Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Amiga1992]

I am sure this would perform better than my 030 (Microbotics XA1230 with 030@50 and 68882 FPU @ 50), but since I am a demo sort of guy and currently can't find an 060 I can afford, I should go for as many MIPS as I could get! Someone might want to part with the 56Mhz version (hint hint )

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

...and I've installed a Gold Fast Ata MKII (the other I tried was MKIII). Now I've got 8,192,000 of speed in DH0 with SysInfo, using Pio 4 (I've not tried Pio 5)....

... And I believe to remember I'm using Pio 5 with around 9/9.8mb/s, but I don't find my post and I've got the Amiga far.

Speed is very good in the ACA1230/56 if you use a Fast Ata or wait for the IC's Sata controller. I believe this will be the same with the new 31/42.

The only thing is that it can't play mp3's... but Amigakit are doing something for it...http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=63107

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Akira

I am sure this would perform better than my 030 (Microbotics XA1230 with 030@50 and 68882 FPU @ 50), but since I am a demo sort of guy and currently can't find an 060 I can afford, I should go for as many MIPS as I could get!

And as you probably know, demos aimed at 060 will still be slooooow on a 030

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by britelite

And as you probably know, demos aimed at 060 will still be slooooow on a 030

Or just not run.
Thing is, some 030 demos still have irregular framerate, so i want the best 030 i can get. For now, it should suffice

[Schoenfeld]

I currently don't have time to update my website, but the latest ACAtune tool, which also supports the ACA1231, is available from the Vesalia website:

http://www.vesalia.de/e_aca1231-42.htm

It should also work with the older cards, but doesn't do anything different, apart from some changed output. Not tested with ACA630-30, because I don't have that any more. New: The -help option is filled with life, and it can also be called with "?" (which is the more common standard with Amiga commandline tools).

Jens

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Akira

Or just not run.

Actually, I can't remember one single 060-demo that won't run at all on a 030+FPU. I remember one intro crashing in the middle, but that's pretty much it.

[MrCheese]

Yay! My 1231 has been dispatched!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by britelite

Actually, I can't remember one single 060-demo that won't run at all on a 030+FPU. I remember one intro crashing in the middle, but that's pretty much it.

I think I have tried a TBL demo that just tells you it needs an 060 and doesn't run.

[SpeedGeek]

I never rely on SysInfo for benchmarking any of my speedup hacks. I realize it's a complete waste of my time to repeatedly explain this to SysInfo fans but AIBB fans will most certainly appreciate this:
http://www.amibay.com/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=10

Now, I have contemplated hacking some SDRAM into my A2630 just to prove their is NO INHERENT compatibility problem with the MC68881/2. But that's quite a lot of work just to prove a point and I can still squeeze a bit more performance from my DKB2632 with some comparatively minor modifications.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by SpeedGeek

Now, I have contemplated hacking some SDRAM into my A2630 just to prove their is NO INHERENT compatibility problem with the MC68881/2. But that's quite a lot of work just to prove a point and I can still squeeze a bit more performance from my DKB2632 with some comparatively minor modifications.

I have even contemplated making a fastmem expansion for the 2630, because it's fairly easy-going at 25MHz. However, I fear that capacitive load on the data bus plus the resistor packs (pull-downs) will put enough load on the LXC16245 drivers that timing specs can't be achieved. For a 2-1-1-1 burst, you may have to remove all onboard memory chips (they hang off the data bus without drivers).

Of course you can work with an even higher clock (not x2 but x3) and make data valid a good 5ns earlier, but that goes into the same direction as hacking the card to over 50MHz ;-)

For some real speed gain, I'd pull the EXTERN signal for pretty much every bit of memory that the 2630 can address - including 00c0.0000, the Z2 memory area and (optionally) kickstart. Drawback: DMA would not work any more. Advantage: The whole system would be a lot faster, because any slower memory (except chipmem) would be switched off.

Jens

[mfilos]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I currently don't have time to update my website, but the latest ACAtune tool, which also supports the ACA1231, is available from the Vesalia website:

http://www.vesalia.de/e_aca1231-42.htm

It should also work with the older cards, but doesn't do anything different, apart from some changed output. Not tested with ACA630-30, because I don't have that any more. New: The -help option is filled with life, and it can also be called with "?" (which is the more common standard with Amiga commandline tools).

Jens

Jens the new version 1.2b doesn't work with ACA630@30. Worked just fine with the latest 1.02b6.
Tested it today and reports as "ERROR: ACA card type unsupported."

Is there a chance we 30MHz owners can see this working at some point?

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by mfilos

Jens the new version 1.2b doesn't work with ACA630@30. Worked just fine with the latest 1.02b6.
Tested it today and reports as "ERROR: ACA card type unsupported."

Is there a chance we 30MHz owners can see this working at some point?

a) the new version doesn't do anything different from the old version. The only two changes are not functionality-related: Support for ACA1231 and help text.

b) I don't have a 30MHz card left, so I have nothing to test.

You have a working setup. Don't use the new software for now. We may or may not fix support for the ACA630/30 with a new version.

Jens

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

a) the new version doesn't do anything different from the old version. The only two changes are not functionality-related: Support for ACA1231 and help text.

b) I don't have a 30MHz card left, so I have nothing to test.

You have a working setup. Don't use the new software for now. We may or may not fix support for the ACA630/30 with a new version.

