New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[moijk]

Originally Posted by demolition

Maybe one could even squeeze an A1200 MB into an A500 chassis (with a few modifications in the back) if you just like the look of the 500.

Some nuts have put 1200 boards in a a600 cases..

[demolition]

Originally Posted by moijk

Some nuts have put 1200 boards in a a600 cases..

I thought about that as well since I really like the small size of the 600, but that's a quite radical operation.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Crumb

That's the problem and that's the reason I'd like to have a jumper to disable all ACA500 goodies with the exception of the A1200 cpu slot: I already have A1240+scsi kit, I don't need ACA500's CF/RAM/68000/ROM, I just need a working A1200 cpu slot.

Once again, you're assuming too much and not reading enough.

Please go pack a few pages in this thread; you'll find posts about my attempt to make Blizzard 1230-IV work. The showstopper is the accelerator's ROM, which is hard (and maybe even impossible) to disable (I have one more idea left that I'll try together with a very skilled programmer).

The 1200-port is not a "general accelerator port", but a direct interface to my ACA12xx cards - and not even all of them (the PLL on the ACA1230 goes wild, and I have no way of syncing that properly unless I go for way more expensive parts). So the general requirement is "async accelerator design", and another requirement is "we must be able to run our software first, then hand over to the accelerator's ROM". This is where the P5 cards (and maybe others) may get in our way.

Jens

[jiffy]

I have been following this thread almost from the beginning and while I highly appreciate the efforts Jens has been putting in the ACA500, I too have to admit I am disappointed in the direction it is going to.

From an internal 030 with a nice amount of ram it went to an 020, to a plain 68000 with only a tiny amount of ram, to an external 'solution'.

The 68000 I can live with, as I don't really need much extra speed for my 500 (anything above standard is nice, but not vital as I have other Amigamodels for that). The amount of ram is to low to be usable to me though, while an external solution is also not acceptable for me. Too bad, it looked nice while it lasted.

I'm thinking about going the route of an internal 8 MB ram expansion and an internal cf-ide without a faster cpu.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by jiffy

From an internal 030 with a nice amount of ram it went to an 020, to a plain 68000 with only a tiny amount of ram, to an external 'solution'.

Not sure why you (and others) think that I ever planned an 030 accel for the A500. At first, I wanted an internal 68020 with the option for an A1200 accel, and people complained why it's "only" an 020, and they'd have to buy an 030 on top of that.

I took that criticism and downsized to 68EC000, so you don't have a valuable 32-bit CPU sitting there idle when you choose a fast A1200 accel.

Originally Posted by jiffy

The 68000 I can live with, as I don't really need much extra speed for my 500 (anything above standard is nice, but not vital as I have other Amigamodels for that). The amount of ram is to low to be usable to me though, while an external solution is also not acceptable for me. Too bad, it looked nice while it lasted.

If you already have other Amigas that you can use for WHDload, you're not the target group for the ACA500. I want to address the people who are *returning* to the Amiga - those who have been away for over a decade. What they need is a harddisk-replacement (CF card!), and enough memory to compensate for the circa 350k that you need to run Workbench (note that all popular games were written for A500 with 512k Chip and 512k trapdoor memory). In essence, you'll have 1MB Fastmem sitting there idle most of the time.

The ACA500 covers the vast majority of usecases for that group.

The "flat design" is really routable. Feedback from a1k.org is mostly positive. Also, the "early ROM idea" appears to work and gives hope for a software solution that makes the ACA500 compatible with the B1230-IV. This does NOT mean that we can actually make it compatible - it only means we have hope. It's work in progress.

The "flat" mechanical concept is "component side down", while the component side of the A1200 accel would be "up". CF cards must be inserted label side down, and I am NOT planning a metal cover any more. With a black PCB and components invisible (facing down!), the appearance won't be "open electronics" any more. One metal part will be there: A bracket that supports the CF card slots and is standoff at the same time - at least I'm hoping that I can unite these two functions in a single part.

Jens

[Mohican]

yum-yum Shape it.
It's time to buy an ACA12xx ...

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I want to address the people who are *returning* to the Amiga - those who have been away for over a decade. What they need is a harddisk-replacement (CF card!), and enough memory to compensate for the circa 350k that you need to run Workbench (note that all popular games were written for A500 with 512k Chip and 512k trapdoor memory). In essence, you'll have 1MB Fastmem sitting there idle most of the time.

While I mostly agree, what you have is a system with a hard drive (CF!) and enough memory to run most games from floppy...

I would think a lot of the people who get this would love to run those games from the CF using whdload.
I'm not sure how it will hold up memory wise there...
I ran whdload on my plain unexpanded 1200 (only 2M, all CHIP) for a bit and there were games that would run. I can't remember how much couldn't tho.. (I remember disabling floppy image caching in WHDLoad to get some to work..)

