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Author Topic: Smaller, energy efficient turbo card for A1200  (Read 8916 times)

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Offline ProtekTopic starter

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Smaller, energy efficient turbo card for A1200
« on: February 27, 2007, 09:32:21 AM »
I've been pondering whether it would be possible to create i.e. a 030/040 compatible but more compact and energy efficient turbo card for the A1200 that would fit nicely inside the standard desktop case? I don't know whether the processor chip needs to be its own separate entity but I think that the other chips incorporated on a turbo card could be embedded into single FPGA. Are there modern low cost versions of i.e. 68030 available nowadays? The use of FPGA architecture would also enable some peripherals like SCSI or SD card reader, if I'm not wrong.

I know 030/040 and even faster turbo cards for the A1200 are still relatively easy to find for a reasonable price but a modern approach to this peripheral intrigues me.
A4000/040 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, 24 MB Fast, Piccolo SD64 2MB, GVP A2000mHC+8 Rev2, 4 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A1200 3.1/3.9, Blizzard 1230MkIV 030@50 with SCSI kit, 2 MB Chip, 128 MB Fast, 1 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A600 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, A603, 1GB CF HD via CF IDE
 

Offline ProtekTopic starter

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Re: Smaller, energy efficient turbo card for A1200
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2007, 12:47:02 PM »
@motorollin: I'm just thinking about the power resorces that a standard A1200 PSU has to offer. I do not know if the latter revisions (if such exist) of 680x0 are more power efficient than the ones that were used in turbo cards back then.
A4000/040 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, 24 MB Fast, Piccolo SD64 2MB, GVP A2000mHC+8 Rev2, 4 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A1200 3.1/3.9, Blizzard 1230MkIV 030@50 with SCSI kit, 2 MB Chip, 128 MB Fast, 1 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A600 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, A603, 1GB CF HD via CF IDE
 

Offline ProtekTopic starter

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Re: Smaller, energy efficient turbo card for A1200
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2007, 08:46:55 AM »
I consider myself a total beginner at electronics. I've, however managed to get myself acquainted with the subject, so that I have a glimpse what electronics is all about. Having followed the development of great homebrew Amiga projects on this forum and others (i.e. Dennis' MiniMig), I've got an itch to get my hands dirty in a project. Although it's starting to  seem that I'm way over my head with this project. But hey, you can't blaim a guy for trying.  :-D

Obviously, I would get easier and probably cheaper off if just bought an accelerator second hand. Of course, when I came up with this idea, the first thing was to try to find out whether similar homebrew projects exist already. The lack of such projects made me to bring this subject up on this forum. Having followed this thread, I've let myself understand that there isn't a modern chip available that would be downwards compatible with the MC680x0 family of chips. PPC is one thing but I suppose that is more viable if you want to use OS4.
A4000/040 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, 24 MB Fast, Piccolo SD64 2MB, GVP A2000mHC+8 Rev2, 4 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A1200 3.1/3.9, Blizzard 1230MkIV 030@50 with SCSI kit, 2 MB Chip, 128 MB Fast, 1 GB CF HD via CF IDE
A600 3.1/3.1, 2 MB Chip, A603, 1GB CF HD via CF IDE