Jens

Surely it would be easier to have one version that caters for all ACA cards.
Otherwise, it will get confusing with different versions floating round the net.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by FOL

Surely it would be easier to have one version that caters for all ACA cards.

Sure. But it's harder to test for if you got nothing to test with. One could argue it was a misstake not to keep one of each model for testing purposes, but on the other hand, they would still have had a buildcost, which would have had to bee shared on the other sales, not to mention storing and so on.
I'm quite sure it's intended to work, and any new versions will hopefully work again.
B!

[1time]

I’m using a 1230/56 today, and i am super satisfied. Sure i did need to do some changes to my setup, but I’m still happy.

I have ordered a 1231 and I hope Jens continues he´s awesome work for the Amiga community.

THANK YOU!

[mfilos]

Anyway... since this thread became really large and it's really frustrating for someone searching it for the ACATune versions I uploaded to my Dropbox folder all the versions plus a ReadMe file with Changelog plus some other info.

I hope it's ok with everyone

• ACATune ReadMe
• ACATune 1.0
• ACATune 1.02b5
• ACATune 1.02b6
• ACATune 1.2b
• ACATune 1.4
• ACATune 1.5e
• ACATune 1.7

Keep up the good work Jens

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Mr B

Sure. But it's harder to test for if you got nothing to test with. One could argue it was a misstake not to keep one of each model for testing purposes, but on the other hand, they would still have had a buildcost, which would have had to bee shared on the other sales, not to mention storing and so on.
I'm quite sure it's intended to work, and any new versions will hopefully work again.
B!

You simply ask someone to betatest it.

Im just saying cause, Jens said he may or may not fix.
Im thinking of every type of user, not just ones that know what they are doing.
It would be very confusing to say, a new user to the Amiga (and returning users).

[ascp]

Just ordered a 1231 too

[SpeedGeek]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I have even contemplated making a fastmem expansion for the 2630, because it's fairly easy-going at 25MHz. However, I fear that capacitive load on the data bus plus the resistor packs (pull-downs) will put enough load on the LXC16245 drivers that timing specs can't be achieved. For a 2-1-1-1 burst, you may have to remove all onboard memory chips (they hang off the data bus without drivers).

Of course you can work with an even higher clock (not x2 but x3) and make data valid a good 5ns earlier, but that goes into the same direction as hacking the card to over 50MHz ;-)

For some real speed gain, I'd pull the EXTERN signal for pretty much every bit of memory that the 2630 can address - including 00c0.0000, the Z2 memory area and (optionally) kickstart. Drawback: DMA would not work any more. Advantage: The whole system would be a lot faster, because any slower memory (except chipmem) would be switched off.

Jens

The A2630 has many design bugs (it just barely works @ 25 MHz) including the 1K pull-downs which are sometimes installed as pull-ups! You will spend 20x the time fixing the bugs that you spend replacing the oscillator and 68030/68882 chips.

The memory expansion connector is unbuffered and could not possibly support a 1 TTL load on the address bus even though the specs say so.

I would probably pull the A2630 on board DRAM before I would consider any memory expansion board SDRAM. There are many more problems and bugs which can't be solved by EXTERN. (insert 5 more pages here). I managed to get an AIBB latency of 7.2 with the on board DRAM @ 52 MHz and that's pushing the address decoding, cycle start and bus arbitration logic to its very limits. If the +5 Volt supply is low this fails.

I managed 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 clock cycles with burst @ 52 MHz on the DKB2632 and I may be able to get 6 + 2 + 2 + 2 with faster address buffers. I would not try to run SDRAM @ 2x this clock. If I could get 4 + 1 (or 2) etc. and eliminate expansion board memory I would be happy with that.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by SpeedGeek

The A2630 has many design bugs (it just barely works @ 25 MHz) including the 1K pull-downs which are sometimes installed as pull-ups! You will spend 20x the time fixing the bugs that you spend replacing the oscillator and 68030/68882 chips.

I figured that much from all the different versions of the PAL chips that Dave Haynie has published (I have rev.3, rev.4 and rev.9 here). Having all those signals travel over a huge board and through several chips makes it practically impossible to simulate the design (not speaking of the temperature drift of the delay-lines). Like I wrote: I thought about it, but won't do it. It's more work than making my own accel for the 2k, and that will automatically happen when I finish the ACA520 design.

Originally Posted by SpeedGeek

I managed 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 clock cycles with burst @ 52 MHz on the DKB2632 and I may be able to get 6 + 2 + 2 + 2 with faster address buffers. I would not try to run SDRAM @ 2x this clock. If I could get 4 + 1 (or 2) etc. and eliminate expansion board memory I would be happy with that.

...so you can appreciate the 2-1-1-1 burst on the ACA1231 :-)
I've thought about other optimizations, for example using the ECS (external cycle strobe - nothing to do with the chipset) signal to initiate opening the SD-Ram row. ECS comes one cycle earlier than AS, and if I read the 68030 manual right, then AS will *always* come if caches are disabled. Cache=off probably sounds bad, but with a 0-waitstate STERM-terminated fastmem access, it might just give the 68030 another kick over a 2-1-1-1 burst.

Have you seen the write-performance of the ACA1231 to fastmem? It's just under 45MByte/s, where the ACA1230-56 gets to 41.8MByte/s. Note to interested readers: There is no burst in write access, so write will always wait for a full "open-row-write-close-row" cycle.

ACAtune:
I'll publish an update later today that should also work with the 30MHz A600 accelerator.

Jens