4-way Clockport Expander at Amiga Kit Amiga Store
 

Amiga Kit Amiga Store is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Matthias Muench to supply his innovative 4-way Clockport Expander for the Amiga 1200 computer.

Matthias has created the first buffered Clockport expander which allows up to 4 devices to be connected to an Amiga 1200's 22-pin clockport header. With such a rich array of clockport expansions available these days, this is a very popular expansion with A1200 users. We are pleased to be able to supply the latest revision C of this expander board.

Amiga Kit has been manufacturing, assembling and commissioning Amiga hardware and software for over 13 years. We have been assembling this product in house to ensure Classic Amiga users have a readily available supply of hardware at affordable prices. We will continue to show our commitment by investing in the Amiga market and sponsor hardware and software development.

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Sorry guys, while it's great that you're now manufacturing and stocking this and thus making it much easier to get hold of, please go easy on the marketing waffle there. Matthias is far from the first to create a clockport expander which allows up to 4 devices to be connected to an Amiga 1200's 22-pin clockport header.

What Matthias did was add buffering to an existing design using a couple of 245 bus driver ICs. By doing this, he was the first to create a *buffered* clockport expander, which I guess qualifies as innovative, but that's very different from being the first 4-port clockport expander, an accolade he missed by about 9 years.

A little more than 9 years I may say:

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/quadroport

Anyway, still what you offer it is a great product at a very decent price.

More classic hardware is very welcome.

What's new in revision C compared to B?

It now fits along with Indivision AGA, maybe that is new?

Well, Matthias first released his expander in 2009, though availability was sketchy by many accounts.

Yep, that's true. More hardware is always good!

Yeah, the Rev. C board doesn't clash with the Indivision AGA.

Will this reduce signal nose and allow use of cheaper version of RapidRoad usb?

The cheaper version of the RapidRoad has the clockport connection disabled as it is only intended for use on an X-Surf card.

Is it? As far I have understod, expensive version only have some additional electronics to keep signals noise free? It is still a clockport, but it requires more clean signal than a1200/600 can produce.

Am I wrong?

If that's the case, it's pretty strange because it's relatively easy these days to build a device that can 100% interpret 100% of the clockport's signals - to make something that can't handle noise on it would take deliberate design decisions in that regard. And if you're going to produce different hardware, why fit the one that doesn't have the extra electronics with a clockport connector that it can't ever use? It doesn't make any sort of sense - the two devices must be identical hardware with the firmware being the only difference. I just can't see Jens ever producing hardware that fits either of the other scenarios.

I'd like to get a 68000 socket clockport adapter or two.

@Amigakit any plans to produce a 68000 socket clockport adapter? I'd need one that also has the 68000 relocation of Kipper's new CDTV adapter. I'd really really like one or two, PLEAAAASE? PLEAAAASE!?! I'll even buy a Rapidroad and a Prisma with it from you.

Without Gayle, adding a clockport is a little more complicated than a simple adapter. The CS_SPARE, IORD and IOWR signals need to be synthesized, along with INT6 (which could be tapped from elsewhere, e.g. the CIAs. All that will need some sort of GAL or small FPGA, which is probably not viable as a niche product unfortunately. It would be awesome though! There are a few guys who might be interested in producing it - I'd have a go but I don't have much time any more, Kipper2K is dedicated to the Vampire these days, and DJBase (whose board this expander is) appears to be almost impossible to reliably contact, and I don't think he does such designs anyway. Mabye Retro7Bit or Chucky, though he tends to be very busy as well. Keirf is another possibility...

Like this for a 68000 ?

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/de...-Clockport.PNG

Yep, that would do it indeed. Should've mentioned Stedy as a candidate for producong such a device too :) I'd forgotten about that design, though the address decoding means it couldn't be used with a 32-bit accelerator without cascading more decoders/comparators, or switching to more sophisticated decoding.

Kipper and I tried reaching out to Stedy about his clockport design but he seemed too busy to talk about it. There were a couple unknowns as I recall, so Kipper just threw the towel in on it. Does anyone know if the Katodev or Jens' clockport adapters worth with an accelerator?

I'm not really familiar with the Katodev one, but I gather it's similar to Stedy's design in that it works off the 68000 socket. There's nothing to stop either one working with a 24-bit accelerator; it's the additional decoding for a 32-bit system that Stedy's design might have trouble with. Perhaps Katodev has a different implementation, I don't know. The Individual Computers adaptor also appears to be 24-bit only with a casual glance, but again I don't know for sure.

just found the Katodev website.

Yeah, I found that too but I couldn't find any info on their clockport design.

Ah, it doesn't seem to be available on the English site. Thanks, it looks to be more or less the same design again...