Hi and 1200 accelerator question

Hi all

I'm throwing myself back into Amiga ownership after having gave up on my Amiga 500 around 27 years ago!

I've been really impressed by the things that can be done now and keen to get started with a whdload setup.

I have a stock 1200 that I acquired recently and have that up and running the CF card is on the way and the next thing that I come to is the need for more RAM.

8mb ram looks to be around £100 so it seems only a stones throw to go to a ACA1221ec accelerator at around £110. Then one thing leads to another and to have it fully unlocked it takes it to £145. Considering that I can't see any of these boards available anywhere and can see that the ACA1233N-26 is circa £145 also I see myself looking and considering these.

What's the difference in terms of use between a fully unlocked aca1221ex and a aca1233n-26?

I could choose to be patient now I'm keen to get up and running with my new toy!

[dodke]

The ACA1221ec doesn't need any unlocking. It basically has all the features of the older ACA1221 already unlocked but doesn't support as much memory because the processor is the cheaper model with 24 bit addressing.

[dodke]

There's no huge difference with those models in terms of speed. Obviously the 030 model has a lot more memory but you might not need it for whdload and games. I'm guessing they introduced the cheaper 030 model because they ran out of 020 CPUs but basically the cheap 030 is a replacement for the ACA1221 range.

Ahh. I see my mistake now. Thanks!

So I guess it just depends how patient I am. Any idea how often these things are produced? or does it just mean that they have run out of chips?

[Retro-Nerd]

I've bought the ACA1233n-26 last week. It's a great accelerator. No issues at all. Plugged it in, everthing i've started worked perfectly fine (mostly WHDLoad games and demos).

That's what I like to hear. It seems part crazy to be spending hundreds on what is essentially obsolete hardware but I must admit that I'm excited about it. Maybe it's partly because as a child I yearned for a 1200 but settled for the 500 instead.... I always planned to get a 1200 as some point but never did.

i also considered a 1200 on my return to the Amiga, but went via the CD32 route as it was cheaper to get hold of, and with an 030 Accelerator with 64mb ram fitted and a cf card with whdload , its now the Amiga i always wanted back in the day.
i must admit tho it is exciting buying all the extra new bits and pieces to get it ready

next on my list is a decent Sony Trinitron TV when i can find 1 and a new psu for the cd32 and then im about sorted.

good luck and happy hunting

[MartinW]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

I've bought the ACA1233n-26 last week. It's a great accelerator. No issues at all. Plugged it in, everthing i've started worked perfectly fine (mostly WHDLoad games and demos).

Any chance you could try this demo for me please?:
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=402

Run it all the way to the end and let me know if it gets stuck anywhere - for me it gets stuck on the spinning ball with lights coming out of it, the music progresses but the video does not.

If it does indeed work all the way to the end then I will be interested in what model of motherboard, any timing fixes, what OS and kickstart. Thanks.

[EDIT] PS: I ask because I have the older ACA1233 and I'm starting to find a few things that don't work unless I take it out and replace it with an old card from the 90's that just has 8MB and an FPU, no CPU. This demo is one of the most obvious that does not work

[tech3475]

Originally Posted by MartinW

Any chance you could try this demo for me please?:
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=402

Run it all the way to the end and let me know if it gets stuck anywhere - for me it gets stuck on the spinning ball with lights coming out of it, the music progresses but the video does not.

If it does indeed work all the way to the end then I will be interested in what model of motherboard, any timing fixes, what OS and kickstart. Thanks.

[EDIT] PS: I ask because I have the older ACA1233 and I'm starting to find a few things that don't work unless I take it out and replace it with an old card from the 90's that just has 8MB and an FPU, no CPU. This demo is one of the most obvious that does not work

With the 1233n at least, you can disable the CPU if you have compatibility issues:

Some software does not like accelerated execution. For these cases, the ACA1233n can be switched off in two steps: The first step is to switch off the 68030 CPU and give control to the CPU of the host computer. On an A1200, you can still use 9MBytes of fast memory, which are also auto-configuring. The second step is to switch off additional memory as well, getting the computer into it's stock state. If used on an ACA500 or ACA500plus, memory can NOT be used by the 68ec000 processor.

If software is not compatible with 32-bit memory, Z3 autoconfig or newer Kickstart version, the ACA1233n allows downgrading to Z2 autoconfig, older Kickstart versions and also lets you switch off the so-called "trapdoor memory area". The MapROM function is even available on an A1200 if the 68030 CPU is switched off! This will let you use different Kickstart ROM versions without opening the computer and exchanging ROM chips.

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA1233n

[MartinW]

Sure, but you can't do that with the 1233 (the one I have). Hence just curious if "out of the box" (ie, CPU and memory enabled) it works for the newer 1233n. I can disable it altogether via a jump but then there is no fast mem and that's no good.

Sorry, I know it's a little OT for this thread, but I'd just like to know if this particular software works with this newer accelerator and there are people in this thread that have the card.

[tech3475]

Originally Posted by MartinW

Sure, but you can't do that with the 1233 (the one I have). Hence just curious if "out of the box" (ie, CPU and memory enabled) it works for the newer 1233n. I can disable it altogether via a jump but then there is no fast mem and that's no good.

Sorry, I know it's a little OT for this thread, but I'd just like to know if this particular software works with this newer accelerator and there are people in this thread that have the card.

Sorry, it was meant more for your knowledge.

I just tested Nexus with my 1233n-40mhz.

With the 68030 enabled it got stuck at the spinning ball, but with the 68030 disabled but expanded memory enabled I was able to get past it and it seemed to run fine.

Configuration:
Classicwb
Kickstart 3.1.4
timing fixes- none
Motherboard- 2B

[MartinW]

Ah, cool! At least that tells me that it's not my specific card as you're getting exactly the same as me. Thanks.