Amiga 600 Accelerators (ACA, Furia, etc)

[Lemaru]

I got a Apollo A630 I brought at the World of Amiga show back in 98 and have never managed to get this stable in either of my A600s due to constant lockups and freezing so thinking if selling it and getting an alternative card

So what are people's thoughts on the Furia and the ACA620. I can't seem to find any side by side comparisons so was wondering if anyone has used both and which one would be the better of the two? Both seem similar specs wise and in price so just wondering which would be the better to stick my money down on.

Ideally I would go for the Vampire but been waiting on the list for 6 months and still no news, so figured get an alternative for the time being, and then when the vampire comes I'd have an accelerator for the second A600

Also anyone have any ideas on what the Apollo A630 is worth these days as cant seem to find anyone who has sold one recently, appears they are getting quite rare these days.

[jack-3d]

I owned ACA 620 and I own Furia EC020, here is comparison:

Price: Furia 99,80 EUR vs ACA 91,10 EUR
CPU speed: Furia 7,89 MIPS (7563 Dhrystones) vs ACA 3.47 MIPS (3332 Dhrystones)
FPU speed: Furia 1,07 MFLOPS vs ACA no FPU possible
IDE speed: Furia 3.2 MB/s (4,3 MB/s on Gayle01) vs ACA 1.8 MB/s

So for the similar price more then double performance ;o)

And thats not all, author of Furia is planning new firmware that speed up the logic even more (8,42 MIPS, 8078 Dhrystones, 1,15 MFLOPS).

Update: Apollo 630 is rare and collectors will fight for that. Try to start at 350 EUR.

[Lemaru]

Update: Apollo 630 is rare and collectors will fight for that. Try to start at 350 EUR.

Looks like the Furia is the better option then. As for the Apollo, it's in its original packaging, just had a header attached to be able to change the crystal and heatsinks fitted. Surely can't be worth that much though??

I wish it would work in my machine, can only out it down to being incompatible with both my rev 1.5 boards

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I got a Apollo A630 I brought at the World of Amiga show back in 98 and have never managed to get this stable in either of my A600s due to constant lockups and freezing so thinking if selling it and getting an alternative card

Sounds like an overheating problem.  Have you tried adding a fan, or running it with the case open to see if that makes a difference?

If you do decide to sell the A630, be a decent fellow and list it as "not working correctly", so someone else doesn't shell out big bucks for a card of dubious reliability, kthx!  

[Lemaru]

Sounds like an overheating problem.  Have you tried adding a fan, or running it with the case open to see if that makes a difference?

If you do decide to sell the A630, be a decent fellow and list it as "not working correctly", so someone else doesn't shell out big bucks for a card of dubious reliability, kthx!  

Yep, tried all that at various times over the last 18years and no luck. Also tried a beefier ATX psu, and even tried swapping out the crystal going by the running slower runs cooler but still no joy. It can freeze after a few seconds or be good for up to half hour. Not had much longer than that out of it. Unfortunately I only have rev 1.5 boards as do those I know. I did spend a while a few years back chatting to the guy who had the Extreme A600 page and tried to come up with some ideas but no luck. So seems likely to be incompatible with the rev 1.5 board much like some.other cards are.

I would list it as untested as I have no other machine to test it in and outline the issues found with it. Just have no idea on its value if working or not.

[Lemaru]

And thats not all, author of Furia is planning new firmware that speed up the logic even more (8,42 MIPS, 8078 Dhrystones, 1,15 MFLOPS).

How do you update the firmware on these? Or can this not be done by ourselves?

[jack-3d]

Well I dont know for sure. Author must first agree the approach with Lotharek the licensed producer. It may be postage fee only upgrade (you pay postage there and back and you get upgraded FW for free). But wait for the official public release.

What I wanted just to demonstrate the author still works on the logic and improves things, optimizes things for years, so that is why the Furia is so fast even when uses old 020 and rams.

[paul1981]

Random crashing you say? Sounds like poor contact on the socket over the 68000. All pins clean? Loose fit? Weak pin springyness? I've read of microfractures too on the 68000 soldering. Different A600 motherboards (not necessarily same revision) will have a different height of the surface mount chips and slightly different 68000 pin angle/mass. It could be that both of your boards are lower slightly or otherwise presenting less pin to the Apollio socket, making a less secure and less electrically sound connection.

[Lemaru]

Random crashing you say? Sounds like poor contact on the socket over the 68000. All pins clean? Loose fit? Weak pin springyness? I've read of microfractures too on the 68000 soldering. Different A600 motherboards (not necessarily same revision) will have a different height of the surface mount chips and slightly different 68000 pin angle/mass. It could be that both of your boards are lower slightly or otherwise presenting less pin to the Apollio socket, making a less secure and less electrically sound connection.

Contacts have all been cleaned on both the motherboard and the card. Socket is a nice tight fit, the pins are not too 'springy' but then they have barely been used. Don't think it would be likely that two motherboards would suffer the same issues with the pins.

As for the soldering on the 68k, had this looked at where I used to work by the R&D techy guys who designed the BMS controllers and all looked good in that aspect.

I have given up on it to be fair, suspect its more likely compatibility with the rev 1.5 boards. Shame I dont have access to a different rev board to test it further. Years back when I looked into getting it going again there were reports with compatibility issues, and now it appears there are still compatibility issues with some cards, bored revisions and different versions of Gayle so seems likely.

Ill stick it on ebay and raise some funds to cover the Furia I have just ordered.

[magnetic]

the vampire a600 will blow away any known accel for a600. I had the vampire v1 it was awesome.

[jack-3d]

Vampire V2 will be of course revolutionary accelerator, but tell me 5 classic OCS games that requires anything faster then 8 mips Furia?

Back in the days I had Amiga 3000 with Cyberstorm 060 + CV64 and it was excellent machine, but for OCS gaming and demoscene the 060 was pointless. I could use the 060 only for RTG supporting games, demos and apps. I realized most of the 060 games, demos and apps needs AGA anyway. Then bought A4000T, moved stuff there and I could enjoy pure OCS on A3000/030 and modern AGA + RTG stuff on A4000T/060.

My point is I will buy Vampire for AGA machines, because most of the current games, most of the current demos will use the cpu power better then for OCS games from 90's.

[psxphill]

My point is I will buy Vampire for AGA machines, because most of the current games, most of the current demos will use the cpu power better then for OCS games from 90's.

What if adding a vampire to an a500 would give it AGA? What if you could have more than 2mb chip ram?

[jack-3d]

As far as I know Vampire 500 does not change our original OCS/ECS to AGA. It adds only RTG support. It wont allow you playing Starstruck on A500 ;o)

[ToddH]

As far as I know Vampire 500 does not change our original OCS/ECS to AGA. It adds only RTG support. It wont allow you playing Starstruck on A500 ;o)

For now. Adding AGA chipset support in non-AGA machines is in the plans.

[Iggy]

For now. Adding AGA chipset support in non-AGA machines is in the plans.

 Gunnar has plans...that doesn't scare anybody?