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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Announcements and Press Releases => Topic started by: Schoenfeld on July 26, 2008, 12:11:48 AM
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During the 80s, it was common use to build computers in a way that they can output their picture on a TV set. This was done in order to reduce the overall system cost for the user. TV sets work with lower frequencies compared to today's monitors, therefore the picture flickers. A flickerfixer converts the signal in a way that a modern VGA monitor or TFT-display can be used. The name flickerfixer was mainly created because the problem of a flickering picture is solved. We've already had a very successful product called Indivision in 2002. It was connected to the monitor output of the computer, but it has been sold out in 2006.
Flickerfixers are in high demand. One unit of our external flickerfixer Indivision has been sold on an internet auction platform for more than 900 US Dollars in march of this year. That's more than four times the last retail price! The popularity and stability of value of our products cannot be proved any better. We have already started development of a new flickerfixer in november 2007, which is finished now.
The first flickerfixers for the Amiga have already been available 17 years ago. Since that time, all flickerfixers - including ours - have been using the same principle: The picture frequency was doubled. This is not enough for most modern VGA monitors and TFT-displays, as the picture of a computer with PAL standard was only displayed at slightly less than 50Hz. Most monitors require 60Hz or more these days.
With Indivision AGA, we're striking a new path. As the name suggests, it's a flickerfixer that is very closely tied to the AGA chipset. This could only be realized by putting the flickerfixer inside of the computer. The product is mounted over the Video-Chip "Lisa". The VGA display is connected directly to the flickerfixer. Further connections are not necessary.
Listing all features of the flickerfixer would go beyond the scope of this news item. You can find the complete technical data in this PDF-overview (http://siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA.pdf). The outstanding features are:
* 24 Bit colour resolution in all screenmodes
* support for super hires modes
* Highgfx support up to 1024x768 pixels
* all screenmodes can be displayed at 60Hz or more
* no adjustments necessary
Two options have been added for retro-gaming enthousiasts that allow a step-by-step approximation to the display of an old TV set: Vertical syncrtonisation allows reducing the output frequency down to 49.9Hz, which will eliminate tearing-effects. In addition to that, a scanline-emulation can be switched on. This will emulate the dark lines between the scanlines of a TV screen.
Development and production of this extremely complex product is very expensive. Our trade partners, who have been serving the Amiga-market for many years, have made considerable financial contributions to the production. To account for that, Indivision AGA is exclusively available only from these resellers until january 1st, 2009: (alphabetical order)
* AmigaKit (http://amigakit.co.uk/) (England)
* GGS-Data (http://www.ggsdata.se/) (Sweden)
* Software Hut (http://softhut.com/) (USA)
* Vesalia (http://www.vesalia.de/) (Germany)
Production has already started, the flickerfixer will presumably be shipped to our tradepartners during the first week of september. The suggested retail price is 129,- EUR including 19% VAT. Only a version for A1200 computers will be available at first. We're already working on a version for other Amigas with AGA chipset.
The following pictures show the prototype and screenshots where colours are not displayed correctly. The actual product may vary.
(http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_components_ico.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_components.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_mounted_ico.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_mounted.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_SHires_62Hz_ico.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Indivision_AGA_SHires_62Hz.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Scanlines_ico.jpg) (http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/Scanlines.jpg)
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Congrats individual Computers!!
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Indivision product link is here:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=821
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Wow! What a great Amiga product!
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Just read the PDF, and I am amazed a product like this can be offered at such a low price. Getting a correct AGA display was almost impossible without spending $$$.
AGA demos on a nice CRT is going to ROCK.
Thank you! :pint:
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Cool, the part about video modes sounds interesting!
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Bring on September, Thanks to Jens and the retailers for this much needed product. :-)
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Thanks Jens :-D
It's a great time to own a 1200 and it's great that new HW is still being designed.
This is how the 1200 should have been equipped in the first place :-P
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Like the FPGA feature and the ability to get more screenmodes out of an A1200. Friggin cool. Next best thing to the Natami.
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Yea, this is going to be a "must have" product to someone still using an AGA Amiga. I dont use my 030 A1200 much anymore except for 8bit samples and Octamed but, this would be a really nice thing to have when I get it out.
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See, this is why these days, when Jens goes quiet it's like ... you know Christmas is coming. Unlike almost everybody else in Amiga-Land.
{bleep}, this makes me wanna go buy a duff old A1200 just to justify owning one of these!
Good job, Jens!
edit: holy crap, I just read the data sheet on this: 16mb of framebuffer!? Jens, you madman! I love you! Now I really do want an a1200 to hang off of one of these!
