Amiga 1000 + Vampire 500 + Pico PSU

[Cooljerk]

I recently had my number come up on a Vampire waitlist and am looking to pop it into an Amiga 1000. I know to some degree the vampire works on an A1000 but I see conflicting information from several years back regarding SAGA and chipmemory and kickstart roms that I'd like to just have cleared up once and for all.


Firstly, my A1000 is a USA model, meaning it has the kickstart daughterboard inside. As far as I know, the Vampire uses it's own kickstart that is read from the SD slot, so the kickstart daughterboard isn't actually used anymore. My question is can I outright remove the daughterboard from my Amiga 1000 now? I bought a Vampire A1000 CPU relocator but I've heard it needs a little extra clearance for the daughterboard. If I could outright remove the daughterboard I'd prefer to do that.


Secondly, I know the A1000 has 512kb Chipmem and that's the major flaw of the machine, but I've read that the SAGA core of the Vampire can access more chipmem? Is this true? Also I've read that I can run AGA applications through the HDMI out of the vampire even on an A1000, is this correct?


One final question -- I want to replace the PSU in my Amiga 1000 with a Pico PSU. I followed this ian stadman's power guide here: http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/am...amiga_psu.html


I see the A1000 requires a special tick line and also draws as much as 8 amps on one line. I went ahead and ordered an A1000 PSU adapter from ian stedman's site: http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/de...x_adaptor.html


I have a 160W Pico PSU and my power brick is 12v16.5a so I think I'm fine on the power requirements. My only last concern is the sites above are concerned with stock systems. This pico psu and power brick will be suitable for a vampire as well, right?


Sorry for the basic questions, I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I poke around in my ancient amiga!

[amiwolf]

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

Secondly, I know the A1000 has 512kb Chipmem and that's the major flaw of the machine, but I've read that the SAGA core of the Vampire can access more chipmem? Is this true? Also I've read that I can run AGA applications through the HDMI out of the vampire even on an A1000, is this correct?

At this stage, full SAGA with; AGA compatibility, increased chipmem, 16bit sound, etc is only on the V4. These features might be backported to the V2 in the fabled GOLD3 core but don't rely on it. As proof of concept, a very early and obselete alpha version of GOLD3 is available to try.

[Cooljerk]

Originally Posted by amiwolf

At this stage, full SAGA with; AGA compatibility, increased chipmem, 16bit sound, etc is only on the V4. These features might be backported to the V2 in the fabled GOLD3 core but don't rely on it. As proof of concept, a very early and obselete alpha version of GOLD3 is available to try.

Do you have any place I could read up on the deficiencies of this old port of Gold 3?

[seb132]

Apollo wiki...

[amiwolf]

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

Do you have any place I could read up on the deficiencies of this old port of Gold 3?

https://m.facebook.com/apolloaccelerators/posts/gold-3-for-vampire-2-status-officially-on-holdeveryone-wants-to-work-on-fpga-cor/2366618656978813/

There are numerous Youtube videos demonstrating an internal beta GOLD3 core on V2 that show its potential. I think an opportunity to address the schism that AGA created in the Amigaverse should not be abandoned. My hope is for the Apollo team to revisit the possibility in the not too distant future.

[Cooljerk]

Originally Posted by amiwolf

https://m.facebook.com/apolloaccelerators/posts/gold-3-for-vampire-2-status-officially-on-holdeveryone-wants-to-work-on-fpga-cor/2366618656978813/

There are numerous Youtube videos demonstrating an internal beta GOLD3 core on V2 that show its potential. I think an opportunity to address the schism that AGA created in the Amigaverse should not be abandoned. My hope is for the Apollo team to revisit the possibility in the not too distant future.

They mention in that post that it's the FPGA size that is the limiting factor and one possible solution is to strip the FPU stuff from their core and release with only AGA compatibility, no RTG, which I'd be fine with.


however, I was asking more if you had any references so I can learn what makes the proof of concept gold 3 core they released obsolete and outdated. Is it general compatibility issues that makes it not viable to actually use? I looked at the apollo wiki and it really didn't mention anything about gold 3.

[amiwolf]

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

They mention in that post that it's the FPGA size that is the limiting factor and one possible solution is to strip the FPU stuff from their core and release with only AGA compatibility, no RTG, which I'd be fine with.

Same here. Although, the beauty of FPGA is you're not stuck with one type of core.

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

Is it general compatibility issues that makes it not viable to actually use?

Yes, that and functionality as well - no FD access for instance. When your accelerator arrives, grab V2 Gold3 from here (click red dash, bottom right corner) and judge for yourself if it suits your needs.

[Cooljerk]

Originally Posted by amiwolf

Same here. Although, the beauty of FPGA is you're not stuck with one type of core.



Yes, that and functionality as well - no FD access for instance. When your accelerator arrives, grab V2 Gold3 from here (click red dash, bottom right corner) and judge for yourself if it suits your needs.

