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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: amiga1084 on June 12, 2013, 09:02:13 AM
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Hello All,
Has anyone heard of this brand Ematrix 030 Accelerator made for Amiga 1200? They are made in the Philippines and said in the Ebay posting they are brand new!
Check it out-
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/EMATRIX-A1230-50-Mhz-A1200-68030-Accelerator-50-Mhz-PGA-CPU-and-32-Meg-RAM-/290922837191?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item43bc5a34c7&_uhb=1
Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent
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Has anyone heard of this brand Ematrix 030 Accelerator made for Amiga 1200?
Highly likely this: Amiga Hardware Database (http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/ematrix1230); Big Book of Amiga Hardware (http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1839)
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had a buddy that had one of these back in the day and it worked great in his A1200 rev 1d4
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The EMatrix A1230 is a decent and reliable card. It's far more better than Jens his ACA-crap (wich isn't plug 'n' play).
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The EMatrix A1230 is a decent and reliable card. It's far more better than Jens his ACA-crap (wich isn't plug 'n' play).
This is a very dishonest statement regarding the Indivision ACA cards. I've got one of the original ACA1230@56 cards and it's the fastest 030 card I've ever owned. Works with everything and is PCMCIA friendly. If you're referring to the fact that one simple line must be added to the startup-sequence to fine tune the card then your statement is exaggerated to say the least.
My only wish is that it had an option for an FPU.
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Am not Jens bashing here BUT it would have been nice for an install disk (or ADF/DMS archive) that would have read the Kickstart version in the A1200 ROMS and then given you various choices in the way of command line switches, before inserting the relevant line into the startup-sequence.
If other manufactures could do it back in the 90's then surely his programmer(s) could have done likewise ...
Don't get me wrong, the ACA's are great but lets face it, the lack of documentation and software support were a bit sparse at the time.
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...My only wish is that it had an option for an FPU.
Yeah, that's another downside. But I was referring to the fact that it isn't plug 'n' play with some A1200 mobo's. People on different forums complaining about doing a mod first in order to get it working properly.
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I think Jens made a nice product at an affordable price. They sold out very quickly.
A card with any accelerator was very expensive in the old days, partly because RAM cost a fortune as well.
I'll have 2MB RAM upgrade and 40 megabyte hard drive. Price $1500... :rofl:
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I would def take an ematrix before ANY aca card. This whole "timing fix" thing is BS i've had countless brands of a1200 cpus working no prob. Apollo, ematrix, blizz, gvp, etc etc and yes on dif rev boards
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Yeah, that's another downside. But I was referring to the fact that it isn't plug 'n' play with some A1200 mobo's. People on different forums complaining about doing a mod first in order to get it working properly.
I bought an ACA 1220 a while back and it didn't work in my A1200 (3.1 ROMs). Since the store selling it didn't inform me of the possible need for timing fixes, I returned the card and got a refund.
I fail to understand why the ACA cards are so finicky. I've used several other cards in that Amiga without problems, including a Blizzard 1260 from DCE. The idea of soldering on the MoBo when all my other cards work perfectly isn't very appealing. I know that Ind. Comp. is a one-man effort but if all other card manufacturers managed to bypass the timing fixes, why not IC? It's weird to me.
Individual Computers have done some good stuff as well. I've previously owned an X-Surf card which worked brilliantly, both the network side and the IDE controller.
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Well I have an ACA 1231/42MHz I had to do timing fix on my miggy but wasen't so hard then just a simple line in startup-sequence and all ran like a charm, so im happy with it even if I did not know I had to do timing fixes before I bought it it was quite easy to find out.
But sure, they should write when selling that some boards require timing fixes.
But it's fully understandable that some people do not want or can do the timing fixes.
Besides that I love my card and it runs great :D
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Well I have an ACA 1231/42MHz I had to do timing fix on my miggy but wasen't so hard then just a simple line in startup-sequence and all ran like a charm, so im happy with it even if I did not know I had to do timing fixes before I bought it it was quite easy to find out.
No, the timing fixes referenced here are actual hardware fixes, which means that you have to do some soldering on your A1200 motherboard. It's not needed for _all_ A1200:s, but quite a lot of them seems to need this (and from what I've gathered, different MoBo revisions require different fixes). The ACATune software added to the startup-sequence will not fix any of these problems.
