Expanded A2000 using NO SLOTS!

[curtis]

I'm in the process of expanding an A2000 I picked up a while back.

So far, I've added a kipper2 8MB memory card.

Got a minimeg installed for 2MB chip RAM which gives me a total of 10MB!

Am considering using a cfide68K for the hard drive.  Now that mkl has figured out the IDE hard drive problem with the adapter, it'd be perfect.

Probably add a ROM switcher just for s&g's.

Anyone else ever try this?  I know it kind of defeats the purpose of the slots for the A2000, but it's still kinda cool looking!

Curtis

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Awesome!  I'm building up my own A2000 right now going a more traditional route, but would love to see build pics of yours as you progress!  

[waltermixxx]

hmmm I was wondering if the Kipper2k board would work with an Amiga 2000.  I may pull it from my Amiga 500 and put it in my 2000...
( and move my super denise into the 2000 as well )
 
or just buy another one of each... :afro:  <-- i think that means cool...

[guest3110]

With an IDE-to-SATA adapter, you might be able to put in a Solid State Drive (SSD) and run things faster and cooler.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

hmmm I was wondering if the Kipper2k board would work with an Amiga 2000.  I may pull it from my Amiga 500 and put it in my 2000...
( and move my super denise into the 2000 as well )
 
or just buy another one of each... :afro:  <-- i think that means cool...

I actually just emailed Kipper2K yesterday to ask if one could use his 8MB board underneath the processor + a card in the accelerator slot... wasn't sure if sticking something in the A2000 accelerator slot completely disables the 68000 socket or not?  Will let you know when I hear back!  

...or just buy another of each, that's cool too.  

[bbond007]

I actually just emailed Kipper2K yesterday to ask if one could use his 8MB board underneath the processor + a card in the accelerator slot... wasn't sure if sticking something in the A2000 accelerator slot completely disables the 68000 socket or not?  Will let you know when I hear back!  

...or just buy another of each, that's cool too.  

That ram would be 16BIT and a lot slower than the 32BIT RAM on an accelerator and thus actually using it will slow you down almost as much as not having an accelerator at all... as long as the RAM priority is set correctly, it should not be detrimental, just not not overly useful. If it did work, perhaps it would be useful for Z-II DMA on a HD controller.

I would be interested in hearing if it would work though

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

@bbond007 and @waltermixxx:

I received this response from Kipper2K last night:

"This board will autoconfig fastmem at mem location 200000 – 9fffff. I know it will work in the A2000 with a few configurations but I am not sure what else you have, if it sits in the same mem location as my board then it will cause a conflict."

So it sounds like it will work on a regular A2000, the thing I'm trying to do is a little more unique - add 8MB into the 68000 socket in addition to the 16MB on my 040 card, guess I will have to check what the address space of that memory is, but I'm guessing it's mapped high 32-bit, so as long as the 68000 socket isn't completely disabled when adding something into the accelerator slot it should work and not cause conflict.  As long as the priority of the 32-bit ram is higher, that is, LOL.  

[bbond007]

Yeah, I'm 100% sure 32bit ram is outside ZII range. Otherwise you could never see 16MB, 32MB, etc...

When I had my A2000, I know I had 32MB 32bit on my PP&S 040 and 4MB 16bit ram on my GVP 4008 SCSI with GURU ROM. The 4MB on the board was utilized by the guru for DMA as ZII can't DMA into 32BIT ram.

Does the kipper board let you disable 4MB? I'm guessing, you'd run into trouble if you tried to add a ZII GFX board.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Does the kipper board let you disable 4MB? I'm guessing, you'd run into trouble if you tried to add a ZII GFX board.

He makes both a 4MB and an 8MB model.  Thinking ahead, I suppose!  

[curtis]

Well, I'm thinking I'm going to have to pass on the CFIDE68K adapter as when I add the Vortex 286 board, it sticks up too high with the IDE adapter installed!

I've got a Dataflyer IDE and will probably use it, but have a question.  Can you run a CD-ROM drive with the Dataflyer?  

I know the Dataflyer uses a special format program, but there isn't anything in the manual regarding a CD drive!

Actually, I may have to do some hacksaw work on the drive cage as the Vortex/kipper2 stack is touching the bottom of the drive/power supply support.  Tried both ways with the memory expansion on top and bottom.  No joy!

Bummer!

Oh, BTW, I also added a Indivision so I've got VGA output without an Amber card!  Guess I'll have to change the name of the thread to using only 1 slot!

Curtis

[TheMagicM]

Pics?

[curtis]

Pics?

Decided to pass on the Vortex 286 board as with the memory module it would intrude with the support for the floppies and power supply.

Fitted the CFIDE68K and it's a bit lower so I think I'll go with a bridgeboard IF I decide I want DOS/Winblows compatibility.  Does anyone know if 3.1 will work with a bridgeboard?  The ROM I've got in there right now is 3.1.  Guess I could use a switcher with 1.3 if 3.1 doesn't support the bridgeboards.

@TheMagicM.  Here's some pictures.  Note the clearance between the "stack" and the support.  Not a whole lot of room there!

Looking at the pictures you'll notice there is ZERO clearance between the "stack" and the minimeg!  Guess you could take a Dremel tool to the memory module...

Also, looking at the second picture you'll see the Indivision adapter for vga output.

Third picture shows there's only 1/4" clearance in this configuration.  Better than with the Vortex 286 where there was negative 1/4" clearance!  Yeah, it was actually forcing the metal UP!  

Had to boost the stack with 2 sockets to clear the ROM chip.  That really pushes things up!

Curtis

[sdyates]

I just hope to one day land an Amiga 4000T. It's always been a dream of mine! But, they cost way too much.

[curtis]

Well, hit a major snag in this project.

I had decided to go with a GVP 030 combo board for the cpu accelerator.  Yeah, using 1 slot.

Picked up a good working board, thanks DutchinUSA, dropped it in and suddenly my CFIDE68K adapter, CD-ROM, and expanded memory disappeared!

It seems the GVP combo board disables the cpu socket AND everything in it so anything plugged in there is a fleeting memory unless I disable the GVP board which sort of defeats the purpose of having it in there.

Considered rigging a switch to disable the combo board if I wanted to use the other stuff, but it didn't really make sense to have anything in the computer that wasn't being used!

So I've decided to go a little more conventional route and use the combo board as memory expansion, SCSI interface, and (obviously) cpu accelerator.

Still, I've got the vga output using an Indivision vga adapter without using a slot.

Anyway, I proved the concept is feasible to a point.  Perhaps even more so if an accelerator for an A500 is used that plugs into the cpu socket.

So, next stop for my A2000, a SCSI media reader so I can boot from a CF microdrive and read other format memory cards.  Add a SCSI CD-ROM, and a 386SX bridgeboard!  

Should be pretty nice.

Pictures to come later, after I get the CD drive!

Curtis

[Iggy]

Yep, the Kipper2k board definitely looks like the way to go.
When I stop playing with alternative ISAs long enough, I intend to install one in my A2000.