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I have had an internal flickerfixer (the DCE model) for years in my A1200 and have been very happy with it, but it will now be replaced by the this much superior piece of hardware.
This is way beyond cool!
Jens: thumbs up! Big time! :-)
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16mb of framebuffer!? Jens, you madman!
Can't buy any smaller chips these days. It's a waste and a saving at the same time, although only about 2,5 megabytes are actually used.
I could have gone for smaller chips, but it's almost certain that they will be phased out during the next year. The old (external) Indivision design suffered from using lots of chips that are unavailable these days. This new design is only based on parts that are available, RoHS compliant and most of all: affordable.
Jens
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@Jens
Thanks for the hard work and dedication.
@Jiffy
have had an internal flickerfixer (the DCE model) for years in my A1200 and have been very happy with it, but it will now be replaced by the this much superior piece of hardware.
Saem feeling here. Being able to use a genloc is what swings it for me.
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Compatible with the Video Toaster?
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It's a waste and a saving at the same time, although only about 2,5 megabytes are actually used.
Too bad the unused memory couldn't be used for something else. Knowing your products, I'm sure you used as much as feasible, anyway.
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Compatible with the Video Toaster?
Sure, the Video Toaster is very advanced over other genlocks, but on the Amiga-side of things (chipset behaviour), it's the same as most other genlocks.
I'm aware that many TV studios in North America still use the Toaster. I'd be a fool if I didn't make sure that my stuff is compatible.
Jens
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Great product! I'm very interested.
I was wondering if it will fit alongside a FastATA MkIII with or without kickstart socket spacers, or would the two physically collide?
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I never owned a Fast ATA, but the kickstart sockets are completely free. Indivision AGA is extremely flat, but you might need a spacer (additional socket between board and FastATA).
Jens
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The scanline emulation looks gorgeous.
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Jens,
Since the Indivision AGA uses an FPGA, is it possible to add somekind of component video/compositie/S-video encoder into the FPGA?
There are many VGA to component cables out there (check EBAY) so you could use the existing hardware.
In regards to the Video Toaster, the current Video Toaster and Tricaster are built using FPGA hardware allowing Component, VGA, and Composite using a VGA db15 header and breakout cable that connects to the VGA connector.
You already have a home run, but adding these features could really hit it way out of the park. Is any of this possible?
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Much appreciated =) I'll need one of both, great stuff Individual , any clever way to secure it properly to the chip? Going under it or?
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Looks nice! I have an upside down socket keyboard adapter on my A1200, and it works really well.
We can expect this to "hold on" just as good?
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You are talking about video toaster. Is there a way to use a video toaster with an A1200 that I am not aware of, or does this work in an A4000 too? This would definitely be an A4000 winner for me!
Dave
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Jens, although I don't have any Amiga hardware right now, just a BIG THANK YOU for supporting the Amiga platform as you do :-D This product will be a lifesaver for a lot of people around the globe.
Also a BIG THANK YOU to your trade partners, it's fantastic to see there are still shops where you can buy Amiga stuff after soo many years.
Cheers people :pint:
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Hi Jens,
Thanks for continual hardware support of the amiga community!
If I understand correctly the flicker fixer does not have a pass through mode? (cannot be used with Picollo/Picasso card like Commodore Amber board?)
please correct me. will the a4000 version allow it?
:-o
t4
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@jiffydos
You are talking about video toaster. Is there a way to use a video toaster with an A1200 that I am not aware of, or does this work in an A4000 too? This would definitely be an A4000 winner for me!
A Video Toaster could probably be used with the A1200 bus boards that have a video slot. The only snag is that another board needs to clip over the Lisa chip in order to take the video native video signals to the bus board.
Jens says that another version is planned for the A4000.
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how about fitting in Amiga 4000 T? :-o :-?
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uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhh my 3rd post today. probably someone said this already: but adding s-video & RCA connectors would be nice. this way its hooking up your amiga 4000s to tv & vga monitors :-P
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Highgfx support! Yes, finally!
I've loved Highgfx ever since I found it years ago, but the flickering meant it was unusable for any length of time, and this is the first flickerfixer I know of to support it. Thank you, you just made my day :-)
Just gotta start saving now ready for september :-D
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Ordered!! Thanks AmigaKit! Maybe people will start dumping their old external 16bit sd/ffs. I could use one for my 2500...
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Thanks for the order :-)
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how about fitting in Amiga 4000 T?
This version works only in A1200 because of space.
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@Schoenfeld
Jens.............Why are you such a Freakin Genious? huh? explain that to me...............