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No, the timing fixes referenced here are actual hardware fixes, which means that you have to do some soldering on your A1200 motherboard. It's not needed for _all_ A1200:s, but quite a lot of them seems to need this (and from what I've gathered, different MoBo revisions require different fixes). The ACATune software added to the startup-sequence will not fix any of these problems.
Wait what? I did not say that the ACATune software did fix any timing issue. Maybe I was to unclear in my phrasing.
What I wrote was that I had to do a timing fix which wasen't hard for me since I got no problems soldering (it was also quite easy to find info about this for different MB revs, my mb was a rev 2B board). Then I only had to install ACATune and add a line to my startup-sequence.
I had to do the rev 2B fix found here http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
Read what I wrote again. Two things, timing fix and add a startup-sequence line (for the ACAtune software).
I had to do timing fix on my miggy but wasen't so hard then just a simple line in startup-sequence
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I would def take an ematrix before ANY aca card. This whole "timing fix" thing is BS i've had countless brands of a1200 cpus working no prob. Apollo, ematrix, blizz, gvp, etc etc and yes on dif rev boards
+1
Jens has made some innovative products when other makers were leaving the market. OTOH, he seems to use buyers as his testers. I have a worthless Delina Flipper (IIRC, several hundred dollars!), that at the time I bought it, was assumed to be plug-n-play and completely functional.
My ACA also doesn't work. I have tried once to apply timing fixes, so far, with no success (and I'm no dunce with a soldering iron!).
I will generally take a wait and see attitude before buying anything else from Jens.
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Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly happens if u dont do the timing fix? Will it crash? And do all 1200s need it? What can I do to check if an a1200 needs it ? There was some game but I forgot...
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This is a very dishonest statement regarding the Indivision ACA cards. I've got one of the original ACA1230@56 cards and it's the fastest 030 card I've ever owned. Works with everything and is PCMCIA friendly. If you're referring to the fact that one simple line must be added to the startup-sequence to fine tune the card then your statement is exaggerated to say the least.
My only wish is that it had an option for an FPU.
I like Jens but I have a brand new ACA card that I've tried on four different A1200s and it works on none. I've tried both Jens and where I bought it and they say, it must be your computer. So now it's a nice paper weight
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Had a small problem in my 1D4 but my ACA1231/42 is rock solid in my 1D1, for the price that most accelerators are going for on eBay/Amibay the ACA cards are good value. Adding the s-s line for ACA tune is hardly a hardship is it?.
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These Ematrix cards look pretty cool. Who made them ? And not so long ago...
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Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly happens if u dont do the timing fix? Will it crash? And do all 1200s need it? What can I do to check if an a1200 needs it ? There was some game but I forgot...
I had issues with my 2b and 1232, yes some (probably most) games would cause lock-ups/crashes on my unmodified motherboard.
mostly fixed by removing a couple of caps from the back of the mobo, 99.9% of titles work for me.. but gloom and wing commander are both unplayable with the ACA, wing commander just craps out as soon as it starts scaling sprites and gloom has issues with missing level geometry.
Apparently this situation is rare according to the manufacturer. But, I wouldn't buy one, or recommend one unless you're prepared to do some work on your mobo (which is not difficult but must be approached carefully) or pay someone to do it... Not sure if there's some boards which can't be fixed for some reason, but presumably most can be fixed.
But when it works, its great now i've made the adjustments (which are actually incorrect and incomplete, with some further mods I could probably fix WC) and aside from those 2 issues its very stable playing all games and lots of different WB apps.
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M-tec, 1997
these ematrix cards look pretty cool. Who made them ? And not so long ago...
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Oh so it was made in the nineties after all. Somehow I understood they were made in late 2000s :)
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I like Jens but I have a brand new ACA card that I've tried on four different A1200s and it works on none. I've tried both Jens and where I bought it and they say, it must be your computer. So now it's a nice paper weight
I don't like any business people that much.
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No it's not good enough. It can't have been hard to test on several A1200's.
I'm not sure if it would be because the 68030s are reclaimed from old equipment.
I hope he plans to get around to doing a fix that doesn't requiring altering the mobo.
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I love the guys here that say the "timing fixes" is an "easy mod" far from. Who wants to pull their a1200 apart and bust out the solder iron? (And you better be pretty good with it as the timing fixes are really tiny mods)
So for users getting back into amiga or just want a whdload box dont get an aca.
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Well, I have a E-matrix@ 50mhz in my 1200 and it works really well and no need to modify anything. Would like to the option to relocate kickstart into card ram so I can softkick 3.1 but not sure this is posible?
