The Vampire II has had a GOLD3 core ALPHA released!

[Mikerochip]

Does deserve it's own thread?
Not sure!
Mods feel free to merge it or move it!


It's AGA over HDMI!! Aon an A500 and A600!!!!!



Be aware though, anyone that wants to try it out, it is an Alpha,
and doesn't have RTG or FPU in this test core.


There's also problems with the floppy and, audio is only out through HDMI, so, if you're using a monitor with no sound, you'll need a HDMI audio splitter.



From the Apollo Core Forum:
http://apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=6&note=17275

[kolla]

I am actually surprised about how alpha this is, after years of gold3 aga previews on YouTube I expected it to be much more finished - this makes the AGA implementation on MiSTer shine in comparison.

[talybont]

Hopefully you can help them with your expertise, then all can benefit.

[Locutus]

Originally Posted by talybont

Hopefully you can help them with your expertise, then all can benefit.

Oh yes, from where can i git clone?

[kolla]

There is nothing anyone else can contribute, as they don't allow anyone else near their FPGA implementations. All experts have already been shun away.

[demolition]

I continue to be amazed at how negative many people can be.. The Vampire team provide a great product with free updates and even allow people to test new functionality in an alpha release and the comment from many people is simply 'I want more'. Well, you already got what you paid for so you deserve nothing and should treat every new thing as a gift.

[idrougge]

I think this negativity is well outweighed by the sheer blue-eyed optimism of people who have bought a product based on future promises.

[nexus]

free updates? more like free beta testing for them i think its even
nothing is free
if it wasnt for all these people testing out there unfinished code they wouldnt be as far as they are
now
and speeds up anything else they are working on getting ready to sell

[demolition]

So they should work countless hours without getting paid to provide regular free updates with new features which are all 100% tested and working perfectly to a piece of hardware which they are basically selling at cost price?

[nexus]

they are getting paid by making hardware
updates are fixing a lot of whats wrong with it
and they get to have free testing to correct there mistakes and also used towards selling new hardware in next revisions
everyone is a beta tester for this project that reports what works and what doesnt
they couldnt test all that without the users testing shit tons of software
just remember many customers have put years into testing for them

also they are not selling at cost price lol not even close with that nonsense

[DamienD]

Sounds like the Micro$oft strategy; yet at least this isn't being enforced...

Anyway, again we are getting way off topic so this direction of discussion stops here.

[Mrz]

the vampire is a scam is basically a software emulator inside a normal Amiga
uses the FPGA to emulate all: graphics, video output,cpu, sound output, hardisk etc

The vampire is basically a minimig inside an Amiga which takes control of everything, leaving the original hardware blocked and unused with the exception of the keyboard

if I did not have an A1200 I would prefer the use of winuae which is far better and faster, and allow the use of screen filters etc
and above all, it's free

[Mikerochip]

Originally Posted by idrougge

... the sheer blue-eyed optimism of people who have bought a product based on future promises.

This. This is me.

I was just so impressed an A600 would have / will have / sort of already has AGA!
Of course, I based this off the fact that I'd never have an AGA machine, and now I have an A1200.

My A600 is currently dead, so, no Vampire loving for me

[Paulee_Bow]

Originally Posted by Mrz

the vampire is a scam is basically a software emulator inside a normal Amiga
uses the FPGA to emulate all: graphics, video output,cpu, sound output, hardisk etc

The vampire is basically a minimig inside an Amiga which takes control of everything, leaving the original hardware blocked and unused with the exception of the keyboard

if I did not have an A1200 I would prefer the use of winuae which is far better and faster, and allow the use of screen filters etc
and above all, it's free

I don’t want to get into an argument on the Internet, but it’s commonly understood that FPGA is not emulation, which is the clever use of software to mimic a hardware system.

FPGA is the constant reconfiguration of a highly configurable chip, it actually physically“becomes” the hardware, and behaves in exactly the same way with the same physical connections.

That said, I wish they’d give the option to leave Paula alone, I like my Amiga sound untouched.

[nexus]

actually its impossible atm for it to be physically the same
it does emulate the way it physically works but since this isnt even a real 68k of any known kind it is different all together
and basically in the end your real amiga is just a keyboard as everything is happening on that PCB not just a CPU

[Dunny]

I always understood emulation to be a piece of software that executes code from another architecture by translating instructions from that software into instructions for the host to execute, trapping or redirecting things like memory or i/o accesses to provide visual/auditory feedback or grant access to files (such as floppy or hard disk images) on the host system's storage.

The FPGA is not an emulator, as there is no host running translation software.

Now you can argue that it's not an Amiga because it doesn't run a recognised 68k architecture until the cows come home - I've not seen anyone on here yet pin down what is and isn't an Amiga as the definition varies from person to person. But it's most certainly not an emulation.

[nexus]

you are talking about software emulation not hardware a FPGA is this case is trying to emulate 68k internals the way it does in reality or on paper but this has been heavy modded itself why they call it 68080

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by nexus

you are talking about software emulation not hardware a FPGA is this case is trying to emulate 68k internals the way it does in reality or on paper but this has been heavy modded itself why they call it 68080

An FPGA has a mutable system that lets you construct the gates and transistors in a CPU without having to commit it to silicon in the same way as a regular CPU. I'm having difficulty seeing where emulation comes in here, as it literally is a CPU, with some shared commonality with other flavours of the 68k family.

That's... really not emulation.

[nexus]

so you dont see how you could use the above to emulate a 68k? it can never be a real ASIC 68k so it is emulating it

before power on the FPGA is blank till some software tells it how to configure its special hardware inside to act like something else whatever that may be

so it is not a CPU of any kind unless something tells it to be
but this isnt just emulating 68k but also other amiga chipsets

[demolition]

Originally Posted by nexus

they are getting paid by making hardware
..
also they are not selling at cost price lol not even close with that nonsense

I seriously doubt they are making much money on the Vampire boards. Doing a small scale production like that is not cheap and carries a lot of risk. They are surely not doing it for the paycheck as it is ridiculously low. The main 'paycheck' is the IP that is the Apollo core, but the question is whether it will ever make it into a product that will make any decent money.

Originally Posted by nexus

so you dont see how you could use the above to emulate a 68k? it can never be a real ASIC 68k so it is emulating it

A 68020 also emulates a 68000 since it is not a real 68000 and so what?