New Vampire Cards: Firebird and IceDragon

[Gryfon]

Originally Posted by wiz12

I wonder what happens now to all those on the waiting list for a V2?

As one of those very people I asked the question myself and Gunnar answered. Those on the V2 1200 waiting list will have priority when the V4 IceDrake orders start.

A good move considering I’ve been waiting over a year.

[wiz12]

Originally Posted by Gryfon

As one of those very people I asked the question myself and Gunnar answered. Those on the V2 1200 waiting list will have priority when the V4 IceDrake orders start.

A good move considering I’ve been waiting over a year.

That is the best thing they could do really considering those on the waiting list have been waiting a year or more so far.

Is there any V4 for the A600 planned? again it makes me wonder what happens to those currently on the waiting list for a A600-V2, will they still be offered one at all?

[utri007]

Originally Posted by spudje

Couldn't they check the name Firebird. I don't think Hese will like this (Firebird is name of Prometheus based PCI daughterboard for AA3000+).

No they woun't, they haven't ever cared that kind of problems.

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by wiz12

Is there any V4 for the A600 planned?

No, there won't be a a V4 for the A600 because apparently the reasoning is that the board would be too large and heavy and therefore would risk levering it's PLCC socket off the 68000 CPU and, in turn, causing contact problems.

Instead an adapter could be designed that would slot onto the A600's 68K CPU and a ribbon cable would go from that to the Firebird. Where you would put the Firebird, god only knows. It's a messy solution and it's unfortunate there won't be an A600 V4.

[IanP]

The A600 was never designed for acceleration unlike every other Amiga. With people removing the 68000 to put internal accelerators in the A500s CPU socket, it's no surprise that people have attempted to upgrade A600s by trying to connect to the surface mounted 68000. This was never a good solution, there is no good way to accelerate an A600, it will always be a kludge. The Vampire 600V2 was a very small and light card but with an HDMI cable exerting forces on it and other issues connection problems are very common and a nightmare to troubleshoot. I'm not surprised that with Igor leaving the rest of the team have little interest in creating a new A600 card.

[IanP]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

To me the Vampire cards are to expensive. The cut down version for A1200 I was looking forward to and would probably purchased. Almost the only reason I would buy a Vampire is for 060 Demos.

With the Icedrake (terrible name that) costing the same as the Vampire 1200 it may see second hand prices fall if people choose to upgrade from the V2 to the V4. I'm not sure how much cheaper a Raptor could have been if all they were doing is removing a few connectors and associated components or were they going with a smaller FPGA too?

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by IanP

there is no good way to accelerate an A600, it will always be a kludge.

Kludge or not, many people have done it with good success.

I for one am very grateful that they produced a Vampire card for the A600 at all. Perhaps in the future they may revisit it once the A1200 market saturates, or they could license the old core to other producers (a way to make money with zero risk?).

I'm not sure how much cheaper a Raptor could have been if all they were doing is removing a few connectors and associated components or were they going with a smaller FPGA too?

I think it could be a lot cheaper without the other bits. The FPGA could be smaller if RTG etc. was not included.

But right now it is probably best to concentrate on the high end. Get that working first and then consider making a cut down version. Even at 550 Euros the IceDrake is still excellent value when you consider what it does.

[Dr_Procton]

Apollo team posted the quarterly release features for the new R7 core.
Interesting things like the Apollo shield and some 3D accelerated AMMX instruction are incoming..

http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=1&note=36169

[blackcornflake]

I'm another who has been on the waiting list for a V2 V1200 for well over a year, and I have to say that the Apollo team's communication and PR has been less than stellar. I only learned about the Icedrake by fluke, as I checked in on their site on the off chance of a V2 status update. I didn't get an email about it, even though they have the emails of everyone on the waiting list.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by IanP

With the Icedrake (terrible name that) costing the same as the Vampire 1200 it may see second hand prices fall if people choose to upgrade from the V2 to the V4. I'm not sure how much cheaper a Raptor could have been if all they were doing is removing a few connectors and associated components or were they going with a smaller FPGA too?

Not sure about this as V1200 cards are pretty rare and the V4 update doesn't really appear to a massively significant update - slightly faster and V4 features promised but is this enough? Feeds into the debate even more of using your Amiga 1200 as a slim client for a V4?

[Neil79]

Sneak peak of the V4 Firebird Accelerator packaging back panel for the Amiga 500, 1000, and 2000 classic Amiga models

https://twitter.com/Indie_RetroNEWS/...99689236451335

[slaapliedje]

So are either of these accelerators going to be able to give native/AGA through HDMI to the A500? I have an A500+ currently in a Checkmate 1500, and really the only thing missing is to have all the video modes to be able to go through the HDMI and AGA support and it'd be perfect! So upgrading from a v2 to a v4 would be a no brainer at that point.

[alexh]

I think they'll have to change their slogan after Emu68K hits PiStorm next year.

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by alexh

I think they'll have to change their slogan after Emu68K hits PiStorm next year.

Agreed. An FPGA is good for chipset implementation but a JIT can outrun a 100 MHz softcore any day.

[kriz]

Yes, you will get native output via the hdmi .. Finally both rtg and native on same input/output To get emu68k at the same compability as the vampire it will take some time I think, but im happy to be wrong

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by kriz

To get emu68k at the same compability as the vampire it will take some time I think, but im happy to be wrong

If it works well AfA OS compatibility is more than good, although I do not see a good speed

[ Show youtube player ]

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by slaapliedje

So are either of these accelerators going to be able to give native/AGA through HDMI to the A500?

Yes. The packaging back panel does say that it will support AGA.

[DiabloV]

Search: Person who managed to run amigaOS 3.2 on FIREBIRD.

[Pyromania]

New Vampires look blood suckley nice!

[OlafSch]

Originally Posted by slaapliedje

So are either of these accelerators going to be able to give native/AGA through HDMI to the A500? I have an A500+ currently in a Checkmate 1500, and really the only thing missing is to have all the video modes to be able to go through the HDMI and AGA support and it'd be perfect! So upgrading from a v2 to a v4 would be a no brainer at that point.

the cards are based on the V4 standalone and include AGA support

if you are unsure about it you can ask on discord or in the apollo forum