Also, back in the day, my old towered 1200 needed a timing fix when I upgraded to an Apollo 1240@40mhz as it keep crashing. Once done, worked like a dream so don't be too hard on Jens, it's not a new phenomenon and anyone producing new hardware today should be applauded and supported.
As far as I know the E-matrix range are rebranded Vipers and definitely not created this side of the millenium so not quite sure what E-bayer means?
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1839
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Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly happens if u dont do the timing fix? Will it crash? And do all 1200s need it? What can I do to check if an a1200 needs it ? There was some game but I forgot...
That game is Mad Professor Mariarti. Let it run into the intro (don't press fire to start the game) and it will freeze somewhere quite soon (highscore screen iirc).
Without the fixes you'll get freezes in some games (with 1D4 and 2B board revisions):
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
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I had issues with my 2b and 1232, yes some (probably most) games would cause lock-ups/crashes on my unmodified motherboard.
mostly fixed by removing a couple of caps from the back of the mobo, 99.9% of titles work for me.. but gloom and wing commander are both unplayable with the ACA, wing commander just craps out as soon as it starts scaling sprites and gloom has issues with missing level geometry.
Just to be sure, theres only 1 wing commander game right? I never played it in my life, but decided to give it a go on my ACA1232 33mhz. I used WinUAE to handle the ADF images, and then installed it to a temporary partition. I then ZIPed everything up and uploaded it to my space at the university. Loaded up my Amiga 1200 and grabbed the file and uncompressed everything. Game runs great. No timing fixes on my A1200. It is a 1D.3 revision.
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I love the guys here that say the "timing fixes" is an "easy mod" far from..
Mostly agree here...
I got lucky with my MB and ACA1230/28. It works well.
But when I was reading about the timing fixes people were doing, I was wondering if I was going to do that..
Probably..
I mean, I modded my A500 for 2M CHIP and I've done some composite video mods on some consoles, but I'm not that great with a soldering iron, so it would have been nerve wracking...
Although, to be fair, although Jens' boards are susceptible to the Amiga timing issue, it's not new. The timing fix was needed for other accelerators.
Here's a 2003 post on Amiga.org about the fixes, and I know they well predated that post..
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4889
So, not getting an ACA won't guarantee that you won't need one, although the older accels were less likely to need them.
One thing to watch out for with some of the older accelerators is that some (just a few) of them aren't PCMCIA friendly. So if you have one of those and a 3.1 ROM, you won't be able to use PCMCIA with 8M RAM in the accellerator.
I think there were just a few released that came with 8M and for some reason mapped it in the conflicting location. (Probably released before 3.1, so it didn't conflict then..)
desiv
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Just to be sure, theres only 1 wing commander game right?
For the Amiga there's two revisions of Wing Commander: WC1 and WC1 AGA. However I've heard that the AGA version suffers from broken code that actually made it run slower than the ECS version (although there's supposed to be a fan patch that fixes that, too).
And, yeah, an 030 card does WC a treat (although it ran pretty OK on my A500 with AdSpeed back in the day).
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For the Amiga there's two revisions of Wing Commander: WC1 and WC1 AGA. However I've heard that the AGA version suffers from broken code that actually made it run slower than the ECS version (although there's supposed to be a fan patch that fixes that, too).
And, yeah, an 030 card does WC a treat (although it ran pretty OK on my A500 with AdSpeed back in the day).
K, thanks for letting me know of the AGA version. The game ran fine and didn't lock up. Tried to do more with it to get the accelerator to flake out, but no luck. I do have 3.1 roms on it as well.
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K, thanks for letting me know of the AGA version. The game ran fine and didn't lock up. Tried to do more with it to get the accelerator to flake out, but no luck. I do have 3.1 roms on it as well.
Also there was a CD32 version but I'm not at all sure it was any different than a title screen change between it and the AGA version, if that.
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Thank you Paul!
Time to test it!
:idea:
That game is Mad Professor Mariarti. Let it run into the intro (don't press fire to start the game) and it will freeze somewhere quite soon (highscore screen iirc).
Without the fixes you'll get freezes in some games (with 1D4 and 2B board revisions):
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
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I had to do the rev 2B fix found here http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
Read what I wrote again. Two things, timing fix and add a startup-sequence line (for the ACAtune software).
Heh, sorry :) I read that as "I had to do timing fixes, it wasn't so hard (back) then (when I got my card), I just added a line to my startup-sequence". Punctuation, dear sir, punctuation! :)