Poll, new accelerator for A500/A600.

[hppacito]

link to ec020 auction

[Cyberus]

@ keropi

I couldn't see it either, I assumed it would be in the thread...

edit: but I did find this auction for 020s

ebay

[X-ray]

I agree that one or the other must be made, first. Either an A500 or an A600 board. I would also say that an FPU isn't going to be of much benefit for the purposes of the card. Basically what we want (especially us A500 users) is a little bit more speed, a mass storage interface like IDE, and more RAM. Anything extra is going to make it more difficult, more expensive, and make it take longer to produce.

I recommend the first poll you make is to ascertain whether there is more demand for the A500 or the A600 version. Whatever the poll reveals, go with that one first. If it is successful, then you can do the one that came second.

[leirbag28]

@alexh


by alexh on 2005/11/17 4:44:34
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@leirbag28
Quote:

    Hmmm Im not sure what everyone her is talking about saying the A600 is limited to 4Mb....thats NOT true.
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Yes it is, if you only have a stock 68000.
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REPLY: Nobody is talking about a Stock A600, obviously witth a 68030 its possible............so the point being, it IS possible to add over 256mb to the A600. WHo wouldnt want that here?


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Quote:

    I had an Apollo 630 with 32mb ram and PCMCIA Ram card...they both worked simultaneously
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But you added a processor with 32-bit address lines instead of a 24-bit!

As long as you dont use anything below a 68020 (excluding EC020 cos they are still 24-bit) you can have more RAM.
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REPLY:  I was talking about  the fact that adding a Processor to the A600 will NOT disable the Memory o the PCMCIA port if done right, like the Apollo ( at least in that area)

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Quote:

    if your just gonna make a board that adds 4MB, that is a waste as there are plenty of 4Mb PCMCIA cards availble..people here just dont know where to look for them
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For people who have a PCMCIA hard drive / flash drive it's not a waste. If you are going to add a CPU above EC020 then 4mb isnt a limit.
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REPLY:  Thats true, but I would tell those people to get rid of their PCMCIA harddrives and get an internal IDE one.......having the PCMCIA port free is valuable.


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Quote:

    Please dont settle for a measly 4mb. We need 128Mb in that thing minimum. and at least a 68030 @50mhz, and also dont put RAM on it.....make a slot for up to 1GB of ram, or at least 256........
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You power hungry maniac! A spec like that would make it difficult and expensive.
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REPLY: It would make it more expesive indeed............but arent we all willing to pay for it?  so the money will be made back.......so it doesnt matter!  arent we all awaiting that 68030 from Jens Shoenfeld? Im sure we all want ot get our hands on that!
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Quote:

    Jens Shoenfeld, he is palnning on creating the Apollo 630 line again

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Jens Schoenfeld is thinking of making a NEW 68030 accelerator for the A600, NOT the Apollo a630 cos their design is too unstable.
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REPLY: If I am not mistaken, he originally wanted to just reprduce the Apollo line..............and many suggested he make some modifications.............in my opinion, the only modification it needs is for the upside down socket to be seperated by cables so that the whole board doesnt have to balance on the 68000, and also removable 68030 and possibility for more than 32mb.
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Quote:

    he also gave us the A600 clockport for USB upgrades.......I am a proud owner of one
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He sure did, but without a CPU upgrade, it's useless

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REPLY:  No it is NOT useless...........one can add a fast serial port to the clockport instead.........or a Sound card!.......and I just love knowing there is a clockport on my A600 :-D

I dont think any clockport should be addd to any new accelerators.but instead focus on getting Jens to keep producing these.............we dont need to reinvent the wheel.  We should all work together for succes. although unfortunately because of the rarity of these things..........absolutely any internal upgrade for the A600 is welcome..........I dont care what it is.

[alexh]

Nobody is talking about a Stock A600

I was. A 4Mbyte A600 FAST RAM upgrade, nothing else, low cost, 20-30 Euro's. I'd be up for one more than a 200 euro accelerator!

Jens looked at simply cloning the Apollo A630 design, however when measuring the signals on an oscilloscope going between the motherboard and the FPU he determined it was pure luck that they work at all.

I do not think the new design has an FPU.

[Doppie1200]

if the A500 version is going to be the one, is there a way to make it small enough so that it will be hackable into an A600. Then all would be satisfied.

