Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: sim085 on January 23, 2011, 12:04:50 PM
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I think one of the most sought of stuff in the Amiga community are Accelerator Cards. Everyone wants an accelerator cards but few can justify such a high expense for such old hardware. Every now and then someone (including me) asks the question why we don’t have new accelerator cards. The answer is usually always the same; that is that it is not economically feasible to design and build such hardware because there is no market for it.
I tended to agree with this position and relied mostly on the hope that some day there was going to be some home-brew “hobby project” that would achieve this. However a few days ago I came back to amiga.org and learned about the ACA 630/25 and the ACA 1230/28. This I learnt is new hardware produced by Indivision (Jens?). Also, to me, these seem to be new designs rather then just a re-launch of some old design (although not sure on this).
Therefore at this point; is it still unfeasible to create to design and produce an accelerator card for the A500/2000 and make a profit out of it?
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No.
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Well it should be possible to make a simple PCB with a SMD 68k cpu, like in the A600 and click on an ACA630.
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Jens has allready announced (on a1k.org) that he has solid plans for doing a 020-based card for the A500.
Proposed features:
- 020 at 14MHz
- 8MB of RAM (maybe 16Bit maybe 32Bit wide)
- A600-compatible IDE-controller
- A1200-trapdoor connector to use A1200 style accels !!
He also briefly mentioned on doing "something better" for the A2000, but no details yet.
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In the past there were plenty of cards which worked on ALL 68k based OCS Amigas A500,1000,1500,2000 that just slotted into the CPU socket.
I don't see why you can't take the A600 accelerator card and just re-jig the layout of the pins to the original 68000 CPU layout and just put the pins on the bottom and a 68000 socket on the top.
It would cost very little in design terms, and that just leaves manufacture. And if you design it properly so that it fits in the A1000 too (CPU socket is close to the side of the machine IIRC) then it's all viable.
The one's on ebay are all bollox '32bit FAST RAM daughter board not included' which makes them useless despite being 25mhz 68030 cards. Without FAST RAM you get no real speed increase so for me the issue is not cost it is effectiveness.
I would love to purchase 2 of these boards, one for my A1000 and one for my A2000. Many other people would instantly purchase such a thing.
I wouldn't purchase it for my A600 though, it's not Indivisions fault, it is Commodore's fault for making the A600 such a cheap piece of tat to use compared to the A1000/2000 I own :)
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Jens has allready announced (on a1k.org) that he has solid plans for doing a 020-based card for the A500.
Proposed features:
- 020 at 14MHz
- 8MB of RAM (maybe 16Bit maybe 32Bit wide)
- A600-compatible IDE-controller
- A1200-trapdoor connector to use A1200 style accels !!
He also briefly mentioned on doing "something better" for the A2000, but no details yet.
Hmm, those specs are pretty low (insluting is too strong word, but you get the picture) compared to ones found on ACA630.
I've read complete threads at EAB & A1K and there were tons of posts dealing with space/thermal management in A600. Actually, one of them had ACA630, Indivision ECS, Subway USB alltogether with modified floppy drive crammed into poor A600 case.
A500 should be left free of those constrains and for that reason it's weird that Jens plan to build something pretty unconvincing, at least from performance aspect.
Option to use A1200 trapdoor accelerators is limited only to present ACA1230 series, so it seems ACA520 is just a gateway for securing that stock of current and perhaps future ACA1230 accelerators would remain low at preferred times.
The other reason for favoring 020 might be affordable target price; new accelerator for A500 could attract quite a bit of a Amiga crowd, far more than A600 and A1200 altogether since A500 itself is still more available for purchase and a hell lot easier for maintenance. That include people owning AGA boxes with new ACA stuff which still own one of older OCS machines; then there is significant demand from present A500 audience already owning a functional A500 accelator/storage solution which could be repalced with more common and relaible HW. I find myself in that category. but only of the final product offer a decent substitution compared to present level of...satisfaction (GVP A530).
IMHO, that new A500 stuff should (like ACA630 & ACA1230 did, for sure) include most if not all best features of earlier designs (A530, Derringer, Viper A530) as:
- full blown 68030 with at least 25Mhz
- true 32-bit FastRAM set out of Z2 address space
- buffered IDE for fast solide state (CF) storage (>5MByte persec)
- IDE & RAM enabled in fallback mode, Kick1.3 compatible ???
- KickFlash like features are more tha welcome, but for an any price
- clockport :roflmao:
Or maybe it's too early to see where all this A500 stuff goes...man already said Indy AGA MK2 is currently top priority...
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I imagine the intention of the 500 expansion would be primarily as a RAM expansion.
