New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[moijk]

Originally Posted by demolition

I just managed to rescue my A500 from battery damage. Most of them have batteries on the mem expansion you know.
My battery was leaking so much that it was buried in white and blue crystals and the entire expansion card was green. One IC pin in the A500 had become green, but otherwise it wasn't harmed. Yet.

None of my a500 have any damage, my a500+ however will at one point boot again. but require some soldering from my part.

[wXR]

Aren't there way more a500s than a600s?

@fitzsteve You're joking right? :-)

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by wXR

Aren't there way more a500s than a600s?

@fitzsteve You're joking right? :-)

No joke, I have an A500+ here and a BPPC/BVision combo, I will most certainly try them with the ACA500 should it be released

As always I'll post lots of pics, etc

[qrulf]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Vaporware worries me indeed

Originally Posted by Mr B

My fear

Worries and fear... please stay OT and keep forums clear! (where is the police-troll smiley? )

[Coltch]

To me the A500 is the Amiga, unfortunately my A1200 is so much easier with WHDLoad and an ACA1231

[Turran]

Question about the BigRamPlus.. it says A4000(T). I'm guessing that means it works in both? Does not look like it wouldn't fit a A4000 desktop..

Got an A4000 coming my way soon, that's why I'm asking =)

Edit: Never mind. Just saw on Vesalia that it fits all of em. Now I guess I need to wait for the A4000 to get here to check the Super Buster chip version. Read that the card requires SB 11

[amigakit.com]

@Turran

The BigRAMPlus we sell will fit in both the A4000 and A4000T

Hope this helps!

[Turran]

Excellent, thanks =)

[Calabazam]

It would be nice that Jens comes and gives some updates about the ACA500 now

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

It would be nice that Jens comes and gives some updates about the ACA500 now

You're a bit, how to say, repetitive, aren't you?

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Vaporware worries me indeed.

It may be that Jens feels that the A500 market is too weak. I don't think that anyone here uses anything less than a pimped up A600 or A1200, if not a fully upgraded big box. We all keep our first A500 with passion, but who really fires it up more than once in a decade?
Amongst the few people that really use their A500 most have already got themselves the fine add-ons by Kipper2k, or are waiting for Zeus.
Those interested in the ACA500 are only dreaming about putting something else on it (like a PPC).

So, no release date makes me think that Jens is hesitating about this expansion and will eventually NOT release it unfortunately...

I'm eagerly awaiting the ACA500. I have a spare A1200 040 turbo board that needs to get some use. I think there will be many people who will put their spare A1200 accelerator cards into this. So here's hoping it'll work with Apollo's and Blizzard's etc. Also, I like the ACA500 spec as it has a real IDE port. The new kipper2k RAM/IDE that is coming out soon is a CF Card only one I think (correct me if I'm wrong?), and I'd really like a real large capacity fast HDD to go with my turbocard. Besides, you can always turn a 2.5" IDE port into CF if the user desires it, so the ACA would be a better choice in that regard.
Like a previous poster said, I also agree that the ACA500 could sell more than any other ACA ever has. We shouldn't rush Jens though.... let him work on it and perfect it and iron any bugs out. I'd sooner wait for perfection than end up with something that needs to be recalled..

Jens -> Take all the time you need on this, there is no rush.

[klx300r]

@ Jens, Amigakit, Vesalia etc.

why no Subway USB for A1200

[amigakit.com]

Because E3B are not able to make any more due to a dispute with the Poseidon author.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Because E3B are not able to make any more due to a dispute with the Poseidon author.

Bloody politics why can't they just charge a bit more for the Poseidin licence instead of stopping hardware production arghh

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by paul1981

I'm eagerly awaiting the ACA500. I have a spare A1200 040 turbo board that needs to get some use. I think there will be many people who will put their spare A1200 accelerator cards into this. So here's hoping it'll work with Apollo's and Blizzard's etc.

Newsflash from the development lab: Blizzard accelerators don't work. They use a ROM start is launched very early in the startup-process, and the ACA500 can't do anything about that. It appears like the B1230-IV doesn't like something of the A500 and crashes if fastmem is installed. It works if you remove the SIMM, but that's not a really usable configuration.

