8 Mb CHIP RAM on All Amigas

[leirbag28]

Why is it possible to have 8mb ChipRAM on WinUAE but not on a Regular Amiga?

As far as I am concerned I belive its possible without even using a gfx card.............I think All an Amiga needs is a WinUAE ChipRAM emulator.

By that I mean surely even a Plain Amiga can emulate the code or instructions that WinUAE uses to be capable of having 8mb ChipRAM..............as long as one has more than 8mb FastRAM to be used as ChipRAM.


Im so sure its possible in one way or another.  If not that way...then maybe with an external gfx card kinda like a SUPER Graffitti or DCTV. and of course it being 100% compatible with all software


Its Possible!

[leirbag28]

Im sure most of you are more technically adept than I am.

But I believe it is possible.

Oli_HD wrote:

for UAE its easy, as they emulate the chipset and motherboard routing so they could make it 32bit if needed.
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Ok then, it is time to create UAE for Amiga....to emulate the 32 bit needed for the chipRAM and have the rest of the emulation for everything else run natively since it is a real Amiga.............keeping everything still running smooth :-)


Oli_HD wrote:

Oh and why did you post the same question on aw.net?
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Its posted there also to get more variations of opinions............all the intelligent Amigans dont all necessarily hang out in Amiga.ORG only :-D




Leirbag28 wrote:
Quote:

    As far as I am concerned I belive its possible without even using a gfx card.............

Piru wrote:
No it is not.
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Then if it is not possible without a gfx card....it is possible with one as we already know..............so my solution in hardware would be.............create a gfx card thats accessed through RTG I suppose, but isnt a gfx card but only the ChipMem part of it and how it is accessed.   And Whalla!  you have more chipRAM on an Amiga!  and less expencsive than a full gfx card.  This would be the equivalent of taking a Picasso Board and leaving all necessary connections but removing the unecessary components and just the ChipRAM and how it is acccessed and all that pertains to it.



Piru wrote:

You can't just fork out "chipram emulator", because there isn't one. The whole UAE is required.
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Well then....one will have to be created to take care of that :-)


Tricky wrote:

 If you had an MMU I guess you could use the Fast ram as "virtual" chip ram in the same way it would normally use HD space as virtual memory, swapping blocks of fast ram into chip ram when needed.
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Ah......now we are getting somewhere :-)  thanks for open mindedness :-)


foody wrote:

Re: 8 Mb CHIP RAM on All Amigas

Isn't it the same problem as begging and requesting for the Commodore 64 to have more than 64KB of RAM internally? I want my Commodore 64 to have 128 MB of internal RAM and produce more than 16 colors, and I want it to be 16 bit and not 8 bit. As if you are unhappy with what it is and want to change it.
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No, its not the same..............Im happy with my Amiga...and want to keep on being happy with it............since no one is creating New Amigas.............I believe I can at least have my Amiga keep up as much as possible so that I can continue using it with pleasure...............PC's are horrible. If anyting, I will upgrade to an INTEL MAC with Bootcamp to Run Windows XP natively......and Run WinUAE also....and have the best of all 3 worlds..........and all this on a Mac which is definitely more of a pleasure to use that a PC.

[leirbag28]

Piru wrote:
@leirbag28

Before continuing with this debate, would you be kind enough to explain what would one use the 8MB chip memory for? What benefits does 8MB chip memory offer?
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Capital punishment
Super StreetFighter 2 Turbo
Hired Guns
NAPALM
T-ZERO
SCALA MM300
ELan Performer
ViewTeck
Workbench and All Multitaking applications
Digital Sound Studio (Tracker requires all samples in Chipmem)
Video Toaster (can sure use more chipMEM)


And so many Applications...........I love running 10 apps at once if possible....and still be able to execute SLAMTILT or Capital punishment without having to reboot.

WinUAE is a perfect example. I can open so many Apps on it.......one can prove how excellent Amigas are at multitasking if we had more ChipRAM.


Someone here said even with a Gfx card the limit is only 2mb Chip.................hmmmm Im pretty sure I have read you can have 4mb with a CyberVision64 or Picasso and having a Gfx card benefits the Video Toaster as it uses the extra chipMEM from the Card to run.


And Yes!  where there is a will, there is a Way.....PiggyBacking Chips on one another  just might work!

I have heard "It cant be done" in the Amiga community so many times...and they were all wrong.

One has to think of things that have not yet been created.

For example Compact Flash cards and Memory Sticks and SD cards and such were said to be not possible to use on the Amiga. but we can use them now....all that was required was drivers. Same with USB.......now we have USB.............USB couldnt be done on the A600.....I have a Clockport in my A600 now ready for USB

ECS Amigas were said to display a Max of 16 colors in hires Interlaced........yet Broadcast Titler 2.0 displays 320 at once using a trick..........different screens on one screen. Awesome!   this same concept has been applied to games and can be applied even more if we had more ChipMEM

I have ran out of ChipMEM trying to display a large JPEG.


Never forget!  Amiga Makes It Possible!

and Why?  cuz we have a strong community that loves this machine.

[leirbag28]

Not a bad idea, but still the answer is no. The trouble is that Agnus/Alice has many different DMA channels and stores different addresses for each one. When Agnus/Alice accesses chipmem, there is no way for any other piece of hardware to know which DMA channel is being served, so there is no way for any other piece of hardware to provide relevant additional address bits.
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@DamageX

That kind of makes sence and I probably can see that being the case. But maybe there is a way through software telling the Systems and OS that the rest of the ChipRAM is somewhere else and is Virtual Memory..........redirection.....................invisible to all Applications and games.

[leirbag28]

motorollin wrote:

1. The custom chips are physically only able to see a maximum of 2MB of chip RAM.
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I don't believe that...........if this were True, how is it that an A500 wich was created before 2mb CHipRAM existed is able to see the 2mb ChipRAM from a MegaCHIP add-on without changing any of the customs chips?


Also how is Workbench 1.3 able to see it?

Neither Workbench 1.3 nor the custom chips needed to be told there was extra ChipRAM...........it just detected it.

[leirbag28]

@Piru

Re: 8 Mb CHIP RAM on All Amigas

@leirbag28
Quote:

    I don't believe that.


Believe it.

Quote:

    if this were True, how is it that an A500 wich was created before 2mb CHipRAM existed is able to see the 2mb ChipRAM from a MegaCHIP add-on without changing any of the customs chips?


Oh really? Well what is this Agnus 8375 chip doing on the board then?
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Replacing the Agnus is obvious....Im only replying to those that suggested it needed Denice and other chips replaced with the MegaCHIP doesnt have and still works!  correct?




Quote:

    Also how is Workbench 1.3 able to see it?


Workbench calls AvailMem(MEMF_CHIP). Kickstart 1.3 has always supported upto 2MB chip memory.
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So your saying Commodore knew they would eventually invent the ECS that would have 2mb ChipRAM so allowed wb 1.3 and up to support it?   sounds unlikely to me.




Nevertheless.....I believe its Possible....if a new Agnus needs to be made and it works.............then its possible.