Accelerator hardware theory

[rkauer]

pyrre wrote:
@alexh

Have you tried? You can get them all over the place for almost nothing.

Really?

Do you have en example website?
I am looking for simm modules

 I have a BOX full of 4 & 8 Mb SIMMs in here. If you want to pay the postage from Brazil, simply PM me saying the quantity (I DO NOT SELL THEM, I'LL GIVE IT 2 U!).

 I'm pretty sure you guys on europe & USA don't have those flea markets around... :roll:

[alexh]

pyrre wrote:
Really?
Do you have en example website?
I am looking for simm modules

http://www.scan.co.uk 64Mbyte single sided = £8.99
http://www.microdirect.co.uk 32Mbyte single sided 72-pin SIMM = £5.29

These were the first two I looked at. I am sure you can find more elsewhere.

Availability of 128Mbyte FPM 72-pin SIMMS has gone down and so price has gone up amazingly. Roughly 10x the price of a 64Mbyte EDO SIMM.

128Mbyte EDO SIMMS are also going up, about 3x the price of a 64Mbyte one.

[marcfrick2112]

Hey alexh: since we're talking about SIMMS, any ideas on where to find a single-sided, or very thin double-sided 128 MB SIMM that would fit a Phase 5 1260 accel., or a DCE 1230 SCSI module? Be very grateful if you have any ideas....

128MB isn't much when you do 3D rendering......

[alexh]

AFAIK they never made single sided, or low profile 128Mbyte SIMMS.

I remember using an elastic band to hold bigger ones in place.

[Oli_hd]

Hey alexh: since we're talking about SIMMS, any ideas on where to find a single-sided, or very thin double-sided 128 MB SIMM that would fit a Phase 5 1260 accel., or a DCE 1230 SCSI module? Be very grateful if you have any ideas....

I bought a very slim 128mb 72 pin simm, see the a.org topic on 50ns simms here
On the second page is a few links to pics of the Simm I have.
I got it from AEmemory (http://www.aememory.co.uk/EDO-FPM-memory.html) for £14

[alexh]

Nice. Very slim, a bit taller than normal but nothing too bad.

[marcfrick2112]

oli hd: many, many thanks for the link.

[kolla]

alexh wrote:

kolla wrote:
SIMMS are getting hard and expencive to get hold of

Have you tried? You can get them all over the place for almost nothing.

Well, have to add cost of package, postage and .. sigh.. customs. It's not like I can just buy one in the stores.
A friend of mine tipped me about http://www.memoryx.com which appear to do it themselves, and hence they do not run out of stock :-)

I keep dreaming of "modern" amiga acc-cards

Keep dreaming.

Will do :-D

[Methanoid]

alexh wrote:
Nope. What I am saying is that neither would make their money back ;-)

Jens did an A600 accelerator, because he wanted to do an A600 accelerator. It interested him, he probably liked the quirkyness of the smallest Amiga and was inspired by Christian Krenner http://www.amiga600.de

Jens did not do it because it was going to make any money because (when you factor in his time) there is no way he would a profit.

Is that really why its been listed as "on hold"? I'd have thought he'd have no trouble selling it and if he has done the dev work surely why not recoup that cost by selling some?

[alexh]

Methanoid wrote:
I'd have thought he'd have no trouble selling it and if he has done the dev work surely why not recoup that cost by selling some?

1) He would have to finance the production. ( say a minimum production run of 200 units each €100 thats €20,000!!)
2) He would have to devote time, source the parts, arrange the manufacture, work out the testing, sort shipping etc.

He's very busy with non Amiga related work and the free time and money he told me is to be devoted to Clone-A development.

[Gulliver]

I thought a little more about my A600, my accelerator, and made my own mind about some things:
I hate SMC designs, they are not for hobbysts
I dislike ICs which are not DIL for the same reason
So what the hell was i doing with an A600 in the first place! I will try to find an A500 and continue work with it. It is so much easy to hack! Anyway as i mentioned before it is just a different micro layout, and Schoenfeld is about to sell his own, so i dont want to infringe any damage as little as it coul be, to his company!
I made up my mind: an A500 on-chip accelerator, will fit with no troubles many Amiga models as some of you have stated previously (A2000, A1000, A1500, etc).
I read about the Lucas accelerator and the Frances memory board. Too much interesting mental notes were taken in that process, and i eventually could draw some conclusions about my own project.

Even though, i need some help here!

68000 to 68030 interface:
As stated in the Lucas accelerator project, the idea is to make the 68030 resemble an 68000 at 7mhz to the amiga system bus. However, both microprocessor are not pin to pin compatible and have a few different control signals not to mention speed. So this is the actual challenge!
Differences to be solved:

1- Different clock rates
2- Data and Address signals
3- Bus length,/DTACK vs. /DSACK0 and /DSACK1
4- Byte addressability, /UDS and LDS vs. /DS
5- E clock generation at 1/10th of clock signal (0.7mhz)

The help i need is regarding item number 4. In the Lucas accelerator some PAL equations are mentioned, which i dont understand. However, these signal conversions were done in  a PAL, i wish someone could point me in the right direction, so i can make them with 74xxx logic ICs.

I have allready covered all the other items mentioned, i wish you could tell me if there is something else i am missing here!
:rtfm:

Thanks  

[HyAmi]

Just a little hi-jacking on this thread but a bit related. When I read this thread, some ideas came up. I wonder whether they're anywhere near feasible: (you experts can probably tell :-).

a 4MB fast ram expansion like the old ones which used the cpu socket and then the cpu on top of if. I was thinking of design like the A600 accelerators, with the cpu beneath it.

an "accelerator" with just an 68010 (like Matt_H said; for WHDLoad) and 4MB fastram. A design like this would not change the buswidth because of the almost similar processor. You'd "only" need to stop the onboard 68K processor and take all the signals.


Should I keep on dreaming, or is there any point?

[AmiJIm]

Hi there,
i think that the problem is that only one cpu  has to connected to the amiga circuit.
If that is the case,but you need the original 68k of the a600 so as to flip on the plcc socket,then
why dont you cut the +5v line from the original cpu so as to go inactive,while obtaining external +5v to the accel board.
it could be a solution.
cut the power from the onbaord 68k ,it goes in active then add power to the second cpu on the accel board.

[mrmkl]

I wonder if it is possible to clock officially 16 MHz 68hc000 to 32 MHz?
When I was thinking I was buying some DIP-64 HC000:s, I got some very rare shrinkdip-64 MC68HC000B16 chips in the mail.  Ebay-link
Now I don't know what to do with them :-? :crazy:
I have more than a dozen of them, should I build accelerators from them or what?

[KThunder]

if i remember correctly there is a 28mhz signal on the amiga mobo for denise? ive heard of 8mhz clocked over 20mhz but not to 28. a 16mhz might do.
still youd have problems of locking the machine amigas have a very tight cpu/chipset/os messing to much can cause problems. more ram and a slight speed up would be better.

[AJCopland]

If you did you could start with something like this design.

Andy