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

[Gounderset]

This look fantastic I am intrested in one also

[Lord Aga]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

tell me what you see...

...We got the Pick of Destinyyyyyyyy!

[Geraldine]

Once again I just wanted to add my interest in the Zeus for the A500 (this will give all those A500s out there a new lease of life) and ask you if there might be an A600 version planned for the future, depending on sales? I still kick myself for not getting an ACA 630 when they first came out

[1time]

Just great.. Soooo great!

[kipper2k]

it looks like this design will prevent indivision 500 from being installed in the A500, am i right ?

[mr.vince]

Don't think so, but can't say for sure. We will send one proto around to some Amiga collectors. I am sure one of them has what you are worrying about.

[BarryB]

Seeing as I have an A1200 I don't really need the ACA500 so definitely interested in this for my A500 but just need to know a few things, even after reading all 6 pages:

What happens to my trapdoor 512k expansion, does it get mapped as chip to give 1mb chip ram or is it bin fodder?

Can it accept CF/SD Cards and autoboot from a 1.2/1.3 ROM (if possible), or is it just IDE devices like HDD/DVD and only autoboot HDD from >2.04

That the Indivision ECS definitely fits with this installed as I want to get one of those.

[FastRobPlus]

Definitely want this is it fits the A1000 or the Phoenix 1000

[mr.vince]

Barry, going to ask the hardware chief, but I think it'd be best to turn it into chip RAM by doing a motherboard mod (just cutting a trace and soldering a bridge elsewhere).

It does accept CF cards via a CF adapter. That's why we did put an IDE port there. You can use CF, but also real harddrives. As for autoboot... there's a patch for 1.3 to allow for autobooting, but this hasn't been tested yet.

Not sure if this is the right download, just googled it: http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/kick13scsipatch

[lurch]

Originally Posted by gibs

Tiny Launcher can give you more

Interesting, will have to try that :-)

[alexh]

Originally Posted by mr.vince

As for autoboot... there's a patch for 1.3 to allow for autobooting, but this hasn't been tested yet.

Not sure if this is the right download, just googled it: http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/kick13scsipatch

It is. I already linked to it earlier in this thread.

I've tried it with A600 (who's IDE registers Zeus replicates?) and it works fine.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Nice, what modes does the IDE Support - UDMA33 or UDMA66?

Unlikely to be either. The A600 Gayle is AFAIK PIO0 and at best I imagine Zeus could be PIO2 without having to change the Kickstart scsi.device driver??

(I only say that because Yaqube recently patched A4000 Gayle IDE from PIO0 to PIO2 with a GAL (hardware) change, no software. But A4000 uses different kickstart and potentially more capable scsi.device??)

I would imagine that to implement IDE DMA capability someone would have to write a new scsi.device for the board which is ROM'able.

[Keir]

I would love one of these. I will definitely buy one when they become available, as long as the price doesn't end up at 2000EUR or something.

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by alexh

Unlikely to be either. The A600 Gayle is AFAIK PIO0 and at best I imagine Zeus could be PIO2 without having to change the Kickstart scsi.device driver??

(I only say that because Yaqube recently patched A4000 Gayle IDE from PIO0 to PIO2 with a GAL (hardware) change, no software. But A4000 uses different kickstart and potentially more capable scsi.device??)

I would imagine that to implement IDE DMA capability someone would have to write a new scsi.device for the board which is ROM'able.

Cheers.

So makers of Zeus68k, is everything on this board auto-config and does the Gayle support require the 2-wire solution of the IDE68k to work (i've already done this so it would be good to reuse my existing soldered on connector)?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by alexh

I would imagine that to implement IDE DMA capability someone would have to write a new scsi.device for the board which is ROM'able.

I already replied earlier that problem is missing Amiga IDE DMA controller implementation. Even DMA controller that can only DMA to/from on-board fast RAM would be much better than plain PIO. Some extra register for PIO mode timing selection is also better than nothing

Device driver is trivial problem.

[BarryB]

On an A500 (not plus) which Kickstart ROMS will actually work in this?

[jiffy]

Looks great!

I need it to fit with an Indivision ECS, though. That would be a deal breaker for me.

[chiark]

Tip top work. One here, please. Possibly two.

Lovely approach you're taking: really like it.

[paulo_becas]

This is top stuff right here man...
Shit... this is going to shake the amiga market and when the ACA520 hits the shelves then the real "war" will begin... on a good way of course.

Finally the old 500 is going to win a new life, this is great news for all the guys that have only these machines.

I'll take my hat off for you guys

[rare_j]

Luckily the A500 and related machines are so starved of upgrades that there's plenty of room for this and the ACA520 to do really well.

This board will be especially big with 68k hobbyists in general, not just the Amiga scene, for years to come.