MINIMIG HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY & NEW TURBO MODE!

[boing4000]

This could work but require a fullscreen framebuffer in the onboard memory. The FPGA is not capable of doing this inside. Also the already limited amount of s-ram will shrink again.

[mahen]

(Boing : I forgot to thank you for your previous reply ! Actually, 50 Hz is OK provided the monitor is not too big / you are not too close.)

Well, the question may have been asked already...

I have a 19" LG LCD monitor. It supports 50 Hz, so the PAL core does work. However, it apparently doesn't support a "910 pixels per line sample clock", therefore, picture is distorted horizontally, which makes horizontal scrolling look ugly.

Is that due to that fact that a 720*576 PAL screenmode is detected by the monitor as 800*600 (this is what the OSD says)?

My naïve question is : would it be possible for the Minimig to optionally output in a slightly different resolution (800x600 by adding black border for instance) in order to make it look properly with more monitors ?

I could get a 17"/19" CRT easily, of course, but definitely lack room

Thanks for reading this (BTW : I am clueless

[Darrin]

Just a reminder to let people know that there have been updates to the list of software, SD cards and Monitors.  If anyone can add some new items then please do.

Meanwhile, I've ordered a C-One board and if it arrives before I have to go to work then I'll start checking the software on that too.

[Palm]

Is there differences  on the board you can buy (abube sell them i believe?) today, and the ones from last year ? I mean, am I screwed if I buy one today and when new fixes comes out, it will be HW dependant so I have to buy a new minimig board, or is all the fixes done in the SW of the card so I can flash it (new core?) ??

In short: Should I order one Today ? :-)

[Belial6]

Yes, you should order one today.  So far significant improvements have been made via firmware updates only.  There are other boards being worked on, but the majority of the boards out in the wild are exactly like the ones that Acube sells.

There is a replacement board in the works for the PIC controller on the MiniMig.  It is specifically being designed to be a drop in replacement for the PIC, so if and when it comes out, it will be an upgrade to the existing board.

There is also the C-One.  It was originally an FPGA reimplementation of the C64.  Recently, Individual computers has released an upgrade board for it. (bundled with the upgrade is the only way it is currently available)  The C-One has had the MiniMig core ported to it.  The biggest difference being that 68k processor is also implemented in the FPGA.

As it now stands, the MiniMig 1.1 will never be more than a very good A500 replacement.  In theory, the C-One could be upgraded to an A1200 or more.  The C-One is more expensive than the MiniMig though.  I believe that Jens has said that the A-Clone (Individual Computers future product) is going to have AGA graphics, so I would guess it will be an A1200.  This is currently speculation though, as the product has not been released.

To sum up.  The MiniMig, as it stands today, is a fine A500 replacement, so it is definitely worth it.

[whiteb]

Palm wrote:
Is there differences  on the board you can buy (abube sell them i believe?) today, and the ones from last year ? I mean, am I screwed if I buy one today and when new fixes comes out, it will be HW dependant so I have to buy a new minimig board, or is all the fixes done in the SW of the card so I can flash it (new core?) ??

In short: Should I order one Today ? :-)

Entirely up to you.

The Minimig has three parts.

Board
Pic
FPGA.

The Board is going to pretty much stay the same.
PIC, is what controls loading of ADF files, flashes the FPGA at boot etc, and FPGA is where all the Guts go.

Updating minimig is just a matter of reprogramming the PIC (IF needed), and updating the FPGA is just a matter of changing the core file on the SD card.

[Darrin]

Palm wrote:
Is there differences  on the board you can buy (abube sell them i believe?) today, and the ones from last year ? I mean, am I screwed if I buy one today and when new fixes comes out, it will be HW dependant so I have to buy a new minimig board, or is all the fixes done in the SW of the card so I can flash it (new core?) ??

In short: Should I order one Today ? :-)

At the end of the day, unless you want to take on a major job of sourcing parts and doing some very fine soldering, you have 2 choices of boards to buy:

#1. The Minimig v1.1 from Acube
#2. The C-One from Indivision with Minimig expansion board.

The Acube Minimig v1.1 is the cheapest option.  It has been heavily tested and it has a potential exciting hardware add-on in the pipeline.

The C-One has the potential to deliver a lot more, but it depends on someone not just porting the Minimig v1.1 cores over, but also developing them and introducing board specific features.  The C-One actually has A1200 clockports, IDE headers, more RAM and a PCI slot, but these wont matter unless someone designs a core that will make use of them.  Of course, the C-One also costs a lot more.

I've had my Minimig for some time now and I love it.  Before I typed this reply I was busing playing Elite on it:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/darrin01311/SDC10256.jpg

When I first got it the games compatability was much lower and you couldn't save to ADF.  Now it performs like a true Amiga and you can load and save games.  The hardware add-on will give Hard Drive support and hopefully we'll see an update soon that will give a second emulated floppy drive.

If you fancy an Amiga games machine that can connect to a standard monitor, use any old cheap PS2 mouse and keyboard, always leave your joystick plugged in and doesn't need to use those unreliable floppy disks then the Minimig is just what you need.

[Everblue]

Hi there,

I am undecided whether to buy a Minimig or an Amiga 1200 (both would cost me more or less the same). The thing is that I want to play on a 15" TFT monitor, so an Amiga 1200 + Indivision would be the (very expensive) option. I am not really interested in AGA games. The monitor I will be using is a Samsung 15" 151s which according to the compatible monitor lists, works with both 50 and 60hz modes.

