Details for the next generation of Flickerfixers from Individual Computers

[AmigaDave]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

A month since last post (8 of february, 8 of march).
Any news?

I can't remember any time recently that Jens has announced a product that he confirmed he was going to manufacture where he was grossly late in getting it into the hands of the users and his retail partners.

I am sure it won't be more than a month or two more before he releases this product, or tells us about any problems that are causing its production to be delayed.

[Retrofan]

Yes. I remember with the ACA1230/56 in it's thread, at first it seemed it was impossible to have them but after Christmas, and suddenly they appeared in Amigakit. I was really surprised. I hope it can happen the same with the Indivisions.

I got a 1 question. Whether the Indivision AGA MK2 will interfere with Elbox Fastata mk2. Will I be able to install them together ?

[Retrofan]

It seems that IC are thinking (don't know if working) in a new Idefix Express that would work with SATA. Surely that will be compatible with the new Indivision if the Fast Ata won't.

I would like to know any update about this idea too... expected or max speed for example.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

It seems that IC are thinking (don't know if working) in a new Idefix Express that would work with SATA.

Unlikely they can implement SATA in an FPGA/CPLD at a sensible cost. They'll have to include a PATA->SATA adapter chip on their board.

Why doesn't the old IDEFix Express work with the old indivision? Physical size?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by alexh

Why doesn't the old IDEFix Express work with the old indivision? Physical size?

It does.

[Amigaman]

guys, you can't rush perfection, and I think we all agree that is what we want.

I would rather hear little or nothing from Jens, safe in the knowledge he is spending his time well and building us a fantastic new bit of kit to play with.

Jens - I will certainly be getting one of these new cards for my A1200 when they are available, but take your time, and be happy with your product. Thank you for your dedication (Oliver too!)

[magnetic]

Originally Posted by Amigaman

I would rather hear little or nothing from Jens, safe in the knowledge he is spending his time well and building us a fantastic new bit of kit to play with.

Why are amiga people such fanboys that they dont want news of amiga developments? Its been far too long without an update. Please Jens tell us whats up. Thanks

[T_hairy_bootson]

When he has something to tell us I'm sure he will.

[Amigaman]

Originally Posted by magnetic

Why are amiga people such fanboys that they dont want news of amiga developments? Its been far too long without an update. Please Jens tell us whats up. Thanks

As T said, if Jens has something to say he will.

In the mean time, let him concentrate on making the best product he can.

I think a little more positive encouragement will help Jens feel appreciated.

[AndyLandy]

Originally Posted by Amigaman

As T said, if Jens has something to say he will.

In the mean time, let him concentrate on making the best product he can.

I think a little more positive encouragement will help Jens feel appreciated.

Heh, absolutely. Having already purchased an A603, an ACA630 and an X-Surf, I already know that Jens knows what he's doing and we're not looking at vapourware. He'll give us an update in his own good time. For now, I'll continue to sit tight and drool over the prospect of an Indy Mk2 for my A4000 tower.

[Exit]

jens please continue working on my future indivision mk2, and make good price and a LOT of stock so everyone can buy one

[amigarobbo]

You know that the Individual Computers Chameleon 64 beta has been released and is getting extensive tweaking right now. don't you?

[NovaCoder]

One of the most interesting things about the next Indivision AGA will be it's support of Graffiti, for those that don't know much about this graphics mode I've found some blurb about the original implementation here.

1. What it does

Graffiti changes the Amiga bitplaned graphics into a chunky
pixel mode. I.e. one byte in memory represents a single
pixel. The value of a byte selects it's colour. The colour
palette is 256 out of 262144 at a time. Possible
resolutions are 640x256, 320x256, 160x256 and 80x256. In
each mode, 256 colours are available, interlacing doubles
the vertical resolution.

3. System requirements, compatibility, limits

For full speed advantages, AGA Chipset are
recommended. For more speed, accelerator cards with
burstmode fastmem are recommended (ACA?).

