[UserReview] Vampire V2-128 received and it's just pure p0rn.

[TrashyMG]

Looks nothing like scanlines to me, and I'm still using a 1084 monitor with all my Amigas.

What I hope they make optional is the AGA output through HDMI.
I want to keep using the Amiga's chipset and analog video.

It would require some kind of magic trick to get AGA going out through the RGB output with the current Vampire cards, Especially through the respected OCS/ECS chipsets. HDMI is what you got, if you want OCS/ECS going through Analog sure you can just use the native chipsets, AGA will have to be HDMI only.

[TrashyMG]

Guess I wasn't clear enough, what I meant is to make AGA emulation optional.
I'm mainly thinking about Vampire for A1200 here.

Most likely can just fall back to Lisa via software.

[TrashyMG]

Pretty sure I saw Metal Slug that uses FPU.

And you can quote me on not caring one bit about emulators that run so much better on other, cheaper and more available hardware.

That was mini-slug an open source Metal Slug clone.

I think you care otherwise you wouldn't go on offensive anytime there is a mention of things going on with the Vampire/Apollo team.

[TrashyMG]

I've not been keeping up so apologise in advance.

Does the Apollo core have a standard FPU now or does FEMU still have to be used?

This statement is for the current Vampire V2s out in circulation, Gold 2.7 will release will come with a full FPU solution, FEMU isn't needed. when Gold 3 is released it will have AGA and other features, so a full FPU solution can't fit at the same time, FEMU can be utilized here. Lucky it's an FPGA and you can easily switch just by reprograming it and reboot with a single mouse click in WB or Amigashell if you prefer.

For the upcoming V4s the FPGA is much larger and can utilize both the AGA, Pamela audio and the full FPU at the same time.

[TrashyMG]

Gunnar is also really sarcastic at times, especially on IRC.

[TrashyMG]

Oh nice, new important information - so one will have to chose between SAGA (Gold Core 3) or FPU (Gold Core 2.7). And of course the "full FPU solution" involves trapping of 68882 FPU instructions and feeding them to a software emulator, akin to those pesky 68040/68060 libraries who were so evil a few months ago.

No SAGA will be on both, AGA features will be on Gold 3.

It's a real FPU solution, no software emulation. Stop spreading %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! you don't know.

[TrashyMG]

As SAGA is supposed to be a superset of AGA (Super AGA), this makes zero sense.

For reasons I don't understand SAGA was chosen for the name of the RTG graphics that come out of the HDMI interface. Gold 2.7 will still have that with ECS/OCS still coming out of the RGB port.

Gold 3 will introduce actual AGA support and the new Pamela sound chip over HDMI.

Maybe with the V4s it will make a bit more sense being called SAGA.

[TrashyMG]

So nothing new, just at last an FPU of some sort.
So you have no information on whether it will fully implement all 68882 instructions and features on the FPGA, or whether it trap those that are not implemented and feed them to a software emulator, like is done with 68040 and 68060 using their respective libraries? There was such a hoopla over how utterly crap solution it was to need such libraries, yet from what I can see, they're doing the exact same thing themselves.

I can't say for sure, this is what I've seen:

http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=4¬e=12178:

"In Gold 2.7, an MC68882 compatible set of FPU instructions will be available at boot time. It won't be necessary to load 68040.library or femu."

I guess there isn't any news after all then, just confusion and hyperbole (AMMX, AMMX2, AMMX2 + undocumented functions... which never seems to settle).

What do you expect from a small time development team working on this in their spare time. These guys have day jobs. Proper documentation can come when they solidify their cores.

[TrashyMG]

I'm not the one forgetting here, rewriting history is not the right thing to do, even if you do it "politely". One year ago, there already was FPU for V2, it just needed some "testing". I suppose the testing didn't go so well, because it didn't take so long before it was clear that the very much hyped FPU would not be... and anyways, Amiga don't need FPU, does it. So started the bashing of everyone expressing needs for FPU began. Then Gunnar came with AMMX, as a sort of "look, this is much more useful!". But there were people also inside the team that were unhappy about the lack of FPU, and there was a rather harsh discussion over it. Gunnar decided if he was to implement an FPU it would be the most awesome FPU ever, and it would require bigger FPGA, V2 be damned, let there be V3... heck V4! V2 owners can use some software emulation if they need FPU so badly. And this was the sentiment till Jari came with FEMU, pretty much proving that software FPU emulation is not desired. FEMU is far from perfect, and it was demonstrated how both productivity software and demos did not run well enough. So again focus was changed, to improve FEMU. And this has now been going on since last summer, and had CLEARLY been a priority. Despite previous rantings about how useless FPU is on Amiga and what idiots people are for wanting it. Jari says quite openly that after his initial 0.10 release, he's not really been the one working on improving it. Over time, more and more went into the FPGA, and from what I understand, it's currently on pair with 040. Meaning that there's still a bit of software emulation needed, which is fine. What's less fine is that this software is running outside the operating system, meaning noone else but Apollo Team can ever fix bugs or do improvements. But I suppose, like everything else Apollo Core, the code is perfect already. Like those libraries Phase5 put into ROM on their CPU boards. Bad for Phase5 and others, but good for Apollo Core. Always.

Imagine if Jari had not made FEMU, and where the project would have been now, what the outspoken sentiment would have been.

As for SAGA, it was announced that the SAGA FPGA core would be open source, but now it's not when clear what SAGA is, and half of the time it just refers to P96 support. Originally, SAGA was the Super AGA chipset that was to take over from the AGA Amiga chipset, being a superset of AGA. Pamela is the audio part of SAGA, taking over for Paula.

Here we go again, yes you are re-writing history, your version is skewed from any facts and reality. You seem to have small nuggets of truth in the details, but you spin the version you want, the one where you're always right and the Apollo team is doing evil things to the Amiga community.

[TrashyMG]

So, I figure it is time to go back to what started all this hoopla the last few days....



So who was spreading whatever you don't know?

We both are, you more so. For me it's ignorance, for you it's a mis-information and smear campaign.