How in the world can I express my gratitude......the only way is if you let me kiss you!
Thanks man! you are a one man ARMY!
I wish I lived in your country.....I would help you with anything on the Amiga stuff you are working on FREE of charge.
You make a difference in peoples lives in places of the world you don't know.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
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Has the Video Toaster question been fully answered? As noted, the video slot enabler on the Z4 busboard precludes the use of anything else that needs to be snapped onto the same chip. Video Toaster support will probably be limited to the A4000/T unless Jens has duplicated the enabler functionality and provided a header for connectivity to the Z4. That would be very cool.
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I hope that he is talking about Video Toaster because an A4000 version is also in the near future! :) That is the only thing holding me back from using my A4000 on a regular basis. My last 1084s blew up a few months ago and even my NEC Multisync doesn't seem to deal with Toaster screens very well.
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Will this work in conjunction with a mediator? I have a mediator and a PPC Blizzard card in my A1200 Towerized Case. I am worried the clearance won't be right. If it is, count me in. I'll head off and pre-order.
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I'm not exactly a one-man-army any more. This product has been developed together with Oliver Achten, who is also on the Clone-A project. We both have gained so much knowledge about the Amiga chipsets that we can help each other.
Consider me the "architect" of Indivision AGA: I have done the concept and the basic would-this-be-possible-calculations and after that was positive, I started explaining it to Oliver and made a prototype board. Oliver then implemented the logic, so this is yet another co-production of our brains.
The nice thing is that we're really thinking alike. Plus, we wouldn't be true friends if we couldn't take an argument. The good thing is that we always keep a certain level of professionalism, so even an argument comes out productive. Not sure how to translate this, but "culture of conflict management" or "clear the air culture" might describe it good enough.
Jens
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Schoenfeld for president!
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Jens, you rule man!
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Great work, i never got a flickerfixer for my a1200 but now its time. Great product att a very reasonable price I will buy one as soon as ggsdata gets them.
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Crom00 wrote:
Since the Indivision AGA uses an FPGA, is it possible to add somekind of component video/compositie/S-video encoder into the FPGA?
Composite / S-Video is probably too hard, but should be very easy to do component.. it's just a digital colour space conversion. Several taps and an adder per component.
I even have an example of a RGB to Y'CbCr colourspace converter in VHDL I wrote a long time ago I can make available for free if it is of interest.
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Great! Put in my order already!
Nowadays I get an ok laced mode picture out of my LCD but can't wait to get to try out the higher resolutions with VGA cable.
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Thank you VERY much, I needed some NEW with flickerfixer for my TWO Amiga's :), especially for the desktop, my "gaming machine" :D.
I'm really happy that someone see that there is some "need" of creating new hardware for "old" Amiga users.
In my opinion good scandoubler was really needed (looking for a prices on ebay).
Now I have one more think to save money for :D.
I hope it's "compatible" with FastAta?
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This is awesome. I have been looking for a scan doubler since I bought my A1200 in 2006 and this one goes beyond by dreams.
The idea to use an FPGA is brilliant. Would it be possible to add chunky pixel screen modes in the future, by using the same technique as used by the Graffiti from Individual Computers (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=498)?
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Highgfx support! Yes, finally!
I've loved Highgfx ever since I found it years ago, but the flickering meant it was unusable for any length of time, and this is the first flickerfixer I know of to support it. Thank you, you just made my day
Just gotta start saving now ready for september
(http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/4308/small/1_4060.jpg)
(http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=2660)
When I created HighGFX back in the 90s. I used the good Idek 5017 multisync monitor for it.
Later on I got my hands on a CompServ AGA FlickerFixer for the A4000.
This FlickerFixer is also able to push the frequencies up to 54 Hz / 44kHz.
With the new IndivisonAGA FlickerFixer the frequencies are higher and the quality of the image is also better.
(Taking raw picturedatas directly from the chipset)
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September! Bring it on! :banana: :banana: :banana:
Eagerly awaiting any news... :-D
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My Indivision AGA arrived. :-)
Nice piece of kit, although it seems very picky about the exact amount of pressure when it comes to installing it, much more so than my Scanmagic flickerfixer. Haven't been able to get a stable picture with the case fully closed as the internal harddrive is likely to put some pressure on it.
I'm going to give it some extra attention this weekend, as it seems to need several hours of careful testing and configuring in my current setup.
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Is indivision supported by cybergraphics or picasso?
'cos i'm about to sell my A4000T, and i'll really miss my 24 bit workbench and apps...
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there is no p96 or cgfx support.
its not a graphiccard.
indivision is only a "better" flickerfixer/scandoubler.