Creating a new 020 accel board for A600 (eventually to A500 too)

[rkauer]

Yes.

[Stedy]

Hi,

Bad news I'm afraid. I've finally stopped all work on this project. It had been limping along for a year with too little time devoted to it. Have been planning my projects for this year and basically for a number of reasons I can not continue development.

With limited time available, it has been necessary to concentrate my efforts into fewer projects, most now are non-amiga related. The projects mentioned in this thread are still active, http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53385

Regards,

Ian

[rkauer]

@Ian: any change to pass us the actual development state?

[Magno Boots]

Hi rkauer... any updates as to when this board will be available?

Many thanks
Magno

[rkauer]

This is put to a halt since Jens launched his ACA630.

[Stedy]

Hi,

What stopped this project was the fact that I missed that Freescale had stopped producing the MC68020, MC68EC020 and MC68030 microprocessors. No point continuing development if you can not purchase the CPU. My usual distributors have no stock of the item (Farnell, Mouser, Digikey) and it is not worth paying high prices from some after-market distributors for the Amiga market.

The MC68040 is still listed as available but would be too hot to fit inside the A600 and is hideously expensive at £147 for a 25 MHz part. I can buy a 1 GHz PPC for the same price. No there will not be a PPC accelerator!

This was a nice idea when first looked at back in May 2008 but we should have started procurement of parts then. Such is life.

Ian

[Kai]

Can still get the parts from IC warehouses - although i admit, it's annoying not being able to buy them easily from farnell

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hi,

What stopped this project was the fact that I missed that Freescale had stopped producing the MC68020, MC68EC020 and MC68030 microprocessors. No point continuing development if you can not purchase the CPU. My usual distributors have no stock of the item (Farnell, Mouser, Digikey) and it is not worth paying high prices from some after-market distributors for the Amiga market.

Ian, my friend: we already sourced a huge lot ( = +/- 200 pieces) of 68EC020 pieces for a low price.

Ask Zetr0 about they.

Anyway, making the board with a PGA socket and letting the user to install the CPU later may be a good thing.

[mfilos]

Originally Posted by Stedy

The MC68040 is still listed as available but would be too hot to fit inside the A600 and is hideously expensive at £147 for a 25 MHz part.

Dunno about you guys but the words 68040 and A600 in the same sentence goes beyond the pr0n I can handle...
If only an 060 would be possible for the small beast

Apart from that...
I remember about the LOT of 200+ pieces that Rkauer is telling.

[Kai]

What about full 020's/030's and 68882's?

[rkauer]

If a board get designed using a PGA socket then all you have to do is insert the FULL CORE 020.

A 68882 is a waste of time, almost all Amiga software doesn't need a FPU at all. One game (TFX) and a few render programs and that's it (ImagineFX and the like).

68882 FPU is slow, anyway. Even @ 56MHz. And it is a source of serious heat inside the crammed A600.

Oh, and it heat more current from the poor Vcc leg on the PLCC socket.

[Magno Boots]

Thanks for the update guys..

I didn't realise that Stedy was doing the engineering/designing/programming and rkuaer was sourcing the chips.

I thought it was two different projects.

[Kai]

Looks like Rochester Electronics and a few other suppliers bought the remaining inventory of the 68k's - there's plenty in stock, even a few 68851's

[wXR]

any updates on this project since the chips have been 'found' ?

[rkauer]

As far as I know, we all dropped this design because the availability of the ACA630.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by rkauer

As far as I know, we all dropped this design because the availability of the ACA630.

I'd love you to keep on developing an alternative.
Fúria existed and it was cool, specially because of teh low cost!

Or maybe you can make something for the CD32 because it has no love How about that, a CD32 Fast RAM expansion?

[LePiaf]

Originally Posted by rkauer

As far as I know, we all dropped this design because the availability of the ACA630.

Well, it's not available any longer (and probably won't be in future), so, continue with work, we're (still) waiting

[Stedy]

Hi,

I certainly will not be producing an A600 accelerator or any other model as I currently do not have the time or budget for the project.

The MC68EC020FG16 devices that can be obtained cheaply would be illegal to sell in a product as they are not RoHS compliant. Procuring parts from Rochester Electronics is possible but the prices will be higher. Just checked, can not get a price online.

@Akira

It is not possible to purchase the MCA connectors for the CD32. This has killed any expansion projects for the CD32.

Ian

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Stedy

@Akira

It is not possible to purchase the MCA connectors for the CD32. This has killed any expansion projects for the CD32.

And why would the memory need to be plugged at the back? Maybe there's a way to fit it internally.

[LePiaf]

Originally Posted by Stedy

Hi,

I certainly will not be producing an A600 accelerator or any other model as I currently do not have the time or budget for the project.
Ian

Did you maybe thought of using Kickstart for collecting necessary funds? This of course wouldn't solve time or motivation issue, but if budget is there then you might have more time/will to devote to that project This Kickstart funding might really work, I see that there're lot of (ex)Amigans (including me ) willing to spend quite significant amount of money on these things.

LePiaf