Apollo Team announces the Vampire V4

[kolla]

He has stated that purchase a Vampire only if you feel it has the features you need today.

And I have yet to see a web page or pdf or anything from "the team" that truthfully lists up the features Vampire cards have today, and perhaps more importantly, what features it lacks. It all drowns in hype, questionable benchmarks and listings about what will (may) come, promises of 100% compatibility and other nonsense. How is one supposed to know what the features are when even half the team do not really seem to know?

[kolla]

Could you expand on what you mean about Gunnars plans regarding Apollo in embedded designs?

If you have followed the evolution of the apollo-core website, that should have been rather obvious. Benchmarks against other soft-cores used in embedded, barely mention of Amiga at all. Over time, this has changed a little, probably as he realised that embedded market may not really be that interested after all, commercial 68k soft-cores exists already there. So, why not instead try to become the creator, owner and licenser of the de-facto CPU for good old Amiga?

[kolla]

You need to seek some professional help or at least a few sessions of anger management.  It's obvious that you're not being objective based on your strong emotional responses to anything connected to Gunnar.  Barring that, try a valium....sheesh buddy.

Why is it that this happens to so many who have been in contact with Gunnar, do you think?

[kolla]

Hey, since when does being IT professional mean anything here?

[kolla]

Mapparium:  https://youtu.be/mgFx6HwsHjI

Are you sure you are not joking? Considering how the author has been treated over at the apollo-core forum and IRC, I find it ironic to use mapparium as an example. Also, it is not using AMMX, it is just trying really hard to not use FPU.

There is a new implementation of Mapparium in pure MIU/Zune code which makes the whole program much faster especially on 68k Amiga. It still needs an RTG card but a non_FPU version is included, but if it is too slow (especially with tracks and routes showing do not blame me, buy a FPU) On the long run MUIMapparium will replace the Mapparium, at the moment it does not have the same features (but rather close)

https://blog.alb42.de/programs/mapparium/

Meaning - the version of mapparium that runs on Vampire is crippled by the lack of FPU.

[kolla]

As a snide remark, I can say, as a Vampire user, there is one single piece of code that uses AMMX that I find somewhat useful, though still very limited, and that is FEMU.

[kolla]

FEMU does not use AMMX (yet)

So what's special about the apollo version?

[kolla]

And Mapparium is too slow to run on a bog standard classic Amiga anyway, so your point is moot.

Define "bog standard classic Amiga", please.

It is not untrue that it is crippled by the lack of FPU.

[kolla]

Bog standard classic Amiga:  an unexpanded A500, A600, A2000, A1000, A1200

By your very own statement that makes every one of the above Amigas crippled by definition....simply incorrect.

Yes, they are indeed crippled in a whole lot of ways. Who would not agree to this?

[kolla]

Any further classic development that I undertake will be on a Vampire standalone when it's available

Oh, you are one of those who don't have a Vampire, yet are full of opinions about it :hammer:

Well, maybe your views change once you have one and realise that it isn't really that much of a big deal after all.

[kolla]

I can wait and use the softFPU until then, or fire up WinUAE and run my FPU apps there.

Well, SoftFPU is not an option with legacy software that you cannot recompile, you are stuck with traps and the FEMU emulator.

I'm also waiting for an MMU but I can be patient there too.

The MMU is there already, but Gunnar has no plans of exposing it, it is meant to only be used for "internal" stuff (I can imagine, mapping ChipRAM addresses for SAGA and legacy I/O, and many other things)

These things will come in time.  The Vampire is a work in progress, but I also understand your frustration.  Nothing ever happens quickly in Amiga land.

You don't even get what I am "frustrated" with, at this point I don't care if there is no FPU. I am "frustrated" how the FPU has been (and still is!) marketed as the most glorious piece of excellence for 3 years, without not even one single public demo - ever! Then there was the "68882 compatible" FPU that was "really soon now", but just never was good enough. Then it was "no software use FPU anyways!". Then it was "Oh, and I just have this amazing vision about an even greater FPU, for a bigger FPGA!".

But most of all, I was "frustrated" with being told that what I use my Amiga systems for, is pointless - that the software I use, has no use, that I am idiot for using my Amiga systems for other things than "entertainment". And then an idiot for not being impressed by MPEG1 on classic systems (I mean, come on!)?

And still I wonder where one is supposed to find the actual specs of the current Apollo Core, as neither of the two web sites involved in the project have that information, and only tout superlatives (some very exaggerated), and are very eager to point out "potential features" rather than actual features.

[kolla]

So what's special about the apollo version?

To answer myself - what's special is how trapping works differently on the various LC/EC CPUs. Most of emulation apparently is done using the math libraries of the OS, so essientially it is doing what ThoR suggests software should do in the first place when no FPU is found.

[kolla]

I don't, for one. I have an A2000 because it is basically bullet proof. I upgraded it to ECS, and will upgrade it further with a Vampire.

Just plain A2000 just chipram and 68000, no A2620 or A2630?

I can't afford a decked out A4000, but I DO wish I'd bought an A1200 a few years ago since that strikes me as soon as a really nice, compact system.
And if you want to get weird, you can expand an A1200 pretty far.

Yeah, been there, won't bother again.

Look, the Amiga chipset wasn't designed with '040 and '060 CPUs in mind.

I don't really see what the chipset has to do with anything here, but the chipset is much more tolerable with 040 and upwards.

By the time we got there, we were in sore need of a replacement system, which we never got.

Some would argue that we did get a replacement system in retargetable graphics and audio, and the result of this which today is MorphOS.

High end Amiga are a kludged nightmare. Vampire helps simplify this situation by rendering the average Amiga a powerhouse.

Vampirised Amiga is not less kludgy, in terms of software it is very often a lot more kludgy.

Amiga snobs don't like it? Tough, because personally I think your investment in that maxed out A4000 makes you look like a fool.

Ah yes, I must be a snob. Of course, that's it. After all, I make more than twice as much per month now than what I paid to "max out" my A3000 back in 1997 with CSPPC/CVPPC. What a foolish investment that was. Never mind that the snobbish Amiga hardware I have owned also was the learning platform for at least 10-15 years, thanks to the ability to not just run AmigaOS, but also capable and modern operating systems, Linux and NetBSD. One day I should sit down and write down all the stuff I have done with and on Amiga over the years. :laughing:

[kolla]

I can so far only manage to see the positive sides of the vampire series.

Do you want to be bombed with this kind of stuff?

Without and with FEMU.

[kolla]

An incomplete FPU emulation and a bad JPEG implementation working hand in hand. You don't need an FPU for JPEG.

I know, but legacy software being what it is, that is how it works.

I am more puzzled by the occasional 8000000B errors that sometimes may pop up during filesystem validation (FFS).