Amiga ACA500 is awesome!

[mindprober]

I was curious on the CF storage. Is more than 4GB overkill for most of what can be done with an A500? At least for the boot drive. Also, what about the transfer speed? I know that fitzsteve tested Transcend 133x. I saw an 8GB 500x card that was affordable but will I see any benefit of the 500x speed with the ACA500?

[mindprober]

I do recall limitations with partitioning under WB 1.3 (although not precisely). The last time I had OS 1.3 installed on a hard drive, the size of the drive was 20MB (wow). I know I can do better than that today. I will create a modest partition for the WB 1.3, but I did want a second partition for storage/programs. In addition, I would like to create partitions for WB 2.x and possibly 3.x (if I ever expand the processor even more). Will it be no trouble to divide up a 4GB CF in this manner? The second CF slot will contain another 4GB card devoted to transferring data, of course.  

@jdryyz: There is no point bothering with more than 4GB for 1.3. Even then, partitions should be kept below 2GB and perhaps lower (anyone know max partition size for 1.3???). Regardless, 4GB is ample. I created a 200MB partition to boot and run WB1.3 on my boot flash. Also, the ACA500 can read a FAT95 formatted flash drive in the other slot too making for easy transfer.

[mindprober]

I ordered my ACA500 without first confirming what rev motherboard I have. Although, I am 99.9% certain it is a Rev 6 because way back in 1993 I performed the 1MB CHIP RAM hack and installed a PAL/NTSC toggle switch. I do not believe that would have been possible with an older board.

Doesn't the "A500+" description mean that it would be using the latest motherboard rev also? The "+" referred to the inclusion of the ECS chipset among other things, if I'm not mistaken.

The ACA 500 is a very nice card, works great on my A500 1.3.
I have OS3.1 installed on the memory card and also booting with the 3.1 ROM.

But the ACA 500 does not work on my A500+ although I don't no the revision of this machine, that could be the problem.

Only ASMone does not like the extra Fastram of the ACA500 1.3 + ACA500.I need to start it twice. The first time ASMone gives a guru, the second time it is ok.

[mindprober]

I received my ACA500 today. I'm still waiting on the CF cards so I'm only testing it with floppies for now.

The good news-- it does work with my A500!

The bad news-- I didn't realize I would be losing my trapdoor's RTC. In all my research before purchasing, this point was either not discussed or not a big deal to those reviewing it. To be honest, I will probably be using the system mostly for WHDLoad and the need for accurate time won't matter much there, but I would like it for working in Workbench 3.x or above.

There is a blurb in the "short manual" regarding A1200 accelerators. It says "If the A1200 accelerator has a Realtime-clock, it will not be used by the A500. Instead, only the RTC that is located on the trapdoor memory expansion or the mainboard of an A500+ will be used."

I'm confused because my RTC *is* located in the trapdoor and yet it does not show up when I booted into WB 1.3. Or, is this trying to say I need an A500+ for this?

I was concerned about the available RAM as well under WB 1.3. I went through the various boot options but wasn't seeing all the RAM I was expecting. Unfortunately, I do not have a floppy with Nic Wilson's SysInfo handy.

My A500 has the 1MB CHIP hack (512k built-in plus the other 512k from the trapdoor expansion). I only saw a maximum of 2.4MB showing up on WB 1.3. I was under the impression I would see the ACA500's 2MB as FAST RAM and the built-in 1MB as CHIP. It has been a while since I used a real A500 so perhaps my expectations are fuzzy.

When I chose the Kickstart 3.1 boot option (WB 3.0 floppy), I see .9MB CHIP RAM and 1.4MB FAST. I do understand that part of my FAST RAM was gobbled-up for the KS ROM mapping in this scenario. Since my A500 has Kickstart 1.3 in ROM, shouldn't I be seeing all of the available memory under WB 1.3?

Cannot wait to get the CF cards. The short manual also recommends using KS and WB 3.1 for the highest compatibility with WHDLoad. Really? I still have some other, older WB 1.3 compatible software I wanted to try out in a real WB 1.3 environment. It was my intention to make the first partition for WB 1.3 and work with that initially. I figured WHDLoad was fully backwards compatible with WB 1.3 as well. That's okay. As long as I can make another partition for OS 3.x and WHDLoad, that will be fine.

[mindprober]

It gets more interesting.

I went into the Expert menu and pulled up the system information (see attachments).

When I first went in, the RTC info said "not detected".

You will also note is says 1536k FAST RAM on board the ACA500, not 2MB. Is that right if no ROM is mapped?

I decided I would trying cleaning the edge connector on the A500 since it was in storage for a long time. Something changed after this. Now, you will note it says "Oki" after RTC. Not sure what that is in reference to. The chip manufacturer? At any rate, WB 1.3 still does not see it.

In case you are wondering, I have a "Supra" 512k RAM expansion/real-time clock board installed as seen here:

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/supraram500

(now having looked at the hi-res photo, I see that indeed "OKI" is in reference to a chip)

Hmmm....not sure what to make of this. I used some decent contact cleaner for the A500 expansion. Perhaps I can make another pass....or should I consider an incompatibility?

[mindprober]

I decided it was time to open to case and confirm what rev motherboard I have and it *is* a rev 6a.

