Possible ACA for A500/500+/2000 etc thread.

[AndyLandy]

Originally Posted by source

I would love to see an accelerator for the 500/2000. A piggy back 060 with couple hundred megs of ram clockport and ide controller. If not would settle for a 030 50 with 128 meg and mmu. Clockport a nd ide. I don't know if the 030 can address that much ram or not but if it can, I would like to see it a reality.

Yep, the '030 is a full 32bit CPU and can ostensibly address up to 4GB of RAM.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Mr B

If someone comes up and states "hey, you know this product you don't believe in? Well, i do. I believe in it enough to order 500 without them even being more then an idea. Hit me up in a week, and give me a delivery window." then ofcourse he can justify the development. But judging by the amount of people i know owning a CDTV, and the willingness of them to spend money on them, i understand why he isn't exactly pushing the issue on his own. Demand isn't high enough.
(Number of known CDTV's amongst my friends... 0 Will to spend money on something like a CDTV amongst my friends... Are you kidding? They look at me and ask if i'm nuts when i tell them i bought a few things for like 20 euro for the Amiga. I haven't told them i spent another 250 on a ACA 1230/56 yet...)

On top of everything, don't get me wrong, but with a accelerator in a CDTV, you get close to, but not quite there, a A600/1200, with a accelerator. If you want that experience, why not just get one of those?

Exactly. I want it for my A500. Why? Partly to endow it with easy transfer ability (the IDE i/f), and partly to make an A500/060. Why? Because A500 is my favorite Amiga. Others' fave Amiga could be the CDTV, and if they use it a lot as I do my A500, they might want the ACA520 for speed and IDE.

For normal CD/gaming use I can agree with you that it's hard to see the reason. Except perhaps if some games or demos require memory or some such.

So basically yours, mine, and CDTV lovers' reasons are all correct

[T_hairy_bootson]

Unless someone finds a cheap way to boost the a500/CDTV to 2mb chip ram I dont see the reason to spend money on an 030 for them. Thats just me personally. I have a megAchip but getting a compatible PAL agnus for it has proved expensive and so far not succesfull.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Photon

So basically yours, mine, and CDTV lovers' reasons are all correct

I'm just saying if your love is for "THAT" hardware, then you don't really want the upgrade since it makes it something else. Just as well get what ever is out there, and get you this "something else" right away. I guess i got lucky, and there was a accelerator made for the Amiga i had laying around, otherways i'd simply buy one that meet my demands, and possibly keep the old one for nostalgic reasons, or even 'love'.
B!

[AndyLandy]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I'm just saying if your love is for "THAT" hardware, then you don't really want the upgrade since it makes it something else. Just as well get what ever is out there, and get you this "something else" right away. I guess i got lucky, and there was a accelerator made for the Amiga i had laying around, otherways i'd simply buy one that meet my demands, and possibly keep the old one for nostalgic reasons, or even 'love'.
B!

I dunno. There's a lot to be said for the CDTV design. I'd love to take a CDTV, give it an '020, 2MB Chip, 4MB Fast, Super Denise, a hard disk of some sort and wedge it into my stereo cabinet and use it as an ECS WHDLoad machine. Sure, it's not an 'original' CDTV, but hey, it's something much better!

Still, if your only quest is to play Amiga games via path of least resistance, either WinUAE or an A1200 is probably the way forward there. :-)

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

Unless someone finds a cheap way to boost the a500/CDTV to 2mb chip ram I dont see the reason to spend money on an 030 for them. Thats just me personally. I have a megAchip but getting a compatible PAL agnus for it has proved expensive and so far not succesfull.

Well, if anyone can do it, I am sure it would be Jens. I am sure it is NOT impossible, but it would take a redesign of the Agnus. We know it can be done in Software, look at Winuae, with its 8MB of Chipram, but that is all it is, Software. Can it be done in hardware and buffered to the existing chipsets ?, That is the key question.

[AmigaDave]

I am sure I am part of a minority of Amiga users that like the CDTV and would like to have one that is upgraded to at least 020 (030 would be even better) w/4mb to 8mb, or more Fast RAM and an IDE controller. It does not make any logical sense, but there are lots of Amiga add-on's that don't make much sense. I guess other than maybe keeping one A1000 stock with the original 68000, I basically want all of my Classic Amigas to be faster and have more RAM so they can run more of the available Amiga software and games.

To the person that wondered how to get 2mb Chip RAM on the CDTV cheaply and easily, I have already had a DKB MegaChip installed in my old CDTV to get 2mb Chip RAM, so that works for me.

