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Author Topic: Remake Amiga chips?  (Read 5837 times)

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Offline Cymric

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Re: Remake Amiga chips?
« on: December 24, 2004, 09:35:19 AM »
Looking at the problem from an electronical PoV, would it be possible to simulate the chips using FGPAs? That C-one thingie seems to be capable of emulating quite a lot. I doubt it has the oompf you need to emulate an Amiga, but still. Mind, I'm not saying anyone should, I'm just wondering, are those chips fast enough to pull it off?
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Offline Cymric

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Re: Remake Amiga chips?
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2004, 11:47:47 AM »
Quote
Crusher wrote:
I mean, if you install an acceleratorcard then everything is going faster but the motherboard is still going in 27MHz (or whatever it is) so why not making faster customchips? The really first chips weren´t made in machines, they were made in a garage (although they were very big), so the need of a factory isn´t necessary.

Your knowledge of chip manufacture is not good. Making chips is difficult and expensive. Making chips with a technology nobody uses anymore even more so. It is not a question of soldering a few bits and pieces together, you know! In other words: it would still be possible, but the price would be hideously prohibitive, even for enthusiasts like yourself. How much would you be willing to spend on your faster custom chips? $100? $1000? $10000?

And then your troubles are just beginning. There is the problem of signal integrity on the motherboard of your old Amiga. Is it capable of sustaining speeds of up to, say, 50 or 75 MHz? Another problem is that once you tamper with the clock frequency, you tamper with the display and the OS timings too. How do you handle scanline frequencies? The Copper has to work in sync with the monitor, otherwise you end up with complete chaos. You must hack and modify the ROM to change its idea of time. Is your ChipRAM fast enough?

In other words: forget it. It will never happen. Period. If you want to be a happy classic Amiga user for many years to come, you unplug it, put it in a protective case, seal the diskdrives, park the hard disk, and only use it on your birthday. For the rest, you use WinUAE, AROS, a Pegasos II, or an Amiga One.

That is why the only viable option today---that is, if you want a new Amiga in hardware---is to use FPGAs which can be programmed on the fly, and those require a totally different electrical infrastructure to what you have in your old Amiga.
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.