Due to the limited bandwidth of the chipmemory, the frame
rate of a motion sequence is limited. At about 7MB/s on
AGA-chipsets using 4 Bpls hires, with longword-access about
74 frames/s can be transferred - more than required. Using
word access, it's reduced to about 37 frames/s, and with
byte access only 18 frames/s are possible, so setting up
longwords in the processor registers or in fastmem is
recommended. (Numbers assuming a 384x256 window). Using
the 160x256 pixel mode or the 80x256 pixel mode, the chunky
buffer is completely linear, so you can access four pixels
in a row with a single longword move.

Colour #0 of the Graffiti (external palette, see further
down) must always be set to black (R=G=B=0), because of some
monitors trying to adapt to a 0- level after Hsync. This
causes vertical brightness fading in the first lines if
colour#0 is not set to black. It's different on different
monitors, so this cannot be used as an effect.

4. Activating the card, word definitions

To activate the card, switch to a hires or SHires screen at
1, 2 or 4 bitplanes, depending on the resolution you want to
display. Set the genlock audio bit to 1, otherwise the
standard Amiga bitplaned graphics will be displayed.

The Graffiti card has got it's own color palette that is
called "external palette" from now on. The Amiga-palette
that is set in denise/lisa will be called "internal
palette".

Choosing 4 bitplanes hires or 2 bitplanes SHires sets the
Graffiti to 320x256 pixel. Setting up 2 bitplanes hires or
1 Bitplane SHires selects 160x256 pixel, and a single
bitplane hires selects the 80x256 mode. The highest
resolution available is 4 Bitplanes SHires, resulting in a
display of 640x256 pixel. The Graffiti is
overscan-compatible, so up to 768 pixel and more than 512
lines are possible (depends on PAL or NTSC modes, interlaced
or non-interlaced).

[AndyLandy]

I'm curious to know whether there'll be any thermal issues with the new Indy AGA. I'd really love to put one in my A4000, but it's a Micronik aftermarket tower jobbie with a huge fat busboard that sits on top of the motherboard, covering (amongst other things) the Lisa chip.

I've heard reports from at least one other source where their Indy AGA overheated and killed itself in this scenario. That would make me sad if it happened, so I'd like to try and avoid the situation if possible.

If there's a sensible way to fit one and cool it, that would be awesome. If not, I guess I'm back to looking for a videoslot scandoubler.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

I've heard reports from at least one other source where their Indy AGA overheated and killed itself in this scenario.

Could you please name that source? I haven't heard anything like this, and it would be especially surprising if a low-power design like Indivision AGA, which does not require cooling at all, would overheat.

Originally Posted by AndyLandy

If there's a sensible way to fit one and cool it, that would be awesome. If not, I guess I'm back to looking for a videoslot scandoubler.

The large variety of features that Indivision AGA offers is partly due to the fact that we have more signals available on the Lisa chip than on the video slot.

However, if it helps your gutt feeling: The next-generation Indivision AGA will be based on an even lower-power FPGA. While the old Indivision AGA uses 2.5V core voltage, the new version uses 1.2V core voltage. And memory is also lower power: Still 3.3V technology, but 65nm process instead of 130nm - resulting in roughly a quarter of the power consumption. This moves the status of Indivision AGA from "no cooling required" to "not the smallest temperature change during operation to be measured".

The one thing that requires cooling is Lisa. She gets quite hot if set to S-Hires modes, which is why the A4000D version had cooling holes added. The same will be done on the next-gen flickerfixers. In some cases, pixel flickeriing appeared during operation, and disappeared when the customer added a fan near those four holes - problem solved.

Novacoder,
Graffiti emulation may not be in the first release of Indivision AGA MK2. However, it's on the wishlist and will be added with a flash update.

Jens

[Xenon]

Thanks for your great work Jens!

Just a question, there will be any firmware updates for the original Indivision AGA?

Regards,

Salva

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Xenon

Just a question, there will be any firmware updates for the original Indivision AGA?

There's currently no bug that I'm aware of - no update planned for those units. If you're asking for Graffiti support: Unfortunately, that's impossible with the kind of FPGA used (too small, not enough memory).

Jens

[TroyDavis]

So... when can we get our hands on a Mk2?

[dannyp1]

My question is will the new Indivision AGA fit with a 1200 keyboard adapter installed in my custom tower. The original one really doesn't fit as it should and I have to use a DCE Flicker Magic instead because it fits fine.