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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga community support ideas => Topic started by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 03:58:03 PM

Title: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 03:58:03 PM
Does anyone in our community have the skills and tools such as hSpice or similar to design a new accelerator ourselves? I'm thinking of something similar to the Efika, with the same PPC, with maybe a 68060 @ 75Mhz, 2 Dimms for up to 2 GB Ram.

Would prefer to have it work like the Blizzard 1260+PPC. I noticed both are from the 603e family...

With the design in place, couldn't we contract the boards manufacture like the MiniMeg?

Also, would be great if Morphos could be ported to it. :-D

Lets take away the waiting and vaporware. Lets make this ourselves...

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: McVenco on May 09, 2007, 04:04:00 PM
 :horse:
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: nadoom on May 09, 2007, 04:19:33 PM
how about something less grand like a simple 68060 accelerator with support for modern memory formats etc?
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 04:39:08 PM
68060 at 75 Mhz, Real Time Clock, 2 DDR or DDR2 sockets. Would also require a memory controller.

I forget, was the 68882 math coprocessor built into the 68060?

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: motorollin on May 09, 2007, 04:39:56 PM
Quote
AmigaNow wrote:
I forget, was the 68882 math coprocessor built into the 68060?

Depends on the version of the CPU.

--
moto
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: pyrre on May 09, 2007, 05:28:16 PM
What if....

Someone made a new version of the 060..
perhaps running at.. uum.. lets say... 250MHz...
That should not be to hard, or what...?

(for starters...and later on, make an ATX form A4000T MB w/pci)
dreams, sweet dreams...
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 05:33:22 PM
Quote

pyrre wrote:
What if....

Someone made a new version of the 060..
perhaps running at.. uum.. lets say... 250MHz...
That should not be to hard, or what...?

--------------------------------------------------

What kind of speed could be obtained if the 68060 was programmed into a PLCC?

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: motorollin on May 09, 2007, 05:42:22 PM
The evolution of the 68k processor line is called ColdFire. It is questionable whether it is capable of running 68k (Amiga) code natively.

--
moto
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: pyrre on May 09, 2007, 06:00:34 PM
Quote
The evolution of the 68k processor line is called ColdFire. It is questionable whether it is capable of running 68k (Amiga) code natively.


Yes, but was not the Cold Fire project abandoned in favor of PPC?
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Doppie1200 on May 09, 2007, 07:07:22 PM
Would be a nice project. Although I would like to see an A600 accelerator as they are more uncommon. I think quite difficult a project to get going.

Most feasable 'accelerator' is currently build at home using the following steps (roughly);

1. Empty the case
2. Install mini/nano/pico -itx motherboard
3. Install hardisk and such
3. Hook the keyboard to that USB interface from Jens
4. Hook up the leds
5. Run UAE and have all the speed and ram you want.

Just pretend. No but really. The A1200 has adequate accelerators around. The PPC boards with those BVisions clearly reveil you really want to get rid of the old hardware.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Damion on May 09, 2007, 07:26:06 PM
Some type of A1200 desktop turbocard with on-board video and a fast HD controller would be great. The prices for even lowly '030 cards is ridiculous these days.

Weren't there a few decent A1200 cards actually completed (AmiJoe)? Maybe it would be easier to build from something like that, rather than starting from scratch with a new design.

Anyhow, as much as I would love to see something like this, it's basically dreaming. Even a basic card with a 68060 would be crazy expensive due to the cost of the CPU alone.







Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: skurk on May 09, 2007, 08:52:37 PM
Quote

AmigaNow wrote:
Does anyone in our community have the skills and tools such as hSpice or similar to design a new accelerator ourselves? I'm thinking of something similar to the Efika, with the same PPC, with maybe a 68060 @ 75Mhz, 2 Dimms for up to 2 GB Ram.


OK, here's a crazy thought:

A CPU accellerator board with an Intel CPU.  Before you all start kicking and screaming, let me explain.

The whole thing should behave like a 68060, because it's basically a CPU emulator.  No Intel instructions are available from the Amiga.

The board also holds 128MB RAM which behaves like the fastram, and is accessible at the board's local bus speed.  The chipram, located on the Amiga motherboard, will be as slow as before.