Much appreciate the link, the lack of floppy disk access is kind of a bummer but I'm planning on throwing a CF card inside anyways. I have an A1200 and a CD32 as well, so it's not like I necessarily need my A1000 to do everything, although that would be nice. My main goal is more to just make the gorgeous looking A1000 somewhat functional, I've always thought the A1000 looked the best of any model of amiga but the drawbacks of that model means it just kind of sits unused. Anything the vampire can do to bring that machine more up to speed is a plus for me.



I was reading earlier as well that, this being FPGA, I can just switch between the AGA gold 3 core and the RTG cores at will anyways.


My vampire is actually already here, I have everything I need now to do my modifications to the A1000, I'm just waiting for someone to chime in now about my questions re: pico psu so I don't blow up and kill an old, awesome computer haha.

[manossg]

There is this video that might help.

[ Show youtube player ]

[AMike]

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

from the SD slot, so the kickstart daughterboard isn't actually used anymore. My question is can I outright remove the daughterboard from my Amiga 1000 now?

The kickstart loads from the internal flash of the V2, you can also flash any kickstart you want in the V2. Last but not least you can remove the kickstart daughterboard.

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

Secondly, I know the A1000 has 512kb Chipmem and that's the major flaw of the machine, but I've read that the SAGA core of the Vampire can access more chipmem? Is this true? Also I've read that I can run AGA applications through the HDMI out of the vampire even on an A1000, is this correct?

There is only a old beta AGA core available but it's complete outdated and not full compatible - better you don't use it. This core has also no RTG and FPU support. What you desrcibe counts vor the V4. (stand alone)

[Cooljerk]

Originally Posted by manossg

There is this video that might help.

[ Show youtube player ]

I had actually pulled this up a while back, but good call anyways!

Originally Posted by AMike

The kickstart loads from the internal flash of the V2, you can also flash any kickstart you want in the V2. Last but not least you can remove the kickstart daughterboard.

That's great that I can just pull the daughter board. One less component that can fail over time. I'll just pack it away, thanks for the clarification!

There is only a old beta AGA core available but it's complete outdated and not full compatible - better you don't use it. This core has also no RTG and FPU support. What you desrcibe counts vor the V4. (stand alone)

Sorry to needle regarding compatibility, but to what degree are we talking about? Is the Vampire Gold 3 alpha core's AGA compatibility comparable to, say, the A1200's OCS compatibility?


Just trying to properly adjust my expectations here. Is it something completely unusable?

[Cooljerk]

Hi, I'm planning on actually doing this upgrade this weekend, but I wanted just one more clarification about the daughter board -- a posted above said that the daughter board could be removed if using a vampire in an NTSC Amiga 1000, but in the video linked above regarding someone doing just that, they left the daughter board in.

Just checking -- is anyone entirely certain the daughter board can be removed if you use a Vampire??

[Signman]

I have the American version of the 1000. A while back I put my Vampire in the slot using some riser sockets. No need to remove daughterboard. Everything worked fine except as stated, the 512k chipram limitation.

[bwldrbst]

I have my Vampire in a PAL A1000 with daughterboard. I don't think it's worth going to the effort of removing the daughterboard.

[Cooljerk]

Sorry for yet another reply, but to clarify, I'm not asking if I need to remove the daughter board, but rather if I can. I'd actually prefer to remove it, for the reason Signman said -- I'd need to grab some risers if I don't remove it. I lack risers at the moment, my Amiga is open before me -- is removing the daughter board an option? I'm sort of paranoid that removing it will destroy the machine or something, but I can't fit the vampire and relocator without removing it. As far as I understand, the daughter board was basically a very early example of what is essentially a flashrom, and since the vampire boots to kickstart internally, I figure I don't need the daughter board, right?

[Cooljerk]

Hi,
Sorry for a necro bump, but I wanted to give some info in case anybody ever searches for this topic. After months, I finally set aside time and worked on my Amiga 1000 and found out a few things. Firstly, I indeed used a pico PSU and it works great. The entire Amiga 1000 is way lighter now, because the power brick is external, which I prefer because if it ever blows I can just replace the brick easily.


The more important thing to note, however, is that my USA NTSC Amiga 1000 ABSOLUTELY NEEDS THE DAUGHTERBOARD. I spent a week dinking around with the thing getting black screens and no boots because I originally removed the daughter board. Without the daughterboard, the A1000 wouldn't boot at all. The little blue power LED on the Vampire would turn on, letting me know it was getting power, but I'd get a black screen on both the digital out port and the original A1000 video port. Absolutely no life signs on the entire machine.


But as soon as I popped in my A1000 daughterboard, the entire machine returned to life, and I could see the vampire logo on the original amiga video out.

Soooo... if you're having problems with your A1000 and the vampire, and you're using a NTSC mode, you absolutely must have the daughterboard installed!