Jens Shoenfeld's anwer to the Apollo petition

[darkage]

Schematics to old tech can help one design a better FPGA implementation. but I agree its in Jens best interests to limit some of the information from the Apollo design.  If he's originally paid good money for the information, its only natural.    Can you imagine all the ppl copying the design and selling new boards for probably a small monetary gain.

He's being bad and good cop at the same time..  He's given a little to the community.  ie. programmed Mach chips and eproms, but at the sametime limiting more information. ie schematics..

Wished someone had Blizzard/DCE accelerator designs to offer.  

[darkage]

It's 1995 tech, what could be done with it. It would be like getting the tech specs to any of the Amiga models. Can't build a new one that easily.

Advanced home electronics hobbyists that are involved in the amiga would kill for schematics+firmware!  A tech howto guide even though is old but gives you an idea of whats involved.   Look at Minimig as someones hobby project..  yeah I know not all Amiga users are at this level.. I've just started learning FPGA's myself, upgrading from atmel/pic 8bit world..  

[darkage]

The turboboards that are unstable and crap are those crap ACA boards

Perhaps his own design is loosely based upon the Apollo Design.  After all the Apollo IP saves a ton of R&D time, looking at other ppls work can really help boost your own ideas..  Just re-implement with your own vision of how the design should have been, cram as much as possible into a FPGA to lower footprint and make it more elegant.

[darkage]

I really wonder how much Jen's paid for the Apollo IP.. Just very curious..

Even with his tough attitude towards Apollo I guess we should be grateful he's making reasonable new hardware.

[darkage]

@Amidudue + rewlako.. Ok I think this bickering has to stop.

We all know theres lots of variables at play here,  motherboard revisions, different harddrive/cf setups, different expansions PCMCIA, Clockport addons, scsi kits, different kickstarts, different OS versions & patches etc...  

Of course theres gunna be hicups here and there with so many variables.   Everything relies on tight timings etc.  

Bottom line if ACA doesnt work as good as you think it should, just sell it get an Apollo or Blizzard.   Just try a few accelerator cards and see what works best for you.

Dont think we can come to any conclusion to arguments unless strict quality testing was conducted in an controlled environment, so might as was have a BBQ get some ppl over with their A1200's and test away (:

[darkage]

The only Apollo who is a bit unstable is the A630@50 (and I think I found the reason why).

Whats your reason?  Just interested to hear.