So, picture a 4 GHz Intel CPU doing nothing but 68k emulation.  No Windows hogging resources in the background, no multitasking.  Just one mission: Emulate the 68060 at full speed.

I would not be surprised if something like this would measure in the neighbourhood of a 7-800 MHz.  Only stuff in fastram would truly gain from this, but still - things would be *a lot* faster.

Hell of a project, though.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 09:01:14 PM
AMD62x4 would be awesome! Also, think about this... You could even run AROS on that!  :-o

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Donar on May 09, 2007, 09:09:16 PM
Quote
So, picture a 4 GHz Intel CPU doing nothing but 68k emulation. No Windows hogging resources in the background, no multitasking. Just one mission: Emulate the 68060 as fast at full speed.


Yeah a bicycle with a turbine can be really fun... but most people will be annoyed seeing it. Maybe take a less fast (and non intel) CPU for a "Classic" add on?  :-D
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: skurk on May 09, 2007, 09:13:35 PM
Quote

Donar wrote:
Yeah a bicycle with a turbine can be really fun... but most people will be annoyed seeing it. Maybe take a less fast (and non intel) CPU for a "Classic" add on?  :-D


Sure, I know it's blasphemic, but Intel does offer the "most bang for the buck" at the moment. :)

Anyway, I know it might not even be plausible, but still - a crazy, but fun thought :)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: corto on May 09, 2007, 09:56:05 PM
AmigaNow : Sorry but I think you doesn't know what you want. This is unrealistic ! You talk about Efika : maybe this is the accelerator you describe. Next you jump on the idea of AMD cpu ...

About Coldfire, it is partially compatible with 68k, they are cheap ... but they have no success and no particular power.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: vic20owner on May 09, 2007, 10:05:07 PM
actually I like the idea.... a hardware based emulator... it would still be faster than anything else for the 1200!

Unfortunately, I dont think it would fit in the trap door.

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 10:29:55 PM
I was thinking of placing it in a tower case. Dimensions would then not be such a problem. Also, space needed for cooling...

As for what I want, I want a new accelerator that is extremely fast. I always hear that the Amiga is too slow for internet even if a newer browser were to become available. Newer accelerators would allow the regular Amiga user to move up to mainstream. Not having to wait for new AOS or Morphos boards that may or may not become reality.

If one of the newer PPC chips could be put on a board, such as the 5200 (efika), it would seem that it could be compatable with the previous Power Up boards.

The notion that an Intel type chip could be used to emulate the 68060 seems like a good alternative. The board could be produced sans micro, leaving the user to determine the exact one they desire. And with proper cooling and overclocking...  :-D

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Damion on May 09, 2007, 11:02:22 PM
I think we'd have to start some sort of "bounty" and acquire a bunch of money to cover r&d. ;-)

So, theoretically, an accelerator with PPC/JIT/MorphOS would run things like WHDLoad games due to the presence of the AGA chipset.

So we'd need:

Some sort of PPC
GFX chip ??
IDE controller
single SIMM slot (should be enough)
MorphOS port

Any takers on how much it would cost to design something like this?  :crazy:  My guess is there would be a market of *maybe* 200 units.




Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: corto on May 09, 2007, 11:13:27 PM
Why an accelerator for 68k machines when you have PPC machines with OS that emulate 68k really fast. Where is the pleasure dreaming about something that won't exist and ignoring hardware that is/was available ??
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 09, 2007, 11:25:38 PM
Quote

corto wrote:
Why an accelerator for 68k machines when you have PPC machines with OS that emulate 68k really fast. Where is the pleasure dreaming about something that won't exist and ignoring hardware that is/was available ??


Amiga 68k computers can still be obtained, whereas the other NG ones are still vapourware until they come out. I was originally excited when I saw specs had come out for the new entry level Amiga. It was faster than the original Blizzard 603e PPC. But when you really check the specs, it's not as powerful as the Efika. (Which right now hasn't yet been made Amiga compatible)

I would imagine if those wanting the Power Vixxen, those wanting the BlizzardPPC, etc. got together we might come up with more than 200 that wanted it...

AmigaNow

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on May 09, 2007, 11:48:00 PM
200 orders is not enough to pay for the development costs.

