Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Schoenfeld]

All CPUs on all boards will be socketed. Didn't you see the picture of the custom-made PGA sockets yesterday?

However, removal of the original CPU voids warranty. We cannot be held responsible for anything else than the factory configuration. If you decide to put your own chip on the card, you're on your own. The only user option(s) are the jumpers. If you want to keep your warranty, the CPU is off limits. Besides, the ACA630 comes with an MMU (did anyone care to read the product description?).

Zetr0, as described in the text on www.icomp.de (which is a lot shorter than this thread), the SD-Ram controller is clocked twice as fast as the CPU, that's why we need a 50MHz crystal on the board. I'm serious about not overclocking, as the 50MHz give precisely the timing that the memory chips can handle: 20ns from row-open to column access, and also 20ns from precharge to row-open. The CPU may not fail at higher speeds, but the memory will.

Jens

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by chiark

Does no-one else still use Enforcer? Really just me? Oh well

You're a coder - you need something fast to compile, 'cause compile times are always too long. You will probably go for the 56MHz version, which is planned to be shipped with a full 68030, including MMU.

Jens

[coze]

sorry for being pedantic jens, just curious, as the crystal is 50 MHz, there should be a clock divider somewhere. so in theory, if we bypass the divider and feed 50 MHz to processor socket, would it be possible to use a 50 MHz 68030 ? (no RAM overclock, just processor)

I totally understand this would foil the warranty.

[RMK]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Besides, the ACA630 comes with an MMU (did anyone care to read the product description?).

Some people just want whatever isn't offered.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by coze

sorry for being pedantic jens, just curious, as the crystal is 50 MHz, there should be a clock divider somewhere. so in theory, if we bypass the divider and feed 50 MHz to processor socket, would it be possible to use a 50 MHz 68030 ? (no RAM overclock, just processor)

The divider is in the CPLD, where all the async mainboard interface and the SD-Ram interface is located. Also, it is critical that the SD-Ram controller and the CPU run in sync - a simple clock-doubling for the CPU would not work at all. As I mentioned earlier for the ACA1230, the two cards (28MHz and 56MHz) look the same, but the CPLD contents are substantially different. It's a whole new development.

I really can't help anyone who wants to do weird things to his accelerator. I shouldn't even start to get into this much detail. If you haven't developed an accelerator yourself, you can't do it. I'm not just saying this to protect myself from too much customer support work. I am doing this to protect you from a failure waiting to happen, unless you have at least the same knowledge as Oliver and I have.

Jens

[Predseda]

I apologize myself, I do not want to change anything in your card, my question was truly hypothetic. I didnt know it will bring so much emotions.

Another question: on Amigakit there is "ACA 630/25 Stealth Accelerator for the Amiga 600 computer" - does the "Stealth" stand for the official name?

[rare_j]

Hi Jens thanks for your thorough replies All the way through this topic. Very impressive products and prices.
Just want to say i would be very interested in an aca530. Ideally with mmu, fast ram and Sd or comactflash slot.
Good luck and Thanks

[coze]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The divider is in the CPLD, where all the async mainboard interface and the SD-Ram interface is located. Also, it is critical that the SD-Ram controller and the CPU run in sync - a simple clock-doubling for the CPU would not work at all. As I mentioned earlier for the ACA1230, the two cards (28MHz and 56MHz) look the same, but the CPLD contents are substantially different. It's a whole new development.

I really can't help anyone who wants to do weird things to his accelerator. I shouldn't even start to get into this much detail. If you haven't developed an accelerator yourself, you can't do it. I'm not just saying this to protect myself from too much customer support work. I am doing this to protect you from a failure waiting to happen, unless you have at least the same knowledge as Oliver and I have.

Jens

Sorry Jens, I just asked it to clarify if it was a possibility, as I am pretty sure I'm not the only one with the idea and some would be hackerz would have a go at it and possibly damage their boards if it was not clear. Now that you've made it exactly clear, we have information from the most reliable source to refer when the same question comes about in the future (I am pretty sure it will).

anyway, I am looking forward to laying my hands (and only hands, no soldering iron hehe) on your ACA630 (and possibly a ACA1230 if I can) and wish you best of luck with your future projects

[cosmicfrog]

yes I saw the nice PGA but for some reason I had it in my head it was for the CPLD

so if swapping the cpu is for the very tech savie ppl why is it socketed ??, just curious and I`m sure there is a very good reason, personaly I like socket`d chips anyway even if I have no intention of changing them

Edit:

can I slap the next perosn who asks for some kind of mass storage devise as well
RTFT - ReadTheF**k**GThread

[NovaCoder]

Hiya Jens,

Any chance of bumping the memory of the 56Mhz 1200 card up to say 128mb or 256mb? Yes I know that not much software would use the extra but you can never have too much memory.