Of course, that might be a good reason to add an ACA and get more memory. ;-)

desiv

[dJOS]

Hi Jens, I just bought an aca1220 from AK for my nos a1200 (it'll be good enuf for now) but I was hoping that you might have plans for a series of FPU equipped accelerators or even better a 68040 and 68060 powered aca series?

[Mohican]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

... Also, the "early ROM idea" appears to work and gives hope for a software solution that makes the ACA500 compatible with the B1230-IV. This does NOT mean that we can actually make it compatible - it only means we have hope. It's work in progress.

Jens

Do you plan to support de older ACA1230 (28/42/56) models too ?
( I hope yes ... there are 2 pieces on my desk )

[cosmicfrog]

what ever the critisiem and comments may be jens, we are still routeing for you, one day it will work and it will be a thing of beautie

[dJOS]

Indeed, the "flat" design looks good - just curious as to why you wouldnt have the aca500 board component-side up?

That way the CF Cards can be inserted the "right way" up and when ppl open up their aca500 they can see all the pretty chips?

[desiv]

Yep!

No complaints from here.

I have some questions, but I freely admit that Jens knows infinitely more about hardware AND selling to the public that I would ever care to know.. ;-)

Love my ACA and really appreciate Jens!!

desiv

[NovaCoder]

IMHO us remaining classic (68k) Amiga users fit roughly into these camps:

Big Box Amiga users: 040/060 CPU - Obviously wants a nice WB experience, wants native games/demos + WHDLOAD with as much memory and MIPS as possible.
A1200 - power user: 040/060 CPU - Wants pretty much the same as a 'big box' Amiga user.
A1200 - non-power crazed: 020/030 CPU - Just after some extra memory to run WHDLOAD nicely
A600 - power user: Same as above (but can only run OCS/ECS games of course)
A500 - power user: Same as above
A600/A500 - non-power crazed - 68000 and some extra RAM is just fine for this guy

So out of these groups, I would guess that the 'A500 - power user' group would be the smallest.

I'm not interesting in owning a 500 because I never had one back in the day but if I did, I'd stick with the 68000 and just go for an IndivisionECS with some extra RAM and one of these puppies

[kipper2k]

As long as there are some mounting holes in the card, a case could be designed for it to give a little protection and appeal

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by desiv

I ran whdload on my plain unexpanded 1200 (only 2M, all CHIP) for a bit and there were games that would run. I can't remember how much couldn't tho.. (I remember disabling floppy image caching in WHDLoad to get some to work..)

That's the whole secret: Disable preload, and most, if not all games work. Face it: Preload doesn't win that much over CF card loading, because even a slow CF card is 75 times faster than a real floppy.

Originally Posted by dJOS

but I was hoping that you might have plans for a series of FPU equipped accelerators or even better a 68040 and 68060 powered aca series?

No plans for an FPU on any accelerator, sorry.

Originally Posted by Mohican

Do you plan to support de older ACA1230 (28/42/56) models too ?

I tried it, but gave up pretty quickly. The PLL on the ACA1230 goes wild "behind" the PLL of the ACA500. Check a few of the earlier posts in this thread; the requirement is "async interface", otherwise we have no chance.

Originally Posted by dJOS

Indeed, the "flat" design looks good - just curious as to why you wouldnt have the aca500 board component-side up?

That way the CF Cards can be inserted the "right way" up and when ppl open up their aca500 they can see all the pretty chips?

What you call "pretty" is "most ugly" in other people's eyes. I want to make a black PCB with white silkscreen print, and with components facing down, it doesn't look that much like "open electronics" - probably enough to not require a case.

There are a lot of CF card readers out there where you need to insert the cards "label side up", and it's not even written on them. CF cards can only be inserted "wrong way" with brute force, so it's not a real requirement to write that on the product near the slot(s). That's just for convenience.

Jens

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

what ever the critisiem and comments may be jens, we are still routeing for you, one day it will work and it will be a thing of beautie

And from the English speakers on this board... We are all rooting for you. And hopefully it will be a thing of beauty

Seriously though, you cannot please everyone so don't be disheartened by the odd negative comment

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

No plans for an FPU on any accelerator, sorry.

Jens

How about 040 or 060 powered aca12xx's?

[Lord Aga]

Those 3.3V 040s would sure be sweet in some ACA1240s

[john1979]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That's the whole secret: Disable preload, and most, if not all games work. Face it: Preload doesn't win that much over CF card loading, because even a slow CF card is 75 times faster than a real floppy.

Loading games with preload off is a horrible experience. All that screen flashing everytime something loads. It's really slow and irritating. When I had my plain A1200, I would prefer to use floppies instead for these games. I dare say loading speed was comparable from the floppy.

I can't see many A500 users wanting to use WHDload without being able to preload.

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Those 3.3V 040s would sure be sweet in some ACA1240s

My thoughts too!