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Author Topic: A2410 Graphics Card  (Read 3997 times)

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Offline bceverlyTopic starter

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A2410 Graphics Card
« on: May 19, 2015, 06:25:18 PM »
Don't know if anyone saw this.  It is not my auction but I ran across it on eBay yesterday:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-A2410-University-of-Lowell-High-Resolution-Graphics-Display-Card-Zorro-II-/191582786778?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9b3954da

Might make a nice A3000ux system complete for someone on here.
 

Offline Jeff

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2015, 07:29:20 PM »
Thank you, I have a 3000UX! I'll give it a shot but I bet it goes for crazy money.
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2015, 09:04:29 PM »
Quote from: Jeff;789561
Thank you, I have a 3000UX! I'll give it a shot but I bet it goes for crazy money.
Not everything rare specs out really well...
 

Offline olsen

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2015, 04:25:08 PM »
Quote from: danbeaver;789565
Not everything rare specs out really well...
You sound so negative...

Actually, I'd like to add some negative remarks concerning the A2410 under Amiga Unix on the A3000UX.

Be advised that the only way to make this card work under Amiga Unix is to use the special X11R4 version which shipped with A2410 support. You cannot open a plain terminal console on the A2410.

The X11R4 version in question suffers from memory leaks problems, so this won't run well for long.

If anything, the A2410 is for the completist, who already has an A3000UX and all the other supported hardware (A2024, A2232, A2065).
 

Offline Oldsmobile_Mike

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2015, 07:14:36 PM »
I see it going for $500 USD.  You've always got that one person out there who wants a "complete" A3000UX, and has more money than sense.  ;)
Amiga 500: 2MB Chip|16MB Fast|30MHz 68030+68882|3.9|Indivision ECS|GVP A500HD+|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|Cocolino|SCSI DVD-RAM
Amiga 2000: 2MB Chip|136MB Fast|50MHz 68060|3.9|Indivision ECS + GVP Spectrum|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|AD516|X-Surf 100|RapidRoad|Cocolino|SCSI CD-RW
 Amiga videos and other misc. stuff at https://www.youtube.com/CompTechMike/videos
 

Offline DutchinUSA

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2015, 08:04:54 PM »
Not me !! $499 is my limit :roflmao:
 

Offline Oldsmobile_Mike

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2015, 08:12:50 PM »
Quote from: DutchinUSA;789635
Not me !! $499 is my limit :roflmao:

I predict a bidding war between you and @danbeaver.  :lol:
Amiga 500: 2MB Chip|16MB Fast|30MHz 68030+68882|3.9|Indivision ECS|GVP A500HD+|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|Cocolino|SCSI DVD-RAM
Amiga 2000: 2MB Chip|136MB Fast|50MHz 68060|3.9|Indivision ECS + GVP Spectrum|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|AD516|X-Surf 100|RapidRoad|Cocolino|SCSI CD-RW
 Amiga videos and other misc. stuff at https://www.youtube.com/CompTechMike/videos
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2015, 11:12:03 PM »
I wouldn't pay that much for a ver 1.2N Picasso IV.

The Lowell card  has no great advantage over any other ZORRO-2,  2 MB graphics card out there.
 

Offline Jeff

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2015, 11:58:01 PM »
@Danbeaver, clearly your facts are spot on.

I actually have my A3000UX running with a Picasso II+. I wrote the tutorial on the Amix web site about how to set the Picasso drivers a few years ago.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2015, 12:00:50 AM by Jeff »
 

Offline DutchinUSA

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2015, 01:56:34 PM »
:lol:

Eh no, I got exactly 0 bids on that :)

But whoever gets that card might be interested in buying my http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1296

:laughing:
 

Offline Iggy_Drougge

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2015, 03:09:40 PM »
There are AMIX drivers for the Picasso II, and that one's probably a much better card.
A4000/25MHz/64MB/20GB/RetinaBLTZ3/FastlaneZ3/CatweaselMKIII/Ariadne/A2301
A3000/40MHz/32MB/6GB/Merlin/Buddha/X-Surf/FrameMachineII+Prism24
Draco60/50MHz/128MB/15GB/Altais/DracoMotion/DV/IOblix+net
 

Offline olsen

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2015, 05:09:04 PM »
Quote from: Iggy_Drougge;789687
There are AMIX drivers for the Picasso II, and that one's probably a much better card.
I don't think it's so clear cut. Both cards are products of their times.

The A2410 uses the Texas Instruments TIGA graphics architecture, which meant that you told the card through a hardware interface what to render, and how. This required less bandwidth than a "dumb framebuffer" card, and worked sufficiently fast even on a Zorro II card, on a slow machine. The A2410 would use a co-processor to speed up graphics operations. Does this sound familiar? The original Amiga chip set did exactly that, and what the A2410 could do was in a way a step beyond what the Amiga chip set represented.

The Picasso II is a comparatively simpler solution, which combined a frame buffer with programmable resolution and colour options with basic hardware acceleration (an on-board blitter). It was built around a mass-produced SVGA chip made by Cirrus Logic, which accounted for the much lower price you'd have to pay for the end product back in 1993/1994, as compared to the A2410, which was never cheap.

The flexibility, the software support, the robustness of the driver software and in particular how well-integrated the two cards were with Amiga Unix were worlds apart, though. In this respect the Picasso II was the better choice.
 

Offline Oldsmobile_Mike

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2015, 06:09:51 PM »
Quote from: DutchinUSA;789686
But whoever gets that card might be interested in buying my http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1296



Good lord, what is that monster, about 2' long?  :lol:
Amiga 500: 2MB Chip|16MB Fast|30MHz 68030+68882|3.9|Indivision ECS|GVP A500HD+|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|Cocolino|SCSI DVD-RAM
Amiga 2000: 2MB Chip|136MB Fast|50MHz 68060|3.9|Indivision ECS + GVP Spectrum|Mechware card reader + 8GB CF|AD516|X-Surf 100|RapidRoad|Cocolino|SCSI CD-RW
 Amiga videos and other misc. stuff at https://www.youtube.com/CompTechMike/videos
 

Offline DutchinUSA

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Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2015, 06:22:08 PM »
MmmM about same length as the 3000 case if I remember right :)
 

Offline olsen

Re: A2410 Graphics Card
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2015, 08:12:13 PM »
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;789696


Good lord, what is that monster, about 2' long?  :lol:
You won't be able to fully appreciate the true majesty of this contraption until you've installed Amiga Unix with it and have suffered through the prolonged and loud copying process, capped by the loud and lengthy rewind operation.

Fun fact: the installation process was hardwired to work only with the A3070, and it would fail if you used a different type of tape drive. Very narrow driver tolerances :-(
« Last Edit: May 21, 2015, 08:16:36 PM by olsen »