English Amiga Board - View Single Post - First public demonstration of Dragon(Elbox)

ppill · 13 November 2006, 16:16

[YAK] on aw.net made a much more thorough list of Dragon's features that were discussed in the videos than myself and here it is:

"I have made a small compilation of what was said on the first two videos when the Elbox guy explains some things. I'm sure that most of you don't userstand a thing so I wanted to help.

1. Dragon will be able to work with faster CPUs, also those which aren't produced yet but are planned.

2. What's on the main board.
2.1. CPU slot
2.2. AGP slot
2.3. 5 * full PCI 2.2 slots, 33/66 Mhz, 3 x 3V, 2 x 5V
2.4. The PCI Engine from the CPU is used, as opposite to the Mediator where Elbox's own PCI Engine was used (it was implemented in MACH chips there). As a side note: The CF PCI Engine is fully compatible with other Freescale CPUs, like PPC used in Efika.
2.5. Dragon has 2MB of flash memory. 1MB is needed to enable booting by the CF and enable Kickstart to run on the CF. The other 1MB is reserved for other purposes, for example booting from network.
2.6. The big Lattice chip. Its main function is to bridge the A1200 motherboard to the CF. The main problem Elbox come across when designing the Mediator was that in most of the A1200 accelerators there are only 24 CPU address lines available on the slot (which was an incompatibility with Commodore specification, there should be 32). This forced them to use "windows" technique there. On the Dragon, the CPU is on the same side with AGP and PCI so it can directly address these cards. The Bridge chip allows the CF to address the A1200 mainboard. Anything that is on the mainboard, can be accessed by the CF. And not only by the CF, also by the PCI cards. For example a PCI card can create its buffers in CHIP memory and exchange the data using CF's DMA-channels.
2.7. RTC clock.
2.8. The flash memory can be flashed by software. If something bad happends and one ends up with trashed/erased flash, the CF won't work (of course). In this case the 020 jumper can be used. It disables the Dragon and computer can be booted using the 020 CPU. In this case the flash memory is still visible and can be flashed too. So, the firmware flashing won't be dangerous anymore.
2.9. Other jumpers: flash write protection, RTC clock write protection, PCI Wake Up enable, PCI clock selection, LEDs, Power/Reset buttons.
2.10. The long on-board connector gives access to four fully programmable UARTs of the CF.
2.11. The small connector (which TBH I cannot find) is the JTAG connector for on-board chips.

3. What's on the CPU board.
3.1. MCF5475 CPU running at 266MHz (410 MIPS)
3.2. Two DDR-266 slots.
3.3. The small side-connector is a diagnostic connector. Using the CPU lines available on it the processor can be debugged and traced. For end users it's mostly useless.
3.4. The big side-connector gives access to additional functionality of the CPU. For current CPU this is two Fast Ethernet ports and USB 2.0. They plan to release an additional card which will connect to this slot and give access to the ports on the backplate. However, they said that most of the users will probably use PCI cards instead.

Again, this is just what I've understood from the videos. Some technical info like the CPU model was taken from elbox.com. The sound quality of the videos is poor and my knowledge is limited but I've done my best. I don't take any responsibility for any mistakes."

13 November 2006, 16:16	#9
ppill CON: artist Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Poland Age: 43 Posts: 1,250	[YAK] on aw.net made a much more thorough list of Dragon's features that were discussed in the videos than myself and here it is: "I have made a small compilation of what was said on the first two videos when the Elbox guy explains some things. I'm sure that most of you don't userstand a thing so I wanted to help. 1. Dragon will be able to work with faster CPUs, also those which aren't produced yet but are planned. 2. What's on the main board. 2.1. CPU slot 2.2. AGP slot 2.3. 5 * full PCI 2.2 slots, 33/66 Mhz, 3 x 3V, 2 x 5V 2.4. The PCI Engine from the CPU is used, as opposite to the Mediator where Elbox's own PCI Engine was used (it was implemented in MACH chips there). As a side note: The CF PCI Engine is fully compatible with other Freescale CPUs, like PPC used in Efika. 2.5. Dragon has 2MB of flash memory. 1MB is needed to enable booting by the CF and enable Kickstart to run on the CF. The other 1MB is reserved for other purposes, for example booting from network. 2.6. The big Lattice chip. Its main function is to bridge the A1200 motherboard to the CF. The main problem Elbox come across when designing the Mediator was that in most of the A1200 accelerators there are only 24 CPU address lines available on the slot (which was an incompatibility with Commodore specification, there should be 32). This forced them to use "windows" technique there. On the Dragon, the CPU is on the same side with AGP and PCI so it can directly address these cards. The Bridge chip allows the CF to address the A1200 mainboard. Anything that is on the mainboard, can be accessed by the CF. And not only by the CF, also by the PCI cards. For example a PCI card can create its buffers in CHIP memory and exchange the data using CF's DMA-channels. 2.7. RTC clock. 2.8. The flash memory can be flashed by software. If something bad happends and one ends up with trashed/erased flash, the CF won't work (of course). In this case the 020 jumper can be used. It disables the Dragon and computer can be booted using the 020 CPU. In this case the flash memory is still visible and can be flashed too. So, the firmware flashing won't be dangerous anymore. 2.9. Other jumpers: flash write protection, RTC clock write protection, PCI Wake Up enable, PCI clock selection, LEDs, Power/Reset buttons. 2.10. The long on-board connector gives access to four fully programmable UARTs of the CF. 2.11. The small connector (which TBH I cannot find) is the JTAG connector for on-board chips. 3. What's on the CPU board. 3.1. MCF5475 CPU running at 266MHz (410 MIPS) 3.2. Two DDR-266 slots. 3.3. The small side-connector is a diagnostic connector. Using the CPU lines available on it the processor can be debugged and traced. For end users it's mostly useless. 3.4. The big side-connector gives access to additional functionality of the CPU. For current CPU this is two Fast Ethernet ports and USB 2.0. They plan to release an additional card which will connect to this slot and give access to the ports on the backplate. However, they said that most of the users will probably use PCI cards instead. Again, this is just what I've understood from the videos. Some technical info like the CPU model was taken from elbox.com. The sound quality of the videos is poor and my knowledge is limited but I've done my best. I don't take any responsibility for any mistakes."