Since other Blizzard accelerators also use a $f0 ROM, it is highly unlikely that they will work. So far, only ACA1231 and ACA1232 work. The ACA1230 doesn't work due to syncronisation problems (that I probably won't be able to resolve) and the ACA1220 currently also does not work (caution: This is not permanent, but just a development snapshot).

Apollo 1240/1260 have a design fault in 16-bit accesses, and the ACA500 is 16-bit all over, so that fails "by design". What may work is Apollo 020/030 accelerators, but I don't have any working samples of those.

Syncronous designs like M-Tec will most likely not work due to the same syncronisation trouble that I have with the ACA1230.

Originally Posted by paul1981

Also, I like the ACA500 spec as it has a real IDE port. The new kipper2k RAM/IDE that is coming out soon is a CF Card only one I think (correct me if I'm wrong?), and I'd really like a real large capacity fast HDD to go with my turbocard.

I'm sorry to report that I have removed the IDE port from the current concept. CF cards grow at Moore's law, and you can already fit all the Aminet CDs on one CF-card. It won't take long until we have the first CF card that exceeds the size of all available Amiga software. What's the current size of back2roots? I think it's around 1TB, right?

I'm currently working on a full re-design of the ACA500, because the current mechanical concept has failed the "installation by girlfriend" test.

Jens

[TroelsDK]

Great to hear some news on this Jens

Can't wait till it's finished!

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Newsflash from the development lab: Blizzard accelerators don't work. They use a ROM start is launched very early in the startup-process, and the ACA500 can't do anything about that. It appears like the B1230-IV doesn't like something of the A500 and crashes if fastmem is installed. It works if you remove the SIMM, but that's not a really usable configuration.

Remember my argument about making just a dedicated a1200 accelerator adapter with CF-IDE for the a500? Your testing seems to support that as a better option for folk wishing to use whichever accelerator they like.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Remember my argument about making just a dedicated a1200 accelerator adapter with CF-IDE for the a500? Your testing seems to support that as a better option for folk wishing to use whichever accelerator they like.

That "adapter only" would have had the same problem, as the root cause is in the ROM of the Blizzard 1230-IV. "Something" in that code does not like the A500, and that would be the same with "just adapter" or a 68000-based accelerator.

I have even managed to make the 2M Fastmem available to the A1200 accelerator, although that fastmem is not "fast" for a 32-bit processor (it's just 16 bits wide and 14MHz clocked).

Jens

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That "adapter only" would have had the same problem, as the root cause is in the ROM of the Blizzard 1230-IV. "Something" in that code does not like the A500, and that would be the same with "just adapter" or a 68000-based accelerator.

I have even managed to make the 2M Fastmem available to the A1200 accelerator, although that fastmem is not "fast" for a 32-bit processor (it's just 16 bits wide and 14MHz clocked).

Jens

Hi Jens, but you said the fast mem on the aca500 was the issue did you not? If yes, then remove it as I suggested and you can sell the aca500 to anyone wanting to put any accelerator into their 500.

Maybe im misunderstanding your explanation.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Hi Jens, but you said the fast mem on the aca500 was the issue did you not? If yes, then remove it as I suggested and you can sell the aca500 to anyone wanting to put any accelerator into their 500.

Maybe im misunderstanding your explanation.

Yes, that's a misunderstanding: Fastmem on the ACA500 cannot be removed. The Blizzard 1230-IV will boot if the SIMM on that card is removed. That is: If you have a B1230-IV with 16M SIMM, you must remove the 16M in order to not execute the ROM code that bugs with the A500.

The 2M Fastmem of the ACA500 come in handy at that point, but the 50MHz 68030 is hardly any faster than the 14MHz 68000 due to it's memory speed.

Further, the ACA500 ROM is not visible to the Blizzard at all, so key functions of the card won't be available until some software is booted. One of these key functions is to boot from CF even if you only have Kick1.2.

Jens