ACA500 prototype

[Jiffy]

I'm a little surprised no one noticed the ACA500 here before. It's been talked about for months and months on EAB and other sites. Especially since it's another ACA-card by Jens it shouldn't be such a suprise.

Apart from that, I am also of the opinion this card is severely flawed but I almost got my head bitten of by Jens when I mentioned this on EAB. :-/

What I like about it  is the aim at low cost, the CF-connectors and the only slightly faster cpu (I don't need it to be a power house, I have other miggies for that).

The original design was meant to have a 68020 @ 14 MHz, 4 MB ram (if I am not mistaken) and would be internal, which would be much more to my liking.

Now it turns out to be a 14 MHz 68000 (not a problem for me) with 2 MB ram (which ís a problem for me) and it will be external (which is simply not acceptable for me).

Kipper2k seems to be working on a much more interesting solution, combining his 4/8 MB fast ram expansion with the IDE68K in one internal device. Also expected to be a low cost solution, but without several of the severe design flawes (in my opinion) the ACA500 has.

Mind you, for the most part I really like the products Jens makes and sells and I understand he wants to make a profit, but I can't imagine this being a succesfull design. He aims it at the returning A500 user without the ability to add an internal card. I really doubt there is a market for that. Returning A500 users without that knowledge will, I expect, not even think about adding anything to an A500, as they don't even have any idea about the existence of any such products. So, the product will mostly be sold to existing users, most of them being able to add an internal card to the A500 by themselves.

The Indivision ECS for example is a fantastic product, as are the ACA630, the A604 (this combo makes the A600 a fantastic computer!), the Indivision AGA mk I (which I all have) and the ACA1220/123x also seem to be great, but the ACA500 goes from barely acceptable (when it was to be the ACA520) to, well, almost embarrassing.

[Jiffy]

I'm not sure how many people will end up using the 14mhz 68000, or whether all customers will just add an accelerator to the back. Which of course will have it's own ram as well.

Adding an ACA12xx completely defeats the purpose of it being a lowcost solution.

If the purpose of the card is adding an ACA12xx to an A500, then completely remove all ram and the 68000, making it a simpler and cheaper design.

Sorry, but the more I think about it, the more flawed the current design becomes in my eyes.

[Jiffy]

I don't know why you guys assume Jens isn't going to encase this.

Because he said so himself in that particular thread.

[Jiffy]

Imagine a A500 all cleaned-up to look brand new with a nice side case will it look out of place against a A1200? My answer would be no.

Imagine an A500, all cleaned up, looking brand new with some nice internal expansions. Will it look out of place against an A1200? My answer would be no. :-)

User(s) should always welcome new hardware be it right or wrong as who else would do it.

That is something completely different. I welcome any new hardware for classic Amigas.

But Jens says he aims this device at inexperienced new A500 users wanting to relive their childhood without spending big bucks.

While a certainly believe there are such people, I severely doubt there are enough of them to warrant a device like this. I certainly dó believe most of the ACA500s, when and if available, will be bought by people wanting to use them to add an ACA12xx to theire A500.

In that case, the ACA500 is used as a rather expensive adapter, while both the beefed up 68000 and the extra 2 MB will not be used anymore, making the combination most likely to be quite expensive (even more so than the expected Zeus68k) and, because of the external design without a case (Jens insisted on not making a case for it quite strongly!) a fragile solution with a very large footprint.

I expect people Jens is targeting with this device, if they want to use a real A500 and not an emulator, most likely don't want to spend much money (Jens is most likely right with that assumption), but also do not want to use a large amount of space for their classic Miggie. And while the A500 in itself already occupies quite an amount of deskspace, this is even more so when using any kind of sidecar solution.

A very usable A500 for returning users would be the A500 itself, an Indivision ECS, 0.5 MB trapdoor ram, any kind of IDE/CF solution, an internal fast ram solution of at least 4 MB (preferably 8 MB) and a slightly faster cpu than stock.

If the ACA500 would have 4 or 8 MB and would be internal, I would buy one. Being it external and only having 2 MB (1.5 MB usable), I won't.

Ofcourse, I could be totally wrong about the the assumptions I make regarding the market Jens is aiming at. He says he's aiming at a certain group, but I doubt it will be bought by that group. It will most likely sell, it might even sell well, but not because of its cpu, the onboard ram or the fact that it is external (and thus easy to connect to an A500). It will sell to people wanting to use an ACA12xx with their A500.

I have no problem with that, but I find it rather curious that it is not the main focus of the ACA500, while being (imo) blatantly obvious.

I severely doubt many people will use the ACA500 in its standard configuration. And if that turns out to be the case, why bother making the ACA500 more than just an ACA12xx adapter?

[Jiffy]

A1200s are over $100 US used.  A500s?  Well, they're usually under $50, sometimes much less.

Which makes an A1200 a better option for the returning, non-tech user, as an A500 with an ACA500 is both less capable and more expensive than an A1200. :-)

[Jiffy]

I don't know why you are assuming that I thought he was going to encase this.  If I were to buy this device, I would be looking forward to making my own sidecar case for it.

The fun part of your answer is, that people (capable of) making a sidecar case for the ACA500 are not the people the ACA500 is aimed at. :-)

The ACA500, with its low price, low specs and easy to install design is aimed at the non-tech user returning to the Amiga just now to relive a part of their childhood and using their new A500 for what they used it back then: games, and nothing else. While there is nothing wrong with that, those are certainly not the people which you can expect to make their own sidecar case.

So, while Jens certainly has a point on certain design choices with the ACA500, the line of thinking he follows has (in my opinion) lead him to believe he's aiming the product at a certain market that, even if it would exist, will not be the market which will buy the ACA500. The ACA500 will be bought by people wanting to use an ACA12xx with their A500. And those people, most of them long time Amiga enthusiasts, can be expected to fit an internal design in the A500, making the choice for an external version rather dubious.

It is certainly easier to fit an internal version of the ACA500 than design and make a stable and good looking external case for the ACA500 yourself.

Face it: the ACA500 will be used as an ACA12xx adapter, not as a stand alone device. If this is so, just call it what it is.

[Jiffy]

As Jens has mentioned himself: when it's ready.