Preview: BigRAM 2630, 112MByte for Commodore 2630

[Schoenfeld]

The Commodore A2630 accelerator is very popular with many A2000 users, and I decided to make a memory expansion. Prototype already works; pictures show the working unit with lots of connectors for a Logic Analyzer.

As opposed to the DKB expansion, memory will be auto-configuring. I'm also working on giving it the same 1MByte-MapROM function as my other accelerators.

Users who do NOT use any DMA-capable cards (like A2091 or GVP SCSI) in their A2000 can also add even more memory in the Z2 area. Out of the 128MByte physical memory of the expansion, a few megabytes will remain unused.

The reason why I'm publishing this early is that there are a few 2630 boards out there that have the 32-bit memory connectors fitted on the wrong side (i.e. on the component side). I will be able to cover these, but that's a "built to order" option, only available during pre-order. The price for both versions is the same at 149,94 EUR including VAT, excluding shipment.

Pre-orders will start around the end of july. Products will ship in october 2016.

Jens

[voyager]

Translated: (use the angry voice in your head)

I Jens schoenfeld, savour of the Amiga, and ruler of all that is Amiga hereby declare that you puny little humans now are able to buy my glorious gift to the Amiga community A 112 MB memory expansion.

If you now all bow before your screen you may click on the picture provided and wonder at the marvel I created. If you refuse my team of lawyers will threat you until your hiding under your bed.

My mighty fleet of ships will deliver your order on October 2016.

It's hereby also declared that any kind of headwear is now forbidden with the exception of pink balloon animals.

All hail Jens!

[rare_j]

Yowzers!
I take it he's unlikely to be pre-ordering then...

[matthey]

Originally Posted by voyager

Translated: (use the angry voice in your head)

I Jens schoenfeld, savour of the Amiga, and ruler of all that is Amiga hereby declare that you puny little humans now are able to buy my glorious gift to the Amiga community A 112 MB memory expansion.

If you now all bow before your screen you may click on the picture provided and wonder at the marvel I created. If you refuse my team of lawyers will threat you until your hiding under your bed.

My mighty fleet of ships will deliver your order on October 2016.

It's hereby also declared that any kind of headwear is now forbidden with the exception of pink balloon animals.

All hail Jens!

You could just let the hardware comparison speak for itself.

Schoenfeld 2630 accelerator memory upgrade
112MB memory for 2630 accelerator

vs

Vampire 500/1000/2000
68060 level of performance FPGA accelerator
128MB of memory
RTG with HDMI output
IDE and SD card disk support

The prices should be similar (around 150 EUR). Competition is good. Maybe someone will Clone-A Vampire .

[TjLaZer]

Lol

Will this suffer the same 16bit vs 32 bit problems with SCSI controllers? I could never get my SCSI cards working right with the DKB 2632 card as it needed the 16-bit buffer to run ok.

Would of been cool of this had a IDE port on it

[nikos.rizos]

Ouch! That's a bit harsh, isn't it?

Originally Posted by voyager

Translated: (use the angry voice in your head)

I Jens schoenfeld, savour of the Amiga, and ruler of all that is Amiga hereby declare that you puny little humans now are able to buy my glorious gift to the Amiga community A 112 MB memory expansion.

If you now all bow before your screen you may click on the picture provided and wonder at the marvel I created. If you refuse my team of lawyers will threat you until your hiding under your bed.

My mighty fleet of ships will deliver your order on October 2016.

It's hereby also declared that any kind of headwear is now forbidden with the exception of pink balloon animals.

All hail Jens!

[britelite]

Originally Posted by matthey

You could just let the hardware comparison speak for itself.

Schoenfeld 2630 accelerator memory upgrade
112MB memory for 2630 accelerator

vs

Vampire 500/1000/2000
68060 level of performance FPGA accelerator
128MB of memory
RTG with HDMI output
IDE and SD card disk support

Oh, you mean the Vampire will connect to existing A2630 cards to act as a memory expansion? That's really handy!

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Will this suffer the same 16bit vs 32 bit problems with SCSI controllers? I could never get my SCSI cards working right with the DKB 2632 card as it needed the 16-bit buffer to run ok.