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I think one of the most sought of stuff in the Amiga community are Accelerator Cards. Everyone wants an accelerator cards but few can justify such a high expense for such old hardware. Every now and then someone (including me) asks the question why we don’t have new accelerator cards. The answer is usually always the same; that is that it is not economically feasible to design and build such hardware because there is no market for it.
Yeah, I would also like to see new 060 cards, cause these cost a fortune.
Though I'm lucky to own a Cyberstorm 060/PPC 50/200 with 128MB, A Blizzard 2060/50 with 128MB, a Blizzard 1260/50 with 64MB, I'd like to have more cards, but a bit lower price than I paid for these.
This shouldn't be that hard I think, but I can't build it, I'm happy to buy them though.
Hmm, those specs are pretty low (insluting is too strong word, but you get the picture) compared to ones found on ACA630.
Problem with the A500 is that simply not going to be used the way we use A1200's.
A500/A600/A2000/A3000 are still all OCS/ECS Amiga's.
I would already be happy with a 020 with 8MB and IDE, of course being auto configured and booted up.
Sure I would like a full blown 030 @ 50Mhz and 32 or 64MB with a full IDE port, so 44 pins and 40 pins.
But would we use it ?
If I want to WHDLoad, I'm better off with one of the A1200's.
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Who says 8mb is enough, I had 10mb and ran out of memory on Dpaint 3 anims.
Who says 14mhz is enough....try rendering Digiview stuff down from 21bit RGB sources.
No $ale here sorry.
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That's all good, but how about a ZorroII/III version of Voodoo3/5, and a ZorroII/III soundcard? Then the only thing an A2000 couldn't do is run AGA specific stuff.
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Well a cheap 68020 with Fast RAM will allow OS3.9 to be installed and to run WHDLoad.
My first CPU card for my A1200 was an overclocked 68020 (28MHz) with an extra 4MB of RAM and that thing satisfied me for years.
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Who says 8mb is enough, I had 10mb and ran out of memory on Dpaint 3 anims.
Who says 14mhz is enough....try rendering Digiview stuff down from 21bit RGB sources.
No $ale here sorry.
The majority of peepz using Amiga is for memories, whdload and some progs.
For these things an 020 with 8MB is more than enough. Then again you can get an A1200 with a memory upgrade to even have AGA instead.
With ACA630 more and more peepz are happy with their A600's since it's the elite of the accelerators for stability and power.
If you go low on memory and use intensive programs go for an 040 or better 060. Since I saw you work on 1500/2000 why don't you try getting an Blizzard 2060 all this time? :D
Ye I know it's expensive, but not more than most of us have gave for an BPPC :)
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Really, the old singular solutions are still available, various accel cards, ram expansions, etc. If you want to sell me something new for an A500, it needs to be more comprehensive in its function, sort of like the old Rejuevinator card for the A1000.
How tough is it to design a card that runs a 28 Mhz 68000, 8 Megs of fast ram, an IDE interface, and one or two clock port headers. The whole thing should connect under the existing 68000 and not interfer with the Indivision ECS.
This would make a very capable and clean A500 without multiply expansions hanging off the left hand side. I'd certainly buy one (or more).
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Problem with the A500 is that simply not going to be used the way we use A1200's.
A500/A600/A2000/A3000 are still all OCS/ECS Amiga's.
I would already be happy with a 020 with 8MB and IDE, of course being auto configured and booted up.
Sure I would like a full blown 030 @ 50Mhz and 32 or 64MB with a full IDE port, so 44 pins and 40 pins.
But would we use it ?
If I want to WHDLoad, I'm better off with one of the A1200's.
I don't think it's a question how do we use our Amigas. You use what you have at your disposal. For instance, looking at the content of your signature I can only concur that A1200 is by far best model for overall usage - for you, ins pite of a fact you do own a lot of A500s (repsect :)). On other side, some other people might look at A500 doing a fraction of A1200 job as a challenge and thus consider A500 expansion as priority over other options.
Don't get me wrong, for a while it's pretty common to see a lot of think-tank volumes suggesting something like 'forget A500, get a A1200'; now, with a clear opportunity to make a change for A500 we're confronted with same suggestion.
Back in late '80s, I don't recollect the time Amiga users were driving HW development by such biased or perhaps limited standpoint.
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I figured most people who use 500's use them mainly because they are the most compatible with old games.
If you use it for more advanced purposes, I imagine you'd better off with something else (built-in IDE or SCSI, more expansions available etc)
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I don't think it's a question how do we use our Amigas. You use what you have at your disposal. For instance, looking at the content of your signature I can only concur that A1200 is by far best model for overall usage - for you, ins pite of a fact you do own a lot of A500s (repsect :)). On other side, some other people might look at A500 doing a fraction of A1200 job as a challenge and thus consider A500 expansion as priority over other options.