Also is that 56mhz card with a passive heat-sink? Any chance of the production version being faster or is 56mhz the limit for an 030.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

you can never have too much memory.

I agree totally, and it's not really about whether software will use it, the point is that _we_ will use it. Not that I don't have software that will manage to use it all, I certainly do

[Zetr0]

@Nova

I suspect that 56Mhz is the hard-limmit as at this speed the CPU hits the backwall of the RAM speed - any more than that and the card would require and Async design - loosing performance.

still 12 ish MIPS and 64MB of RAM.... thats quite delicious for an 030 card, and as much as I would want an FPU for some clever code - pending price point I may well plumb for one of these cards..... and or the Indivision ECS but most certainly the Indivision AGA (especially if I get a direct chunky pixel display buffer to write too)

If Jens changes his mind after the 56Mhz 1230ACA is made and wants to crack the A600 (although it would be a lot more work!) should that a 56Mhz A630 appear - yep - I would buy one of them too...

Looks like I will be having a garage sale soon =)

[NovaCoder]

Yep 12 MIPS is very impressive & 2 more than I ever got out of my 030 but 60Mhz has such a nice ring to it (makes me think of an 060 I guess)

[slk486]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

(especially if I get a direct chunky pixel display buffer to write too)

Maybe this is obvious, but how would that work?

[Oliver_A]

Also is that 56mhz card with a passive heat-sink? Any chance of the production version being faster or is 56mhz the limit for an 030.

The ACA1230-56Mhz needs no heat-sink. We tested the card for several days in a closed A1200, running all kinds of demos on it, and the bottom plate of the A1200 only gets warm, most certainly not warmer than a Blizzard 1230. This is partly due to the fact that we are going to use the latest MC68030RC50C mask revision (1F91C) for production.

We chose 56 Mhz because it's 4 times the A1200 system bus clock. It's a fully synchronous design, since we are generating all timings from the Amiga mainboard, so there is no external crystal involved. With 56 Mhz, we are still in the safety zone for clocking a 50Mhz 030. Going a step above would violate the poor chap.

With 12.5 MIPS and a memory bandwidth of over 40MB/s the ACA1230-56Mhz will be the fastest 68030 accelerator ever commercially released for the Amiga.

[Retroplay]

Sorry I just can't help it.

[Paul_s]

I'm going to buy 10 ACA-1230's and keep them in their box. Then sell them for £3000 each in 10 years time.

[Retrofan]

I believe the ACA 1230-56 Mhz will be sold as well as the 28, with so many fanatics for the best they will have for sale. I'll be one of them, but would like it were for Christmas...

[deicidal]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

I'm going to buy 10 ACA-1230's and keep them in their box. Then sell them for £3000 each in 10 years time.

I do wonder how many will be bought and then stuck on a shelf until all the stock is sold so they can then farm them off for stupid money on ebay

[Zetr0]

Originally Posted by Oliver_A

Work in progress

ADoom Shareware in 1024x768 256 colours on Indivision ECS and the upcoming ACA630.



I'm currently adding Indivision GFX support to ADoom and I thought you might be interested in comparing some performance figures. First, ADoom using etra halfbrite chunky 2 planar routine in 320x200, 64 colours:



One frame takes 71731 us to render. Now compare this to the Indivision GFX direct chunky graphics mode in 320x200, 256 colours:



Wow, rendering time is only 24000 us per frame, almost three times faster than using the ECS chipset! Reason for this is the maximum chip ram write speed of the ACA630 (3.5MB/s) to the SDRAM chunky framebuffer of the Indivision ECS flickerfixer. It's as close as one can get having an Amiga 3000 with a Zorro II graphics card in the tiny Amiga 600 case.

Result: Adoom is very playable in 1x1 graphics mode in 320x200 in 256 colours on Indivision ECS and ACA630.

More details will follow soon.

Originally Posted by FOL

Thats awesome, .

Originally Posted by gulliver

@Oliver_A
Wow!
Could you please upload a youtube video of those setups running Adoom?

I could only humbly beg that you make a youtube of this!!!

Originally Posted by cv643d

Oliver: is it possible to add 256 color mode to WB also?

Great work, nice pictures. Refreshing to see products and product maker keeping community up to date. Danke schön...

this would be fantastic as a selectable screen mode for workbench - seriously opening up ClassicWorkbench 3.5 and possibly a revised CWOS3.9 - infact with a little work Classic Workbench P96 and or AIAB / AmigaSYS

I just got off the phone to the big guy and he told me to post this .....




Apparently he is the only man alive brave enough to divide by zero....


hardcore...