Glad to see the end price of the auction is not driving up the cost per component greatly

[leirbag28]

@Doppie1200

Haha..you want those WHDLoad games working badly he?

I hear ya...........Love WHDLoad

Heres a link for ya.......Apple Newton Cards work on the A600

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Newton-8MB-Linear-Flash-memory-cards-x3_W0QQitemZ5830803856QQcategoryZ27966QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I dont know if those will work, as they might not work on some Newtons.

Dont mind that they are 8 MB, I know A600 only read 4mb, but it wont matter, it will only read 4 out of the 8 is my guess, the price is still good.

I have an origianl Apple Newton 1Mb PCMCIA and that works for sure.

[alexh]

Those cards dont work as RAM in A600/A1200's

[alexh]

@doppie1200

We've had this conversation. The A600 uses a different shaped CPU which is soldered to the motherboard. It is unlikely (but not impossible) that you could create a single design to work with both machines.

[Doppie1200]

Yes I would love to use the 600 for that purpose. I think it would make a kick ass game machine!

It has been some years since I last designed hardware. But I'd love to give a shot at a fastram expansion. I would first make a proto board using an A500. Just a hacked together board using neat wires. Then I would turn it into a PCB suitable for the A600. That should work.

Sadly I don't have the financial muscle to finance a small batch of PCB's.

As for newton flash; how can flash memory be turned into random access memory?

[leirbag28]

@Doppie1200

As for newton flash; how can flash memory be turned into random access memory?

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Don't ask me.............all I know is that it works!

it has a removable battery if that helps.  But anyway.kep in mind that these cards were meant to be used as RAM or to be written to as flash...........thats what the PrepCard software that came with your A600 does..it gives the option for both!  to use it as a disk (Flash) or as RAM.

[alexh]

Flash cards dont have removable batteries, just SRAM cards.

These are not SRAM cards and dont work as RAM in the A600/A1200.

With the flash driver available on Aminet you could probably used them as a fixed disk... but for 8 mbyte!

[alenppc]

I'm all for the 4MB of Static RAM soldered on board. It would be a nice speed boost for the 68020, also it would be nice if you could clock it at full 16 mhz instead of 14 like the A1200.

[patrik]

@alenppc:

It is much easier to create a good synchronous interface to the motherboard 68000 bus when running the 020 at a multiple of the motherboard frequency.


/Patrik

[nyteschayde]

If you do this I'd pay for one. I'd have to pick up another A500 but I'd pay for one. I think, despite what the classic gamers here say, that more RAM is crucial. Also IDE and of course CPU (whole point) is equally crucial. I would definitely pay more for a board that included a cheap RTG solution. The primary reason is that the A500 has no easy way to output better graphics. No video slot and the graffiti is not worth it for an A500 due to the ECS chipset limitations.

In order (bare minimums are):
  040/060 (jumper switchable)
  32MB minimum RAM
  IDE capability.

Things I would definitely pay more for
  RTG Graphics (IMHO this is very important for A500/A600)  
  Built in Ethernet
  Coldfire/PPC (possibly with socketable 040/060)
  128+MB of RAM
  IDE capability
  PCI expansion header

Many people seem to want an A500 for classic gaming. I can see the point but honestly if thats all you want it for, pick up an A500 with a 512K ram expansion and leave it be. Almost all classic games with run with this.

If you're going to buy an accelerator you don't want to get close but never be able to truly enjoy 3.9 or any modern software update (perhaps better browsers and such) due to lack of RTG when RTG could have been on the drawing board. Developers who'd like an extra miggy for dev purposes would be sad to have to run a compiler with 32MB of RAM.

If you're going to solder RAM, put more RAM on there. Even at 128 the prices are so cheap theres no reason not to. If you have a socket then leave it bare and let the user install it. Then the people wanting 4MB can use 4MB and be happy.

I think IDE is very important for obvious reasons. And finally ethernet is important for the same reasons that RTG are. There is very little to no expansion capability for this type of upgrade on the Amiga 500. The Amiga 600 at least has a PCMCIA slot to account and allow for this but if I am not mistaken this slot is almost always used for some other expansion (such as RAM, HDD, etc...)

[Tahoe]

hppacito wrote:

link to ec020 auction

Look! He is offering ANOTHER 330 CPU's!