With re-creations of the classic chipset just around the corner any hardware developer would be mad to make an accelerator for classic Amiga's.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: zyphoid on May 09, 2007, 11:56:33 PM
yea, I'd want one too! I think 200units would disappear in 2 days! Ive been waiting for someone to come out thinking outside the box! Towered great, how would you emulate comapatability for native programs?  Amiga programs are so tempermental.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: stopthegop on May 10, 2007, 12:30:29 AM
Not impossible. (http://www.czuba-tech.com/CT60/english/welcome.htm)  Nor is it unrealistic.  
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Damion on May 10, 2007, 01:26:44 AM
Quote

alexh wrote:
200 orders is not enough to pay for the development costs.


Exactly, some of the money would have to be put forth ahead of time. If 200 people donated $50 each, there would be a 10k kitty for r&d. That's probably peanuts for this type of project, but then again I really have no idea. Naturally, you'd have to find someone willing and capable, and that's where this silly dream ends (in my head, anyway).

Quote

With re-creations of the classic chipset just around the corner any hardware developer would be mad to make an accelerator for classic Amiga's.


For the most part I agree, but the reality is no one is taking this too seriously. Just BS-ing. :-)

@stopthegop

BUT... the 68060 is rare and very expensive these days. A PPC based product would be the best option IMHO, but then the design complexity increases.

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: amigakid on May 10, 2007, 02:41:01 AM
Kinda a far reach i'd say, but hey who knows.  

Keep on Boinging! :devildance:  :devildance:
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on May 10, 2007, 09:50:14 AM
Quote

-D- wrote:
If 200 people donated $50 each, there would be a 10k kitty for r&d. That's probably peanuts for this type of project

That would barely pay the license for the PCB layout tools and the tooling costs for the A1200 connector. You can forget about the salary of the person doing the work.

Quote
BUT... the 68060 is rare and very expensive these days.

$100 isnt too bad
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AJCopland on May 10, 2007, 10:07:39 AM
@alexh
$10k wouldn't cover wages but if it was someone, or some group, from the community doing it for the love it as the original poster probably mean't then wages wouldn't be such an issue.

You seem to know a little about this sort of thing, how complicated would reworking the CT60/63 for the A1200 be?

Andy
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: stopthegop on May 10, 2007, 10:17:38 AM
The CT-63 goes for ~340 Euros, just to give a rough idea what a hypothetical classic Amiga board might go for.  I think it safe to say there would need to be a minimum 150 orders, probably more like 250, with at least some of the money in advance, to spark anyone's interest in creating such a board.  I, for one, would love to be able to slap a 512M DIMM into my A4000T so sign me up if someone qualified decides to build it!  Question is, are there 149 others?  
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: skurk on May 10, 2007, 10:21:28 AM
Quote

alexh wrote:
That would barely pay the license for the PCB layout tools and the tooling costs for the A1200 connector. You can forget about the salary of the person doing the work.


How about royalties?  That could make a neat sum after if, say, 200 boards were sold.

Oh, and it should have two connectors (selectable with a jumper) - one for the A1200, the other for A4000 :)

Double the action, triple the excitement!
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: skurk on May 10, 2007, 10:25:20 AM
Quote

stopthegop wrote:
I, for one, would love to be able to slap a 512M DIMM into my A4000T so sign me up if someone qualified decides to build it!  Question is, are there 149 others?


Make that 148! :)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Daedalus on May 10, 2007, 10:55:28 AM
Quote

stopthegop wrote:
The CT-63 goes for ~340 Euros, just to give a rough idea what a hypothetical classic Amiga board might go for.  I think it safe to say there would need to be a minimum 150 orders, probably more like 250, with at least some of the money in advance, to spark anyone's interest in creating such a board.  I, for one, would love to be able to slap a 512M DIMM into my A4000T so sign me up if someone qualified decides to build it!  Question is, are there 149 others?  


How many of those boards would have been made and sold? They're just as custom as a 1200 board would be, and I'm not sure, but I would've thought there was a *smaller* market for Falcon boards? €340 is a decent price, I'd go for it!
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on May 10, 2007, 11:31:59 AM
Quote
AJCopland wrote:
You seem to know a little about this sort of thing, how complicated would reworking the CT60/63 for the A1200 be?

You really think Rodolphe will release the source to his 680x0 SDRAM controller?

