A1200 as a development platform

[Zetr0]

A1200 as a Development Platform

Pro's

• OCS / ECS and AGA graphic chip sets are available
• Internal IDE (cheap inexpensive mass storage)
• 020@14Mhz provides 1.1MIPS of processing power
• 2MB of RAM

Cons

I cannot see any, arguably you may come across some compiler issues when compiling for lesser 68k machines, however if you have your environment setup correctly I can not see that being a problem.

I would suggest the purchase of an 030 or higher CPU to assist in compile times - alternatively there is cross - compiling, but that defeats the purpose of this thread.


In regards to resources, get yourself a hard copy of the latest ROM Kernal Reference Libraries and a good quality compiler / IDE suite - perhaps Storm C4.0 or similar would suit you well for your endeavours.

[Zetr0]

Well there is always the CBM A2620 - while this is an A2000 accelerator card - I am sure a crazy moment with a soldering iron and 30awg wire could produce something interesting =)

Personally I think the A2620 is a beautiful card - don't know why.... it just looks delicious


(stock photo thanks to amiga.resource.cx)

[Zetr0]

@rabindranath72

Sadly it would be very unlikely - the CPU card has a 16bit connector - this just wouldn't work with an A1200 without some logic in between - this will likely slow-down any operation requiring the use of the motherboard resources - which is most of them LOL  (however hacking it into an A500..... well now.... thats very possible!)

To be honest.... I only really wanted to post the A2620 picture.... its a lovely card to look at


Now a serious Alternative is -

The ACA1232/25 Accelerator £109.99 (inc VAT) + Postage (www.amigakit.com)

(Stock Photo - thanks to AmigaKit.com)

It provides an MMU, but no FPU - however interesting FPU instructions are transparent - so it wont matter if you program directly for it or not - it will make use of the FPU, if it is available.

Personally I think for the price of £109.99 this card does offer good value for money, with 128MB of RAM and a 25Mhz PGA 68030 - y'know, I am sure I could build a PGA interface board to allow for an FPU - however not knowing the timings of these cards - I doubt I could get the FPU to work reliably.

I will most likely get one of these cards in the near future - not because I need it..... because I want one... yeah I know..... bad me =/