What were A3000's good for?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by alexh

They didnt keep it in the A4000 because the AMBER chip used in the A3000 cannot do AGA (Well it can but it looses half the colours) and commodore didnt want to spin another chip

Mr. Haynie has also been quoted as saying that the reasoning was that AGA can do the doubled modes natively.

The A4000's option jumper block was supposed to have one pin pair for this so that the machine would boot to a doubled mode if jumpered, but the story goes that they ran out of ROM space and had to drop that feature.

[alexh]

If that jumper block still exists, then we can now put that back using Romulus and Remus tools and 1MByte EPROMs

Probably no point.

[Unknown_K]

What do you mean by doubled modes in the 4000?

[Jope]

The AGA chipset can drive a VGA monitor at usable speeds with a decent screen depth. The ECS set couldn't really cut that, even though it can also do doubled modes with the HR Denise.

However this doesn't help much if the machine always boots up into a PAL mode and you want to debug your startup-sequence. :-)

[Jope]

Originally Posted by alexh

If that jumper block still exists, then we can now put that back using Romulus and Remus tools and 1MByte EPROMs

Well the OS3.9 BB2 early startup allows you to switch to a doubled mode IIRC. Of course this isn't automatically on all the time.

[Unknown_K]

Originally Posted by Jope

The AGA chipset can drive a VGA monitor at usable speeds with a decent screen depth. The ECS set couldn't really cut that, even though it can also do doubled modes with the HR Denise.

However this doesn't help much if the machine always boots up into a PAL mode and you want to debug your startup-sequence. :-)

Ok I thaught you meant there was a way to get the 4000 to run VGA at 30Khz like the 3000 could, not double screen resolution.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Unknown_K

Ok I thaught you meant there was a way to get the 4000 to run VGA at 30Khz like the 3000 could, not double screen resolution.

Double scan is exactly that! 31kHz screen modes.

The ECS chipset (full ECS) can also do it, albeit slowly. Try it with an A500+

[Unknown_K]

My A3000 finally showed up this week, 25 Mhz model 2MB chip and 12MB expanded RAM. Its a little yellowed but works (need to replace the battery sooner or later).

I had to completely gut the keyboard (keycaps and all) to wash it.. 20 years of crumbs is not good.

[Ironclaw]

Originally Posted by Unknown_K

I had to completely gut the keyboard (keycaps and all) to wash it.. 20 years of crumbs is not good.

You got yourself a "toaster".

[Chain]

Originally Posted by Jope

Well the OS3.9 BB2 early startup allows you to switch to a doubled mode IIRC. Of course this isn't automatically on all the time.

But you need a mouse click on "Display options..." and on DblPAL button. And its almost impossible when you cant see it

[Unknown_K]

So what are Retina Z2 cards good for?

[Secret Vampire]

Retina ZIIs are good for using up a spare Zorro slot :P

Seriously though, I have one, it can be used in workbench with system friendly stuff using a tool called retinaemu that shipped with it, but, it doesn't do RTG in the sense that most cards do. The general standard AFAIK for Amiga graphics is to have all the memory mapped into ZII address space, so that the RTG software can write to any location directly, however the Retina ZII only offers a 64k window, which Cybergraphx and Picasso96 aren't designed to work with. The ZIII does it the normal way, but as the name suggests, it requires a Zorro III machine.
What retinaemu does is draw the display in chip memory, and copy it over to the framebuffer RAM on the card, but, because you're limited to 2MB of chip, and need it for other things too, it's a delicate balancing act getting it all to work well, and it's slooooow. Some graphics and 3D packages can render in 24 bit to the retina, and I suppose there are image viewers and stuff for it, so it can be useful in those areas. As a general workbench card its only saving grace is that it costs less than half what a Picasso II would, but you'll absolutely need a machine with 2MB chip to make it worth even considering. Allegedly there was an experimental driver for CGX, but it's remained tantalisingly just out of reach for me, I've seen people selling retinas who claim to have it and that it works properly, but none have responded to my requests for a copy of the driver.

[Unknown_K]

I stuffed my Retina 4MB in my A2000 that only has 1MB chipram, the A3000 it came out of has 2MB chipram.

Guess I need to find the beta drivers (think I have 2.3 the last easy to find release)

[Secret Vampire]

Good luck with that, as far as I'm aware they were never released with any version, but as a separate thing (for testing purposes perhaps?). BBoAH says that it doesn't work despite claims to the contrary in CGX promotional literature. There should be an EGS driver for it too, but it's not part of the standard distribution.
Still worth giving it a shot with retinaemu, it will at least get you slightly higher resolutions at OCS/ECS colour depths, with decent refresh rates. Installers heaven has the disks for it.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Chain

But you need a mouse click on "Display options..." and on DblPAL button. And its almost impossible when you cant see it

Actually, there's a shortcut for it..

CTRL-LALT-Backspace-DEL all together will swap the boot menu into a doubled mode. (this from the BB2 readme file, and I just tested it on my A4000)

[mr.spiv]

D'oh.. A3000 is sooo good, except for its internal SCSI and slightly limited space for anything too serious. I still use mine regularly... actually purchased more hw to it recently (new SCSI module, still uninstalled though).