The Falcon bridge in the CT60/63 looks quite a bit more complicated than the Amiga equivalent would be.

Quote
skurk wrote:
How about royalties? That could make a neat sum after if, say, 200 boards were sold.

Not quite sure what you mean. Surely the person doing the design will also manufacture and sell the boards. Any/all profit will go to them. However I would bet that even with 200 sales it will be a negative number, or the retail price would be unacceptable.

I have said it several times before, if someone who used to work for Phase5 / DCE came forward with the schematics, layout and firmware source code to the last versions of the CSPPC/BPPC then a new accelerator project instantly becomes viable.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: stopthegop on May 10, 2007, 11:46:19 AM
I'm not by any means certain about this, but I think for the initial run of Falcon accelerators he wanted (and apparently got) around 75 orders??  That would have been for the Centurbo or CT-60.  He's improved the design (its now the CT-63) and done at least four additional production "runs" since the first bactch..  Guessing again, but I imagine each additional production "run" was for 25 orders or more.  My guess is there are at least 200 CT's out there somewhere.  I agree with you, too, that the Amiga audience is probably quite a bit larger.  Certainly not "large" by peesea standards..  But 300-400 boards x 340Euros each... ain't exactly peanuts.  
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ratte on May 10, 2007, 01:36:22 PM
Quote

skurk wrote:

OK, here's a crazy thought:

A CPU accellerator board with an Intel CPU.  Before you all start kicking and screaming, let me explain.

The whole thing should behave like a 68060, because it's basically a CPU emulator.  No Intel instructions are available from the Amiga.

The board also holds 128MB RAM which behaves like the fastram, and is accessible at the board's local bus speed.  The chipram, located on the Amiga motherboard, will be as slow as before.

So, picture a 4 GHz Intel CPU doing nothing but 68k emulation.  No Windows hogging resources in the background, no multitasking.  Just one mission: Emulate the 68060 at full speed.

I would not be surprised if something like this would measure in the neighbourhood of a 7-800 MHz.  Only stuff in fastram would truly gain from this, but still - things would be *a lot* faster.

Hell of a project, though.


http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334 (http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334)
sorry, its in german :)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: skurk on May 10, 2007, 01:49:35 PM
Quote

Ratte wrote:
http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334 (http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334)
sorry, its in german :)


Wow.  You had the exact same idea, nearly exactly one year before me.

What are the odds? :)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on May 10, 2007, 02:17:21 PM
Quote

stopthegop wrote:
My guess is there are at least 200 CT's out there somewhere.

Quite possibly.

Quote
the Amiga audience is probably quite a bit larger.

Probably.

Quote
But 300-400 boards x 340Euros each... ain't exactly peanuts.

You are forgetting one KEY thing. There were no 060 accelerators for the Atari Falcon at all and very few 040 accelerators. It was a unique product in the Falcon community with a high percentage wanting one.

There are LOTS of 060 accelerators for the Amiga platform already out there. Demand will be a lot lower than you think.

€340 is too much for an 060 Amiga accelerator. You either have to have significantly more features than existing accelerators, or a price differential.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Louis Dias on May 10, 2007, 02:58:33 PM
Why not see if Transmeta has a 68k implementation?
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AJCopland on May 10, 2007, 03:04:34 PM
Because interfacing between a 68060 and the existing miggy buses etc etc is a solved problem that people know how to do.

The Transmeta/Intel/AMDx2 etc are totally impractical as replacement cpus due to radical differences in the buses requiring extensive bridge logic to allow them to communicate.

(from the little that I can remember / understand.)
(Also the Wii does NOT have shader hardware. I'd have replied to your thread on AW.net but I have no account there.)

Andy
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: HammerD on May 10, 2007, 03:37:18 PM
I personally would rather see a PPC accelerator so you can either run MorphOS or OS4 on your classic amiga.  The phase5/DEC ppc cards are rare and expensive, and I think you could probably sell a more modern PPC accelerator card to a reasonable number of classic Amiga users.  

