I just got a buttload new CD32s! updated more pics!!

[jj]

But surley would have helped with things like gloom and AB3D  to offload the conversion to this chip , freeing up cpu cycles for other things ?

[cpfuture]

by Crom00 on 2008/7/22 14:36:26  

What's the deal with all the CD32's shipping out of China? What's the story here.

Well, the popular story goes that the NTSC CD32 units were being manufactured in the Philippines IIRC. Just before Commodore went bust they couldn't pay their bills, so the manufacturer decided to hold these units for 'ransom'. Ultimately these units wound up in the hands of Asian sellers which explains all these NTSC CD32 units coming from China.

Not sure if it's 100% true, but sounds plausible.

[alexh]

JJ wrote:
But surley would have helped with things like gloom and AB3D  to offload the conversion to this chip , freeing up cpu cycles for other things ?

I am sure I read the chip was critically flawed and it was better / faster to use the CPU to do everything.

I think the chunky and planar screens both had to live in chip ram which means lots of copying around etc.

[bloodline]

alexh wrote:

JJ wrote:
But surley would have helped with things like gloom and AB3D  to offload the conversion to this chip , freeing up cpu cycles for other things ?

I am sure I read the chip was critically flawed and it was better / faster to use the CPU to do everything.

I think the chunky and planar screens both had to live in chip ram which means lots of copying around etc.

Piru explained how the C2P AKIKO worked, and frankly it is such a simple device which worked only in ChipRAM, that rendering to a FastRAM chunky buffer and then using the CPU to C2P during the copy from the Chunky buffer to the Frame buffer was as efficient if not better (especially with a fast CPU).

[alexh]

Exactly. It was only for systems with no FAST-RAM

[Argo]

Your an evil evil man. Wish I had the money.

[LoadWB]

I like how Commodore often put seemingly unrelated stuff on a single chip, like UART, sound, and floppy controller (though I can see where floppy and UART might go together.)

The Akiko is also responsible for implementing some of the control logic for the built-in CDROM, as well as for controlling the serial, "AUX" port on the CD32.

[hardlink]

Argo wrote:
Your an evil evil man. Wish I had the money.

I know how you feel; Redrumola is doing a great job re-supplying the good stuff, but I have beer taste on a beer budget, I got my last CD32 for USD $19, which is my price range. Used with no accessories or power supply, of course, but I have all that stuff already I'm waiting for a cheap knockoff in a box printed with Chinlish for $40 ...

[redrumloa]

Argo wrote:
Your an evil evil man. Wish I had the money.

Evil? Nah!!

[Zekaric]

What would someone need to do in order to make a CD32 into a A500/A600 like machine?  Would it properly run most of the Amiga software?

[redrumloa]

@Zekaric
Throw a CD based game in (like Sim City) and have fun! For more computing power would take a bit, starting with
Amiga A2k/3k keyboard and any Amiga mouse. Probably help to have a hard drive, I'm sure someone here would have a suggestion.

[AndyFC]

A nice stash there. Interesting to see the minor differences over the one I had, which may have applied to all PAL machines. I can't remember my CD32 box referring to the Buster chip and the Commodore logo was not coloured in on my unit.

[amigadave]

Zekaric wrote:
What would someone need to do in order to make a CD32 into a A500/A600 like machine?  Would it properly run most of the Amiga software?

You would need a SX-1, SX32, or SX32 Pro which would give you a floppy drive connector to attach an external floppy drive.  The CD32 already has an AUX port for an A4000 style keyboard and a mouse can be inserted into one of the joypad ports.  That would give you the same functionality of an A500/A600 and it should run all the same software that any A500/A600 with OS3.1 ROMs installed will run.

You can also install a hard drive inside the SX-1 enclosure.  The SX32 Pro allows a 2.5" hdd to be installed inside the CD32 itself, and I think the SX32 also works the same way, but without the SX32 Pro's 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU.

The CD32 is actually a very good Amiga option if you don't want to expand it much, as the accelerator options are extremely rare and limited in number of different ones made (the only one I know of is the SX32 Pro but there might be more).

To get a brand new Amiga of any kind is sort of rare these days, so if you are interested in getting one, give Red a PM and start having fun with your very own brand new Amiga!

[countzero]

amigadave wrote:
start having fun with your very own brand new Amiga!

I think it's better to call them NOS technically cause they're as old as any CD32 out there. They're just unused. But they're still very prone to SMT cap leakages which kill most of the amigas produced with SMT technology (A600, A1200, A4000, CD32).

[gklinger]

Is is possible to boot a CD32 from a CD that contains Workbench? I know of the compilation game discs but I'm wondering how much functionality could be extracted from a CD32 with a keyboard and mouse attached.

[hardlink]

countzero wrote:
I think it's better to call them NOS technically cause they're as old as any CD32 out there.

So then they are not knock-offs made later after the fall of CBM/Escom/AT/etc ?