Don't get me wrong, for a while it's pretty common to see a lot of think-tank volumes suggesting something like 'forget A500, get a A1200'; now, with a clear opportunity to make a change for A500 we're confronted with same suggestion.
Back in late '80s, I don't recollect the time Amiga users were driving HW development by such biased or perhaps limited standpoint.
Don't forget that with regards to a target audience, the A500 really is a games orientated machine. If all you want to do is play games and use WHDload then the CPU card has to fight off the Minimig and FPGA Arcade (or even UAE).
A fairly basic Minimig already gives you an "A500+" with a turbo CPU, 4 "floppies", scan doubler, 1.5MB or 3.5MB of RAM and a nice big hard drive.
Jens can't aford to make this card too expensive or many people will either by a Minimig or pick up a second hand A1200 instead.
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I figured most people who use 500's use them mainly because they are the most compatible with old games.
If you use it for more advanced purposes, I imagine you'd better off with something else (built-in IDE or SCSI, more expansions available etc)
Exactly.
If you want a souped up ECS experience then you're going to use an A2000 or A3000.
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Well a cheap 68020 with Fast RAM will allow OS3.9 to be installed and to run WHDLoad.
My first CPU card for my A1200 was an overclocked 68020 (28MHz) with an extra 4MB of RAM and that thing satisfied me for years.
A530 with 030@40, 8Mb FAST.
OS3.9 with all eye-candy (considering ECS) still pretty slow. Add there Poseidon USB stack for Subway and you end up with even slower machine.
OS3.1 helps a lot, but is pain-in-the a$$ to achieve stability trying to reach OS3.9 look&feel.
For WHDLoad, 68010 with vintage 4MB Fast/HDD and 0,5MB Ranger will cover 99% games. Verified.
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A530 with 030@40, 8Mb FAST.
OS3.9 with all eye-candy (considering ECS) still pretty slow. Add there Poseidon USB stack for Subway and you end up with even slower machine.
OS3.1 helps a lot, but is pain-in-the a$$ to achieve stability trying to reach OS3.9 look&feel.
For WHDLoad, 68010 with vintage 4MB Fast/HDD and 0,5MB Ranger will cover 99% games. Verified.
68030 @ 40MHz slow with OS3.1? My expectations must be low. :)
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Don't forget that with regards to a target audience, the A500 really is a games orientated machine. If all you want to do is play games and use WHDload then the CPU card has to fight off the Minimig and FPGA Arcade (or even UAE).
A fairly basic Minimig already gives you an "A500+" with a turbo CPU, 4 "floppies", scan doubler, 1.5MB or 3.5MB of RAM and a nice big hard drive.
Jens can't aford to make this card too expensive or many people will either by a Minimig or pick up a second hand A1200 instead.
That's a fair assumption.
But then A600 is also games orienated machine, sharing same pro's and con's like A500. Somehow I really fail to see what would justify success on A600 and stray A500 in same time. With respect to Minimig or A1200, I don't think there are many users waiting in line for Minimig or A1200 either. The fact is that bunch of A500s are sitting in the attic and closets surviving annoual clearouts just because they are missing some 15-16 years of new HW support.
Otherwise we can all trash our 'true HW' and join WinUAE beta testing thread at EAB (respect to TW).
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68030 @ 40MHz slow with OS3.1? My expectations must be low. :)
:lol:
Well, I did make AWeb working on Subway/genesis combo pretty well.
Shapeshifter-based RTG driver for Indivision ECS is aslo being developed from Oliver@IndividualComputers, we might see WB in 256 colors on A500.
I hope this helps figuring out where this could lead;)
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I think the market has a lot to do with it, and Jens seems to feel that the best market for these cards is people looking to play games. WHDLOAD machines basically.
I would guess that he's probably right.
An inexpensive, new, professionally made 68020 card for the A500 with a bunch of RAM (and I would think it would have to have storage of some type, CF/SD) would appeal to the most people out there..
Yes, there are people who want really fast cards, but fewer of them are out there, and fewer still who don't already have something faster...
Jens has said tho, that although they are talking about designs seriously, his main project right now is Indivision AGA's Mark 2's (or whatever they are calling them), so it might be a little bit before the A500 items get more serious.
Just thinking of a few other things:
One, it will depend on how easily or not he can get stock. He apparently went with the 68030EC for the lower end 1200 cards, in part because he could get them in enough quantity at a decent price..
Two, he's looking at these cards as "gateway" cards. Not as in the cow computers, but entry level for his other products. He wants you to use your Amiga enough that you want an Indivision and whatever else they have. But if the initial cost is too much, it will keep people away before they get hooked..
desiv
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That's a fair assumption.
