SAM 440 - What would owning one mean to you?

[redfox]

@Amithony

Currently running AmigaOS 4.1 on MicroA1-C.  The following details some of my observations about my own system.  I am looking forward to a live demo of SAM 440.

The MicroA1-C has onboard Radeon 7000 graphics with 32 MBytes of video RAM.  This is not quite enough video RAM to run a carefree environment with full-blown hardware accelerated compositing modes.  Eventually, the system will slow down or freeze.  I usually run my system with the compositing modes turned off.  My windows have square corners and less transparency effects.  No big deal.  My system is stable and functional and my applications run fine.  If I am careful, I can turn on compositing modes and demonstrate the eye candy, but I have to keep an eye on my free video RAM.

So how does this relate to the SAM 440 ?

The Sam440ep has 64 MBytes of video RAM, so there should be no restrictions on the compositing modes and eye candy.

I have a chance to see a Sam440 running OS4.1 next week at a live demo.  If it performs as I expect, I will be ordering one shortly afterwards.

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redfox
MicroA1-C + AmigaOS 4.1

[redfox]

@All

Just want to make perfectly clear that I am not here to pick any fights or push any adgendas.  My definition of Amiga is very broad and inclusive.  Some of you run Winuae or Amithlon or other emulations.  I also have E-UAE available on my OS4 system.  It allows me to install programs which require the old installer program and to run some old favourites which require the classic chipset.  Some of you have classic Amiga systems.  I have also owned an Amiga 2000HD for many years.  Some of you own other systems.  That is fine with me.  There is room for all of us.

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redfox

[redfox]

@JJ

what sort of speeds do you get running on euae on the micro A1 ...

I can't really answer your question directly, because I'm not really going for a maxed out emulation and I don't use euae to play fast games.

I am using E-UAE to emulate a very basic 68K system, similar to Amiga 2000HD with no accelerator card.  This means 68000 CPU and I have chosen AmigaOS 3.1 because that is what I had on my old machine.

Just for fun, I gave it 2 MB of ChipRAM, 4 MB of FastRAM, ECS chipset, full screen amiga graphics and I set the cpu speed to maximum allowable by e-uae.  I use a drawer on my OS4 system parition as my Workbench partition for the emulated Amiga.  I can also mount ADF files as floppies.

So, speed wise, I'm set to max allowable clock rate, but I'm emulating an 68000 CPU.

When I launch E-UAE, it loads way faster than my old A2000HD.  It is also a very responsive system.

I use E-UAE for a few old favourites ...
Lore of Conquest (a very old two player space war game), Shanghai © 1986 by Activision, Inc., MegaBall v4.0, Microfiche Filer and Amiga Vision.

Sometimes I feel a slight slow down in MegaBall v4.0.  It is probably faster on a real classic Amiga system.

I also used E-UAE to install TVPaint and Real3D on my OS4 system.  This was an interesting exercise, because both of these programs come with an installer script that depends on the older installer program available in AmigaOS 3.x.  I used OS4 and IBrowse or AWeb to download the lha files and the OS4 unarc program to unarchive the lha files into ADF files.  Then I launched E-UAE and used the emulated Amiga system to mount the ADF files as floppies and install the programs onto my emulated Workbench harddrive.  Then I quit E-UAE and used OS4 to drag the TVPaint drawer and Real3D drawer over to their final destination.  This was the easiest way for me to do it all on the same machine.

BTW, I can run IBrowse, Final Writer 97, PPaint, TVPaint, Real3D, MakeCD, AmigaAMP, KingCON, MicroRexx, and other system friendly programs directly from my OS4 Workbench without going into E-UAE first.

Amiga Vision also runs directly from OS4, but also needs to use some things from the older systems.  I'm not sure if it is occasionally touching the chipset or needs some older file formats or datatypes that I do not have installed in OS4.  E-UAE seems to be able to satisfy its needs.

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redfox