Zeus68k – Accelerator/IDE/RAM for the A500/2000/CDTV and others

mr.vince · 12 July 2012, 21:59

"One board to rule them all..."

68SEC000 CPU running at 7 or 50 MHz
8 MB RAM
1 x BootMenu (Config)
6 x Kickstart ROM Switcher
IDE Controller (Gayle Logic A600)
Clock Port
Realtime Clock
Freezer Button (just upload your freezer ROM, e.g. Action Replay, and you are done)

Six devices in one: Accelerator, RAM, IDE Controller, Kickstart Switcher, Realtime Clock, Freezer. Hardware & FPGA by Herzi, BootMenu by Scrat.

Project Status: Prototyping. Limited production run planned for winter 2012.

Give us some feedback... Are you interested?

Production Board Top:

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Production Board Bottom:

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CPU Speed:

IDE Speed:

RAM Speed:

No, this isn't a joke. Here's the prototype...

Top:

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Bottom:

Prototype in A500:

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strim · 12 July 2012, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.vince

Are you interested?

YES!

Now... I know that since you're prototyping already, you won't make any changes to this design. I want it anyway, I'm your first client! But if you will consider making a new version sometime in the future, please include a processor with MMU and some more memory :-).

Lord Aga · 12 July 2012, 22:35

Whoa, just the thing my A500 needs

Wonder about the price though...

EDIT:
Amigans are surely the greatest engineers in the world !

mr.vince · 12 July 2012, 22:36

The "gag" ist to have a super-compatible design. Because the instructions are 1:1 identical, the failure rate is pretty low. Clocking the design to 7MHz gives you 99.99% compatibility with a standard 68000 processor. All you do is to remove your CPU and plug in this card. CDTV owners might need to relocate or replace a capacitor.

The price will be highly dependent on volume. At 50 units made it's pretty expensive. It gets cheaper when we can build 100 units and even cheaper if we make 500. We'll communicate more detail when it's time to do so. Currently we're still testing some parts. Changing a voltage regulator for another one can add or substract EUR 5.- so... we're at it!

cpiac64 · 12 July 2012, 22:43

oh yes, one for me if the price is under 80€

mr.vince · 12 July 2012, 22:46

You are aware of the price of accelerator cards? I mean... Blizzard... ACA... Do they come for 80? I still haven't a final price, but EUR 80.- will for sure not even cover production costs.

Lord Aga · 12 July 2012, 22:49

80 EUR is far too low, for sure.
Here's hoping it will be under 200

Zetr0 · 12 July 2012, 22:57

Amazing work!

good luck guys =D

dirkies · 12 July 2012, 23:06

should not be more than a minimig IMO. I may be interested for my A500.

But if using kick 1.2 or 1.3, what features do you lose?

gibs · 12 July 2012, 23:27

Yarrriiiibaa !

mr.vince · 12 July 2012, 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkies

But if using kick 1.2 or 1.3, what features do you lose?

The only thing < 2.04 can't make use of is IDE.

cpiac64 · 12 July 2012, 23:47

i am without work, dont can buy 100 card for me and for low price, sorry, in winter i can insert my new interest

desiv · 13 July 2012, 00:19

Wow!!!

Now, this line:

Quote:

6 x Kickstart ROM Switcher

You mean it can hold 6 kickstarts????? Some type of FLASH or am I reading that wrong???

desiv

fitzsteve · 13 July 2012, 00:34

Wow this is really awesome, great work - I'll buy one for sure

Shocked at the IDE speed too!

DonAmiga · 13 July 2012, 00:41

great stuff

hopefully if the price is right I'd buy one for my A500 and one for my cdtv

TroelsDK · 13 July 2012, 00:47

Awesome! It's so cool that you guys keep making new hardware for our old ladies!

Me want at least 2!!!

tom256 · 13 July 2012, 03:00

Wow, maybe year or two and we will be able to buy MC68060/100Mhz SATA, USB, LAN, GFX in one turbo board :]

BTW my sugestion, instead of PATA maybe socket for CF would be better solution??

rkauer · 13 July 2012, 05:25

count me in for a piece or two, pending price!

johnim · 13 July 2012, 08:00

nice work and great to give the 500 a nice boost

Toni Wilen · 13 July 2012, 08:07

Interested if it has flash for up to 2M ROM support (I assume it does have flash, don't see any ROM packets) and Amiga can reprogram it in-circuit.

woody.cool · 13 July 2012, 08:25

Definitely interested pending 3 questions:

price?
is it compatible with A500+ ???
I've replaced the 68000 with a 68010 in my A500+ - does this board completely replace the CPU? or does it require your existing CPU?

hese · 13 July 2012, 08:34

Interested, put me down for one.

musashi5150 · 13 July 2012, 08:37

Interested for sure

johey · 13 July 2012, 09:22

Nice work!