Now on for the questions

1. A game that runs perfectly on an the minimig, if compared to the same game running on an A1200+Indivision, next to each other, is impossible to say which is which? I am asking this because I have played around a bit with WinUAE and the scrolling is never 'right'. There is always some sort of sudden skip every now and then. I was wondering if the minimig suffers from the same thing.

2. I would like to use  KVM (I will have a Sam440 connected to the same monitor/mouse/keyboard) - will it work alright with minimig? (I havent bought the KVM yet).

3. I have checked the list of compatible games, there are quite a few which are not.... Are there some known issues which have not been solved yet, and will be fixed in the future?

4. I have been reading somewhere that minimig will always have problems with compatability because 'its not cycle perfect' - whatever that means. Is this true? How does this effect games?

5. If I dont mount a floppy disk, will the minimig click every few seconds

Thanks!

[Darrin]

Everblue wrote:
Hi there,

I am undecided whether to buy a Minimig or an Amiga 1200 (both would cost me more or less the same). The thing is that I want to play on a 15" TFT monitor, so an Amiga 1200 + Indivision would be the (very expensive) option. I am not really interested in AGA games. The monitor I will be using is a Samsung 15" 151s which according to the compatible monitor lists, works with both 50 and 60hz modes.

You sound like an ideal potential Minimig owner.  

Now on for the questions

1. A game that runs perfectly on an the minimig, if compared to the same game running on an A1200+Indivision, next to each other, is impossible to say which is which? I am asking this because I have played around a bit with WinUAE and the scrolling is never 'right'. There is always some sort of sudden skip every now and then. I was wondering if the minimig suffers from the same thing.

I don't use an Indivision, but I do use WinUAE and I have a scan doubled A4000, A3000 and A2000.

I have to say that personally I have not noticed any problems with scrolling on Minimig using the new cores (the older cores used to do some strange things).  However, I've never done a side by side test, but I to enjoy scrolling shoot-em-ups.

2. I would like to use  KVM (I will have a Sam440 connected to the same monitor/mouse/keyboard) - will it work alright with minimig? (I havent bought the KVM yet).

Never tried it myself.  I built my Minimig into a PC keyboard.  :-)

3. I have checked the list of compatible games, there are quite a few which are not.... Are there some known issues which have not been solved yet, and will be fixed in the future?

There is a new improved core right now with more fixes and 2nd floppy support, but it hasn't been released yet.  Also there is a add-on board to fit into the PIC socket to allow hard drive support and updating via a USB memory stick, but again this is still in the beta phase.  The genius behind this posts in this thread and we're lucky to have him.

4. I have been reading somewhere that minimig will always have problems with compatability because 'its not cycle perfect' - whatever that means. Is this true? How does this effect games?

Probably true to some extent, but then there are differences between Amigas regarding speed and chipsets so we have variations there.  Again, from a personal point of view, with the exception of using the F12 key to load disk images rather than inserting floppy disks, I feel no difference between the Minimig and (for example) my A2000 or A3000.

5. If I dont mount a floppy disk, will the minimig click every few seconds

Thanks!

LOL.  By one of those "ticking" pyramid things that pianists use and put it next to the Minimig.  :-D

[amigadave]

Darrin wrote:
At the end of the day, unless you want to take on a major job of sourcing parts and doing some very fine soldering, you have 2 choices of boards to buy:

#1. The Minimig v1.1 from Acube
#2. The C-One from Indivision with Minimig expansion board.

I think you forgot another choice.........

What about Illuwatar's MiniMig in Mini-ITX v2.0 form that is looking more orders so it can go to production?  He is offering it as a bare board and also assembled, but the assembled ones will take some time to get, as he is doing all the work himself (I think) and putting them together one at a time.  It looks like a very good design and will fit standard Mini-ITX cases.  The cost for a bare board is very low.

[Darrin]

amigadave wrote:
I think you forgot another choice.........

What about Illuwatar's MiniMig in Mini-ITX v2.0 form that is looking more orders so it can go to production?  He is offering it as a bare board and also assembled, but the assembled ones will take some time to get, as he is doing all the work himself (I think) and putting them together one at a time.  It looks like a very good design and will fit standard Mini-ITX cases.  The cost for a bare board is very low.

True, but because he's a one-man operation and cannot give any timeframes I left him off the list.  I love his design and I'd like to see Acube or someone do a factory run, but if you want a pre-assembled board any time soon then you could be in for a long wait.

I was really tempted to get one myself (my kids love my Minimig v1.1 and I was going to let them have it in their room) and sent an email.  But due to the many variables involved I grabbed a C-One instead.

To the majority of people, including those with some soldering skills, a bare board is about as much use as a beer mat.  There are still people sat on bare v1.1 PCBs who haven't finished sourcing their own parts yet.

[Everblue]

"There is a new improved core right now with more fixes and 2nd floppy support, but it hasn't been released yet. "

What does upgrading a core involve? Just putting a different program on the memory card thing?

[kolla]

Everblue wrote:
"There is a new improved core right now with more fixes and 2nd floppy support, but it hasn't been released yet. "

What does upgrading a core involve? Just putting a different program on the memory card thing?

That, and sometimes also reprogramming the PIC via the serial interface.

[Everblue]

Cheers o/

One more thing, can someone test 1869 and Venus the Flytrap please

THanks!

[TheDaddy]

Everblue,

Don't forget to get one of my gorgeous cases for your Minimig! :-)

http://www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

and the latest version is here:

http://www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/new.htm

Of the second batch I have only got 20 left... :-)

[Palm]

Darrin: What hardware add-on ? Will this HW add-on be something specific to dennis' design, or possible also with the Illuwatar ITX version of the board ?

Palm