But then A600 is also games orienated machine, sharing same pro's and con's like A500. Somehow I really fail to see what would justify success on A600 and stray A500 in same time. With respect to Minimig or A1200, I don't think there are many users waiting in line for Minimig or A1200 either. The fact is that bunch of A500s are sitting in the attic and closets surviving annoual clearouts just because they are missing some 15-16 years of new HW support.
Otherwise we can all trash our 'true HW' and join WinUAE beta testing thread at EAB (respect to TW).
The 600 is hard drive "ready", as well as the PCMCIA slot, so it is more readily expandable. That might have something to do with it.
Also comes with ECS and 2.x kickstart, so might play nicer with some hardware too.
Im sure if someone made it for the 500, people would buy it, just because it was there, but I can see why the 600s and 1200s were first in line.
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That's a fair assumption.
But then A600 is also games orienated machine, sharing same pro's and con's like A500. Somehow I really fail to see what would justify success on A600 and stray A500 in same time. With respect to Minimig or A1200, I don't think there are many users waiting in line for Minimig or A1200 either. The fact is that bunch of A500s are sitting in the attic and closets surviving annoual clearouts just because they are missing some 15-16 years of new HW support.
Otherwise we can all trash our 'true HW' and join WinUAE beta testing thread at EAB (respect to TW).
Yep, the A500 is a sort of fogotten machine and there must be tens of thousands of them hibernating in deep, dark places.
Strangely enough, the A500 is one of the few Amigas I've never actually owned (along with the A600 - lack of keypad and the CDTV - lack of funds at the time). The reason for that was that I jumped straight in to the A2000 because of the lack of easy expansion at the time.
For me to use an A500 on a regular basis I would need the CPU card to be OS3.9 friendly, have some extra RAM and some sort of IDE connector. A clockport for a Subway would be icing on the cake.
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:lol:
Well, I did make AWeb working on Subway/genesis combo pretty well.
Shapeshifter-based RTG driver for Indivision ECS is aslo being developed from Oliver@IndividualComputers, we might see WB in 256 colors on A500.
I hope this helps figuring out where this could lead;)
LOL. Now THAT would be impressive. :)
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The 600 is hard drive "ready", as well as the PCMCIA slot, so it is more readily expandable. That might have something to do with it.
Also comes with ECS and 2.x kickstart, so might play nicer with some hardware too.
Im sure if someone made it for the 500, people would buy it, just because it was there, but I can see why the 600s and 1200s were first in line.
Could be.
There's also one more possible reason, a story about horror Jens experienced while supporting his HW peripherals working (or better said, when not working) with Appollo accelerators and also failed A600 030 accelerator which failed to met both stability and ROHS compliance standards. I read somewhere that he has bought every Apollo which appeared on eBay for last 5 years or so (unverified).
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Could be.
There's also one more possible reason, a story about horror Jens experienced while supporting his HW peripherals working (or better said, when not working) with Appollo accelerators and also failed A600 030 accelerator which failed to met both stability and ROHS compliance standards. I read somewhere that he has bought every Apollo which appeared on eBay for last 5 years or so (unverified).
From the threads on EAB, he seems very intent on only providing hardware that he can reasonably support for the customer, so that's likely a big factor as well.
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Sure he does.
Just like he already said that ACA520 will not work with CBM A570 & A590 drive units.
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I would guess that he's probably right.
An inexpensive, new, professionally made 68020 card for the A500 with a bunch of RAM (and I would think it would have to have storage of some type, CF/SD) would appeal to the most people out there..
desiv
Bingo!
I'm always looking for a way to make my A500 sit in a smaller footprint (ditch my A590). An accelerator with a removable CF/SD card solution (for ADFs) on IDE & Indivision (for LCD) would give me the best and most compatible machine for games & WHDLoad. I occasionaly look at the MiniMig but just can't justify the added expense since I already have a great A500 rev 6a MB unit.
I already have a beast of an A1200 (still work in progress - still waiting on a digital camera Run Requestor!) for KS3.1/OS3.9
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The 600 is hard drive "ready", as well as the PCMCIA slot, so it is more readily expandable.
Expandable with the three possible expansions available for it, SRAM, card adapter, and Ethernet. That limits it, and you'll have to choose one and only one. Forget fastram if you need a transfer card, and forget internet if you don't have an accelerator (same as for A500).
Yes, for any accel to sell for A500s it would need a harddisk interface. 68020 accel without harddisk interface... no point in bringing out the A500 from the closet, there will be endless support tickets if misc old harddisk interfaces are used.
Also comes with ECS and 2.x kickstart, so might play nicer with some hardware too.
