Smaller, energy efficient turbo card for A1200

[Protek]

I've been pondering whether it would be possible to create i.e. a 030/040 compatible but more compact and energy efficient turbo card for the A1200 that would fit nicely inside the standard desktop case? I don't know whether the processor chip needs to be its own separate entity but I think that the other chips incorporated on a turbo card could be embedded into single FPGA. Are there modern low cost versions of i.e. 68030 available nowadays? The use of FPGA architecture would also enable some peripherals like SCSI or SD card reader, if I'm not wrong.

I know 030/040 and even faster turbo cards for the A1200 are still relatively easy to find for a reasonable price but a modern approach to this peripheral intrigues me.

[cv643d]

A 060 board is very energy efficient.

[motorollin]

030 or 060 would be your best bet as the 040 was very inefficient, and also suffered heat issues. As for which was most efficient out of Blizzard/Apollo, I wouldn't have a clue I'm afraid.

Out of interest, why is power efficiency an issue for you?

--
moto

[Protek]

@motorollin: I'm just thinking about the power resorces that a standard A1200 PSU has to offer. I do not know if the latter revisions (if such exist) of 680x0 are more power efficient than the ones that were used in turbo cards back then.

[Ral-Clan]

I remember seeing a 68030 based MacIntosh laptop.  I wonder what kind of 68030 chip it used (a more energy efficient one, I would imagine).

[alexh]

If you were to get an L88M mask version of MC68040RC40A it would be cool to the touch even without a heatsink and at the fastest 40MHz.

Much lower temperature compared to the "boil an egg" ones that were used in the Amiga.

[bloodline]

I'd probably use an XScale for this task, and run a 68k JIT emulator on it... or if I had some serious investment, then I'd probably use a Duron...

[alexh]

bloodline wrote:
I'd probably use an XScale for this task, and run a 68k JIT emulator on it... or if I had some serious investment, then I'd probably use a Duron...

Like that would work... NOT.

What about the external BUS etc. hardware that you cannot emulate?

Before you know it you'd have almost created a 68000 CPU with glue logic just to get the square peg in the round hole!

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:

bloodline wrote:
I'd probably use an XScale for this task, and run a 68k JIT emulator on it... or if I had some serious investment, then I'd probably use a Duron...

Like that would work... NOT.

What about the external BUS etc. hardware that you cannot emulate?

Before you know it you'd have almost created a 68000 CPU with glue logic just to get the square peg in the round hole!

Well, since the alien Processor would be the bus master of the Amiga system, I would expect it wouldn't be to interface between the ZII and HT (for the Duron) bus's with an FPGA which could house a few other core's, like USB etc...

[adolescent]

The 68040V is designed for low power consumption.

[alexh]

bloodline wrote:
Well, since the alien Processor would be the bus master of the Amiga system, I would expect it wouldn't be to interface between the ZII and HT (for the Duron) bus's with an FPGA which could house a few other core's, like USB etc...

The HT to 680x0 bridge would be almost as complicated as a 680x0 processor. Not to go into too much detail here... it wouldnt work very well / at all.

[motorollin]

alexh wrote:

bloodline wrote:
Well, since the alien Processor would be the bus master of the Amiga system, I would expect it wouldn't be to interface between the ZII and HT (for the Duron) bus's with an FPGA which could house a few other core's, like USB etc...

The 680x0 to HT bridge would be almost as complicated as a 680x0 processor. Not to go into too much detail here... it wouldnt work.

Leirbag could make it work! :-P

--
moto

[alexh]

I am surprised that no-one has considered making a 2nd generation 68060 accelerator using Rev6 silicon (which can go upto 100MHz) and SDRAM like the CT60 on the Atari Falcon

Given the current high price of CS-MKIII I bet a run of 100 could be profitable.

[Snaggle]

It's a shame I'm making my first post on A.org and not using it to really add anything to the discussion but, ah well.

I too have been surprised by the availability of a 100MHz '060 card with an SDRAM DIMM slot for the Atari Falcon, while Amiga users are proudly displaying their 66MHz '060s (mostly only overclocked from 60MHz parts), and searching SIMM bins at computer fairs for that elusive 32MB+ SIMM that will work with their setup.  

Thinking about it, I suppose a refresh of an existing design could be made, with the larger/cheaper FPGAs/CPLDs around now it probably wouldn't cost any more than the original, even considering that it would be a comparatively small manufacturing run. The problem would be finding who owns the designs now (and would be far-sighted enough to realise that they are no longer worth holding onto the rights), and finding anyone experienced enough to take such a design and confidently update it for the new logic chips around now and the ( admittedly few) new features that buyers would demand.

Maybe a simplified Viper 1230 design could be made available for solder-junkies to assemble themselves, but don't expect a do-it-yourself Blizzard PPC (6 layer board?) anytime soon.

*Hopes for a 2 sided, single layer schematic for a CD32 '060 card to be released tomorrow for free*

[alexh]

I have a two layer passive adapter board I made for CD32 that allows you to connect an A1200 trapdoor card.

The edge connectors are impossible to find ( or have a minimum order of 1000 ) which made it not feasible to release as a product.