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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: SamOS39 on February 10, 2008, 08:09:26 PM

Title: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 10, 2008, 08:09:26 PM
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/001.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/002.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/003.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/004.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/005.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/006.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/007.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/008.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/009.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/010.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/011.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/012.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/013.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/014.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/015.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/016.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/017.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/018.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/019.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/020.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/021.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/022.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/023.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/024.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/amiga_knight/X500/025.jpg

All the pictures are in order but im thinking of starting a project website  ;-)

It isnt finished obviously there are loads more things that need doing .. though next thing i need to do is mount that back panel properly  :lol: duck tape is securing it at the moment though  :crazy:

I havent wired it up yet. Plus the mother board in the pictures is a fualty one i had kicking around, i was just using it for reference  :-)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Krusher on February 10, 2008, 08:16:42 PM
This is one major project  :-o

And I saw you cut yourself so this project already claimed it's first victim  :-P
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: monami on February 10, 2008, 08:19:13 PM
i think you need a sheet of perspex across the back. cut holes needed for the outputs...
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 10, 2008, 08:21:19 PM
i always end up cutting myself on those cases grr :roll:
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: A6000 on February 10, 2008, 08:27:45 PM
Thanks for the pictures, makes me feel more confident of being able to install a 1200 in an ATX miditower case.

Just need to find a pair of chainmail gloves first!.
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 10, 2008, 08:30:42 PM
yeh, angle grinders are pretty scary  :-D

just make sure your wearing eye protection  :-o
Title: canterbury snobbery fun
Post by: weirdami on February 10, 2008, 09:00:16 PM
@SamOS39

The proper old english is "ii".  :lol:



Title: Re: canterbury snobbery fun
Post by: SamOS39 on February 10, 2008, 09:16:24 PM
oops didnt notice that hehe must be tired :-)
Title: Re: canterbury snobbery fun
Post by: trekiej on February 10, 2008, 10:39:46 PM
Cool project.  I look toward seeing it finished.
 :-)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: arnljot on February 10, 2008, 10:52:35 PM
Is there such a thing as a zorro adaptor for the A500?

If so, this can be a towered a500 with 2.04 ROM, soft kicked to 3.1, with a RTG card and sound card, 030 accellerator? Or am I having a dizzy fever fantasy here?
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Floid on February 10, 2008, 10:53:18 PM
This is barely a tip, but for what it's worth...  the sort of cases that go for <$20 from Newegg (et al) are now very thin and could almost be worked on with snips.  Might be something to consider if embarking on a tower project versus using surplus, depending what tools are on hand.

Also, nice work!
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: zipper on February 11, 2008, 06:19:46 AM
Quote

arnljot wrote:
Is there such a thing as a zorro adaptor for the A500?

If so, this can be a towered a500 with 2.04 ROM, soft kicked to 3.1, with a RTG card and sound card, 030 accellerator? Or am I having a dizzy fever fantasy here?


Micronik has done it (and a couple of others, too):

Micronik A500 Classic Mini Tower (http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1801=7)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: rkauer on February 11, 2008, 06:31:33 AM
 And there is a hack on Aminet describing how to use a Zorro II card on any A500.
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 11, 2008, 08:38:00 AM
cheers!

yes, i plan on actually making a busboard using schematics off aminet..
ive even got some old isa sockets to cut up now  :-)
.. but this is a seperate part of the project.

at the moment my aim is to get the back panel properly mounted, the PSU wired up to the main board
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34416
and get a floppy drive in there.

oh yes and i need to make (or buy) a keyboard interface  
THEN i can start work on the prototype of the new bus expansion board with 4x 50mhz 030's giving you a wopping 200mhz, ram expansion, ide interface, zorro2/isa/pci slots :insane:
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: pyrre on February 11, 2008, 11:02:41 AM
Quote
4x 50mhz 030's giving you a wopping 200mhz


How are you planning on doing that?
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 11, 2008, 11:09:18 AM
dont know but i can set myself goals cant i ..?
ill find a way ..   :-)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: pyrre on February 11, 2008, 11:16:10 AM
yea... goals are sure nice to have...
But four CPUs do not add up to 4 times the mhz. unless you find some way for the os to split the task 4 ways and run it parallel trough the four cpus.
If i am not wrong the amiga os do not even support multi cpus (of same type i.e. two or four 060s...)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: SamOS39 on February 11, 2008, 11:22:41 AM
what about connecting them in a chain on one board

wont the amiga treat it as one super fast CPU ..?
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: pyrre on February 11, 2008, 11:32:32 AM
I am not a hardware wizz... but i seriously doubt it...
If you put it in serial you will run the same task/process four times. and thus reduce performance. In parallel amiga os (i guess) would see only one cpu and crash when four cpus tries to do the same thing...
However separating them on the fsb and giving them a separate cpu bus may work
But still the os has to support multi cpus at first.
And i don't think amiga os is capable of doing so....
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Piru on February 11, 2008, 11:42:29 AM
@pyrre

You realize he was just joking, right? ;-)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: countzero on February 11, 2008, 11:44:00 AM
Quote

SamOS39 wrote:
what about connecting them in a chain on one board

wont the amiga treat it as one super fast CPU ..?


Of course, no.

68k was not designed with multiprocessor architecture in mind. You can't do it unless you design a really heavy logic system which does task management between processors and a new exec which handles this hardware on the OS side.

see 88000, a RISC based CPU from motorola which can be used in a multiprocessor architecture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_88000
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: A6000 on February 11, 2008, 12:07:38 PM
I think applications must be specially coded to use multiple processors, if you just want to "try it out" you could network 3 or more A500's using their serial ports and a program called sernet or parnet using parallel ports, then split your application between all your computers.
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: pyrre on February 11, 2008, 12:13:18 PM
@ Piru

No, not really....  :-D
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Iggy_Drougge on February 11, 2008, 11:47:33 PM
Quote
68k was not designed with multiprocessor architecture in mind. You can't do it unless you design a really heavy logic system which does task management between processors and a new exec which handles this hardware on the OS side.

There was a Swedish company, DIAB, that built multi-processor 68k UNIX systems. I think their last one had 4 x 68040.
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Piru on February 11, 2008, 11:49:39 PM
@pyrre

Apparently he wasn't... :-)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: Trev on February 12, 2008, 12:18:34 AM
Now everyone's going to want one. And while we're dreaming, how about a hardware hypervisor with a pluggable instruction translator? Actually, if one can make a CPU expansion, why not a lightweight hypervisor? Can't context switch the custom chips, though, so I guess in the end you'd end up with a Minimig-thing capable of hosting multiple instances of the kernel. (Has anyone tried that in software with an MMU-based system?)
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: redrumloa on February 12, 2008, 12:46:04 AM
Seeing this A500T project and then this C64T (http://jope.fi/c64t/) project, has given me the itch..

Coming soon.. The Ultimate Commodore 128 Tower Project!  :-o Yes, the computer in my tag-line will be converted into a tower! :-D
Title: Re: A500T project! - what ive done this weekend : )
Post by: rkauer on February 12, 2008, 01:25:26 AM
Quote

SamOS39 wrote:
cheers!

oh yes and i need to make (or buy) a keyboard interface  
THEN i can start work on the prototype of the new bus expansion board with 4x 50mhz 030's giving you a wopping 200mhz, ram expansion, ide interface, zorro2/isa/pci slots :insane:


 If you have enough talent, use the original keyboard in the original case as a keyboard only.

 You just need to use 6 wires to route the +5V, GND, keyb_data, Keyb_clock and the two LEDs.

_________________________________________

 Or use an original keyboard from an A2000/3000/4000. Note you loose the LEDs.