I doubt A600 sales came close to A500+ sales, and it has ECS and kick 2.0. So. :) Not that ECS/2.0 ever played nice with anything... ;)
The first thing people would do, now that new harddisk interfaces with fastram (and now maybe also faster CPU) are being made, is to finally plop in kick 3.1, because the harddisk interface would have drivers not made for kick 1.3 :)
Im sure if someone made it for the 500, people would buy it, just because it was there, but I can see why the 600s and 1200s were first in line.
If someone made it for A500 (with harddisk interface), people would buy it just as they did for A600, because it would make it exactly as usable as their A600.
Sorry for butting in and respect to all involved, but I just don't buy how the A600 has any points in favor of the A500 in this particular question.
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Expandable with the three possible expansions available for it, SRAM, card adapter, and Ethernet. That limits it, and you'll have to choose one and only one. Forget fastram if you need a transfer card, and forget internet if you don't have an accelerator (same as for A500).
Well, you can swap them out, but if you have networking, you don't really need the card adapter.
In any event, its still stuff the 500 doesn't have. Most people aren't keen on null modem cables anymore for file transfers.
Yes, for any accel to sell for A500s it would need a harddisk interface. 68020 accel without harddisk interface... no point in bringing out the A500 from the closet, there will be endless support tickets if misc old harddisk interfaces are used.
An 020 card with some fast ram, and an IDE interface would be pretty nice as a boost to the old girl.
I doubt A600 sales came close to A500+ sales, and it has ECS and kick 2.0. So. :) Not that ECS/2.0 ever played nice with anything... ;)
Yeah, ECS is kind of the bastard child :) Wasn't the 500+ only out for some 6 months, before the 600 replaced it?
I agree though, that there's undoubtedly a market for a decent 500 expansion. My thing is, that I can understand why they didn't do that one first.
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Sorry for butting in and respect to all involved, but I just don't buy how the A600 has any points in favor of the A500 in this particular question.
A600 still has a PCMCIA slot, try adding a network card to your A500.
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I don't know that I'd say "exactly as usable," as I do like PCMCIA for transfer and ethernet. I know it's not perfect, but it comes in handy...
But, as this IS Jens and he likes to make products that can sell other products of his...
It would be interesting if it came with a clockport.....
Then, once those buyers have been using their machines for a bit (probably after they have bought the Indivision ECS), they can say, "You know, I'd love to be able to transfer files easier and maybe even use the internet... Isn't there some product that can.. er.. what? Subway?? USB?? And it plugs into my current card I bought from you? Hmmm...
I'm just saying... That in itself wouldn't be a motivator, but if it's not much more to add a clockport.. hmmm...
(I have 0-idea of the technical feasibility)..
desiv
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I don't know that I'd say "exactly as usable," as I do like PCMCIA for transfer and ethernet. I know it's not perfect, but it comes in handy...
But, as this IS Jens and he likes to make products that can sell other products of his...
It would be interesting if it came with a clockport.....
Then, once those buyers have been using their machines for a bit (probably after they have bought the Indivision ECS), they can say, "You know, I'd love to be able to transfer files easier and maybe even use the internet... Isn't there some product that can.. er.. what? Subway?? USB?? And it plugs into my current card I bought from you? Hmmm...
I'm just saying... That in itself wouldn't be a motivator, but if it's not much more to add a clockport.. hmmm...
(I have 0-idea of the technical feasibility)..
desiv
I've seen other expansions that add a clockport, so I imagine it would be feasible. Not sure about costs and how available the needed parts are, though.
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I've seen other expansions that add a clockport, so I imagine it would be feasible. Not sure about costs and how available the needed parts are, though.
Clockport would defeat the whole purpose for the A500 as you would HAVE to run OS3.9. For me it's about the base compatibility of the A500 with internal storage & ADF transfer. A small accelerator w/mem and use of LCD would be the bomb.
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The majority of peepz using Amiga is for memories, whdload and some progs.
For these things an 020 with 8MB is more than enough. Then again you can get an A1200 with a memory upgrade to even have AGA instead.
With ACA630 more and more peepz are happy with their A600's since it's the elite of the accelerators for stability and power.
If you go low on memory and use intensive programs go for an 040 or better 060. Since I saw you work on 1500/2000 why don't you try getting an Blizzard 2060 all this time? :D
Ye I know it's expensive, but not more than most of us have gave for an BPPC :)
Don't need an 060 really, just value for money and a worthwhile improvement on stock 7mhz 68k :) Plus 2nd hand £500 cards that can fail the next day = alarm bells ringing.
I used to recreate videos using digitizers + anim brushes....would be nice to do it again. Rest of my time will now be spent making nice games for stock OCS Amigas.....I don't use A600/500/1200 due to keyboards. A4000= waste f money for my purposes.
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Exactly.
If you want a souped up ECS experience then you're going to use an A2000 or A3000.
