Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: magnetic on September 04, 2003, 07:22:44 PM
-
Hello Coldfire Dev
You had been very active lately with the arrival of your prototype board. Can you give us all a status update please? No news is not good news in this case.
magnetic
-
have you checked out www.cdtv.org.uk?
-
Just been on the cdtv site - no sign of coldfire..
But I share the same birthday as the guy that runs it - though I'm a little older :-)
-
here it is :) (http://www.cdtv.org.uk/coldfire/)
This is where the coldfir lives :-)
-
The site address is www.cdtv.org.uk/coldfire
The site has not been updated since june or july.
I think the current status is that he will be
at the Benelux Amiga show but i dont know
if it will be with a working board or not ?
-
@all
no great news about the ColdFusion project.
I'm still often in contact with Oliver Day.
AFAIK No chance for Benelux Amiga show. . .sorry.
You can subscribe on AmigaColdfire ML. See on Oliver's site.
Ciao
PS-on the ML, there is a weekly update about the project.
-
@Framiga
Read the list of exhibitors on Benelux site
http:www.beneluxamigashow.com/index_en.htm (http://www.beneluxamigashow.com/index_en.htm)
click on News then Read more
-
@BADHead
Yes we know that he will be there, but wether he will have an actually
working card by than is another question. Looking at the maillist I
can only guess that a clear "no" will be the answer ....
-
I got an update off the Yahoo Group the other day... Oli is having trouble with the new prototype. The CPU is getting too hot for some reason and he's working the bugs out. He's also got a couple of side projects going, including Z3 USB and Firewire cards (spinoffs from the CF card's features).
So, things are progressing... Just not as quickly as we'd all like.
-
quote]Hello Coldfire Dev[/quote]
Hello Amiga.org user :-D
Can you give us all a status update please?
I'm having problems with the Coldfire chip, its getting way to hot within second, I've checked for shorts, power faults and I've changed the Coldfire but still having the same problems so last night I ripped 1/4 of the Coldfire's legs up and checked then, (I lifted up the side with the debug port pins & UART's.) unfortunately the problem still remains so the next time I get some free time I will do another quarter. (Probably the Address bus next)
No news is not good news in this case.
No news is no news in this case, when something happens, good or bad, I will post it, but as it stands nothing major has happened yet. :-(
I got an update off the Yahoo Group the other day... Oli is having trouble with the new prototype. The CPU is getting too hot for some reason and he's working the bugs out. He's also got a couple of side projects going, including Z3 USB and Firewire
cards (spinoffs from the CF card's features).
Correct. (Although the cards are Z2 because the USB chips 8bit and the Firewires 16)
Yes we know that he will be there, but wether he will have an actually working card by than is another question.
Yep, unfortunately I cant give a yes or no, the card should work but it doesn?t, so Im shooting in the dark till I find whats wrong, once the CPU is active hopefully things will move much faster, but the stand will have other things to hopefully.
(PS: as for the show, Im not 100% fixed yet as I still have to work out costs but its a good 99%)
-
I'd love to see this working.
-
by BADHead on 2003/9/5 4:45:55
@Framiga
Read the list of exhibitors on Benelux site
http:www.beneluxamigashow.com/index_en.htm
click on News then Read more
Mhhh . . .yes, Oliver Day will be present at Benelux (already know) but unfortunately, without his board.
The Coldfusion Project (this is the new name of the project due Amiga Inc royalties) is still in debugging state (even if advanced debugging state).
Some very little problem about some wrong PCB prototype fault vias, and we all hope to see a full working board, within this year.
Isn't so . . .Olli!!
Ciao
-
Hi,
Oliver Day will be present at Benelux (already know) but unfortunately, without his board.
Ermm, I will have the board, I wouldnt go otherwise :-?
And I will be taking my CDTV-CR.
(this is the new name of the project due Amiga Inc royalties)
Again nope, no accelerator is called the Amiga something something (Except the standard ones in the Amiga) and this will be no different, As for not wanting to pay Amiga royalties, I would be happy to if I use an Amiga logo / name but I dont see the point, I like the idea of a CF4000 or CF2000, it means I could do cards latter like the CF2090 and such like. ;-)
Some very little problem about some wrong PCB prototype fault vias
The first card had lots of faulty via's (where a track changes side) but the new one only has one such design fault which has been fixed on both prototype cards. (With the use of a sharp knife)
(other faults are one section of the ground plane isnt connected to the main section so a wire had to be ran between the two and the 3.3V power had a break in it so the power didnt actually get to the CPU, again a small bit of wire solved that... and thats it, I set up a manual reset to help)
and we all hope to see a full working board, within this year.