I then used the eraser method to thoroughly clean the contacts on the A500 edge connector. I then removed my Supra RAM expansion just to see if this would have an impact on the ACA500's FAST RAM. It did not change. I still only see 1.5MB. Clearly I must be overlooking something or the RAM on the unit is faulty. It is suspicious that it is missing .5. It almost seems like it is allocating 512k of FAST RAM to bring the total CHIP RAM to 1MB even though I already have the full 1MB of CHIP in place before the ACA500 was added. This theory falls apart though since I removed the Supra RAM and the total CHIP RAM went back to 512k.

The presence of the RTC is being reported inconsistently still. The first time I checked the configuration, it was not there. Then when I rebooted and checked again, it was there. Workbench still does not see it, however.

Anyone else using the ACA500 in combination with a Supra RAM (rev 2) expansion??

[mindprober]

Wait a minute...could the missing 512k of FAST RAM be due to having it RESERVED for the ROM mapping regardless of it being used or not?? I noticed I did not not lose an additional 512k when I booted into KS 3.1.

That is unfortunate, but understandable.

Maybe I will live with the loss for now. I may consider an A1200 accelerator in the future or may wait for the Apollo Phoenix board.  

Now about the RTC not being found....hmmmm.

[mindprober]

Actually, that was one of the first things I checked. I do not recall what the default was but changing it did not help.

I see someone mentioned the same problem here:

http://www.amigaimpact.org/forums/topic/amiga-500-aca500-probleme-de-chip-ram/

I tried changing all of the settings I felt were relevant but I'm still not seeing the full 2MB FAST RAM.

[mindprober]

The "short manual" refers to the Individual Computers Wiki for more info on the Expert Menu options but that link (http://wiki.icomp.de/ACA500_first_steps) appears to be broken.

I looked at the main wiki for the ACA500 to see if it was showing up somewhere else and it isn't.

[mindprober]

That is weird. Question for you is, do you see all 2MB of your FAST RAM with MapROM off? Do you have KS 1.3 in ROM on your machine?

Yeah, I checked that earlier as well.

What is strange is mine says "MapRom off". But yet it still says copying rom to ram when I boot to WB 1.3

I'm confused as well about these settings. I really haven't paid that close attention to mine. My main purpose for getting one was just to transfer ADFs to floppy. Works good for that

[mindprober]

So it is happening to you too?!?

That's actually good news. Maybe it is just a matter of finding the right configuration settings. So you also have the latest firmware (0.99)?

I have a real 1.3 Kickstart installed. I'm still missing 512k.

[mindprober]

I'm out of ideas. Hopefully, some of these early adopters can chime in and assist.

The behavior of copying the ROM to RAM despite what the "MapROM" is set to may be due to what boot option you select. I know with one of the choices (F2 or F5) I saw "ROM to ROM" or something briefly display.

Right v.99. I was just thinking my missing 512k was due to Kickstart being copied to ram, which it probably is. When I use my Amiga Analyzer disk I can see the 512k expansion ram separately from the ram provided by the ACA500.

[mindprober]

And when you say you "see", you mean a system analyzer program sees it? You have me at an advantage right now since I do not yet my have my CF card(s). I'm working from floppies and not a lot have labels, so I do not have access to tools beyond Workbench.

Not sure what it means when you report 1528k FAST RAM and then an additional 511k from the ACA500. Shouldn't it ALL come from the ACA500?

This could be what that french post was all about. In order to use WHDLoad optimally, they say 2MB FAST will have to seen as one whole block. And configuring the FAST RAM as one whole block may be the key to the problem. It is not clear how to do this. I did what was suggested and I still only see a maximum of 1.5MB FAST RAM.

I was reading a lot on the English Amiga Board where Jens is active and at least two other users brought this up starting with post #273:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71495&page=14

I already have the setting "keep current" for the ROM option. Didn't work.

Jens also mentioned not enabling any feature that will force a ROM mapping. Everytime I check a setting that would do this, I find that it is already turned off. What I really need to see is a snapshot of someone's expert menu and system information screen with 2MB visible so that I can compare.

Well, I played around with the settings and changed my profile #1. Here is what I selected:

Add other on-board RAM On
1M Chip RAM expansion On

Now I see this:

1528k Fast Memory
511k   ACA500 Fast Memory
1029k  Chip Memory

I believe this accounts for what I have installed in mine, 512k + 512k trap door and the 2 M in the ACA500.

[mindprober]

2.9MB? Then that would appear to be working for you. I am only getting 2.4MB total under WB 1.3. This is a WB 1.3.3 boot floppy, mind you. Not running anything on top of that to eat up FAST RAM.

Do you actually see something greater than 1536k FAST RAM in your ACA500 system information screen?

Right, what I mean by "see" is that I'm using the Amiga Analyzer disk and listing the memory configuration.  What I typed was straight from the output of the Analyzer screen.

When I boot to WB 1.3 it shows 2.9+ M at the top of the screen.

[mindprober]

That is the ideal way to go. Since I have already performed the 1MB CHIP RAM hack to my A500, this setting does not apply to me. ACA500 correctly identifies my system as having 1MB CHIP RAM. The "1MB CHIP RAM configuration" setting reads "unavailable" presumably because I already have it.  

In my case, I do not believe this has anything to do with my missing 512k FAST RAM, though.

I believe that my configuration choices have made my 512k trap door expansion look as if it was chip memory. I found a simliar post about it on the website:

"this maps a Rev. 6 (and up) A500's 512K expansion to chipmem, instantly upgrading it to 1MB chipmem!"