I'd say a PPC accelerator with a G3 on it, a local ram socket and anything else that fits (like a video chip).  Would be very nice...
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: jj on May 10, 2007, 04:22:34 PM
Why bother, OS4 has been released, so any second now elbox should be releasing the Sharkppc  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: CannonFodder on May 10, 2007, 04:57:41 PM
Quote

JJ wrote:
Why bother, OS4 has been released


Link to where I can buy it from please.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: jj on May 10, 2007, 05:08:29 PM
you cant buy os4, but it was released to people who had an A1 (sorry not alowed to call it an A1 anymore, cause according to Ainc it wasnt)

So I am just waiting for the shark to come out, shouldn't be too much longer for the dragon either

 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Think I just burst something laughing
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ratte on May 10, 2007, 05:27:10 PM
Quote

skurk wrote:
Quote

Ratte wrote:
http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334 (http://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?mode=viewthread&forum_id=2&thread=334)
sorry, its in german :)


Wow.  You had the exact same idea, nearly exactly one year before me.

What are the odds? :)


Rom wasn't built in one day.
(or should i say Babylon?!)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Fransexy_ on May 10, 2007, 07:37:52 PM
Quote

AmigaNow wrote:
Does anyone in our community have the skills and tools such as hSpice or similar to design a new accelerator ourselves? I'm thinking of something similar to the Efika, with the same PPC, with maybe a 68060 @ 75Mhz, 2 Dimms for up to 2 GB Ram.

Would prefer to have it work like the Blizzard 1260+PPC. I noticed both are from the 603e family...

With the design in place, couldn't we contract the boards manufacture like the MiniMeg?

Also, would be great if Morphos could be ported to it. :-D

Lets take away the waiting and vaporware. Lets make this ourselves...

AmigaNow


I had more or less the same idea (http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=22289&forum=25)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AJCopland on May 10, 2007, 09:10:18 PM
Quote

alexh wrote:
Quote
AJCopland wrote:
You seem to know a little about this sort of thing, how complicated would reworking the CT60/63 for the A1200 be?

You really think Rodolphe will release the source to his 680x0 SDRAM controller?

The Falcon bridge in the CT60/63 looks quite a bit more complicated than the Amiga equivalent would be.


Release the source? No maybe not, it's worth something to him and he seems to have put a lot of effort into it. Maybe he would be willing to licence it for a reasonable fee per board though?

I'm only proposing potential options to humour the original poster and satisfy some curiosity :-D

If the bridge (I assume you mean the connector) is much more complicated then would it be fair to assume that the task of porting the CT60/63 design to an A1200 connector would be simplified? Or would it be complicated by the lack of those extra signals and lines available on the Falcon?

Andy
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: stopthegop on May 11, 2007, 06:10:51 AM
Mathew from Amigakit is probably the best qualified to predict how many such boards might realistically sell.  I'm still guessing in the 300-400 range, perhaps more.    
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Damion on May 11, 2007, 06:58:39 AM
I've been reading up on the AmiJoe a bit, and, ha ha, it seems like this is exactly what the ACK A1200 card was patterned after (complete with mini-PCI and all).

Anyhow, Haynie seems to think the designer of AmiJoe was a pretty intelligent fellow. The board contained some custom logic, was a *very* complex design, and still had some bugs to iron out before production. Not to mention the software aspect. You would need a group of far above average hardware and software engineers to pull something like this off, some very expensive equipment, people who know how to use that equipment, etc.

Bottom line... my perspective: honestly, there is a greater chance of hell freezing over than another A1200 PPC turbocard release. Let alone with graphics, LOL. (Though it was a nice idea to keep my thoughts occupied for a few days at work.) A "basic" (by comparison) 680x0 card is somewhat more realistic.

At this point, I'd be perfectly content to settle with an '030 + SCSI card. ;-)

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: adonay on May 11, 2007, 08:22:23 AM
Is it even possible to get amiga 1200 expantion connectors ? I wonder if it is possible to contact jens about that ... I have some homebrew projects i would like to experiment with but need that edge connector preferely more than one ....  Buying second hand Cheap  :lol: ram expantions and desolder wont do it ... As for production i think we will never see another ppc like the bppc .. I always dream i can make a improved one my self but i know it will stop at my lack of coding skills  :boohoo: As far as board design it can be done but it is sooooo complex. as saied before you most liketly need several skilled designers for such a project...

*edit* but for my own experiments and study i would like too obtain a few connector say 10x
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on May 11, 2007, 08:52:25 AM
Quote

AJCopland wrote:
If the bridge (I assume you mean the connector)

Nope I mean bridge. The Falcon bus and the Amiga bus are not 100% the same as the 680x0 bus and some logic must live between the two.

