My A500+ Project

[pyrre]

The 68000 will start the machine, but soon after loading kickstart I think, it will then hand over control to the 68030, which will then be the CPU in use.

Unless you use a cpu socket accelerator. it will bypass the 68000 commands completely and run only the "speedy" cpu.
Unless you tell it to boot from the 68000....
(accelerators like the derringer)

[pyrre]

EDIT: never mind

[pyrre]

@ sim085

Here is your future accelerator for your A500+...
Just start bidding.

I have one of these myself. it is really great...
Although, it do not have any kind of hdd controller. but the speed is close to comparable to an A1200 with blizzard 1230 mkIV. A friend of mine has an A1200 such speced...
(though, i have the 50mhz version...)

EDIT: ooops. i forgot the link... :-D

[pyrre]

If i am not completely wrong it should be an easy task upgrading the derringer to 50 mhz.
However. the hard part is to get the 030 cpu that can handle 50mhz. after that it is just to replace the oscillator.
And add a heat sink to the cpu....

looking at the pictures there is not much difference in the 50 mhz and the 30mhz versions....

EDIT:
OH. and adding a 50mhz capable fpu and its separate oscillator for extra performance boost...
Doing so you get pretty close to what an A1200 with 1230 is doing...

EDIT:
I did a testrun on my A500.
In sysinfo 3.23 it gives 7636 dhrystones and 7.97 mips
(Anyone with any 1230 for comparing....?)

[pyrre]

@ sim085

My project is not to build some type of Super Amiga but more to try and bring my A500+ to working form. My original idea was to stretch the A500+ possibilities as much as possible. If it is not possible then I don't mind

If i am correct you do already have a harddrive, meaning you only need kickstart, os and accelerator.
If you choose to buy the derrigner 030 i pointed earlier in this tread. it will be more than sufficient to run os 3.9 at an acceptable speed. And if you manage to squeeze in a network card as well it will surf internet just fine...
You will be able to do most work on that computer. and be quite happy about it.

And a future project could be to gather parts and build a greatly expanded A4000.

And the point i am trying to put out is; you already have the A500. you have a great accelerator available NOW. And at this point it will be the least expensive and best option. If you choose to do so you will have a great amiga up and running in notime. but if you sell it and go for the A1200 (which truly is a far better machine...) you will most likely end up "computerless" in the time you spend searching ebay for usable parts to expand your 1200 to usefulness...

[pyrre]

I was just wondering something. An accelerator card is in fact another (more powerful) computer. I mean it has a Processor, it has RAM, it has a ROM chip, etc etc. Is it possible to literally connect a hard drive with the accelerator card and the accelerator card to a monitor and have a Derringer or Viper rather then an A500+?

Eeeeem.... i don't think it is that easy...
In the case of the derringer i can speak. It do not hold the kickstart roms, and it most sertainly do not hold the chipset. The derringer (and others like it) holds the new CPU and it holds the clock generator for the accelerators speeds. and of course it holds the memory circuits...

Or the A500+ motherboard has other things which these accelerator cards need?

Yes, it holds everything else than the cpu and the ram.
only exceptions is the very rare cpu slot accelerators that has an additional ide/scsi controller like the DCE Viper 5230 CD, 530 and the ICD addspeed IDE...
And of course you have the sidecar accelerators...

[pyrre]

It would probably be easier to adapt A2000 accelerator to fit into A500 side expansion bus.

All you need is this and the micronik (or similar) tower....

[pyrre]

But that would mean I would have to change mu current case for the A500+ right?

Yes it would mean you must mount it in a tower....

Search a.org for pictures of towered A500ds...
Could be a nice project. And it would enable you to use the Blizzard 2060 which (to me) is the ultimate A2000 accelerator...

[pyrre]

But still... the easiest way of accelerating your A500+ as it is now is to got your hands on a 68000 CPU accelerator like the derrigner... Sadly the derrigner is gone...
Other options is those sidecar expanders like the GVP A530...
But your A500+ will still do well in terms of games and demos...

[pyrre]

Yes it would. However. due to the size of the Blizzard 2060 (full size) it is not recommended puting it in an A500 without a tower. Some sort of sidecar and the micronik (or similar) bus board modded together would be possible.

With the bus board you would be able to use any zorro II cards as well. Including network cards for internet surfing and GFX cards for better graphics and display +++

But for keeping the A500 "wedge" case. GVP 530 or Derringer like accelerators are the best options...

[pyrre]

I would not use two PSUs for one computer...
I would rather modify one to power both the computer and the Hdd.

[pyrre]

     
pyrre wrote: I would not use two PSUs for one computer...  

Why? Is it for the space they take or there is something more to it? Such as it is bad to first switch off one device and then the other!

Two psus, if not grounded in the same socket may cause electric "disturbance" (don have the correct English word for it). Current may interfere between the two psus and may in worst case damage or blow up your computer. If grounded correct this is not an issue. But i have blown a pc motherboard and a disk drive of such reasons...

To find out if you have a problem with "overspenning" (norwegians, please help translate) touch the two psus if you can feal the current flowing in your hand... Switch to one psu immediately before damaging something!

[pyrre]

Connected in the same extension cord should mean they are grounded to each other. Meaning no current will flow between them. But measure it with a multimeter to be sure.

[pyrre]

why would you buy/use a none grounded socket extension in the first place?... and you dont grab your moms 1970 socket extension and use that.. your dealing with computer equipment and 1 rule is ground everything to hell and back before usage.

Could no agree more.

[pyrre]

tree wires usually means a grounded socket. two wires for the current and the one for grounding.