Is IDE autoconfig (bootable)?
Will it fit/work in A600?

I'm interested in one.

seuden · 13 July 2012, 09:24

Incheresdid!

Gouldin · 13 July 2012, 09:35

Ooh, I'd be interested in one of these. My A500 could become my main miggy once again

Slayer · 13 July 2012, 10:06

I'll take a couple

ptyerman · 13 July 2012, 10:29

At least 1 for me too.

fatbob_gb · 13 July 2012, 12:18

Very interested. Could buy one or two depending upon final cost.

duga · 13 July 2012, 12:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by johey

Nice work!

Will it fit/work in A600?

I'm interested in one.

Don't think so as it should be placed in the 68k socket on the motherboard.

mr.vince · 13 July 2012, 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by johey

Nice work!

Is IDE autoconfig (bootable)?
Will it fit/work in A600?

Yes, of course.

No, as it's been made for an 68k DIL socket.

It should work in all devices that have a DIL socket. Now read that again... yes, it does not say Amiga. Although this was designed for the Amiga, reprogramming the FPGA should make it compatible with other devices as well, e.g. an Atari ST.

Toni, yes, it has Flash. Please email me with what you specifically need and I'll check.

jrom · 13 July 2012, 13:32

Finally... i've been waiting for something like this for quite a while...

AWESOME!

britelite · 13 July 2012, 13:33

Yeah, I'd be interested in at least one

Jope · 13 July 2012, 13:38

Cool, interested.

Suggestion:

Add a bit more RAM and locate it where-ever there are unused addresses in the address space. Let's see what the maximum amount of RAM can be for an otherwise stock A500. :-D

Naturally we'd have to add the weirdly located bits of RAM with addmem commands, but who cares. :-)

If you don't think this is a good/fun idea, I'll be serious and ask you to please at least add maximum $c00000 RAM for a little compatibility boost. Exec will auto-add that if found. That'd make my A500+ very happy.. 2MB chip, 8MB z2 fast and 1,7(?)MB of c0 fast.

Ratte · 13 July 2012, 13:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Interested if it has flash for up to 2M ROM support (I assume it does have flash, don't see any ROM packets) and Amiga can reprogram it in-circuit.

The firmware is in 68k code, i will ask chris and stefan if it is possible to add such a feature.
1 MB support is included (as far as i can remember) $f80000-$ffffff & $e00000 - $e7ffff.
Cant remember the other space $a80000 - $b7ffff ?!?

twiggy · 13 July 2012, 14:26

This is fantastic stuff. I wonder how easily a CD32 version could be made.

duga · 13 July 2012, 14:33

This is for the 68000-socket found in A500/A2000/CDTV, maybe A1000? Not for A1200/CD32 etc.

Why would you want ha 68000 cpu in a 68020 machine?

johey · 13 July 2012, 14:38

Oh, I didn't know the A600 has another socket/soldered cpu. Ok, then I understand it might be tough fitting this accelerator into such a machine. I'm still sucking for one of those, if not much over EUR 200. I'd sell my 4 MB Minimig when/if this becomes reality.

mr.vince · 13 July 2012, 14:52

A1000 might work as well, if it does not collide with other components. This could be worked around with an extender cable. Not sure, feels odd putting a cable there, but may be worth a try.

Did I mention that also a ACTION REPLAY mode is planned? There's already a pinheader to connect a button to. This would make this a 5 in 1 device.

johey · 13 July 2012, 14:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.vince

Although this was designed for the Amiga, reprogramming the FPGA should make it compatible with other devices as well

Good! Guess I can use it with my Rodland arcade PCB then, to avoid frame dropping when many objects on screen.

If I remember correctly, the cpu is DIL socketed.

12 July 2012, 21:59	#1
mr.vince SPS Nose Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Hawk's Creek Age: 37 Posts: 1,142	Zeus68k – Accelerator/IDE/RAM for the A500/2000/CDTV and others "One board to rule them all..." 68SEC000 CPU running at 7 or 50 MHz 8 MB RAM 1 x BootMenu (Config) 6 x Kickstart ROM Switcher IDE Controller (Gayle Logic A600) Clock Port Realtime Clock Freezer Button (just upload your freezer ROM, e.g. Action Replay, and you are done) Six devices in one: Accelerator, RAM, IDE Controller, Kickstart Switcher, Realtime Clock, Freezer. Hardware & FPGA by Herzi, BootMenu by Scrat. Project Status: Prototyping. Limited production run planned for winter 2012. Give us some feedback... Are you interested? Production Board Top: Production Board Bottom: CPU Speed: IDE Speed: RAM Speed: No, this isn't a joke. Here's the prototype... Top: Bottom: Prototype in A500: Last edited by mr.vince; 09 August 2012 at 09:29. Reason: features added

12 July 2012, 22:35	#3
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 277	Whoa, just the thing my A500 needs Wonder about the price though... EDIT: Amigans are surely the greatest engineers in the world ! __________________ Old vows run deeper and stronger than the new ones. Last edited by Lord Aga; 12 July 2012 at 22:51.