Quote
would it be fair to assume that the task of porting the CT60/63 design to an A1200 would be simplified?

Possibly. However other parts of the design may have been created to be optimal with the falcon bridge which might be sub-optimal with an Amiga bridge. Needs some more research. But as this is almost a pointless exercise (due to the number of 060 boards already in circulation) I doubt anyone will do it.

Quote

adonay wrote:
Is it even possible to get amiga 1200 expantion connectors ? I wonder if it is possible to contact jens about that ...

Yes, Jens has the tooling to make A1200 connectors. He made some for ACK who never paid him (according to Jen's blog).

Quote
adonay wrote:
*edit* but for my own experiments and study i would like too obtain a few connector say 10x

I would imagine that Jen's wouldnt supply less than 100. Most companies dont make less than 1000 when it comes to injection moulded connectors. Ask him, he may have some lying around.

When I made my CD32 FastRAM addon I could only get 3x connectors (free samples) without paying a fortune.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AJCopland on May 11, 2007, 09:54:03 AM
Quote

alexh wrote:
Quote

AJCopland wrote:
If the bridge (I assume you mean the connector)

Nope I mean bridge. The Falcon bus and the Amiga bus are not 100% the same as the 680x0 bus and some logic must live between the two.

Damn I really hoped you didn't mean a literal Bridge, might as well go for a full PPC chip if you've got to create a bridge to map between the two anyway. Didn't realise you were an ASIC engineer 'til I took a look at your profile :-)

I realise that no-one is likely to go ahead and create one, I'm just treating this as a mental exercise in the whys and wherefores ;-)

Quote

alexh wrote:
Quote
adonay wrote:
*edit* but for my own experiments and study i would like too obtain a few connector say 10x

I would imagine that Jen's wouldnt supply less than 100. Most companies dont make less than 1000 when it comes to injection moulded connectors. Ask him, he may have some lying around.

When I made my CD32 FastRAM addon I could only get 3x connectors (free samples) without paying a fortune.

I've just picked up a CD32 (and keyboard) did you release the design for your FastRAM addon?

Andy
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: AmigaNow on May 12, 2007, 03:17:50 AM
Since the edge connectors could be a problem, how difficult would it be to make the accelerator on a PCI card like the Shark?
    And I have been thinking about the Intel type 060 accelerator. The board cost would be reduced as it would have just the socket waiting for a proc...
    Imagine like WinUae you could select from a menu which 680X0 cpu you wished, which would run at extreme speeds... :-D

AmigaNow
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: arnljot on August 19, 2007, 03:04:33 PM
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stopthegop wrote:
I, for one, would love to be able to slap a 512M DIMM into my A4000T so sign me up if someone qualified decides to build it! Question is, are there 149 others?

Make that 148! :)  


Now I guess we only need 147 others? :)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: da9000 on January 12, 2008, 03:04:54 PM
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Donar wrote:
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So, picture a 4 GHz Intel CPU doing nothing but 68k emulation. No Windows hogging resources in the background, no multitasking. Just one mission: Emulate the 68060 as fast at full speed.


Yeah a bicycle with a turbine can be really fun... but most people will be annoyed seeing it. Maybe take a less fast (and non intel) CPU for a "Classic" add on?  :-D


I think the phrase is not "people will be annoyed seeing it", but "the rider, along with the bicycle will experience a serious melt-down" :-D

OK, back to dreaming...

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: justthatgood on January 12, 2008, 03:22:37 PM
I kinda liken the ideas of making advanced Amiga accelerators around the community to expert twelve and thirteen year old boys in lockers rooms and such. Most of them will say and think they are truly the most expert sexual physiologists, therapists, psychologists in their field to date.

Yet most of them have no idea at all what they are talking about. Usually the "experts" of the group will chime in with factual data they have researched (usually from the naughty films they sneak from their uncles movie collection), but it's basically all that results out of it, talk.

The very last real face to face conversation I had with a person about Amiga stuff resulted in me being asked if I was one of those insane nuts that have that Messiah complex. Yes most people in the computer industry and about think that most Amiga people are still stuck in the 1990's waiting for their Messiah to come back and lead them to computer Nirvana or something..

Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: da9000 on January 12, 2008, 03:42:45 PM
Hahaha. Nice metaphor AmigaHeretic!

But Amiga and accelerators is much better than pr0n! :-P
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: thaddaeus on January 26, 2008, 12:30:17 PM
i like the whole DIY attitude . i have no engineerg education just a basic knowledge of low voltage electronics. i rember seeing articles on how to build your own sampler out of analog to digital converters and things like that. i started out with computers in 1980(i think) putting together a timex sinclair kit he ordered(quite a frustrating computer glad that C=64 came along a few years later)
is anyone else interested in realtime embeded controllers like the basic stamp, or the audrino or m68chc11(i used the pc dev pack from it but aminet had shareware for it. i have ideas for installation work using amiga 1200s, in tower cases, controlling sensors to do lights sound slideprojectors ect. (of course all this kind of gear exits already but it's all proprietary and expensive)
i was pretty simple with the commodore 64, just use peeks and pokes to the user port (i even just soldered telephone directy to the thing instead of using a connector for one art gallry project i did in chicago (unfortunatly my coding was terrible and i didn't have an eeprom burner to play with to really learn to use it well)

all i can do really well is draw anyways lol

thaddaeus
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Piru on January 26, 2008, 12:37:17 PM
@AmigaNow
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Imagine like WinUae you could select from a menu which 680X0 cpu you wished, which would run at extreme speeds...

The emulated 68060 is faster than the real thing anyway.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Oli_hd on January 26, 2008, 01:40:43 PM
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i was pretty simple with the commodore 64, just use peeks and pokes to the user port

There is peek and poke programs for the Amiga which let you set the printer port (and obviously anything else) so the Amiga didnt make things any harder. :) (There was a nice piece in Amiga format about peeking and poking the Amiga's registers in a thing they did on the CIA chips, was well cool)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: ematech on January 26, 2008, 09:01:34 PM
Motorola's Latest ColdFire(R) Processor Delivers High Performance for Cost Sensitive 32-bit Embedded Applications




Motorola's Latest ColdFire(R) Processor Delivers High Performance for Cost Sensitive 32-bit Embedded Applications


AUSTIN, Texas, April 25 -- Continuing to deliver on its commitment to provide 68K/ColdFire® processor customers a cost-effective mix of performance, integration and tools, Motorola, Inc. announced its first standard product based on the Version 4 (V4) ColdFire® core. The MCF5407 integrated microprocessor uses smart DigitalDNA(TM) technology to build upon the success of the award-winning(1) MCF5307 device by combining its peripheral set with the high performance V4 microarchitecture.

``With the significantly high performance boost, coupled with the aggressive pricing, the ColdFire V4 microprocessor will undoubtedly take Motorola to a higher level in the embedded control market. This latest development will further solidify the 68K/ColdFire architecture's strong position,'' said Tony Massimini, chief of technology, Semico Research Corporation.

Expected to be priced in the $20 range, the MCF5407 processor achieves a 257 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS performance level at 162 MHz, offering more than twice the performance of any previous 68K/ColdFire product. On-chip peripherals include commonly used embedded functions such as DMA and DRAM controllers, timers, serial and parallel communication interfaces and an I2C controller, thereby decreasing system cost and time-to-market.

``By combining so many attractive features -- high performance, integration, code compatibility, development tool support -- together with what we believe to be a compelling price, we are demonstrating why the 68K/ColdFire family continues to be one of the most successful 32-bit embedded architectures,'' said Mario Rivas, corporate vice-president and general manager, Standard Embedded Solutions Group of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector.

The product's significant performance increase over previous standard ColdFire product provides an attractive roadmap for 68K/ColdFire designs. The package, pinout and integration mix of the MCF5407 processor offers current MCF5307 users a simple pin-to-pin compatible upgrade with more than three times the performance. In addition, current MC68EC040 and MC68EC060 designs migrating to the MCF5407 processor will see a performance increase up to 10 times, while benefiting from the broad array of integration available on the MCF5407.

Motorola's ColdFire development roadmap is based on a strong foundation of reuse, giving designers the flexibility to create new classes of electronics while leveraging previous investments. Extending the successful 68K processor into new performance levels, the 100% synthesizable ColdFire family is ideal for emerging high volume, cost sensitive embedded markets where world-class development tools and software and programmer familiarity can be leveraged.

