in case you are interested to test new fpga accelerators for a600/a500

[kolla]

I'd love to, but not now

[kolla]

I do hope people realize these are developer boards, not really meant as end user products yet.

[kolla]

So, they're for people willing to test the hardware, as well as developers.  I think several of us would fall squarely into that "tester" category.  

As long as you don't have too high expectations and are able to produce feedback that is usefull, sure. I see it mentioned here that RTG is promised - nothing is promised, everything is hopefully coming.

[kolla]

No, it is the OS that scares developers away, too much common infrastructure is lacking, too few standards are present.

[kolla]

Jim Drew should get a board and make sure Macintosh emulation will work. In time maybe he could implement a Macintosh chipset on FPGA too, and have it running all natively.

[kolla]

Who wants macintosh/apple fpga!, we want a amiga clone/ with improved hardware.

It's really about ensuring CPU compatibility, since MacOS is different and alien, but can be easily run ontop of AmigaOS, it is a nice corner case to test out.

guess you know what happens to anyone trying to make a apple clone u know what happens to those companies!....

The ghost of Steve Jobs comes visiting?

[kolla]

You must have missed my :-P Smilie, oh sorry emoticon as they are called now. ;-)

I believe "emoji" is the current term, haha

[kolla]

Well, as I mentioned, it would be interesting to see Shapeshifter or other Mac emulation on Amiga with a Phoenix core, Shapeshifter does not require MMU I believe. Anyways, what are the odds that other software, such as games and demos that bypass the OS with their coding, use features not found on Phoenix?

[kolla]

Should yes, but it remains to see if they will run at all. Currently even OS3.9 doesn't work well, but that should be fixed quickly one can hope. The thing with Macintosh emulators is that the CPU is not emulated in those.

[kolla]

So Mac emulators are no go, I wonder what else of proprietary software that will end up as "no go" because the Phoenix CPU core is (will be) too incompatible and needs dedicated support. I would love to participate with my A600, but wont be able until fall. What is the time frame for these developer boards anyways?

[kolla]

And this emulation is done in a library akin to 68040.library? Or by PhoenixInit that also loads FastRAM? What's the deal with OS3.9 and PhoenixInit, considering that initial boot of 3.9 is in fact a 3.1 before SetPatch loads all 3.9 stuff and resets. Does PhoenixInit have to be run on every single warm boot? That is kinda inconvenient for games that boot off their own media.

[kolla]

Well, it should be possible to let regular SetPatch do it the same way it does 68060.library, via a dummy 68040.library, but I suppose it then would had to act like a 68040 to trigger SetPatch to load it. Most convenient of all, for users, would be if phoenix core could be compatible enough to not need patching of the OS, isn't that the greatness of FPGA? Also, that the FastRAM is not autoconf is rather inconvenient.

I am curious how it will play out.

[kolla]

That falls under "patching" in my eyes, but details. I agree that putting everything in a autoconf module would be best, so everything is available from coldboot. Some flash memory to also hold kickstart image would be great. Btw, how is the "SYS:Expansion" drawer used, if it all? I never saw it used for anything.

[kolla]

So, MacOS in emulator works now?

[kolla]

MacOS in emulation on Phoenix/Apollo, it's like Schrödinger's cat it seems. I'd love to see examples of applications that truly benefit from a fast CPU used with Phoenix, applications like Lightwave 3D, DPaint, Brilliance, Imagine, World Constction Set etc. I seriously do not care about Doom clones _at all_, nor do I care about WHDLoad of games that already work perfectly fine on unexpanded A500. There is one video on Youtube showing X-DVE on Vampire600, and it is totally unimpressive.