Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Mr B]

Since there hardly is any left in shops, i'd say sales were ok. ACA1231 would be a indication of the same. But thats just how i see it after passing by different e-shops.
B!

[ancalimon]

I wish Jens made a new accelerator for A1200 with onboard rtg.
I wish it was something faster than a 060-50 (maybe accompanied by a 68030 for compatibility?)
I wish it was cheaper than 400$

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The A300 board has a -01 Gayle, which is partly fixed with a GAL. I haven't managed to get the accelerator to work with the -01 Gayle. The only "fix" I can think of would be to install the -02 Gayle.

Jens

I can confirm this, I have just replaced a gayle -01 with gayle -02 and now the none working A300 board is now working with the ACA630, .

[Photon]

Originally Posted by ancalimon

I wish Jens made a new accelerator for A1200 with onboard rtg.
I wish it was something faster than a 060-50 (maybe accompanied by a 68030 for compatibility?)
I wish it was cheaper than 400$

Make it a plain 68060-80 with LoadsaRam(tm) and I'd pay $600!

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by Photon

Make it a plain 68060-80 with LoadsaRam(tm) and I'd pay $600!

they are expensive and hard to find. We need something faster and cheaper.

Also we definitely need RTG. Once again using AGA after so many years, and it's crawling when used for AmigaOS A simple 32 mb cheap graphics chip would do.

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by ancalimon

Also we definitely need RTG. Once again using AGA after so many years, and it's crawling when used for AmigaOS A simple 32 mb cheap graphics chip would do.

I totally agree with you on that. RTG would definitely be a HUGE plus and is something that is desperately needed. There aren't even any real options out there except Bvision, which is nearly impossible to get and requires that you already own a Blizzard PPC. An RTG card would fill a huge gap!!

[portarinos]

RTG would definitely be a killer add-on for an A1200. This would make a huge difference while using a miggy even for simple everyday tasks. But, hey, shouldn't there be any apps/games that would take advantage of the card? Wishful thinking i suppose! Never mind, i go back to sleep

[jiffy]

Originally Posted by portarinos

But, hey, shouldn't there be any apps/games that would take advantage of the card?

Well, everything able to use RTG (all Workbench apps, many more other apps, but barely any games) would be able to use it.

I would very much like a board like that and I think it would fill quite a large gap in the market. It might even be tempting to replace my Blizzard 1260, although I have a huge amount of SCSI-drives in use. Maybe a connector to keep using the Blizzard SCSI could be added? ;-)

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by jiffy

Well, everything able to use RTG (all Workbench apps, many more other apps, but barely any games) would be able to use it.

I would very much like a board like that and I think it would fill quite a large gap in the market. It might even be tempting to replace my Blizzard 1260, although I have a huge amount of SCSI-drives in use. Maybe a connector to keep using the Blizzard SCSI could be added? ;-)

the problem with that is to use your blizzard scsi jens would have to make a blizzard card,i dont think thats going to happen.


as for rtg,for the amount of cash youd be spending on rtg you may as well get a mediator.

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by roy bates

the problem with that is to use your blizzard scsi jens would have to make a blizzard card,i dont think thats going to happen.


as for rtg,for the amount of cash youd be spending on rtg you may as well get a mediator.

and put my new A1200 in a tower again? No way! I want to have it in its original case.

I would be very cool if we had some kind of Indivision AGA MK2, Coldfire+030 and RTG combination.

[khph_re]

Originally Posted by roy bates

as for rtg,for the amount of cash youd be spending on rtg you may as well get a mediator.

There are plenty of mobile chip solutions for graphics, that take up very little power and room,cost next to nothing and are made for bandwidth constrained hardware. The £25 raspberry Pi would blow any Amiga RTG card out of the water, actually, most mobile phone's iv'e owned in the last five years would do that. Getting drivers though, that might be a problem, so might integrating them with the Amiga.

[Photon]

I'm sure Jens will make all the right decisions and produce attractive cards, he has so far. But the thing with a 68060 card is that it will be instantly supported, which makes the exclusively small numbers of them that he can afford to make acceptable. Anything that requires software support beyond drivers to be used will be enjoyed by a small percentage of the few buyers, and that sucks bigtime :'(

It's not an easy obstacle to overcome.

[khph_re]

RTG doesn't bother me that much, in all honesty. It would be nice, but not a necessity.

But 060 speed I would like (but can't afford). I'm sick of watching demo's on my PC that my Amiga can't run

The Demo scene gets the most love on classics, and still amazes me. Other major software has pretty much dried up (commercial quality games and apps).

