UltimatePPC and everything else

[Forcie]

My mistake. The NatAmi is not cancelled. Poor choice of words.

I thought it was on the verge of being released like the x1000 and the FPGA Arcade and i didn't realise how far away it really is to being released.

(Sorry for the OT discussion)

There are still a lot of things to do before a solid release candidate. Basic things like a full DMA arbiter, a finished PCI subsystem, a bug-free CF interface, better compatibility with peripherals, bug-free AGA, monitor files for the SAGA screenmodes etc.
There will also be a new mainboard revision with some stability fixes.

These are the things that are taking time, and preventing public sales atm. Not "feature creep" or fancy stuff, but just down to earth stability and compatibility-related things that decides if the system is ready for everyday usage. Which do take time when working on a hobby basis.
Thomas has always been a no-bull**** guy, and no matter what pipe-dreams people have amused themselves with on forums, his focus has been none other than getting a basic and stable system up with a basic feature set.

[Bamiga2002]

I say let Thomas work in piece and quiet, "Natami" will see the light of day eventually
And what comes to UltimatePPC I really hope they consider it also for A1200...

[jj]

I assume the lack of the A1200 version is down to the non-availability of lead free A1200 connectors.

[Bamiga2002]

Lead or non-lead, I don't care. Just put a sticker "non-leaded" for the authorities/nitpickers

[startup-sequence.bat]

"some people announce a very ambitious implementation of some already obsolete technology that will really bring Amiga back, later turns out to be a scam"

history_of_amiga_since_1994.txt

[Piru]

Why limit the 68K side to only 128M ram?

The CPU slot maxes at 128MB.

It's the same with all CPU slot accelerators (Cyberstorm etc).

[jj]

Which is where A1200 has the advantage can have much more then 128mb via the expansion slot

[rewlako]

The CPU slot maxes at 128MB.

But is that really a limitation?  The 68040 can access 4GB of physical memory; if the fastram is on the accelerator board then the limitations of the CPU slot is irrelevant.  All access to chipram and chipset/peripherals will be routed through the CPU slot to the addressable memory space.

[polyp2000]

Gotta admit an a1200 version seems like a more obvious option - lets face it there are more 1200s in use out there and more 1200s wanting an upgrade path. You only have to look at the popularity of the new ACA accelerators from indivision. The relatively small quantities of this accellerator for the big box amigas is most likely going to mean a high pricetag.

Let me know when someone brings out a new line of PPC accellerators for the 1200 series.

N ...

[Framiga]

The relatively small quantities of this accellerator for the big box amigas is most likely going to mean a high pricetag.

more or less the price of a 15 years old used CSPPC.

[psxphill]

But is that really a limitation? The 68040 can access 4GB of physical memory; if the fastram is on the accelerator board then the limitations of the CPU slot is irrelevant. All access to chipram and chipset/peripherals will be routed through the CPU slot to the addressable memory space.

Yeah, the limit on ram is going to be how much free address space you can get. You wouldn't be able to put ram in the first 16mb, but zorro 3 cards would also cause you to lose more ram.

[rewlako]

Yeah, the limit on ram is going to be how much free address space you can get. You wouldn't be able to put ram in the first 16mb, but zorro 3 cards would also cause you to lose more ram.

That's what you have address decoders for.  For example, let's say you have 2GB RAM in the address space 2GB-4GB - how would that cause a problem for zorro 3 cards when the address space is inaccessible via the CPU slot?

As I said, the accelerator can access the chipset just fine, and will have its own fastmem locally which is _not_ limited to 128MB.

[wawrzon]

beautiful project, but since there is no support from os4, morphos nor warpup or powerup soultion holders respectively i wonde3r why the choice fell for ppc? if starting clean from the scratch wouldnt some other processor choice be more promissing? say, even like running 68k emulation on that?

[Piru]

But is that really a limitation?

It is if you wish to DMA to the memory via the system bus. If you're happy with using a temporary DMA buffer and copying when needed then adding extra memory is no problem.

[dreamcast270mhz]

What if they use 128mb as the maximum buffer between the CPU card and Amiga, while letting the CPU card go freely up to the max 4GB? In theory, it sounds like it should work. Or else, they could find someone to make a piggyback/passthrough card for Buster to override the limitation? Or is it more complicated than just Buster, meaning its an inherent architecture limit?

[billt]

The CPU slot maxes at 128MB.

It's the same with all CPU slot accelerators (Cyberstorm etc).

I seem to remember about 2GB of reserved address space in the A3000T memory map. And what is max that Zorro3 has defined? I don't remember now. Anyway, that PPC can surely address way more memory than what was ever defined by Commodore. What this more likely is, is a PPC system design with address space assigned to the 040 and to the Amiga motherboard.