A500s are rare enough, A2000/3000 a problem to find let alone expansion cards.
Anyway best to make something better than 14mhz 020 +4mb. Too restrictive and a dead end.
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Clockport would defeat the whole purpose for the A500 as you would HAVE to run OS3.9. For me it's about the base compatibility of the A500 with internal storage & ADF transfer. A small accelerator w/mem and use of LCD would be the bomb.
You don't need OS3.9 to use a Clockport expansion. You can use a Subway USB card with Kickstart 1.1 using the Anaiis USB stack. I'm sure all the other expansions made for the Clockport have no problem running with 3.1 either.
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You don't need OS3.9 to use a Clockport expansion. You can use a Subway USB card with Kickstart 1.1 using the Anaiis USB stack. I'm sure all the other expansions made for the Clockport have no problem running with 3.1 either.
Now that I did not know! No need for Poseidon or Trident? That's awesome. Thanks for that info Cammy!
I've been really wanting to put an Indivision ECS and MiniMegi in the A500 & and with a Subway USB I would have exactly what I want! BTW,Is Indivision coming out with a new version of their scandoubler? I see that AmigaKit is out of them but Versalia still has them I think.... should I wait?
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No problem, it's a shame that Anaiis isn't very well known because it's a fantastic little USB stack. It's much simpler than Poseidon, and doesn't support such a large range of devices, but it's got the basics like USB mouse, joypad, keyboard, hub, printer, and more. To try it out, simply disable Poseidon by putting a ; in front of the line at the start of your Startup-Sequence, and install Anaiis. If you like it on your A1200, it should be fine on your A500 too. I use it on my A600 through the Subway connected to the A603's Clockport.
http://aminet.net/package/driver/other/anaiis
http://aminet.net/package/dev/c/anaiis_print
I don't know if Jens is planning a new version of the Indivision ECS, but I'm sure they'll restock once they sell out. Currently he's working on the Indivision AGA Mark II, which should have built-in Graffiti emulation, which gives us a Chunky graphics mode!
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A500s are rare enough, A2000/3000 a problem to find let alone expansion cards.
"A500" and "rare" in the same sentence? Now that's funny.
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You don't need OS3.9 to use a Clockport expansion. You can use a Subway USB card with Kickstart 1.1 using the Anaiis USB stack. I'm sure all the other expansions made for the Clockport have no problem running with 3.1 either.
Just to be clear, did you mean to say that the Subway will work with KS 1.1 as above or 3.1 as in the last sentance?
Ahhh, never mind - followed the link! ;-)
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I'm sure the Subway works with Kickstart 1.1 with Anaiis. But other Clockport expansions, being designed for the A1200 primarily, may require 3.0 or 3.1 ROMs depending on the software controlling them, but I haven't got any others to test. In any case, with a simple Kickstart ROM switcher and both 1.3 and 3.1 ROMs in the A500 you should definitely be able to get the most out of what your A500 can do anyway.
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A500 card with IDE, video chip, 8meg ram, and 020/030 would be great!
I'd buy a TV that was made after 1970, to celebrate! :)
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Now that I did not know! No need for Poseidon or Trident? That's awesome. Thanks for that info Cammy!
I've been really wanting to put an Indivision ECS and MiniMegi in the A500 & and with a Subway USB I would have exactly what I want! BTW,Is Indivision coming out with a new version of their scandoubler? I see that AmigaKit is out of them but Versalia still has them I think.... should I wait?
Jens is finishing work on Indivision AGA Mk2 which will add DVI support and few other image enhacements like 75Hz PAL mode etc. You want Indivision ECS which is available from Vesalia and will be available from AmigaKit. This SD/FF will remain the most advanced SD/FF since it's planned to include basic/acceptable mini-RTG features which ***might*** put OCS/ECS machines closer to AGA look&feel (WB only).
Few days ago I ordered a second IndyECS since I want to check dual monitor/extended desktop support in my A500. That's right, you can have 2 IndyECS stacked together spanning WB in 2 screens.
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"A500" and "rare" in the same sentence? Now that's funny.
I think I just struck gold in my closet. haha
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"A500" and "rare" in the same sentence? Now that's funny.
"rare enough",as in to find not as in worth a fortune lol. Go on ebay UK and see if there are 30-40 per week being listed a week like the old days. Didn't even see a single A500+ for sale last time I looked let alone a 2mb A500+
For people who want one and just look on ebay they have a harder job getting any Amiga than they did just 12 months ago when, including A500s which were ten a penny.
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There are plenty of 500s on eBay in the UK today, a couple of 500+ even.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-AMIGA-500-PLUS-computer-only-tested-OK-A500-/380310887618?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item588c4b9cc2
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-AMIGA-500-PLUS-computer-only-tested-OK-A500-/380310887196?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item588c4b9b1c
Anyway, by this time most people that want a 500 have one (or ten,) and the low value of the item is a good reason not to bother listing on eBay.