I expect Jens is waiting for FPGA's to drop in price/gain performance. I think that point is only a couple of years away now.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by khph_re

There are plenty of mobile chip solutions for graphics, that take up very little power and room,cost next to nothing and are made for bandwidth constrained hardware. The £25 raspberry Pi would blow any Amiga RTG card out of the water, actually, most mobile phone's iv'e owned in the last five years would do that. Getting drivers though, that might be a problem, so might integrating them with the Amiga.

to be honest,these sort of solutions are hampered by the bus its on so mentioning the speed it works at on a mobile phone that runs at a minimum of 400mhz wont make the rtg system go any faster on a 32 bit system.

and it wont be cheap,think about the system it might be put to use on and the amount of peaple getting it.and the amount of work to make it run on an amiga,i dont think youll get it for less then 100 pounds do you.

[khph_re]

No, nowhere near £100 (I never mentioned £100, I don't think there has ever been an Amiga RTG solution for that price) especially as it will probably need an accelerator to hang off.
The bus on the A1200 will certainly limit it (is it zorro II?, I can't remember). However, if you look up the Raspberry Pi, you'll see the such chips are dirt cheap even in small amounts.
The circuitry needed to interface it would be fairly pricey I should imagine. also, a lot of these chips rely on binary blob drivers, making them all but impossible to port.

There was an RTG card for the A1200, but I can't remember any reviews about the speed.

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by roy bates

to be honest,these sort of solutions are hampered by the bus its on so mentioning the speed it works at on a mobile phone that runs at a minimum of 400mhz wont make the rtg system go any faster on a 32 bit system.

and it wont be cheap,think about the system it might be put to use on and the amount of peaple getting it.and the amount of work to make it run on an amiga,i dont think youll get it for less then 100 pounds do you.

We don't really need a "fast rtg". I won't be trying to emulate WindowsXP and run Crysis on my A1200 after all.

All we want is to be able to "open windows faster", "move windows faster", "fill pixels, rectangles faster" "be able to use more than 16 colours" without system slowing down and things like that.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by ancalimon

We don't really need a "fast rtg". I won't be trying to emulate WindowsXP and run Crysis on my A1200 after all.

All we want is to be able to "open windows faster", "move windows faster", "fill pixels, rectangles faster" "be able to use more than 16 colours" without system slowing down and things like that.

this is exactly what im talking about,nobody is going to get that sort of performance from a classic amiga system even with 100mhz 060(trust me on this)i just dont think peaple should be comparing mobile phones and pc's that run at 3.2ghz,its never going to be that fast.

im not saying that its imposible,just impractical and very expensive.

at the end of the day if peaple want rtg sysems they may as well have an 040 or 060 or ppc to compliment such a system to speed it up.

also most peaple are happy with ram cards or 030's for playing games.supply and demand if you see what i mean.

[khph_re]

i don't trust you on this. Both the ateo and the blizzard provide 8 16 and 24 bit graphics at a good speed, on the a1200 bus, so it's already been done twice.

Ancalimon wants to open windows faster with more colours, you don't need a 100mhz 060 for that. My 40mhz 040 a4000t/rtg comfortably out performs my 2ghz vista laptop for moving and opening windows (ok, vista is crap, but still).

[FOL]

Is'nt this drifting way off topic?

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by khph_re

No, nowhere near £100 (I never mentioned £100, I don't think there has ever been an Amiga RTG solution for that price) especially as it will probably need an accelerator to hang off.


you dont think so?......cv643d 180 gb pounds, picasso 4 250 gb pounds,and the card that plugs into the ppc cards with permidia,160 gb pounds,or there abouts(i mentioned 100 pounds as a minimum)

on the 1200,you would also need the zorro bus for these cards thats 160 gb pounds,ok lets go pci ,mediator lt4 190 gb pounds,mediator tx 220 gb pounds,are you getting it yet?



The bus on the A1200 will certainly limit it (is it zorro II?, I can't remember)

yes,its a modified zorro 2.


. However, if you look up the Raspberry Pi, you'll see the such chips are dirt cheap even in small amounts.
The circuitry needed to interface it would be fairly pricey I should imagine. also, a lot of these chips rely on binary blob drivers, making them all but impossible to port.


yep. hense the comment above,lets take for example the virge used on earlier pc cards and compare it to the amiga cv643d, 25 gb pounds on the pc when new,on amiga 180 gb pounds when new.



There was an RTG card for the A1200, but I can't remember any reviews about the speed.

cant comment on that,as i dont know what your talking about,but trust me on this if a cheap part was used in a amiga rtg system,after rnd and paying for all the peaple to make the card and do the drivers do you think its going to be cheap............only in numbers my freind,only in numbers.thats why pc cards are so cheap.

but i do remember a one slot adaptor that eyetech used to sell,but you would still need the zorro 2 gfx card to plug into it.

sorry it is drifting off topic fol,but i needed to explain.so lets leave it there.

to be honest i would like to see some 040 or 060 cards,but it may never happen because not many peaple want to pay for the high price tags.

ok,please please jens make an 040 or 060 based card,even if its in a small batch,and please make it with 128mb of ram.