xt accelerator amiga 600 28mhz 11mb

oO cozy Oo · 16 February 2023, 18:27

Hi Everyone Just a little post as I`ve found It hard to find any Info about this accelerator for the little A600, I got my A600 last year and had it recapped, had a CF drive and loaded WHD Load but it was way too slow. I`m getting a PIstorm but the prices of the pi itself are mad at the moment.
So I ordered this little card as It was so cheap and was enough for running WHD load ( I have a 1 Mb trapdoor card) specs are:-

CPU MC68SEC000AA20, clocked on 28MHz.
11MB Fast Ram.
MapROM Feature.
PCMCIA Friendly – Ram needs to be set to 4MB.
Embedded hardware DriveSWAP DF0/DF1 (Boot Selector).

It uses a CLI to set things up called Santool I`ve made a little video to show it fitted and working, hope this helps anyone who was thinking of getting this card!!

[ Show youtube player ]

eXeler0 · 16 February 2023, 20:08

Nice, who is selling these?

oO cozy Oo · 17 February 2023, 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Nice, who is selling these?

http://www.retropassion.co.uk/produc...-11mb-fastram/

https://ultimatemister.com/product/x...00-28mhz-11mb/

https://amigastore.eu/877-xt-acceler...8mhz-11mb.html

https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228

I got mine from ultimatemister.com as they are instock €79,90 (excl. VAT)

mikeboss · 17 February 2023, 18:25

I now own three of these ;-) love them! I ordered mine from the manufacturer (Archi-TECH):

https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228

oO cozy Oo · 17 February 2023, 20:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeboss

I now own three of these ;-) love them! I ordered mine from the manufacturer (Archi-TECH):

https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228

Hi mikeboss just a question if you know, when you use the Maprom to load a kickstart rom into memory is there any way to save that instead of retyping the command every time , I did add it to the startup sequence but still have to reboot to make the changes.....

mikeboss · 17 February 2023, 21:32

I guess it depends wether you're trying to load the onboard Kickstart to RAM or if you want to load it from a file. I'm only loading the built-in ROM to RAM. have it in the Startup-Sequence, works fine from cold boot.

oO cozy Oo · 18 February 2023, 00:01

@ mikeboss can i ask why you have 3 of these cards?

mikeboss · 18 February 2023, 01:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by oO cozy Oo

@ mikeboss can i ask why you have 3 of these cards?

https://twitter.com/mibosshard/statu...76472409202690

oO cozy Oo · 18 February 2023, 23:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeboss

https://twitter.com/mibosshard/statu...76472409202690

lol nice backup A600 if one fails....

oO cozy Oo · 20 March 2023, 18:49

Just an update, I`ve updated my A600 to AmigaOS 3.2.2 (with 3.2.1 rom installed)and added the maprom file so it loads the new kick rom 3.2.2 to the Statup-Sequence :-

C:Santool maprom on file=kick322.rom moremem >NIL:

So now it boots to Workbench 3.2.2 with the new rom, Nice little accelerator for the money 28mhz and 11mb not bad at all .

patrik · 23 April 2023, 19:51

Has anyone managed to use a 1.3 kickstart file with the maprom functionality? If I load it with santool, it results in a boot-looping 1.3.

If I put a physical 1.3 kickstart ROM in the machine it works, so it is not a compatibility issue with 1.3 and the accelerator itself.

eXeler0 · 23 April 2023, 20:09

How is it with CF cards, any issues like with the Furia?

patrik · 23 April 2023, 20:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by eXeler0

How is it with CF cards, any issues like with the Furia?

How does the Furia issues with CF cards manifest themselves? I mean: what would I need to do to be sure it does not have those issues?

I have used it a bit with a 4GB SanDisk CF without any apparent issues, but did not do much more than boot WB a couple of times, copy some small files and start som programs.

eXeler0 · 23 April 2023, 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrik

How does the Furia issues with CF cards manifest themselves? I mean: what would I need to do to be sure it does not have those issues?

I have used it a bit with a 4GB SanDisk CF without any apparent issues, but did not do much more than boot WB a couple of times, copy some small files and start som programs.

Personally I had all sorts of trouble ( stability, crashes, guru) but it worked better once I used a SD card reader instead of CF. The CF card was a pretty standard 4GF Sandisk.

redblade · 23 April 2023, 23:12

Wow, nice tech. looking at the screen shots at https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228

$200000-$9fffff 8MB
$c00000-$d7ffff 1.5MB (Is this still considered slow, even though it's interfaced to the 68K ??)

Where is the rest of the RAM ?? Is there a version with a Level 7 int?

hooverphonique · 24 April 2023, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by redblade

$c00000-$d7ffff 1.5MB (Is this still considered slow, even though it's interfaced to the 68K ??)

Well, out of the box it will have the speed of true fastram, but often the address range is used to "name" the block instead of the actual physical characteristics.
I suppose something could have been deliberately done in the cpld to emulate the speed of slowram for that block?

patrik · 24 April 2023, 12:37

Is there any use for a feature to slow down the “slow ram” area? I mean, it is not the slow ram area of the A500 that can be changed to chipmem with appropriate Agnus and/or motherboard changes, so I would be surprised if there is any software that would make any assumptions on and depend on a certain speed of access to this address range.

hooverphonique · 24 April 2023, 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrik

so I would be surprised if there is any software that would make any assumptions on and depend on a certain speed of access to this address range.

