What is Status of COLDFIRE PROJECT?

[Oli_hd]

Hi,

erm . .you wiil go to Benelux with a "working" card?

Depends what the card is doing at that time, if I can get the card working then yes, if not then no, as it stands.. no it wont be working.  :-D
Even if it was working I would have second thoughts about taking it fitted in an A4000 to show it working.

Isn't your project started with the name of " AmigaColdfire Project"?

Well it doesnt really have a name, even now, so you will find lots of names with the words Amiga,  Coldfire and project, the Yahoo group (groups.yahoo.com/group/amigacoldfire) is just called Amigacoldfire, it wasnt ever ment to be the final name and the current name ("ColdFusion Accelerator") isnt fixed either, however I can why you thought what you did.

[whabang]

This project gave me an idea:
Would it be possible to design a palin PCB with nothing but sockets on it? Technically, yes, I know, but how about an Amiga ATX mobo with sockets for all custom chips etc. present? Or would that be an infringement on the original patents?

[Atheist]

I can't wait to see this a success. That'll make all of the old models of Amiga competitive for another 10 years against pc xps!!!!!!!!!  :-o  :-D


AmigaOne! Never has a competitor come from so far behind to pass the giant!!!!!  :-D

[Karlos]

@Oliver

I call first dibs on a working prototype card for the 1200 :-)

[Kronos]

@whabang

The orginal long-term-grand-plan was targeted towards a complete replacement-board
with the chips redone in some programmable logik (like the C-One).

Wether that stills stands, or if it is realistic at al ....

[Dr_Righteous]

@whabang

As a personal pet project I have been fiddling around with such a design. While still in block-diagram design at the moment, I am making some progress. It's one of those things that's constantly on my mind, so I keep playing with it.

It's two designs really... One incorporating the original chipset, one completely overhauled to updated hardware. QuickLogic has some really nice chips that work well with 680x0 processors... Mainly an SDRAM controller and a PCI controller... From there the possibilities are endless!

The real nightmare will be in getting OS3.x to run on the updated board. It'll have to involve patching kickstart before boot (using a flashrom and nvram), and using a customized installer to install WB including the necessary drivers. This will also get around the legalities of distributing a modified version of OS3.x, since it works like an emulator (using what you already own)  :-D

[whabang]

@DrRighteous
Cool! An ATX mobo and a CF-accelerator would make a fun combination to play around with... :-D

[Dr_Righteous]

@whabang

Well at the moment I'm sticking to the 060... But if I can get that far, I don't see any trouble getting a CF board to work, since I intend to incorporate an A1200 style expansion connector  :-D

[Fedorenko]

This is a bit OT and stupid,  but anyway:

Is the Coldfire kinda compatable with the 680x0 processor line?

[Karlos]

Fedorenko wrote:
Is the Coldfire kinda compatable with the 680x0 processor line?

Yes, it's pretty much what the (discontinued) 680x0 evolved into. It has the same user model as the 68k (almost) but has been extensively optimised for higher performance in embedded systems.

On the downside, as an 'upgrade' for an existing 680x0 system it is quite tricky. Firstly, the supervisor model is pretty different but more importantly it lacks some addressimg modes (IIRC) and opcodes in common use in much 680x0 code. Such missing features would need to be emulated one way or another.

Mind you, most 040/060 systems have to do that anyway, especially for 68881 code, so it's not as if it's impossible. I reckon a coldfire version of an 'OxyPatcher' style tool could address the majority of missing functionality.

Im not sure but the missing address modes may have been put pack in later coldfire cores.

Anyhow, I'm sure Oli know's what he's doing and I'm really looking forward to seeing a working prototype :-)

[Dr_Righteous]

Just to kinda restate what Karlos said... Motorola has created code to set the v4+ ColdFire processor into a 680x0 compatability mode. The idea behind the "ColdFusion" accelerator is to load this code from a ROM before Kickstart and the rest of the system loads... Thus turning the ColdFire into a 680x0 cpu upgrade on steroids!  :-D

Based on some polling data collected, some other nicities will be added to the accelerator, like USB and such... Having direct access to the CPU local bus will make these add-ons much faster than anything connected to the Zorro bus.

I've followed this project pretty closely since the begining, since I myself had the same idea back when the v3 CF came out... But of course that chip seriously lacked 680x0 compatability.

What can I say? I'm a 680x0 junkie!