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Which is why less and less appear, in the old days you couldn't move for unboxed A500s on ebay. Now it is single figures, obviously it's not worth the messing about boxing up and going to the post office for £10 sale on ebay (so £8 by the time PayPal and ebay have taken their cut)
If I really wanted one I would ask here, but they're not cheap on forums!
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I've got so many I've started cutting them up for parts!
(http://jungle.net/tone/case.jpg)
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This SD/FF will remain the most advanced SD/FF since it's planned to include basic/acceptable mini-RTG features which ***might*** put OCS/ECS machines closer to AGA look&feel (WB only).
Does that mean that we can hope of one day be able to play AGA games on A500/A2000/A600 as well? If so then really that would be one hell of an add on to my current setup :) That said, for now I would be more then happy with just an 020 or better 030 accelerator card with plenty of memory and possible IDE controller. More then that would be a great bonus :)
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AGA ?
Of course NOT.
In BEST case you might have WB3.1 or WB3.9 with pretty colorful icons thrown across 800*600 area with maybe a nice background picture. That's a maximum you'll ever get on non-AGA machine. Games wont use that WB mode, we all know taht WHDLoad games discard OS already.
This is a remarkable attempt since you'll actually have something almost impossible on those bandwidth limited OCS/ECS machines.
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Which is why less and less appear, in the old days you couldn't move for unboxed A500s on ebay. Now it is single figures, obviously it's not worth the messing about boxing up and going to the post office for £10 sale on ebay (so £8 by the time PayPal and ebay have taken their cut)
If I really wanted one I would ask here, but they're not cheap on forums!
You can always check on www.amibay.com (http://www.amibay.com)
Prices are pretty reasonable.
Half a year ago I got well-cared A500+ for appx. $35, you can get plain A500 starting with 20-25, in some cases people are offering for free if local pickup can be arranged.
For users in Europe, especially UK, you can always count at 'airey' aka Amiga Retro Experience shop at eBay (just for reference, he's moving his Amiga business to eBID.uk). He has a very large stock of 2nd hand A500s of all revisions (total unit count is close to 90) and is generally very reliable seller.
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I've got so many I've started cutting them up for parts!
(http://jungle.net/tone/case.jpg)
Nice :)
I cut up a couple to replace broken draw fronts in my freezer and put the Commodore logo on the door :roflmao:
I had a quick look and it's pretty even for 4000s and 500s currently up for auction. The 2000 & 3000 being less available than the 4000.
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I gleaned these (http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=732424&postcount=16) preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.
Yum!
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I gleaned these (http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=732424&postcount=16) preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.
Yum!
Thanks for sharing!
The preliminary specs reflects what has been written previously (except that the A1200-like trapdoor expasion bus is for ACA accelerators only - it's written that not every A1200 accelerator works - Apollo ones 1240 and 1260 won't).
It's great that Jens is making also such a product for A500/A500+ : I think he will be rewarded by sales... if the price is right! :D
My opinion is that a price range around 100 EUR would fit (the lesser the better!), but I'm not aware of components and production costs (but I'm figuring out from other products from Jens).
Upgrading an Amiga 500, IMHO, is due to two possible reasons:
1) a more powerful machine for running games thru WHDLoad (never tried, BTW), stored on internal hard disk/Compact Flash card.
2) for trying to get the best performace possible out of that "good oldie" computer (pretty like me :))) ). It's not rational, it's just like those who like "special old cars", and the emotions they receive by using them. :)
In the first case, you get the ACA520 and you are happy with it.
In the second case, you get the ACA520 and another A1200 accelerator to get even more (here we have to see what works, and how it could be done "mechanically", to push everything inside A500 case).
I'd like to have a 68030-based A500 accelerator with 16/32MB of Fast RAM at least, but it would be too expensive for the first category of people.
With the A1200 bus solution you can improve the system further, even in two steps.
Since this news, I'm a bit sad that I recently bought an Apollo 520 on eBay (68020+68881 @ 25MHz + 4MB)... quite pricey... but I'm quite satisfied after all. :)
...I'm thinking on building an adapter to place it internally, since I already have an Oktagon 508 by side, and placing it there as well, puts my SCSI controller even further on the left! :?
BY and thanks Jens!
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I gleaned these (http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=732424&postcount=16) preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.
is this true? we can expect this uprade by March 2011? so soon!! :)
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is this true? we can expect this uprade by March 2011? so soon!! :)
Well, 4 days ago he posted (in reply to "when can we expect this new nice piece of hardware?") "it will be another two months, first I finish Indivision AGA MK2 which has top priority".
