3 decoder board".
Other Sound/RTG drivers don't exist, and due to the lack of DMA they would most likely be slow if anyone bothered to program such drivers.

-Paul
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: Lex on September 19, 2005, 11:01:04 PM
2) Aside from the DKB 2632, there's the Jochheim Access 32, which uses ZIPs. Compare the two and look at the photos: amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?cat=ram&intf=a2630 (http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?cat=ram&intf=a2630)
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: motrucker on September 20, 2005, 02:55:03 AM
Quote

Lex wrote:
2) Aside from the DKB 2632, there's the Jochheim Access 32, which uses ZIPs. Compare the two and look at the photos: amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?cat=ram&intf=a2630 (http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?cat=ram&intf=a2630)


Who would ever want to use ZIP ram at this point in time?! SIMMs are the only way to go, unless you're trying to put togetehr a real antique!

Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: motrucker on September 20, 2005, 02:58:08 AM
Quote

DamageX wrote:

2) What are my chances of getting a DKB 2632 RAM card (and is there any other A2630 RAM expansion?) ? Would that RAM be the same speed as the fast RAM on the A2630?



The RAM on this card will be the same speed as fast RAM on the accelerator.
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: Dr_Righteous on September 20, 2005, 06:01:53 AM
Quote

3) - Depends on your demands: An A4000 with A3630 or A3640 might be cheaper than a fast accelerator card with ram for an A2000. So if you just want to have a fast powerfull Amiga, you should look for an A4000 or an A1200 in a tower-case. The accelerator boards for the A1200 are much cheaper and easier to find than the ones for the A4000.


My A4k gets alot more use than my A2k, but I whole heartedly agree with the lack of accellerators for it. C'mon folks, throw us A4k lovers a BONE!
Title: Re: more A2000 questions
Post by: DamageX on September 20, 2005, 08:20:44 AM
I'm a person who is fascinated by the numbers. (A lot of old PC hardware I have setting around here was bought for the sole purpose of running benchmarks.)

After a while I had the idea to replace my 25MHz crystal with a socket so now I can plug in whatever crystal I want. It won't boot with 32MHz but I have 28.3MHz in there now and that works fine. The fast RAM doesn't give proportionally higher numbers under bustest like I expected it to which makes me wonder about how the timing for that (as well as the 2632) works.

Anyways, my A2000 was a bargain and I'm having fun with it but wishing I had AGA and more than 4MB of fast RAM.

As for RTG drivers, I'm not sure what one even does. I have programmed (S)VGA cards under assembly on the PC. Of course even that part would be harder on the Amiga since I can't call any VGA BIOS functions :)