New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[Pyromania]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

A little bit of hardware pr0n - tests with local Amigans will start tomorrow, and then I'll ship cards to more testers "one by one" everytime a new feature or a new config must be tested.

I hope that the all testing is done in late september, so the ACA500 will be available for Xmas business.

Jens

Great work Jen's looks fantastic.

[moijk]

Not sure if it has been brought up, but the network/usb module thingy. is that "if i get around to do anything with it, it is at least space on the card" or "It is in the pipeline"

[supaduper]

Great work Jens looks like the Mighty A500 will have a second wind by the looks of it when some older Amigans see this

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Pyromania

Great work Jen's looks fantastic.

Hear hear, looks fab

Now the only question is if he will produce enough of them to meet the demand!

[utri007]

I need to think how to make it look prety It would fail miserably "shown in public place" test by wife

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by moijk

Not sure if it has been brought up, but the network/usb module thingy. is that "if i get around to do anything with it, it is at least space on the card" or "It is in the pipeline"

Not yet in the pipeline, but close to it. I'm thinking of a single USB module that fits all major targets:

- X-Surf-100 local expansion port
- clockports (including ACA500 clockport)

Since the clockport is a fairly slow 8-bit interface, I'll have to make some kind of adapter that translates between the 34-pin multiplexed expansion port of the ACA500 and the 48-pin local port of the X-Surf-100, so you can also gain higher USB speed with the ACA500. This adapter will most likely also have a 100MBit Ethernet port, which is the reason for the writing near that port.

Before anyone asks: The two ports on ACA500 and X-Surf-100 have been added to the designs with almost no additional logic. Making them uniform would have meant higher cost for at least one of the cards, and I didn't want to do that.

Originally Posted by Photon

Now the only question is if he will produce enough of them to meet the demand!

The ACA500 has been developed with two big goals in mind: First to bring back "old Amigans" to the hobby and second, to lower the cost of actually being in the "hobby Amiga". To reach that 79,90 EUR goal, I need to make quite a few more than for other projects, otherwise I'd be losing money. Rest assured that there's enough for you and most of your friends who have owned an A500 back in the days.

Jens

[kipper2k]

If i can get the board layout (especially hole locations) i can design and print a casing for those that want one

[prowler]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

If i can get the board layout (especially hole locations) i can design and print a casing for those that want one

Thanks, kipper! That could well provide the finishing touch for this project with the potential to multiply sales of the ACA500 manifold.

I can vouch for the quality of your work and would hope that some co-operation between yourself and Jens might be possible, as it could benefit everyone in the long run.

[DonAmiga]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

If i can get the board layout (especially hole locations) i can design and print a casing for those that want one

There was me hoping you where going to come up with some adapter to put it inside

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by DonAmiga

There was me hoping you where going to come up with some adapter to put it inside

wrong thread

[Photon]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

If i can get the board layout (especially hole locations) i can design and print a casing for those that want one

I can tell you that people are already asking for this on Facebook! (And I also want one, of course!)

I guess it's easy to make a slot for the optional A1200 accelerator connector?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Photon

I can tell you that people are already asking for this on Facebook! (And I also want one, of course!)

I guess it's easy to make a slot for the optional A1200 accelerator connector?

the case would be simple to make, in reality it only needs a top cover with the back of the cover open to allow for accelerator addon. Its just a case (excuse the pun) of lining up the holes. The main thing is to cover the circuit board to protect it from spills. I know no one puts down drinks etc next to the computers, but you cant tell wives and kids anything

[Coltch]

Nice work Jens, looking forward to getting one for my A500 - only problem is I'll have to buy a bigger desk to keep the A500 on display

[DDNI]

This, for me is THE only case design to consider!
Add a hinged flap to allow the front to lift and give CF card access. Bingo and perfection!

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by DDNI

This, for me is THE only case design to consider!
Add a hinged flap to allow the front to lift and give CF card access. Bingo and perfection!

It should come with a case to begin with, no one wants a bare board hanging out the side of their a500 where it can be easily accidentally damaged.

[Schoenfeld]

ACA500 status update (some nice progress these past few days):

* the A500plus problem I was referring to earlier has been resolved.

* A1000 WOM can be supported, needs further testing - this is in preparation of the special A1000 version. While the ACA500 works on an A1000, it's not recommended for mechanical reasons.

* startup problems with ACA1232 are solved (had some intermediate trouble with trapdoor memory recognition - now solved)

* loading Kickstart from A1000-Kickdisk is supported; Kick1.2 will be patched on-the-fly to properly support ACA500 fastmem

* timing of all local expansion ports and IDE/CF is verified positive. Clockport is faster then A1200-clockport, which may or may not cause incompatibilities with clockport hardware. Tests still need to be done with actual hardware (verification so far only with a logic analyzer).

* The ACA500 can now be switched off "almost completely" with a jumper, reducing it to a plain 68k CPU@14MHz with just chipram and trapdoor mem - all other functions are switched off. This is just a few percent faster than a stock A500, so accelerator-unfriendly software has a higher probability to work without the need to unplug the unit.

* our patched IDE driver is now stable, even with two CF cards at the same time.

* the ACA500 ROM got a FAT auto-mounter that not only mounts a FAT-formatted CF card, but even boots from it. Long file names supported, otherwise s/startup-sequence could not be used ;-)

There's still one huge point on my list: I need to investigate why the ACA1220 does not work with the ACA500.

Jens

[Calabazam]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

ACA500 status update (some nice progress these past few days):


* the ACA500 ROM got a FAT auto-mounter that not only mounts a FAT-formatted CF card, but even boots from it. Long file names supported, otherwise s/startup-sequence could not be used ;-)


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Jens[/SIZE][/FONT]

This is a very convenient feature.
Is it achieved by software, so that other IDE devices could benefit from it, or is it ACA500 specific?
Great way to share data directly with a PC or a WinUAE setup anyway.

[Photon]

Calabazam, can you explain how booting off a PC-formatted CF card is convenient? It's just PC-formatted so that the PC can write to it...

Supporting removable media such as SD cards would be convenient, since it allows transferring files without shutting down the A500.

It's pretty easy to copy files in WinUAE as well, directly to where they should be on your Amiga's Amiga-formatted CF-"harddisk". And that card is already bootable

[Photon]

Originally Posted by dJOS

It should come with a case to begin with, no one wants a bare board hanging out the side of their a500 where it can be easily accidentally damaged.

Yes, well, you certainly can't hook it up to the livingroom TV and let your kids try Amiga without protecting it from spilled lemonade etc

Maybe this first batch are made that way just for easy testing? Because he originally designed the card to be put inside. He could be out of room inside, but I think it fits even with an ACA1232 plugged in Or maybe he needed more than the 68000's signals, and didn't like a mess of clip-on adapters. Or maybe he wanted to put the CF slots directly on the board.

Maybe all will be made clear by Herr Schönfeld himself.

Either way, a simple "cartridge" type case as suggested by kipper2k would fit the bill for most of those buying this, I think.

[lukassid]

Originally Posted by Photon

Calabazam, can you explain how booting off a PC-formatted CF card is convenient? It's just PC-formatted so that the PC can write to it...

You answered yourself

Originally Posted by Photon

Maybe all will be made clear by Herr Schönfeld himself.

This was discussed before, it's external for many reasons