in case you are interested to test new fpga accelerators for a600/a500

[xboxOwn]

Count me in!!! I was willing to get ACA1233 but will get this. Is this card compatible with ACA500? 68020 running at speed 500 mhz is quivalent to what speed in x86?

[xboxOwn]

Specs sound decent.  Really looking for something that could do full 68040/68060 emulation.  I'd take a 100MHz 68060 over a 500MHz 68020, but am happy to see any new development.  

Is 500 Mhz 68020 slower than 100 Mhz 68060? if they can make a 68020 run at 500 Mhz, why can't they make a 68060 run at 500 Mz instead or even 1 Ghz?

[xboxOwn]

the card has LAN and a modern video output and it is promised that there will be RTG and a new improved amiga chipset added. At the start it is a accellerator with 128 MB RAM.

Is the new improved Amiga chipset something like Super AGA or something better than OCS/ECS/AGA but along the line of new improved custom chipset? Will it be backward compatible with OCS/ECS/AGA?

If we make games on the new improved custom chipset does that mean it will not run on Amiga CD 32/A500/1200/etc that do not have this chipset installed in their system?

Thank you OlafS3 for answering below. I will have the money ready on 26th and wish to preorder it. I will buy this card over ACA1233 (originally was intending on buying the ACA1233). How do I go about doing it?

[xboxOwn]

a500 is too bulky. i have a sentiment for the 600 for its compact form factor and because it was the firsta amiga i owned;). but i would have to get ks3.1 for it first as i understand.
i was a member on natami forum, they could take my details from there or from you.

I love A500 because it was the very first Amiga computer I was ever introduced and used in my life. My jaws dropped at the quality of the graphics in the game and how I fell in love with it. To me Amiga 500 is going to be my own all usage Amiga computer usage and I love the keyboard case

[xboxOwn]

im not questioning nor want to discuss anybody elses preference. its important for me to have most compact and mobile unit if possible, because i move around, and it was the first time like that. thats all

I understand and I agree. Compact is good, especially when space is an issue.

[xboxOwn]

Whats up with you guys, lets get some more people interested. The card sounds like a step in the right direction.

Who doesn't want a 500Mhz A500? Kind of fitting when you think about it A500...500MHz...

I don't like the comment from Michal Warzecha saying not many posts for now, I don't want to see this fold.

Even if they could do a small developer/tester run through Kickstarter?

I have already put a request in the list. How many have being interested and how many are missing?

[xboxOwn]

It does not matter whether these cards are clocked with 200 or 500 or 800 ...
As long as they are as FAST as an 68030 @ 500 MHz people will be happy

Yup. :hammer:  Wait, does that mean we get a cpu fan too!!!??

[xboxOwn]

@biggun

Can i pay for it now to preserve a seat. Even if this card just end up 500 mhz accelerator it is good enough for me. Everything else is a bonous

[xboxOwn]

Well, as I mentioned, it would be interesting to see Shapeshifter or other Mac emulation on Amiga with a Phoenix core, Shapeshifter does not require MMU I believe. Anyways, what are the odds that other software, such as games and demos that bypass the OS with their coding, use features not found on Phoenix?

You know what it means with such a speed. VICE emulator, DOSBox and other emulation should run very smoothly now in all Amiga models and on top of it, even Exult should run very fast.

[xboxOwn]

Should yes, but it remains to see if they will run at all. Currently even OS3.9 doesn't work well, but that should be fixed quickly one can hope. The thing with Macintosh emulators is that the CPU is not emulated in those.

What is wrong with OS 3.9? You said even the actual OS 3.9 does not work well, why?

Side note: In the very very very distance between Jupiter and Earth future, if the SAGA does become reality then all Amiga specs will be 100% the same. It will be who ever choose an Amiga model it will be for the sole reason of the flavor he likes and favorite style more than anything else. AGAIN IF THIS VERY between Earth and Jupiter distance future does become reality then I am content with my favorite flavored A500. Others will be A600, while others be will be A1200 and others will be A4000.

THE VERY CONCEPT excites me!