In some blitter setups (mostly old demos/games), BLITPRI is set to avoid having to wait for the blitter (it blocks the cpu). If this code is in $C00000 ram, and it behaves like real fastram, it would fail miserably.

Using the above "trick" also requires that the blitter op doesn't leave any free cycles, so it can't be used willy-nilly.

patrik · 24 April 2023, 17:13

Sry for my confusing answer, I incorrectly thought that slow ram controlled by agnus still appeared at the then unused upper chipmem addresses (512k-2M), but it appears it is then mapped at 0xC00000.

Anyway:
- wouldn’t that require the card to also interface directly with the chipmem bus to know if it is busy or not?
- this kind of setup with 0xC00000 being real fast memory seems to be really old - for example the C= rev4 A2000 fastmem card is real fastmem at 0xC00000: https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...ct.aspx?id=967

hooverphonique · 24 April 2023, 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrik

Anyway:
- wouldn’t that require the card to also interface directly with the chipmem bus to know if it is busy or not?

The mobo cpu bus clearly supports postponing a cpu access cycle in case the agnus ram bus is busy, but if that can be utilized here to slow down access to local ram, I don't know

16 February 2023, 18:27	#1
oO cozy Oo Registered User Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: west midlands UK Posts: 16	xt accelerator amiga 600 28mhz 11mb Hi Everyone Just a little post as I`ve found It hard to find any Info about this accelerator for the little A600, I got my A600 last year and had it recapped, had a CF drive and loaded WHD Load but it was way too slow. I`m getting a PIstorm but the prices of the pi itself are mad at the moment. So I ordered this little card as It was so cheap and was enough for running WHD load ( I have a 1 Mb trapdoor card) specs are:- CPU MC68SEC000AA20, clocked on 28MHz. 11MB Fast Ram. MapROM Feature. PCMCIA Friendly – Ram needs to be set to 4MB. Embedded hardware DriveSWAP DF0/DF1 (Boot Selector). It uses a CLI to set things up called Santool I`ve made a little video to show it fitted and working, hope this helps anyone who was thinking of getting this card!! [ Show youtube player ]

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16 February 2023, 20:08	#2
eXeler0 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Sweden Age: 50 Posts: 2,974	Nice, who is selling these?

17 February 2023, 18:25	#4
mikeboss Registered User Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: .ch Posts: 73	I now own three of these ;-) love them! I ordered mine from the manufacturer (Archi-TECH): https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228

17 February 2023, 21:32	#6
mikeboss Registered User Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: .ch Posts: 73	I guess it depends wether you're trying to load the onboard Kickstart to RAM or if you want to load it from a file. I'm only loading the built-in ROM to RAM. have it in the Startup-Sequence, works fine from cold boot.

18 February 2023, 00:01	#7
oO cozy Oo Registered User Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: west midlands UK Posts: 16	@ mikeboss can i ask why you have 3 of these cards?

20 March 2023, 18:49	#10
oO cozy Oo Registered User Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: west midlands UK Posts: 16	Just an update, I`ve updated my A600 to AmigaOS 3.2.2 (with 3.2.1 rom installed)and added the maprom file so it loads the new kick rom 3.2.2 to the Statup-Sequence :- C:Santool maprom on file=kick322.rom moremem >NIL: So now it boots to Workbench 3.2.2 with the new rom, Nice little accelerator for the money 28mhz and 11mb not bad at all .

23 April 2023, 19:51	#11
patrik Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Umeå Age: 43 Posts: 930	Has anyone managed to use a 1.3 kickstart file with the maprom functionality? If I load it with santool, it results in a boot-looping 1.3. If I put a physical 1.3 kickstart ROM in the machine it works, so it is not a compatibility issue with 1.3 and the accelerator itself.

23 April 2023, 20:09	#12
eXeler0 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Sweden Age: 50 Posts: 2,974	How is it with CF cards, any issues like with the Furia?

23 April 2023, 23:12	#15
redblade Zone Friend Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Middle Earth Age: 40 Posts: 2,127	Wow, nice tech. looking at the screen shots at https://programatory.archi-tech.com....-Balck-PCB/228 $200000-$9fffff 8MB $c00000-$d7ffff 1.5MB (Is this still considered slow, even though it's interfaced to the 68K ??) Where is the rest of the RAM ?? Is there a version with a Level 7 int?

24 April 2023, 12:37	#17
patrik Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Umeå Age: 43 Posts: 930	Is there any use for a feature to slow down the “slow ram” area? I mean, it is not the slow ram area of the A500 that can be changed to chipmem with appropriate Agnus and/or motherboard changes, so I would be surprised if there is any software that would make any assumptions on and depend on a certain speed of access to this address range.

24 April 2023, 17:13	#19
patrik Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Umeå Age: 43 Posts: 930	Sry for my confusing answer, I incorrectly thought that slow ram controlled by agnus still appeared at the then unused upper chipmem addresses (512k-2M), but it appears it is then mapped at 0xC00000. Anyway: - wouldn’t that require the card to also interface directly with the chipmem bus to know if it is busy or not? - this kind of setup with 0xC00000 being real fast memory seems to be really old - for example the C= rev4 A2000 fastmem card is real fastmem at 0xC00000: https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/b...ct.aspx?id=967

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