Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Schoenfeld]

I believe that the 68030 is the best compromise between compatibility and speed. Most games don't work with 040/060, so such a "high end" thing would not only be insanely expensive (way more logic and the overpriced CPU itself), but you'd always need a secondary machine with a slower processor. Those apps that really require some CPU horsepower run perfectly (and a lot faster) on emulation.

Remember that these accelerators were created in order to give a descent amount of memory to the Amiga for a reasonable price. Speed is not the target - it's mainly memory. The faster speed is a positive side-effect.

Jens

[DyLucke]

Damnit, it seems we could get better results on the A600 with this new 030 board and Indivision than on an equivalent A1200...

Lucky A600 users.

However i would buy one A1200 030 board.

[Leffmann]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Remember that these accelerators were created in order to give a descent amount of memory to the Amiga for a reasonable price. Speed is not the target - it's mainly memory. The faster speed is a positive side-effect.

I don't know much about these things, but wouldn't it be cheaper to use the 25 or 33 MHz 68020 if the card is primarily meant to be a memory expansion?

[Retro-Nerd]

Then you get probably problems with the PCMCIA port, if you use more than 4MB.

[babel2k]

go jens go!

why dont you choose a PCB color to customize your good AC cards?

just a question about HD/CF card integration with your ACA, what about customer who like me already have a IDE to CF adaptor (soarland, addonics)?
can you insert multiple holes to clip the best selling?

thanks for good hw for good computer

[Leffmann]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Then you get probably problems with the PCMCIA port, if you use more than 4MB. What's the 68020 address limit, 8 or 16 MB fastram?

Yes but I mean the full 68020 with 32-bit address bus, not the 68EC020 with 24-bit bus.

[Khyron]

I think he mentioned somewhere he had stock of the 030's from the older ACA630 product.. even then new stock from a supplier for a PGA '020 at 25mhz is around twice the price of of the same speed PGA '030

These parts are all EOL so pricing doesn't follow what you think it would be.. just take a look at the any disti and see..

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by babel2k

why dont you choose a PCB color to customize your good AC cards?

Not sure what you mean - the A1200 cards are white, the A600 cards are black. Isn't that "customizing" enough?

Originally Posted by babel2k

just a question about HD/CF card integration with your ACA

There is no integration like that. The card(s) do NOT come with a CF-IDE adapter. You will have to supply your own. The A600 case does NOT close if you use a standard harddisk.

Jens

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Leffmann

I don't know much about these things, but wouldn't it be cheaper to use the 25 or 33 MHz 68020 if the card is primarily meant to be a memory expansion?

I'll think about that once the "fair prices" for 68030 are over and I have to look at other sources. The 020 has almost the same bus interface, but no data cache, no burst and no syncronous data transfer. This makes it substantially slower. Since the price of the logic and the memory is the same, I thought that I'd go for the "faster side-effect" :-)

Jens

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by DyLucke

Damnit, it seems we could get better results on the A600 with this new 030 board and Indivision than on an equivalent A1200...

Only on ADoom. For the rest, the A1200 still has a lot of advantages.

Jens

[babel2k]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Not sure what you mean - the A1200 cards are white, the A600 cards are black. Isn't that "customizing" enough?

yes that's true
I mean that you can use for example black for all A600 pcbs like Indivision ECS (not sure if it is black) and A603 mem expansion (i know that is green)
maybe for next prodution batch
but this is only my humble suggestion

There is no integration like that. The card(s) do NOT come with a CF-IDE adapter. You will have to supply your own.

ah, ok i misunderstand!

The A600 case does NOT close if you use a standard harddisk.
Jens

sorry I wrote HD but I refer to CF (that is awesome!)
ciao

[TronPlayer]

Sorry but I'm trying to understang this new 30 card for the 1200. It is not going to provide much of a speed boost, only memory expansion? I've been looking for an accelerator so I can run games and CWB 3.9 at a good speed. Is this not the card for me? Thx

[T_hairy_bootson]

@TronPlayer: he said the memory expansion was his main goal and the speed boost is a bonus positive side effect

So yes you would get both with these new 030 cards.

[TronPlayer]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

@TronPlayer: he said the memory expansion was his main goal and the speed boost is a bonus positive side effect

So yes you would get both with these new 030 cards.

Thanks for the reply. Also, do you know if this card will allow simultaneous pcmcia access for CF cards, network cards etc?

[Schoenfeld]

Both cards are PCMCIA-friendly.

Jens

[khph_re]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I believe that the 68030 is the best compromise between compatibility and speed. Most games don't work with 040/060, so such a "high end" thing would not only be insanely expensive (way more logic and the overpriced CPU itself), but you'd always need a secondary machine with a slower processor. Those apps that really require some CPU horsepower run perfectly (and a lot faster) on emulation.

Remember that these accelerators were created in order to give a descent amount of memory to the Amiga for a reasonable price. Speed is not the target - it's mainly memory. The faster speed is a positive side-effect.

Jens

That's a shame :-( , a lot of us already own 030 accelerators. For new users who are looking for a cheap accel/memory combo, these cards are great. For existing 030 owners, not so much of an upgrade.

As for emulation, what applies to apps, also applies to games. Those of us who own real amigas and are looknig for accelerators, are generally looking to go as fast as we can.

When it comes to 030 being more compatible, I thought WHDload fixes a lot of those problems?

[fitzsteve]

I also think a faster 060 accelerator would be welcomed and sell very well. So many people want to upgrade their Apollo's to 060 and Blizzard 1260's always sell quickly so there is definately a market.

I would love a 100mhz+ 060 that supports faster Memory, I think that would awesome and if such a project was viable I think it would be successful. And bolt some kind of RTG/Indivision onto that and you'd be onto a winner.

As far as I can see you have two types of user here, those who want a basic WHDLoad machine and those who have an upgrade bug who just want to push the limits of what is possible with these machines.

Steve.

[Predseda]

I am GLAD for any accelerator, even 020. It is highly welcome. There is a lack of accelerators, only some overpirced 15 years old ones. People, Jens tries to invent something wonderful for us, Amiga community, so please keep your comments "it would be better to..." only for yourself. Thank you.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I am GLAD for any accelerator, even 020. It is highly welcome. There is a lack of accelerators, only some overpirced 15 years old ones. People, Jens tries to invent something wonderful for us, Amiga community, so please keep your comments "it would be better to..." only for yourself. Thank you.

I didn't say my suggestion was better, or that the project Jens is working on is wrong. But this is a forum after all so why keep suggestions to our selves?

I think its great Jens is working on these projects and bringing new upgrades to our classic systems.

But telling us to keep our opions to ourselves I think thats a bit silly since the idea of this thread is to provide feedback.

Steve.

[Predseda]

I would like to express my full support to Jens' awesome work and I will buy at least one of those three cards, possibly two. BTW that was not against you, fitzsteve.