[xboxOwn]

Be interesting to know what the issue is with AmigaOS3.9. Even a 030@40MHz has no issues running it, have it setup nicely on my A500 at the moment using the IndiECS as an RTG card.

Which works really well apart from the occasional artifact/pixels but then the IndiECS wasn't really meant to be used as an RTG card ;-)

By the way, when I had the indivision ECS scandoubler on my A500 before I lost it...I did not like it. I mean I like the idea that I can hook my A500 in a monitor anytime...I just did not like the quality (ignoring the fact the board was defective and the image came gibberish).....it felt worse than WinUAE. TOOO...pixilated, WinUAEish...I do not know. But ones I hooked my A500 back in TV it felt the good old days again. I rather treat my A500 the same way I treat Commodore 64...composite or rf and TV.

Now if you are telling me to go A4000T/D using for example AmiKit as an OS...hooking it on a monitor makes all sense..and VGA is a necessity and not a choice.

[xboxOwn]

I don't know how Gunnar currently handles that. Ideally, it should be a library. Currently, I deliver a run-alone binary I deliver that installs everything. There is no support for the Phoenix core in SetPatch, so you have to use an additional command to load the support functions anyhow.    I don't know - what do you mean by "deal"? Somehow, the stuff must be loaded, right?    

Does the 68040.library have to be loaded on every warm start? Yes, of course. Does the absense of the 68040 library break some games? Probably, I never tried. It is more likely that bad software does not run on the 68040 in first place, especially software that bypasses the Os. Did that stop people from using the 68040 or 68060?

In a sense, you cannot have everything. P96 support requires 68020 support. Some games break on a 68020. Fast execution requires higher clock rates. Some games break on faster processors. At some point, you probably just have to say, ok, I'll boot this game with the plain old 68000 in the system. If software is so badly written that it cannot run with SetPatch kicking in, or so bad that it does not run on anything but raw 68000 speed at 7MHz... well - I'm just saying "bad luck", that's not the right hardware for this game.

One word: Whdload.

[xboxOwn]

Well, even that cannot clock down a 68060 to 7Mhz or change the exception stack frame for a 68040. It can at best perform a live patch on broken software. How good or bad that works depends of course on the software and WHDLoad. One way or another: If you need absolute compatibility to a 1MB 68000@7Mhz on an Amiga 500, your best bet is to get an unexpanded Amiga 500....

This is why the vampire 500 is awesome. Anytime you can disabled and get that 100% compatibility since you run it on an unexpected A500 anyways

[xboxOwn]

Well, it should be possible to let regular SetPatch do it the same way it does 68060.library, via a dummy 68040.library, but I suppose it then would had to act like a 68040 to trigger SetPatch to load it. Most convenient of all, for users, would be if phoenix core could be compatible enough to not need patching of the OS, isn't that the greatness of FPGA? Also, that the FastRAM is not autoconf is rather inconvenient.

I am curious how it will play out.

Only way to figure it out if BigGun start distributing tomorrow the card for people who said they are interested! Then we can start playing :laugh1: with card and say how the entire thing works out.


Right now I am exercising extreme control and patience of not buying ACA1233 but that means my A500 is crippled for what I need to do with it. I do hope it comes out soon.

[xboxOwn]

I am calm. Do you see one exclamation point, upper case text or bold text from me? You accused me of twisting the truth and I am not supposed to defend myself? I ask questions to uncover the truth and I receive more questions in return. I worked to create an open enhanced 68k ISA and instead you use some of my ideas and analysis to make a secretive ISA. You try to make me look like an outsider who is not capable of understanding the complexity of your ISA yet I have much of it documented better than you. You ignore the suggestions and conclusions of the majority beneath you but make no apologies when you end up using what they suggested after you arrogantly run them off. Some people want a saviour so bad that they are willing to put up with anything but I am wary of the fruits of a false Messiah.................

So what you are saying is: biggun is a scamming us? I am no longer waiting for the vampire and ordering ACA1233 instead because matthey is giving me bad ideas about biggun's project.