12 July 2012, 22:36	#4
mr.vince SPS Nose Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Hawk's Creek Age: 37 Posts: 1,142	The "gag" ist to have a super-compatible design. Because the instructions are 1:1 identical, the failure rate is pretty low. Clocking the design to 7MHz gives you 99.99% compatibility with a standard 68000 processor. All you do is to remove your CPU and plug in this card. CDTV owners might need to relocate or replace a capacitor. The price will be highly dependent on volume. At 50 units made it's pretty expensive. It gets cheaper when we can build 100 units and even cheaper if we make 500. We'll communicate more detail when it's time to do so. Currently we're still testing some parts. Changing a voltage regulator for another one can add or substract EUR 5.- so... we're at it! Last edited by mr.vince; 12 July 2012 at 22:41. Reason: typo.

12 July 2012, 22:49	#7
Lord Aga MI clan prevails Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 277	80 EUR is far too low, for sure. Here's hoping it will be under 200 __________________ Old vows run deeper and stronger than the new ones.

12 July 2012, 22:57	#8
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 38 Posts: 9,185	Amazing work! good luck guys =D __________________ Luscious Linkie Time:- www.AmiBay.com Old Skooler

12 July 2012, 22:43	#5
cpiac64 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Italy Posts: 550	oh yes, one for me if the price is under 80€

12 July 2012, 22:46	#6
mr.vince SPS Nose Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Hawk's Creek Age: 37 Posts: 1,142	You are aware of the price of accelerator cards? I mean... Blizzard... ACA... Do they come for 80? I still haven't a final price, but EUR 80.- will for sure not even cover production costs.

12 July 2012, 23:06	#9
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Luxembourg Age: 40 Posts: 486	should not be more than a minimig IMO. I may be interested for my A500. But if using kick 1.2 or 1.3, what features do you lose?

12 July 2012, 23:27	#10
gibs Banned Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: france Posts: 932	Yarrriiiibaa !

12 July 2012, 23:47	#12
cpiac64 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Italy Posts: 550	i am without work, dont can buy 100 card for me and for low price, sorry, in winter i can insert my new interest

13 July 2012, 00:34	#14
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 33 Posts: 4,731	Wow this is really awesome, great work - I'll buy one for sure Shocked at the IDE speed too! __________________ A500+ 4mb SupraRam500xp/SCSI-IDE - A600, ACA630/64, A604, IndiECS - A4000D, Mirage Pro Tower, CSPPC 060/330, Mediator, DenebUSB, ZorRam - A4000D, WarpEngine040, Toccata, DenebUSB, CV64/3D - A1200D, ACA1232/33, IndiAGA MkII - A1200D Magic Pack +ACA1220 - A1200T, 060/PPC330, G-RexPCI, SubwayUSB - CD32 + SX32, IndiMkII - uA1 800mhz My Retr0 Blog

13 July 2012, 00:41	#15
DonAmiga Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Scotland Age: 37 Posts: 402	great stuff hopefully if the price is right I'd buy one for my A500 and one for my cdtv

13 July 2012, 00:47	#16
TroelsDK Registered Amiga Maniac Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Denmark Age: 29 Posts: 97	Awesome! It's so cool that you guys keep making new hardware for our old ladies! Me want at least 2!!!

