Apollo Team announces the Vampire V4

[BSzili]

You don't even get what I am "frustrated" with, at this point I don't care if there is no FPU. I am "frustrated" how the FPU has been (and still is!) marketed as the most glorious piece of excellence for 3 years, without not even one single public demo - ever! Then there was the "68882 compatible" FPU that was "really soon now", but just never was good enough. Then it was "no software use FPU anyways!". Then it was "Oh, and I just have this amazing vision about an even greater FPU, for a bigger FPGA!".

But most of all, I was "frustrated" with being told that what I use my Amiga systems for, is pointless - that the software I use, has no use, that I am idiot for using my Amiga systems for other things than "entertainment". And then an idiot for not being impressed by MPEG1 on classic systems (I mean, come on!)?

And still I wonder where one is supposed to find the actual specs of the current Apollo Core, as neither of the two web sites involved in the project have that information, and only tout superlatives (some very exaggerated), and are very eager to point out "potential features" rather than actual features.

I think there are many people who agree with this, but don't really bother posting about it, because it will get drowned out by all the hype.
When it comes to the Vampire you are only allowed to praise it, even if you don't own it, or what you say is "inaccurate to say the least". On the other hand if you have any criticism, you better keep it to yourself even if you own multiple cards :roflmao:

[BSzili]

Maybe a few think that way, but I dont have a problem with people critizising Vampire.

Just like when people have comments about AOS4 and PPC, they say what doesnt work, which is fine, but they quite often include to the effect "its %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ing useless, omg, and anyone using it is deluded fanbois!".
I might agree with the issues they list, but why on earth they need to add less than helpful descriptions of the users and hardware/software that will only make the reciver hostile?
And then you have the predictable exchange that just makes the fronts agressive.

Same goes for Vampire. There are plenty of issues with AOS3, and things that doesnt run as everyone wants it to. The team knows, but as we all know, its WORK IN PROGRESS.
But as usual the comments is often followed by "omg omg omg, lol, useless, crap, fanboi" etc. You get my drift.
It kinda suprises me considering we are supposed to be adults, but just cant help outselves. If we had written at work a critique like we do on these forums, I think we would find ourselves in a human resource meeting pretty quickly. I realise this is a hobby forum, so drawing that paralell is a bit off, but Im sure you are catching my drift.

For some reason whoever prefer AOS3 enjoys bashing AOS4, and vice versa. Those that enjoy AOS4, bashes MorphOS or AROS, and vice versa.

Ive found the lack of communication from hardware/software developers somewhat annoying in the past, but Ive grown to understand it seeing it basically amounts to pissing into the wind for the most part.

Basically NAxALT.

[BSzili]

So what are the existing features?

It's very strange that people who say "buy it for the existing features" have no answer to this

[BSzili]

Thats because you seemingly dont want to read what many has been saying;

-I enjoy being able to run Workbench RTG/Thru HDMI without Indivision.
-I enjoy the responsive Workbench.
-I enjoy the productivity + music in the background without the system grinding to a halt.

Im not a developer or a poweruser, so my list probably seems like "lol", but Im pretty sure userfriendliness and responsiveness of the system is a BIG positive for most people.

Ofcourse its a mixed bag for developers based on what Ive read. More powerful design, but lackluster in development tools for the Vampire spesific core features. I get that.

I guess you could respond with "The points you listed you could get from WinUAE and Amikit!" or "a beefed up A4000 with xyz cards would be able to deliver the same".
Yes, but at what pricetag?
Emulation is free ofcourse, but A4000 and legacy hardware, nope.

Thanks for proving my point :lol:

[BSzili]

Is it that hard to read about the features on the official site ?

Or should Gunnar pay a visit to every Amiga user and draw it out to them ?

If by official site you mean http://apollo-accelerators.com, then the information there "less than accurate" according to the Apollo Team. If you are talking about http://www.apollo-core.com, then you probably don't know that the features listed there doesn't reflect what the Vampire has, because they are separate products. This information also comes from the Apollo Team, it's from this very forum.
If you have any other "official website" which has a list of features the Vampire currently has, please share it with us.

[BSzili]

Is it that hard to read about the features on the official site ?

Or should Gunnar pay a visit to every Amiga user and draw it out to them ?

The HW specs are very clear, right ? Type of FPGA, amount of memory, slots, connectors....

If you dont trust the wiki, go and ask Gunnar or other team members, they are very happy to answer any technical question.

Which one is it? Should everybody go and ask Gunnar individually about what features the Vampire has, or shouldn't? :confused: Also I'm still looking for that official website with this info.

[BSzili]

Vampire features are very clear. Altera Cyclone 3 FPGA, 128MB Ram, microSD card slot, V500+ version has IDE and expansion port as extra. But you can keep waiting, I dont think anybody cares....

Thanks for you too for proving my point. Next! :hammer:

[BSzili]

@Nickman
Thanks! Is this verified by the Apollo Team? I remember Gunnar saying that the GOLD 2 core has no 64-bit support.

[BSzili]

http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=4¬e=223
http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=4¬e=758

Apollo was always 64-bit. But over time the support has improved and refined.

Maybe you are thinking of this?
Using such features APOLLO is able to accelerate and improve old existing 68k programs. Several of these "intelligent-rewrites" will be enabled in the next GOLD release of APOLLO.
from this post 18-jan 2016.
http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=4¬e=251

I'm not privy to the internal workings of the Apollo Core, nor the core used by the Vampire 2. I tried to look it up quickly, but I couldn't find the quote about the 64-bit support. I thought it was on aros-exec, but I remembered wrong. Maybe it was from grond here?
You didn't answer my other question, so I wager this is an unofficial list compiled by you. If that's the case, kudos to you I hope they will add it to their website after it has been checked against the actual feature list. Then again, the V2+ will probably be EOL by that time

[BSzili]

Well I didn't make the list from nothing. All I typed is from apollo-core.com and http://forum.apollo-accelerators.com

So depends on how you want define official.

Sure, but we were told continually that the Apollo Core and Vampire are "two separate products", and we shouldn't expect the features listed there to be available on the Vampire. We are also told to buy the Vampire "for the features in currently has", yet no one can really tell which ones it has and which ones hasn't. Know what I mean?

[BSzili]

trying to find out what features the Vampire currently has = trying to force the project into a certain direction

Honk-honk!

[BSzili]

Again, you are moving the goalpost. Since we've come full circle, it's safe to conclude that information about the features currently available in the Vampire cards is not available.