Apollo Team announces the Vampire V4

[Lord Aga]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I hope someone does replicate it and implements the missing features, I would be interested then.

I heard it was a fifteen-minute job. So we can expect those to pop up any moment now.

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I see problems in the future though, now it has gained traction law suits are on the possible horizon.
They could be safe on the 68k side but by implementing AMMX they're stomping in to Intel territory and that is very dangerous ground. Only recently Intel fired a warning off at Microsoft over it's ISA on Microsoft ARM features.
It could be time to stock up on popcorn.

I think you should report them to Intel. Or better yet, file a lawsuit yourself in Intel's name. Then you can enjoy munching on your popcorn knowing you did your duty.

[danwood_uk]

Originally Posted by kolla

Friday last week on the Retro Hour, they talked about Vampire V4, the Apollo project, and how it now has its own operating system called ApolloOS. So they, who have kinda been aboard and reporting on this project for years, made the absurd assumption that ApolloOS is somehow related to the Apollo project. Well, I laughed

I must have missed the part where we did that?

All I can hear is Ravi saying

"I've even got ApolloOS at the moment, which is an operating system build that seems to work for it".

I don't think we implied it's in anyway an official endorsed release, as we both know it isn't.

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

I heard it was a fifteen-minute job. So we can expect those to pop up any moment now.



I think you should report them to Intel. Or better yet, file a lawsuit yourself in Intel's name. Then you can enjoy munching on your popcorn knowing you did your duty.

Screw you! Arrogant sod. Who said anything about reporting anybody? The fact remains it's a possibility, Intel aren't known to sit on their laurels over their IP.
It could happen, it might not. Personally I don't care, but the fact remains.

[coder76]

I'm not an expert on these patent issues, but US patents are generally valid for 20 years. Intel MMX is over 20 years old technology, so it is not covered by patents any longer. SSE is newer, and is still covered by patents. A reason maybe why Apollo team chose to postpone FPU and SSE.

[frank_b]

So what is the status at the moment? Is manufacturing being done by someone else? What impact does kipper leaving have?

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by frank_b

So what is the status at the moment? Is manufacturing being done by someone else? What impact does kipper leaving have?

Majsta has a manufacturer near him doing the job. Kipper was going to make the A600 adapter for the v4. That's on hold for now.

[Sinphaltimus]

And now (Goldv2.7) it can rom switch.

[ Show youtube player ]

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

And now (Goldv2.7) it can rom switch. :

MapROM. All (good) turbo cards can do that.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by alexh

MapROM. All (good) turbo cards can do that.

And now the Vampire can as well instead of keeping you locked to 3.1.

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

And now (Goldv2.7) it can rom switch.

[ Show youtube player ]

Really looking forward to this. What wasn't shown in the video, and what I'm not clear on, is if you can maprom a 1.3 kickstart ROM, reboot the Amiga and it will automatically boot to the 1.3 kickstart screen instead of the hard drive. You can do this with ACA cards I have. I'm assuming you'll be able to do this but if someone can shed some light that would be great.

[talybont]

Originally Posted by sean_skroht

Really looking forward to this. What wasn't shown in the video, and what I'm not clear on, is if you can maprom a 1.3 kickstart ROM, reboot the Amiga and it will automatically boot to the 1.3 kickstart screen instead of the hard drive. You can do this with ACA cards I have. I'm assuming you'll be able to do this but if someone can shed some light that would be great.

The 1.3 rom they used in that video included scsi.device, so I guess you just need to use a rom without scsi.device and it won't boot the harddrive (or even know it's there).

[Sinphaltimus]

This video of course is probably more technical than what the final will be. I'm guessing because when femu came out, it was a manual install, manual execution and manual quit. In r43 of apollo os, it's a tiny app (menu radio buttons).

So I'm inclined to think the video is just demo'ing some of what can be done. I think and hope that when it's ready, there will be an application to drive the options and configurations for many different setups.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by danwood_uk

All I can hear is Ravi saying

"I've even got ApolloOS at the moment, which is an operating system build that seems to work for it"

I don't think we implied it's in anyway an official endorsed release, as we both know it isn't.

Maybe it's because there are ways to interpret "work for it", and especially what "it" refers to. What I heard was "a distro that works for the project", implying that whoever is doing ApolloOS, is doing it (working) for the Apollo project, and hence implying endorsement. Is that perhaps not a natural assumption to make, if one does not follow the soap opera closely? I would at least make sure to point out that it is a "build" that has nothing to do with Apollo Core and Vampire, despite its name, content and function.