13 July 2012, 03:00	#17
tom256 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Poland Posts: 63	Wow, maybe year or two and we will be able to buy MC68060/100Mhz SATA, USB, LAN, GFX in one turbo board :] BTW my sugestion, instead of PATA maybe socket for CF would be better solution?? __________________ -A4000D rev.D CR (recap), PIO2 mod planned -CyberStorm MK II MC68060 + 128MB RAM -Picasso IV -Toccata -Ariadne

13 July 2012, 05:25	#18
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 47 Posts: 3,477	count me in for a piece or two, pending price! __________________ Amigan since 1989 Known drunk since 1982 (don't know quite well, I was drunk) 13 Amigas at home Finally a Z3 one! I'll stick with 'Cachaça do Inter' for this week: Chivas gives headaches! :D

13 July 2012, 08:00	#19
johnim Amibay Mod/Staff Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: birmingham uk Age: 37 Posts: 807	nice work and great to give the 500 a nice boost __________________ A1200T 1d4:blizzard 1260/50/192mb/scsi kit:mediator 1200:radeon 9250:sb128:100mb net:spider usb clone:fastata-iv:amiga to ps2 mouse:80gb hd:zip100 ide:a4000 keyboard A1200D 1d4:blizzard1230mk4/50/scsikit/128mb:indy mk ii:fastata mk ii:40gb A1200 rev 2b2 x A1200 1d4A1200 1bA600 2mb 4gbA500cd32 x2cdtv= sfs cf guide http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61048 cwb3.9 guidehttp://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61180

13 July 2012, 08:07	#20
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 38 Posts: 11,945	Interested if it has flash for up to 2M ROM support (I assume it does have flash, don't see any ROM packets) and Amiga can reprogram it in-circuit.

13 July 2012, 08:25	#21
woody.cool Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northampton, England Age: 30 Posts: 113	Definitely interested pending 3 questions: price? is it compatible with A500+ ??? I've replaced the 68000 with a 68010 in my A500+ - does this board completely replace the CPU? or does it require your existing CPU?

13 July 2012, 08:34	#22
hese Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Somewhere Posts: 78	Interested, put me down for one.

13 July 2012, 08:37	#23
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 31 Posts: 2,245	Interested for sure

13 July 2012, 09:22	#24
johey Registered User Join Date: May 2012 Location: Stockholm / Sweden Posts: 4	Nice work! Is IDE autoconfig (bootable)? Will it fit/work in A600? I'm interested in one.

13 July 2012, 09:35	#26
Gouldin Too Cool For School Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Coventry, England Age: 28 Posts: 16	Ooh, I'd be interested in one of these. My A500 could become my main miggy once again

13 July 2012, 10:06	#27
Slayer Amiga Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New Zealand Age: 46 Posts: 668	I'll take a couple

13 July 2012, 10:29	#28
ptyerman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Worksop/UK Age: 48 Posts: 121	At least 1 for me too.

13 July 2012, 12:18	#29
fatbob_gb Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Preston UK Posts: 11	Very interested. Could buy one or two depending upon final cost.

13 July 2012, 13:32	#32
jrom Wannabe asm coder ;) Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 36 Posts: 432	Finally... i've been waiting for something like this for quite a while... AWESOME!

13 July 2012, 13:33	#33
britelite Registered User Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Espoo / Finland Posts: 50	Yeah, I'd be interested in at least one

13 July 2012, 13:38	#34
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 32 Posts: 4,061	Cool, interested. Suggestion: Add a bit more RAM and locate it where-ever there are unused addresses in the address space. Let's see what the maximum amount of RAM can be for an otherwise stock A500. :-D Naturally we'd have to add the weirdly located bits of RAM with addmem commands, but who cares. :-) If you don't think this is a good/fun idea, I'll be serious and ask you to please at least add maximum $c00000 RAM for a little compatibility boost. Exec will auto-add that if found. That'd make my A500+ very happy.. 2MB chip, 8MB z2 fast and 1,7(?)MB of c0 fast. __________________ The X-Copy shrine!

13 July 2012, 14:26	#36
twiggy √ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Devon, U.K. Age: 24 Posts: 181	This is fantastic stuff. I wonder how easily a CD32 version could be made.

13 July 2012, 14:33	#37
duga Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Uppsala / Sweden Posts: 226	This is for the 68000-socket found in A500/A2000/CDTV, maybe A1000? Not for A1200/CD32 etc. Why would you want ha 68000 cpu in a 68020 machine?

13 July 2012, 14:38	#38
johey Registered User Join Date: May 2012 Location: Stockholm / Sweden Posts: 4	Oh, I didn't know the A600 has another socket/soldered cpu. Ok, then I understand it might be tough fitting this accelerator into such a machine. I'm still sucking for one of those, if not much over EUR 200. I'd sell my 4 MB Minimig when/if this becomes reality.

13 July 2012, 14:52	#39
mr.vince SPS Nose Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Hawk's Creek Age: 37 Posts: 1,142	A1000 might work as well, if it does not collide with other components. This could be worked around with an extender cable. Not sure, feels odd putting a cable there, but may be worth a try. Did I mention that also a ACTION REPLAY mode is planned? There's already a pinheader to connect a button to. This would make this a 5 in 1 device. Last edited by mr.vince; 13 July 2012 at 15:33.

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