a500 vs a500+

[countzero]

hmm, is there a difference between the a500 and a500+ besides the ram, agnus and kickstart ? if I plug in 1.3 kick rom to a a500+ can i get a 1mb chip rammed a500 ?

[Amigaz]

The A500+ also has ECS graphics
Yes you can use a 1.3 kickstart chip in an A500+.

[zipper]

..meaning ECS Denise (8373)

[SamuraiCrow]

If you plug a 1.3 rom into an a500+ you'll have 512k chip ram because that is the maximum KS 1.3 can recognize.  I think the rest of the memory will be addressed as "slow" memory ("fast" memory with chip memory bandwidth).

[AdMartin]

AMIGAZ wrote:
The A500+ also has ECS graphics
Yes you can use a 1.3 kickstart chip in an A500+.

The last revisions (6A/7) of the regular A500 also had ECS Denise (and KS 2.04), AFAIK. So the difference between those and a A500+ is basically "only" the Agnus, the standard chipmem size, some PCB differences, that 2MB chipmem doesn't require Gary connection on the A500+ and that the Plus also has an on-board clock battery (prone to leak).

[AdMartin]

SamuraiCrow wrote:
If you plug a 1.3 rom into an a500+ you'll have 512k chip ram because that is the maximum KS 1.3 can recognize.  I think the rest of the memory will be addressed as "slow" memory ("fast" memory with chip memory bandwidth).

Huh, whatever gave you that idea? The Agnus decides maximum chipmem size, not the KS...

[Generale]

Why on earth would you want to put 1.3 in an a500+?

I'm going to be adding an ecs denise & agnus, and ks 3.something probably to my a500. 1.x is irritating me to no end. Sure I'll use a kickswitch for old games, but thats it.
Anyway 1.3s support for mass storage and drivers is awful. So if you have a HDD and/or cd-rom, don't to it!