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I gleaned these (http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=732424&postcount=16) preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.
Yum!
Well there's the clockport, so USB via Subway! :)
I wish it used an overclocked 28MHz 68020 though.
All in all, I think Jens has a winner on his hands there.
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I've already got a trapdoor expansion, so I'd like to have some sort of module that could pop onto the side expansion bay of my A500 and make it super duper. Flash memory, ethernet, RAM expansion, etc.
I'm sure it'll never happen unless I do it myself, but I just don't have the skills or money right now to do something that sophisticated.
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So correct me if I am wrong; out of the box this accelerator card is planned to have a 14 MHz 68020 and the option to add 8MB of FastRAM. Am I right? If so, then, the A1200 adapter (which I understand will allow A1200 accelerator cards to be used with the A500/A500+/A1000/A2000) will allow the use of let say a 68060 CPU with an A500+?
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Well a cheap 68020 with Fast RAM will allow OS3.9 to be installed and to run WHDLoad.
My first CPU card for my A1200 was an overclocked 68020 (28MHz) with an extra 4MB of RAM and that thing satisfied me for years.
We have a winner. The Whdload bit. A500= games machine, so why bother with more than 8 meg and 15 mhz '020
If you do anything that needs more horsepower than really just get an A1200 and expand that. As a bonus you get AGA...
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So correct me if I am wrong; out of the box this accelerator card is planned to have a 14 MHz 68020 and the option to add 8MB of FastRAM. Am I right? If so, then, the A1200 adapter (which I understand will allow A1200 accelerator cards to be used with the A500/A500+/A1000/A2000) will allow the use of let say a 68060 CPU with an A500+?
That what it looks like only I think a few are not compatible. e.g. the Apollo 68040/68060.
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I've already got a trapdoor expansion, so I'd like to have some sort of module that could pop onto the side expansion bay of my A500 and make it super duper. Flash memory, ethernet, RAM expansion, etc.
I'm sure it'll never happen unless I do it myself, but I just don't have the skills or money right now to do something that sophisticated.
Hi!
From what I (we) know, this new accelerator for A500 (ACA520) is an internal one, and will be placed on the 68000 socket.
Moreover the A500 trapdoor expansion has nothing to do with it; the trapdoor in the previous messages refers to the option of connecting more powerful accelerators designed for A1200 trapdoor expansion port.
For your request, since the ACA520 will have a clock port, you could buy a Subway USB card, a 030 based A1200 accelerator (to make Poseidon, the USB stack, working), and a USB->Ethernet adaptor, and you have what you need! :)
Of course it will be pricey, but you can buy those things separately, at different times.
BY!
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So correct me if I am wrong; out of the box this accelerator card is planned to have a 14 MHz 68020 and the option to add 8MB of FastRAM. Am I right? If so, then, the A1200 adapter (which I understand will allow A1200 accelerator cards to be used with the A500/A500+/A1000/A2000) will allow the use of let say a 68060 CPU with an A500+?
8MB are not an option: they are there! :) (as from specs)
For the adapter, theoretically yes, but it has to be tested board by board specifically.
P.S.
The message has been updated with possible price and other details:
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=732424&postcount=16
...seems I was right with my price tag. :)
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I've got a question (maybe Photon can answer since he's near Jens)...
Will be possible to mount the ACA520 together with the Indivision ECS inside the A500?
I really hope so (and I think so). :)
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Sure it will, even in dual Indivision ECS setup.
Together with Subway USB and USB-to-Ethernet bridge, if you have some of those.
As added bonus, you can keep floppy where it's supposed to be.
It's A500.
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I am thinking on all those pr0n setups we are going to see:
An A500 + ACA520 with:
BlizzardPPC603e+ with a GRex pci busboard + Voodoo and all those other pci cards.
I am going to have a drooling spree! ;)
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I have a 68030 @ 40mhz for my Amiga 500 and it is pretty quick. I wish Jens could build (as some others have stated) something similar to the Viper 530. It would be nice to have 128mb onboard so as to be able to use Netsurf (although it would probably crawl).
I suppose a 68040/060 board would be totally out of the question :) I know the cost would outweigh the benefit, but it is nice to dream once in a while.
--- I am ok with an 020 board... but would it be possible to increase the memory? I could see myself building another Amiga 500 system with Jens new accelerator.
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--- I am ok with an 020 board... but would it be possible to increase the memory?
Yes..
By adding an ACA1230 to it with the expansion slot it will have..
And Jens and I.C. will sell you one of those gladly.. :)
desiv
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Yes..
By adding an ACA1230 to it with the expansion slot it will have..
And Jens and I.C. will sell you one of those gladly.. :)
desiv
Excellent. So 64mb would be the max ram limit?