Did Akiko ever get used?

[Tension]

After reading this thread:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39436

I was wondering, did Akiko (Chunky to planar chip (whatever that does) in the CD32) ever get used to do something a normal Amiga couldn`t do?

Hmmm....

[Lemmink]

AFAIK it was used in the CD32 Version of Wingcommander. There was another titel or even two that used it but that's about it. It was no magic chip though it did make C2P conversion in hardware an 68030 @ 50 MHz could do the same in software at the same speed. Back in the time it was a huge costsaver to use a lowly 68EC020 insted of an 68030 and have (in that aspect) the same punch.

[stefcep2]

gloom had an option to use it, i believe. Maybe the racing game by Siltunna software forget its name.. Akiko allowed chunky graphics in hardware ie doom-type games. One of the reason the Amiga got sidelined as a games machine was Doom on the PC and the prohibitive cost to expand an Amiga an accelerator to do doom-type games.  You know if the A1200 had Akiko it would've made 3d games easier to run for the many users who just had RAM cards, 28 mhz '020 or even slower '030, meaning many people could play them out of the box.

[alexh]

You know if the A1200 had Akiko it would've made 3d games easier to run for the many users who just had RAM cards, 28 mhz '020 or even slower '030, meaning many people could play them out of the box.

I am pretty sure that is inaccurate.

The Akiko was invented as an alternative to (at the time) expensive FastRAM not CPU power.

Add just some FastRAM to an AGA Amiga and becomes as fast if not faster to use the EC020 than to use an Akiko.

[weirdami]

One of the reason the Amiga got sidelined as a games machine was Doom on the PC and the prohibitive cost to expand an Amiga an accelerator to do doom-type games.

My guess is that Commodore going bankrupt was the actual reason.

[stefcep2]

alexh wrote:

You know if the A1200 had Akiko it would've made 3d games easier to run for the many users who just had RAM cards, 28 mhz '020 or even slower '030, meaning many people could play them out of the box.

I am pretty sure that is inaccurate.

The Akiko was invented as an alternative to (at the time) expensive FastRAM not CPU power.

Add just some FastRAM to an AGA Amiga and becomes as fast if not faster to use the EC020 than to use an Akiko.

No i am 100% sure that Akiko was provided a chunky graphics option in hardware which meant it was the closest to a 3d chip that commodore made and would have made 3d doom type games run faster as there did not have to be an chunky-planar graphics conversion in software by the CPU.  I am 99.99% sure that Akiko was not alternative to fast ram as evidenced by the fact that the CD32 has 2 meg of chip ram and no more, the same as all AGA machines without akiko.

[Crom00]

In an Amiazing Amiga US magazine with Lew Eggbrecht, then VP of engineering of Commodore commented on the chip. The Akiko was quickly designed and was fully functional with just one design pass, not requiring mutiple design revisions. It was designed soley to convert square pixels to Amiga planar Amiga style graphics.

That being said a case of too little too late. When Super nintendo had the special mode 7, Sega Genesis had it's own type "graphics chip" kludged onto the SegaCD or certain Genesis carts. Even dreaded SEGA add ons gave you the CPU power of an 040/highspeed 030. Add to that... PC buyers happy to spend $2000 for a fully loaded PC to play Wing Commdander, then Doom from 1990-1994.

 The CD32 needed RAW cpu power and GAMES that could win hearts and minds of gamers.

The PS1 really filled that void quite well.

[Lemmink]

No i am 100% sure that Akiko was provided a chunky graphics option in hardware which meant it was the closest to a 3d chip that commodore made and would have made 3d doom type games run faster as there did not have to be an chunky-planar graphics conversion in software by the CPU.  I am 99.99% sure that Akiko was not alternative to fast ram as evidenced by the fact that the CD32 has 2 meg of chip ram and no more, the same as all AGA machines without akiko.

Yes of course the Akiko did do C2P conversion that was it's job. What alexh is trying to say is that if the 68EC020 in the CD32 had access to a little bit fast RAM it would have enough computing power to do ,what Akiko does in hardware, in software.
While I have a fealing that it still takes an 68030 to beat the Akiko with software C2P conversion the bottomline is still Akikos hardware acceleration was not that groundbreaking.

[Crom00]

Makes you wonder what could have been had there been bigger budgets. For the longest time Commodore fabbed their own chips, where the competition had to use off the shelf hardware for such tasks or contract with outside vendors.

 In an another interview with a Commodore Engineer the running joke from the management was "read my lips no new chips". A pun on one of President Bush #1's speeches/ sound bytes at the time.

[countzero]

I read this thread's title like 'Did Akiko ever got sued' for quite a while and got thinking .... 'Who TF is Akiko ?' aaah I need my morning tea.

[stefcep2]

Yes of course the Akiko did do C2P conversion that was it's job. What alexh is trying to say is that if the 68EC020 in the CD32 had access to a little bit fast RAM it would have enough computing power to do ,what Akiko does in hardware, in software.
While I have a fealing that it still takes an 68030 to beat the Akiko with software C2P conversion the bottomline is still Akikos hardware acceleration was not that groundbreaking.

Yes understood but it was my point that an '020 (and probably a slow '030 as well) with fast ram would do C2P slower than the akiko.  it wasn't I think a question of just achieving 020 plus fast ram performance without the fast ram.  to do what the akiko could do out of the box (for little cost) you need an accelerator probably at least 40 mhz '030 in addition to the fast ram. None of which were cheap at the time.  Not ground breaking performance but I bet it could've meant the mass exodus of Amiga gamers to PC may have been delayed that bit longer because people might have been able to play something resembling doom without paying $700 to get an '030 AND 4 meg ram or a $2000 pc.  And don't discount the ability of Amiga programmers to wring out the last drop of performance from amiga hardware..

[jmbattle]

According to Wikipedia:

Akiko is also responsible for implementing some of the control logic for the CD32's CD-ROM controller, as well as for controlling the serial ('AUX') port.

Cheers,
James
x

[Piru]

Akiko sucks, indeed.

To use it, a 8 longwords (containing 32 chunky pixels) is written to the register. Then the same register is read back the planar data, one bitplane at a time. The CPU must still be used to read the chunky data, feed to the register, read the planar data from the register and write to the chip memory.

Actual true DMA device would have been much more useful.

[Zac67]

Indeed, Akiko was a very simplistic approach (basically latches and some wiring) to be able to handle chunky data instead of adding a native mode to the chipset, which would've been a much better idea a couple of years earlier.

IMHO adding a chunky mode to Lisa wouldn't have been very hard. It would've rendered the blitter partly useless, but that could have been addressed later with a new Alice rev.

On a side note, an '030 is only faster than an (EC)'020 for its data cache and higher clock speeds. Switch off the cache and they perform exactly the same, to the cycle.

[Jupp3]

I think both Shapeshifter and Fusion had akiko enabled video drivers. Never tried, probably they didn't help too much.