As for why do it, I say why not? The CDTV has the most unique computer case of any Amiga produced and fits nicely in the living room with the rest of your stereo and TV gear. It could be a very nice looking ECS WHDLoad machine if properly upgraded.

[T_hairy_bootson]

I love my CDTV too, just that PAL megachips seem to be a lot more rare and expensive than NTSC ones. Check amigakit for example, they only sell NTSC ones. So cheaply and Easily doesnt really apply unless you are in an NTSC country. Can an NTSC CDTV display full PAL whdload games?

[Jope]

Sure, just switch it to a PAL display mode.

The NTSCness only means the computer will boot up in NTSC, but software is free to switch it later.

[int21h]

First of all, hi as it's my first post here.

I think that idea of ACAcard for 68k miggies is just brilliant! It would give new lease of life to at least some of those poor A500s gathering dust in cupboards and attics.

Minimum I'd like to see in new turbo card is any cpu (although 68020 preferred), some ram (just enough for WHDLOAD), CF or SD card and clockport for usb (usb2ethernet)

I can already see cheerful floppyless miggy loaded with games and able to download whdload slaves as needed

Where do I sign?

[ImmortalA1000]

A1200 is slowwwww, and wouldn't bother if I need to ruin my 1000 floppy capability.

So compact 28mhz 020 + IDE for me.

[Photon]

Yeah, especially since it will have clockport it's a neat small universal "enabler" for Amigas not previously blessed with fastram/transfer solution/fastenough thingamagjig.

[Sim085]

Originally Posted by Photon

Availability:
- Germany: end of March 2011. (he will make Indivision AGA MK2 first)

Is there a new target date for the new A500/A500+/A2000 accelerator card?

[Photon]

I saw that Jens replied yesterday with this status:

• I have ideas to solve most of the mechanical problems, I have virtually all the sample parts
• board will be a "double decker", that is, consists of two boards
• part of the mechanical solution means that 86-pin port will be completely blocked/unusable [on A500]
• fallback solution will most likely be to a CMOS-68000, which has access to RAM and IDE

He asked if A600 or Buddah style IDE support is desired (ie. boot-support back to kick 2.05 or 1.3) and I saw a reply in favor of Buddah. I also root for 1.3 IDE support, of course.

He doesn't want anyone to drill holes in their Amigas for a HDD-LED, so he plans to use the floppy LED either as HDD LED, or share it for both.

The expansion port is blocked and unusable, for him to not have to make 4 mechanical solutions for the different mobo revisions. It's likely he will use it/its screw holes to mechanically fasten the board. Either way, it will not be compatible with sidecar expansions, especially not accelerators, memory and harddisks. That's the premise, anyway - I think I saw a mechanical modification of Action Replay to make it usable. (I wouldn't rely too much on cartridges being compatible with an accelerator or even a different kickstart though.)

The board will "cover I/O needs", likely referring to the clockport. Subway etc is already dicussed.


So if "parts have arrived" includes PCBs, it might not be too long, maybe end of May. I think middle of June is more realistic.

*Inner child screams: "BUT I WANT ONE NOW!!"*

Here's my optimistic summary:

• Available to buy end of June
• Onboard 68000
• RAM and IDE usable in 68000 mode
• 68000/IDE/kick 1.3 possible

Guesses:

• From certain remarks it also seems there will be no softkicking option nor onboard kickstart socket
• If the double-decker solution is not only to make the board+A1200 adapter, but also to minimize accelerator size, it could be that it fits into other models than A500 without hitting internal parts.

[Amigafanboi]

Damn...i like my GVP sidecar so much...

[TjLaZer]

And no A570. Bummer

[jrom]

Bring it on!

[Lockon]

So, something called A520 is, in fact, an adapter including 68000 clocked at 14 or even 21MHz, accompanied with KS1.3 autobooting IDE and clockport, but no onboard kickflash capability. For 030 power upgrade, there's a provision for ACA1230.

Correct ?
How many WHDLOAD games can work with plain 68000 which lack VBR support ?

[Hewitson]

Was quite interested in this until I read about the IDE controller..

Originally Posted by Lockon

How many WHDLOAD games can work with plain 68000 which lack VBR support ?

AFAIK all can work, you just won't be able to quit a lot of them.

[Lockon]

What about IDE, care to share something,
Regarding VBR, yes, Quit can be problem, but I remember quite few I ones I tagged for personal WHDLOAD collection asked for 68020 or higher. Some of them had 're-slaved' in order to run on bog A500 with enough FastRam (AmigaKarate, Interceptor come on mind...)