A600GS ARM Graphics Library

[amigakit.com]

Full News Release (click here)


Cardiff, 9th March, 2024

AmigaKit Ltd is pleased to announce an important software development for the forthcoming A600GS computer system. The new ARM Graphics Library is pre-installed accelerating the performance of AmiBench and 68K applications.

The ARMgraphics.library was created by AmigaKit's in-house developer to bypass the bottleneck of the 68K graphics functions. It accelerates graphics rendering performance in applications.

AmiBench is pre-installed on the A600GS computer system. It opens the desktop environment in high resolution 1080p with True Colour icons. Now it can use the new ARM Graphics Library for various purposes including faster rendering of windows, icons and backgrounds.

Third party developers can take advantage of this library by using it's powerful functions from their 68K application. It also offers an opportunity for 68K games developers to enhance their games with faster graphics rendering.

The library provides a link between 68K programs and the native ARM processor.

Further work is underway to patch 68K system graphics functions so older applications that are not written to use the ARM Graphics Library can benefit.

AmigaKit has developed AK-Datatypes, Picture Datatype and Datatypes Library over the many years for the Enhancer Software on X5000, X1000 and A1222+. These have been compiled for 68K to run on the A600GS, In addition these system components can also be accelerated by the ARM Graphics Library for extra performance.

The A600GS computer system is due for launch in the second quarter of 2024.

Additional Information about A600GS, AmiBench and it's components can be found on these websites:

A600GS: www.a600gs.com
AmiBench: wiki.amiga.org/amibench

[VladR]

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

The ARMgraphics.library was created by AmigaKit's in-house developer to bypass the bottleneck of the 68K graphics functions. It accelerates graphics rendering performance in applications.

Third party developers can take advantage of this library by using it's powerful functions from their 68K application. It also offers an opportunity for 68K games developers to enhance their games with faster graphics rendering.

1. Is it RTG-based ?
2. Does it support chunky ?

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

The library provides a link between 68K programs and the native ARM processor.

What are the specs (model/freq.) of the ARM CPU ?

[sokolovic]

I was interrested about this A600GS until I knew about what Amigakit was doing to other Amiga oriented websites.

https://wordpress.hertell.nu/?p=953

https://amitopia.com/amigakit-goes-a...iga-community/

And a beige case would have been better

I'll wait for the A500 maxi quietly.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

I'll wait for the A500 maxi quietly.

You'll totally miss out on all the new apps and games that will make use of this amazing technology!

[amigakit.com]

AmiBench's Def Icons rendered in window - accelerated by the ARM Graphics Library:



(click to expand)



@VladR

Yes it is RTG based: P96/CyberGfx API compatible. AmiBench opens in a 1080P 32-bit colour screen.

[pixie]

That's a nice work graphic wise, congrats!

[copse]

I'm a 1.3 look for life person, but for a modern amiga look that looks great.

[Magic]

Great Work - Thank You!

Will the ARMgraphics.library be available seperately or do you need to purchase the A600GS to get it? Any ideas about the price and date available if it is sold seperately?

[BigD]

@AmigaKit

For the good of the community, I guess this is available to licence by the likes of Ami-Jimmy so that AMiNIMiga can benefit from these advances on THEA500 Mini/Maxi? Bear in mind he basically works for beer money though I think he now has a Patreon.

[Locutus]

Why not whet developer appetite with some draft API docs so one can think about what they can do with it?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by TCD

You'll totally miss out on all the new apps and games that will make use of this amazing technology!

Oh yes there must be hundreds already!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Amiga1992

Oh yes there must be hundreds already!

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Magic

Great Work - Thank You!

Will the ARMgraphics.library be available seperately or do you need to purchase the A600GS to get it? Any ideas about the price and date available if it is sold seperately?

It's unlikely to be of any use without the hardware.

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by Dunny

It's unlikely to be of any use without the hardware.

PiStorm?

[BigD]

Originally Posted by Dunny

It's unlikely to be of any use without the hardware.

THEA500 Mini?

[amigakit.com]

@Magic

Thanks.

We will look at developing AmiBench for Pistorm once we have launched the A600GS project.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Gorf

PiStorm?

Originally Posted by BigD

THEA500 Mini?

I'm not sure... why anyone would think that would work at all? I mean yeah they all use ARM CPUs but that has very little bearing on whether or not it would actually work.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Dunny

I'm not sure... why anyone would think that would work at all? I mean yeah they all use ARM CPUs but that has very little bearing on whether or not it would actually work.

It all depends on the ARMgraphics.library implementation and how tied the design is to any HW acceleration. If it is just software, offloaded to a spare ARM CPU then it might work with almost any multicore ARM SoC. If it is HW accelerated a *LOT* of ARM SoCs have ARM GPUs (Mali) and so a few tweaks could make it useable across a range of SoCs.

PiStorm however has a custom GPU not seen anywhere else.

PiStorm.Emu68 has an ethos which means the other ARM processors are not normally available to run native code. That's not to say they can't be... but if a mechanism can't be agreed with the author it might have to be a fork.

Pistorm.Mushashi can make ARM processors & HW (GPU etc) available to Amiga as HW offload. Because it still runs the underlaying ARM OS native ARM drivers for the HW are running and a much simplified software interface can be offered to the emulated 68k. But CPU performance is a fraction of Emu68

[Dunny]

Which is kinda what I was thinking also. The implementation is likely to be exclusive to the hardware, and different versions would have to be written for different platforms to run it.

To be honest, I'm more leaning towards the "make a better p96 driver" for accelerated 2D - the OS will use it without modification and the driver would be optimised for the hardware itself - videocore in my case. EmuTools doesn't currently have any 2D acceleration but the sources do have space set aside for it in the future.

Sure the new lib dicussed here would benefit non-RTG users but 1) no (or very, very few) games will make use of it, and 2) anyone running the kind of desktop that Amikit brings are almost certainly using RTG to do it.

I'm not dismissing this thing out of hand, but I do think there are better ways to do it. Given that, it's almost certain that it will be tied to Amikit and won't be portable - that would defeat the purpose of selling more boxes.

[Promilus]

Wasn't there FBlit for ppl with chipset, fast memory and decent CPU exactly so colorful OS can be made usable and with plenty CHIPRAM to spare? I guess implementing something like that natively on spare ARM core could be better than just adding to the workload of emulated 68k.