Would of been cool of this had a IDE port on it

Unfortunately, Fast IO (or "any IO") on the memory port is impossible, because the Caches can't be disabled - there is a signal missing on the port to do exactly that.

What you're calling 16-bit memory is probably memory in the lower 16MBytes of address space, which I normally call "24-bit memory" - just because of the number of address bits. Both is correct, as the Z2 data bus width is 16 bits, so this is just my "common use", not necessarily universally correct.

And yes, if your SCSI controller requires 24-bit memory to DMA into, it will have the same problems with BigRAM2630 as with a DKB memory expansion. There are ROM patches for A2091 and GCP controllers to be PIO mode only - not sure if a GuruROM will solve it, but it's worth looking into.

If Z2 mem is not available, the SCSI controller's software *should* automatically revert to using Chipram. This results in slow performance, but it should work. What SCSI controller are we talking about here?

Jens

[yssing]

I think I have found the next bit of Hardware to buy

[Mohican]

Different HWs for different machines or retro goals.
Every HW development are welcome

[Paul_s]

Will the end user have to pay 50euros to unlock each megabyte of RAM?

[matthey]

Originally Posted by britelite

Oh, you mean the Vampire will connect to existing A2630 cards to act as a memory expansion? That's really handy!

Sarcasm? I mean you sell your 2630 for 10 Euros and replace it with a much better Vampire.

Originally Posted by Mohican

Different HWs for different machines or retro goals. Every HW development are welcome

Right. Some folks want slow and reliable Motorola/Freescale inside. Competition and value will determine the winners and losers. A competitor may just suck your sales away because it offers better value is all. I wouldn't be surprised if FPGA sales are sucking customers from certain over priced PPC products as well. Some Amiga manufacturers keep trying to sale into the headwinds and their sales are getting sucked away.

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Will the end user have to pay 50euros to unlock each megabyte of RAM?

It must be pick on Jens day. I'm starting to feel sorry for him now.

[Toni Wilen]

I don't think you get it. It is not about price or anything.

It is about sounding exact same as marketers of those other PPC products, "You must buy and use our hardware, if you want to consider yourself an Amiga user!". I'll say "No!". "We" don't need, care or want it, just leave us alone, don't hijack others threads! Thank you.

[Zetr0]

I really don't get the snide posts / comments and irreverant sarcasm in this thread.

Irrespective of any price structure this is still a useful bit of hardware for A2630 owners and on that level should be celebrated - instead it reads as if the wolves have descended upon the sheep.

There are better ways to air perceived grievance with the developer - to do this upon product announcements is just a cheap shot at best while flippant and essentially rude at worse.

While I don't have an A2360 any more - its good to see the A2000 get some love.

However it is missing a clock port

[britelite]

Originally Posted by matthey

Sarcasm? I mean you sell your 2630 for 10 Euros and replace it with a much better Vampire.

This might be hard for you to grasp, but not everyone is interested in the Vampire.

[dirkies]

We should welcome every new hardware development for the Amiga. Since you're not obliged to buy it, I do not see the point of criticizing it with rude and lame arguments. Grow up or go away.

[SpeedGeek]

First of all I would like to say good work Jens!

All A2630 owners should be thankful that you are willing to support this aging piece of Commodore hardware!

...and it's certainly makes good sense to add some other features not available for the hard to find Access32 and DKB2632 memory expansions as well.

I own a DKB2632 which is extensively modified and I can say this board has some design bugs (combined with other A2630 design bugs) which barely lets the board work at 25 MHz... and overclocking will fail without first fixing these design bugs.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=49229

[Pyromania]

Jens, this sounds like a good piece of hardware.

[dirkies]

Agree. And stop the Jens-bashing to all those trollers, I and many others only have good things to say about him and his products & service. Always top-notch!

[clebin]

Originally Posted by dirkies

Agree. And stop the Jens-bashing to all those trollers, I and many others only have good things to say about him and his products & service. Always top-notch!

It also makes it much harder to raise legitimate complaints (and there are some!) if people continue making random attacks like voyager's and turn it into a playground us and them situation.