New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[TjLaZer]

I like the flat version. But if you could make it like the Supra 500 RX that would be nice too! Not too tall.

[T_hairy_bootson]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I'll make a special version for the A1000 that also covers the "not enough chipram" problem (2M Chipram expansions are hard to find and fiddly to adjust with their funny PLL solutions).
Jens

Great news, look forward to using this and a blizzard 1230mkIV with an A1000

(or a compatible individual computers accelerator)

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Members of a1k.org thought that white PCB with black print will look better than black PCB with white print. This "white" will not look like the beige of the A500, but more like the white of the ACA1231. Opinions?

Jens

I would just keep in mind what looks better and what is easily repaired.

[Amiga1992]

Jens, is the new batch of ACA620 due some time in March to be the last one? I'd like to get one before they are gone for good.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

...
A1000 is similar to the A500 in it's 86-pin slot, but the ACA500 should not be plugged to it. I'll make a special version for the A1000 that also covers the "not enough chipram" problem (2M Chipram expansions are hard to find and fiddly to adjust with their funny PLL solutions).

Jens

thanks for thinking of our A1000's Jens !!! where do I pre-order

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Akira

Jens, is the new batch of ACA620 due some time in March to be the last one? I'd like to get one before they are gone for good.

Not sure what you mean by "new batch of ACA620" - there has only been one batch, and that's still active. If your reseller told you that there is a new batch, he's wrong. The "Rev.2" which fixes the instability issues is the same hardware, just different CPLD code.

Jens

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Not sure what you mean by "new batch of ACA620" - there has only been one batch, and that's still active. If your reseller told you that there is a new batch, he#s wrong. The "Rev.2" which fixes the instability issues is the same hardware, just different CPLD code.

I meant.. there are none on Amigakit, and Vesalia says "Due March 11", so I thought it was a new production batch.
In any case, I don't want to miss out, now that the expansion works fine.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Akira

I meant.. there are none on Amigakit, and Vesalia says "Due March 11", so I thought it was a new production batch.

Yep, some resellers don't really keep stock and leave all the financial risk up to me.

The card is in stock here:

http://retroami.com.pl/search.php?tag=a600

Jens

[lukassid]

Geeez. Thanks Jens. I'm polish (based in UK) and wasn't aware of that lovely shop.
Thanks a lot.

[Schoenfeld]

OK guys, now I am allowed to bring out the "big news" about the flash contents of the ACA500: It's Kickstart ROM images!

The ACA500 will be delivered with two Kickstart licenses: V1.3 and V3.1. This will let (almost) all A500's out there run the most important software: Some games/demos require Kick1.3 to work, and for WB-based programs, Kick3.1 is the first choice.

The word "almost" has to be explained: the flash chip on the ACA500 is only 512k, and that' not enough to hold both Kickstart images. Only Kick3.1 is in there as crunched image, and Kick1.3 is stored as a "diff" from 1.2 to 1.3. This gives you the following choices:

With physical 1.2 ROM: V1.2/V1.3/V3.1
With physical 1.3 ROM: V1.3/V3.1
With physical 2.0 ROM: V2.0/V3.1
With physical 3.1 ROM: no choice, just Kick 3.1.

This doesn't mean a disadvantage, because you can still load a Kickstart image from CF, so the small size of the flash chip on the ACA500 and the physically installed ROM chip don't actually make a difference.

In addition to that, the FAT95 filesystem will be in the ACA500's flash, so you can use a PC-formatted CF card "out of the box". If that wasn't in the flash, the user would have the task to transfer data (the filesystem) into the A500 before he can use the transfer-method "CF-card". This is a classic chicken-and-egg problem, and the pre-installed filesystem and automatic mounter can break the circle of "you need to transfer data in order to install the transfer method". It will just work without an error-prone installation procedure.

Also check the news on the Hyperion site and my website (does anyone want to make this a separate news item in this forum?)

Jens

[fitzsteve]

Nice features Jens, thanks for the update

[Calabazam]

Will the CF port still work in case of 1.2/1.3 usage?

Beware of the adf of cracked games full of bootblock viruses that would ruin your CF installation.

[tribe]

ACA500 sounds like a great piece of kit!

[elpiloto]

Wooowww really nice new jens, im dreaming with aca500

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Will the CF port still work in case of 1.2/1.3 usage?

The Kickstart version you choose will only give you what it could back then - we will not update Kickstarts (Commodore has done that already). 1.2 does not allow autobooting. 1.3 does allow autobooting, and it will be supported.

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Beware of the adf of cracked games full of bootblock viruses that would ruin your CF installation.

That's as much a myth as the mysterious RTC virus, which survives in the battery backed up clock of the Amiga: Doesn't exist, there is no danger. Bootblock viruses were specifically written to infect floppy disks only. I can't think of any harddrive or CF card that can be infected using trackdisk.device or a track-write using direct Paula register programming. I haven't heard of a "hybrid virus" that also infects RDB, but let's not discuss that here. That's "general Amiga usage" and doesn't have to do anything with my products.

Jens

[paulo_becas]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

O

The ACA500 will be delivered with two Kickstart licenses: V1.3 and V3.1. This will let (almost) all A500's out there run the most important software: Some games/demos require Kick1.3 to work, and for WB-based programs, Kick3.1 is the first choice.

The word "almost" has to be explained: the flash chip on the ACA500 is only 512k, and that' not enough to hold both Kickstart images. Only Kick3.1 is in there as crunched image, and Kick1.3 is stored as a "diff" from 1.2 to 1.3. This gives you the following choices:

With physical 1.2 ROM: V1.2/V1.3/V3.1
With physical 1.3 ROM: V1.3/V3.1
With physical 2.0 ROM: V2.0/V3.1
With physical 3.1 ROM: no choice, just Kick 3.1.

This doesn't mean a disadvantage, because you can still load a Kickstart image from CF, so the small size of the flash chip on the ACA500 and the physically installed ROM chip don't actually make a difference.

Ok, sorry for the question but how do we change the kick roms again???
I never did that through a image.
I have a kickswitcher with Kick 1.3 and 3.1.

Sorry but i'm a little confused about this.

[Coltch]

Looking good Jens

[dJOS]

@Jens Finally some decent features!

Now just make the 4mb ram standard (design your board properly to start with and you won't need to resort to hacks like double-siding) and make a nice matching plastic case and I'll buy one for my 500!

[jbenam]

Awesome news, Jens!

I'm sure I'd buy one if I ever go for a A500 build!

But 4MB should really be standard, since it'll allow pretty much 90% of the OCS WHDLoad games to run with PRELOAD enabled (or I at least think so)

[T_hairy_bootson]

@Jens, Please explain how having kickstart on the flashrom affects A1000 owners in regards to kickstarting from floppy.

edit: Great news about legally obtaining a license to the rom files by the way.