Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Good News! We have now added ACA 1230/28 Accelerator to the webstore here:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...oducts_id=1002

Cool, never thought I'd see a brand new A1200 accelerator for sale and at such a great price (you can almost imagine the price of cards dropping on eBay).

When the faster one is released, I may even grab one myself and I don't even have an A1200 anymore

[zipper]

Originally Posted by Fabie

yes..060 super speed it is an urban myth like the ufos
but if you believe in that..that's ok

You don't know what you're writing. 060 has 2 integer units, which normal code doesn't use properly, just 1 gets used, like on SysSpeed. You need code written for 060 to get the speed. But still it isn't "super"...

[Cosmos]

>060 super speed it is an urban myth like the ufos

The CPU 68060 itself is really super fast... But on Amiga, he have :

- super slow fastmem FPM memory access (and no EDO for all accelerators, except the Quikpak)
- fastmem memory access 2:1 (040@40 have 1:1)
- two integer units rarely fully used (need hand asm code for using this superscalar "option")
- super slow chipmem access
- super slow code done by C compilators for near all progs, except some rare demos
- Kickstart 3.1 still compiled with -m68000
- exec.library and his jmptable in the slow chipmem with the SSP
- super slow AGA blitter and super slow blitter Kickstart 3.1 routines
- slow buster/Zorro2 or 3 for RTG graphics cards
- no external cache L2
- no Akiko for fast c2p
- hypra-ultra-supra-slow 68060.library (for emulated mnemonics)


@Fabie

You must think a bit before posting

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Fabie

yes..060 super speed it is an urban myth like the ufos

Seems like you've never actually programmed (or even run) anything on a 060

[Paul_s]

I was in bed last night thinking about naming conventions Is it too late to change the silkscreen?

With the Amiga using funky naming conventions for their custom chips you could have called the ACA630, 'Thoosa'. She was a Greek goddess - personification of swiftness.

Yeah, ok maybe it's not as funky as Paula or Denise... could be worse, Doris?

[Schoenfeld]

I would have expected that you'd choose a blonde (ACA1230) and a long-legged black-haired. Hmm... BTT.

We just cleared a little confusion about the battery type for the ACA1230 RTC. I had the type number wrong, it should be CR1225 or CR1220 (both fit and work), but not CR2025 as I stated earlier in this thread, and surely not CR2032 (that was only used on the prototype).

Jens

[Predseda]

Will it be sold with battery included? If not, it is important to have the battery type specified in manual then.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Will it be sold with battery included? If not, it is important to have the battery type specified in manual then.

It will be shipped with en EMPTY battery holder and an EMPTY clockchip-socket. Resellers may offer upgrade-kits.

Jens

[Predseda]

Thaaank you!

[Calabazam]

I forgot to ask about SCSI: is there a way to hook a SCSI controller later to either the ACA1230 or 630?
Still useful on amiga


The screws that hold the ACA630 is a great idea by the way, definitly an advantage over Apollo 630/ MTEC 630 that rely solely on the 68000 and can dismount alone when the computer is moved.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

I forgot to ask about SCSI: is there a way to hook a SCSI controller later to either the ACA1230 or 630?
Still useful on amiga

I neither think it's useful, nor worth the effort of writing new drivers. So *please* don't discuss this (we've had the discussion on a1k, and it only p*ssed me off).

Jens

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I(we've had the discussion on a1k, and it only p*ssed me off).

That what I tried to tell before

[paulo_becas]

This is great news indeed, i've been off the forum for a while and today i decided to sniff around in amigakit website and i came across this card and i couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing, then a jumped to EAB because i knew that something like this wouldn't escape from the "miggy" guys.
I'm really considering getting one of this.
It's great to see the amiga world still kicks ass.

Great work

[Peter]

Forgive me if this has been asked - I have joined this thread a bit late but does the A600 card have a fall back option?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Peter

Forgive me if this has been asked - I have joined this thread a bit late but does the A600 card have a fall back option?

Jens has said that it *may* be included in the final product if it works.

For me thats the hinge on whether I'll buy one or not. Otherwise I'll just keep the running Apollo 620

Steve.

[Lord Aga]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

...(or even re-kick 1MByte Kickstarts),
Jens

Could you please explain what can we do with this ?
Would 3.1 kickstart execute faster this way ?
Or is this for custom ROMs ?
Or for 1.3, and games compatibility ?
And someone please stop me if I'm way off

[Tarzin]

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

@Cosmos

The statement was made in respect to the context of this thread. I was not commenting on your private skills and abilities to repair Amiga hardware.

You are not an Amiga business - Individual Computers are referring to registered companies selling the new accelerator who can also provide SMT rework as part of their service proposition to their customers once they purchase the A600 accelerator.

Resellers need to provide the full after-sales support to customers in lieu of their margin they make from selling Individual Computers products and having the facilities and technical skills within the business is part of that.

But we could fully accept that Cosmos buy the card to the resellers and install it?
But without warranty for the customers. That's a risk that I could take.

I was wondering a solution where I can send my A600 motherboard directly to the person who bought ACA card and install it. That would be easier.

I know that's there are not so many Amiga shops nowdays but if there's only one, prices for installation could become very high.
With two shops or physical person, prices could me more balanced.

[Amigaman]

Yay! placed my order with Amigakit. (not amikit!!!) for the new 1230/28, among a few choice other items.

Thank you Jens for still making things

Thank you Amigakit for still selling things

Thank you Amiga community for still being here!

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Amir

Could you please explain what can we do with this ?
Would 3.1 kickstart execute faster this way ?

Kick3.1 is a 512K kick and can be copied from rom without a restart, or (if you only have a 2.0 rom) it can be re-kicked with the ACAtune tool. Re-Kick always requires a re-start.

1M kickstarts have never been released officially. These are community-generated roms ("custom" if you will) which include the OS3.5/3.9 patches - plus maybe a little more (I've seen that Cosmos is frequently releasing great stuff on Aminet, so he's not only good at soldering!).

WinUAE has been supporting these "new kickstarts" for a while, but until now, there was only some tinkering-hardware that allows using 1M kickstarts. The ACA cards are the first to fully support 1M kickstarts "off the shelve".

Originally Posted by Amir

Or for 1.3, and games compatibility ?

For 1.3 compatibility, the ACA cards can map fastmem to 0x00c0.0000, and for backwards-compatibility with (badly coded) games, you can even reduce the amount of chipmem to 1M or 512k.

I don't know what the status is regarding 1.2 compatibility - Oliver and I were talking about it, but it would require switching off the onboard IDE controller. AFAIK, we dumped the idea, because there's nothing (serious) that it would be good for.

Jens

[Lord Aga]

Thanx for the explanation