[Lord Aga]

Originally Posted by kolla

What I heard was "a distro that works for the project", implying that...

[pandy71]

My 2 cents direct conclusion from this topic: Already Divided before something Happened... great and optimistic... Thumbs up for Apollo and Vampire Team, thumbs down for FUD promoters. To all - have a nice discussion for next few hundreds pages...
Sorry can't resist, my apologies.

[Overflow]

Copy paste from Apollo forum;

http://apollo-core.com/knowledge.php...=9840&z=RZQtVG

It’s been a while since release of GOLD2 in January 2017. Apollo Team has been working hard on different topics in parallel to bring Amiga users a great experience with their current and future Vampire accelerators. Let’s sum up a bit what are working on and what is coming next.


-- GOLD2.7 – « The number after the point » release --

Since GOLD2, lot of work has been made on the 68080 core. Even if we released an experimental and interim build called GOLD2.5 which added support for SDNet and library for developers, core part was still GOLD2.

Right now, Apollo Team is working quite hard on testing GOLD2.7 core which will be a major update since GOLD2. The number is small but the changes are big :
- AMMX2 : AMMX has been improved with a full new set of vector instructions
- Full rewrite of the RTG graphics driver, optimized to get benefits from the AMMX2 instruction set
- Added FastIDE functionnality (to speed up Amiga 600 on-board IDE)
- Added hardware sprites support
- Exec now handles AMMX context switching
- Added MapROM functionnality (brings EmuTOS/FreeMint/AROS for example)
- Added hybrid software/hardware FPU (with help of FEMU)
- Added HyperThreading support
- Added Bn register (E0 to E23: Data registers, fully 64bits, accessibles by AMMX)
- Added vampire.resource for developers
- Added processor.resource for developers
- Added BANK instruction
- Speed up of memory clock frequency

This GOLD2.7 will be the last core before the awaited GOLD3 core and will be released for Vampire 600 V2, Vampire 500 V2 and the upcoming Vampire V4.


-- GOLD3 – Lady SAGA on stage --

In parallel to GOLD2.7, lot of efforts have been put into bringing AGA to the 68080 core. Testing methodicaly every single known AGA games to understand how they work and create SAGA as not only an AGA reimplementation but getting it to the next performance level takes a very very long time.

The beauty behind SAGA is the speed benefit brought by the FastRAM speed to ChipRAM. With GOLD3, any AGA screen is fast. Superfast Workbench in PAL feels like your Amiga was waiting for some new fresh air. GOLD3 removed the handbrake.

GOLD3 will also make life easier for everybody as you will be able to use a single digital cable for both AGA/RTG and audio.

The dream of bringing AGA to all OCS/ECS Amigas is being a reality with GOLD3. Remember when you were young how frustrated you were with your A500 when you couldn’t run an AGA game that your friend with A1200 could ? This time will soon be over.


-- Vampire V4 --

Team work has the benefit to let us have several open tasks at the same time without having to finish them sequencially. Vampire V4 was designed silently by ceaich while work continued on the core side. Announced in August and still aiming for a general release in Q4’2017, the Vampire V4 will be a next step into the further development of a standalone product.

We were very impressed seeing how mainstream IT websites relayed the information. It means a lot for us and we are pretty confident that the product could bring old users back into the Amiga scene. That coverage has put a lot of pressure on our shoulders but is also very exciting as we are discovering new lands that were never explored until now.

Small correction by Henryk Richter

Small correction: The Exec bundled with Gold2 and 2.5 had AMMX context switching already built in.

New is: Our new VampireSupport Kickstart module enables AMMX context switching on the fly. So far, Exec 40 (3.1), Exec 45 (3.9BB2) and Exec 34 (1.3) have been successfully tested with the new approach.

[jediknight]

gold always believe in the gold you got the power of gold your indestructible lol.

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by jediknight

gold always believe in the gold you got the power of gold your indestructible lol.

Took me a little while to work out what the hell you were talking about and what drugs you were on. Then I pulled out my Spandau Ballet LP and it all clicked......

[jediknight]

lol yes i couldn't resist sorry lol .

[Overflow]

While this isnt spesifically V4 related, I post it here anyhow;

Some of you might remember the somewhat (very?) laggy Kioea demo a while back.

Now with updated femu 0.11-WIP) and Gold 2.7.
femu 0.11-WIP is Apollo core optimized version (includes HW 040 and 060 FPU).

Kioea demo;

[ Show youtube player ]

And now for the "benchmark" many use on Amigas; Quake;

[ Show youtube player ]

FYI; I merely copy paste this info from Apollo Forum. Originally posted by Simo/ShK