Pricing and Availability

The MCF5407 is packaged in a 208-pin plastic QFP and is built in an aggressive 0.22 micron QLM technology. Sampling is expected to begin in May, with production following in the third quarter of 2000. The device will be initially offered for commercial temperature (0-70 degrees) operation at 162 MHz. The suggested list price is $19.95 in 10K quantities.

About Motorola

As the world's No.1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA(TM) technologies which enable its customers to create ``smart'' products and new business opportunities in the networking and computing, wireless communications, transportation, and imaging and entertainment markets. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.4 billion (USD) in 1999. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ohforf on January 26, 2008, 10:54:40 PM
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ematech wrote:
Motorola's Latest ColdFire(R) Processor Delivers High Performance for Cost Sensitive 32-bit Embedded Applications

Bla Bla Copypasta Bla Bla...


Ok, nice CPU and stuff...
We have been waiting for Coldfire Addon Cards for a loong Time now.
As long as nobody builds a working piece of Hardware and sells it - or makes it open source -
NOTHING will ever happen.
 :horse:  :popcorn:  
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: rkauer on January 27, 2008, 02:31:34 AM
 Plus, the Coldfire is NOT fully compatible with 68060 or any processor before.

 My best bet is another type of CPU (PPC G4/G5, x86, you name it), emulating one of those "old" 68k (020? 030?), but at 100x or even 1000x the original speed. With a table of instructions for emulate. The only drawback in this type of design is getting the code of old CPU. Motorola/Freescale won't give it away for nothing, so: :horse:
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ohforf on January 27, 2008, 05:14:21 AM
The dead Horse has been beaten to a pulp by now  :cry:
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ruttolomeo on January 27, 2008, 11:15:43 AM
Why not utilize G3/G4 zif/megarray cpu modules from powermac/imac (still in production) for a new A1200 accelerator design?
I think it's a viable solution for the amiga market...

R.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on January 27, 2008, 04:59:46 PM
No it's not. There is no viable solution. MiniMig has brought us a lot closer though.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ruttolomeo on January 27, 2008, 08:50:34 PM
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alexh wrote:
No it's not. There is no viable solution. MiniMig has brought us a lot closer though.


Minimig isn't flexible and expandable like an A1200...

R.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: alexh on January 27, 2008, 08:57:39 PM
You think only in 2 dimensions.

If you want to think as MiniMig as an object then yes, the MiniMig v1.1 PCB isn't very good.

However the IP behind MiniMig is open source, any hardware engineer capable of creating an Amiga product of any complexity (with an ounce of buisness sense) is now thinking MegaMig. They are not thinking A1200 accelerator.
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ratte on February 01, 2008, 06:08:22 PM
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da9000 wrote:
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Donar wrote:
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So, picture a 4 GHz Intel CPU doing nothing but 68k emulation. No Windows hogging resources in the background, no multitasking. Just one mission: Emulate the 68060 as fast at full speed.


Yeah a bicycle with a turbine can be really fun... but most people will be annoyed seeing it. Maybe take a less fast (and non intel) CPU for a "Classic" add on?  :-D


I think the phrase is not "people will be annoyed seeing it", but "the rider, along with the bicycle will experience a serious melt-down" :-D

OK, back to dreaming...



Sorry old link broken ...
http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?p=133859 (http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?p=133859)
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: Ratte on February 01, 2008, 06:14:28 PM
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alexh wrote:
You think only in 2 dimensions.

If you want to think as MiniMig as an object then yes, the MiniMig v1.1 PCB isn't very good.

However the IP behind MiniMig is open source, any hardware engineer capable of creating an Amiga product of any complexity (with an ounce of buisness sense) is now thinking MegaMig. They are not thinking A1200 accelerator.


This is also opensource .. (http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?p=137516)
Still work in progress, but lets think about a combination of zorro and minimig.
Nearly all signals are present ...
MM2000 ?!
 :-P
Title: Re: Home grown A1200 accelerator project
Post by: da9000 on February 09, 2008, 02:00:51 AM
That's just SUPER AWESOME Ratte!

I wish I could read it one day (hint, hint :-). Keep up the great work!