One year ago, there already was FPU for V2, it just needed some "testing".
There was an FPU for *Apollo Core*. How much of it was available in any publically released V2 core is a different question. And testing a CPU is the biggest part of the work because there is an infinite number of possible cases that can go wrong. So your point is based on a false assessment of how much work it is to develop a section of a CPU (a lot and few people can do something like that) and then debug it ("just some testing"). Testing and debuggin a CPU requires: writing lots and lots of testcases (assembly code) which requires a lot of knowledge and pondering about the inner workings of the CPU, simulating every single one of the testcases, looking at hundreds of digital signals in the simulator for millions of clock cycles where you can never see more than a few dozens on the screen for each testcase, modifying the simulation environment because you perhaps don't model a real computing environment accurately and crashes you see in real life just can't show in the simulator, and when you eventually see something odd happening, trace it back to the root cause which means you basically have to dig through the entire CPU logic. It's not as simple as "oh, here we have an uninitialised pointer, let's fix it and then release our App to Goodle Play".
I suppose the testing didn't go so well, because it didn't take so long before it was clear that the very much hyped FPU would not be...
Again you are basing your conclusions on false premises. The "just some testing" did NOT mean that testing with the team was started ever. There was NO testing in the team at all until Jari started FEMU!
and anyways, Amiga don't need FPU, does it.
What are you trying to say? "Gunnar is stupid because he doesn't know that an FPU can and has been used in an Amiga"
Do you have some kind of Asperger? The statement was basically "since nobody of you wants to do any work other than talking bull%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! on forums, you obviously don't need an FPU". Then there was a discussion about V4 which was supposed to be available much earlier and features an FPGA that has 64bit FP macros. These macros mean that you can either have an extended precision (that "nobody needs") FPU at very slow speed (i.e. not using the 64bit FP macros) or an NG FPU with "just" 64 bit precision at one FOP per clock cycle (!!!) per FP macro. With those macros you can build SSE type FPU units easily. Then there was the usual "but it's incompatible!!!" outcry going on (yes, SSE is not 386 compatible, very clever observation...). Summing up, half of what you are mixing into your skewed view of this vicious project was actually discussion about a future hardware base.
So started the bashing of everyone expressing needs for FPU began.
No, bashing of people like you who only say "but this old Amiga program does not run without CPU feature X" began. This project is not about Amiga. It is about the 680x0 family of CPUs. It is run by Amiga enthusiasts, though. It does not take any work to point out that some program crashes. It is no valuable input to point out which unit of a CPU, be it MMU or FPU, is used by what software. CPU developers KNOW that kind of thing. But if you really want something, you will have to put some effort into getting it. You don't but still have the time to bicker about the project on all Amiga forums? Then you obviously don't need an FPU. Nobody did? Well, then the Amiga obviously does not need an FPU. Get it? Sometimes "honey, you look gorgeous in that dress" means "you should lose ten pounds but we'll be late if you change again".
Then Gunnar came with AMMX, as a sort of "look, this is much more useful!".
Because somebody actually wrote the code for RiVA piece by piece which meant there was somebody willing to put a lot of work into "just testing" AMMX. The same thing that had NOT happened for the FPU. Thus, AMMX was clearly more "needed". Jari came later and then the "just testing the FPU" started. FEMU has been a perfect tool for testing the FPU because you could move FPU instructions into the FPU one by one and test each one separately.
But there were people also inside the team that were unhappy about the lack of FPU, and there was a rather harsh discussion over it.
Surprise, surprise, the members of the team are Amiga users. And yes, you are right, an FPU is a useful CPU unit, even in an Amiga. Please save this to your logs, you were right all the time!!!!!! An FPU IS REALLY USEFUL!!! It was created to serve some purpose!!! The situation was that the team members who had written a lot of testcases for the integer part had very little knowledge about writing FPU code. So basically it was the same situation that became a public discussion: if nobody puts any work into it, it means you don't really want it.
Gunnar decided if he was to implement an FPU it would be the most awesome FPU ever, and it would require bigger FPGA, V2 be damned, let there be V3... heck V4!
The Vampire V2 known to the public is in fact the V3. There was an unreleased V2 precursor with just 64MB RAM and a 16 bit RAM bus that was "the V2" inside the team (I actually owned one and used it in my Amiga). The 128MB V2 is always referred to as the "V3" inside the team. Majsta named his product V2 anyway and Gunnar prefers V3. Since the V4 was developed by Chris, a friend and colleague of Gunnar's, it is called V4. Majsta would probably have called it V3. So your reading between the lines about how the next card is the V4 because of some personality problem on Gunnar's side fails again. And you knew all this already because I have explained it before why the V4 is the V4 and not the V3.
FEMU is far from perfect, and it was demonstrated how both productivity software and demos did not run well enough. So again focus was changed, to improve FEMU. And this has now been going on since last summer, and had CLEARLY been a priority. Despite previous rantings about how useless FPU is on Amiga
So all this is about your hurt feelings? Because you said "an FPU is useful" and Gunnar said "it's useless"? And then history proved what we all knew forever? That FPUs do serve some purpose and have actually been used in the Amiga?
Meaning that there's still a bit of software emulation needed, which is fine. What's less fine is that this software is running outside the operating system, meaning noone else but Apollo Team can ever fix bugs or do improvements.
Are you aware that the 68882 is full of software emulation? Only that the software is stored as a ROM inside the CPU and cannot be changed at all? The 080 also has some software FP emulation inside, as you observed, but as the FPGA is flashable, it can be changed. But it is nothing that a user would or should touch. Your argument is basically a pro-open source argument. Well, gifts are always nice but you can't demand them.
Imagine if Jari had not made FEMU, and where the project would have been now, what the outspoken sentiment would have been.
Imagine you would actually contribute to the project, where the project could be now.
As for SAGA, it was announced that the SAGA FPGA core would be open source, but now it's not when clear what SAGA is, and half of the time it just refers to P96 support. Originally, SAGA was the Super AGA chipset that was to take over from the AGA Amiga chipset, being a superset of AGA. Pamela is the audio part of SAGA, taking over for Paula.
What's the problem here? That you again do not understand what I explained? Pamela is already done and part of SAGA (and clearly not P96, right?). The chunky graphics features that currently are available to the Amiga software through P96 are implemented in a SAGA way. P96 does not know about hardware scrolling and many more features so using P96 you can only perceive this part of SAGA as a normal RTG feature. If you want, you can bang the registers and have chunky Amiga screen modes. It's already there. You can do this TODAY. Do you understand that you could make a P96 driver for AGA? In the case of the Vampire the P96 driver basically is a chunky variant of "P96 for AGA"