Amen to that.
-
@Oliver
-edit my previous post-
erm . .you wiil go to Benelux with a "working" card?
Isn't your project started with the name of " AmigaColdfire Project"?
Ciao
-
Hi,
erm . .you wiil go to Benelux with a "working" card?
Depends what the card is doing at that time, if I can get the card working then yes, if not then no, as it stands.. no it wont be working. :-D
Even if it was working I would have second thoughts about taking it fitted in an A4000 to show it working.
Isn't your project started with the name of " AmigaColdfire Project"?
Well it doesnt really have a name, even now, so you will find lots of names with the words Amiga, Coldfire and project, the Yahoo group (groups.yahoo.com/group/amigacoldfire) is just called Amigacoldfire, it wasnt ever ment to be the final name and the current name ("ColdFusion Accelerator") isnt fixed either, however I can why you thought what you did.
-
This project gave me an idea:
Would it be possible to design a palin PCB with nothing but sockets on it? Technically, yes, I know, but how about an Amiga ATX mobo with sockets for all custom chips etc. present? Or would that be an infringement on the original patents?
-
I can't wait to see this a success. That'll make all of the old models of Amiga competitive for another 10 years against pc xps!!!!!!!!! :-o :-D
AmigaOne! Never has a competitor come from so far behind to pass the giant!!!!! :-D
-
@Oliver
I call first dibs on a working prototype card for the 1200 :-)
-
@whabang
The orginal long-term-grand-plan was targeted towards a complete replacement-board
with the chips redone in some programmable logik (like the C-One).
Wether that stills stands, or if it is realistic at al ....
-
@whabang
As a personal pet project I have been fiddling around with such a design. While still in block-diagram design at the moment, I am making some progress. It's one of those things that's constantly on my mind, so I keep playing with it.
It's two designs really... One incorporating the original chipset, one completely overhauled to updated hardware. QuickLogic has some really nice chips that work well with 680x0 processors... Mainly an SDRAM controller and a PCI controller... From there the possibilities are endless!
The real nightmare will be in getting OS3.x to run on the updated board. It'll have to involve patching kickstart before boot (using a flashrom and nvram), and using a customized installer to install WB including the necessary drivers. This will also get around the legalities of distributing a modified version of OS3.x, since it works like an emulator (using what you already own) :-D
-
@DrRighteous
Cool! An ATX mobo and a CF-accelerator would make a fun combination to play around with... :-D
-
@whabang
Well at the moment I'm sticking to the 060... But if I can get that far, I don't see any trouble getting a CF board to work, since I intend to incorporate an A1200 style expansion connector :-D
-
This is a bit OT and stupid, but anyway:
Is the Coldfire kinda compatable with the 680x0 processor line?
-
Fedorenko wrote:
Is the Coldfire kinda compatable with the 680x0 processor line?
Yes, it's pretty much what the (discontinued) 680x0 evolved into. It has the same user model as the 68k (almost) but has been extensively optimised for higher performance in embedded systems.
On the downside, as an 'upgrade' for an existing 680x0 system it is quite tricky. Firstly, the supervisor model is pretty different but more importantly it lacks some addressimg modes (IIRC) and opcodes in common use in much 680x0 code. Such missing features would need to be emulated one way or another.
Mind you, most 040/060 systems have to do that anyway, especially for 68881 code, so it's not as if it's impossible. I reckon a coldfire version of an 'OxyPatcher' style tool could address the majority of missing functionality.
Im not sure but the missing address modes may have been put pack in later coldfire cores.
Anyhow, I'm sure Oli know's what he's doing and I'm really looking forward to seeing a working prototype :-)
-
Just to kinda restate what Karlos said... Motorola has created code to set the v4+ ColdFire processor into a 680x0 compatability mode. The idea behind the "ColdFusion" accelerator is to load this code from a ROM before Kickstart and the rest of the system loads... Thus turning the ColdFire into a 680x0 cpu upgrade on steroids! :-D
Based on some polling data collected, some other nicities will be added to the accelerator, like USB and such... Having direct access to the CPU local bus will make these add-ons much faster than anything connected to the Zorro bus.
I've followed this project pretty closely since the begining, since I myself had the same idea back when the v3 CF came out... But of course that chip seriously lacked 680x0 compatability.
What can I say? I'm a 680x0 junkie!