New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[Schoenfeld]

Due to popular demand, we've put a product for the C64 back into production that was previously only available from selected resellers. The PLA chip replacement SuperPLA will be back in stock starting september of this year. The revised edition will be available for 18,90 EUR (*) from all our retail partners.



SuperPLA V3 is meant for repair jobs and can be used in the following computers:

• Commodore C64 (old model)
• C16, C116, plus/4
• Floppy-Cartridge 1551
• Commodore 610
• Commodore 710
• Commodore PET (socket UE5)

The target computer is set by jumpers. The new, much more compact design has the jumpers moved to the back of the board.

Our new accelerator for the Amiga 500 has already been discussed in user forums, but will be released with some changes, so customer demand is met in both price and features. The ACA500 is powered by a 14MHz CMOS-68000 processor with 2MBytes RAM and a mass-storage controller for CF-cards and CD drives. Autoboot from CF-card is possible from Kickstart V1.3 and higher. Thanks to our TrueIDE technology, any CF card can be used, even if the card identifies as "removable device". A CD-ROM drive can be connected to the easily reachable IDE port on the side of the A500.
The relatively moderate increase in speed is enough to run WHDload. For those who want more CPU power, the ACA500 has a CPU-slot compatible with our accelerators for A1200 computers. This makes even our top model ACA1231 available to the A500 computer. The ACA500 will be available from all resellers for 79,90 EUR. We're currently negotiating about including Kickstart licenses into the ACA500, so the built-in flashrom can be pre-loaded with different Kickstart licenses.

Our new ACA1220 is powered by a full 16,67MHz 68020. For the A1200, this card can be considered a 128MByte-RAM expansion, but for the A500 with ACA500, this board is a turbo-tidbit that provides more memory than has ever been offered at this price: The ACA1220 will be available starting from 89,90 EUR.

The ACA1220 can be expanded with a realtime clock. In an A500 setup, the RTC is already located on the trapdoor expansion, so it's not required there. If you're going to use the ACA1220 in an A1200, you can add an RTC for 19,90 EUR (*). Battery is not included.

The RTC-module can also be used with other accelerators or even without an accelerator in an A1200. For example, if you own an ACA1230 and haven't yet equipped it with the hard-to-find RTC chip, this module will solve your problem.


As a replacement for the sold-out ACA630, we'll have a new budget-accelerator for the A600, available in Q4/2012. It will be powered by a 16.67MHz 68EC020 processor and provides the popular maprom function, just like all our ACA cards do: Maprom allows executing Kickstart ROM from fast 32-bit memory, increasing execution speed considerably. The ACA620 provides 9+1MBytes of RAM (1MByte reserved for maprom-function). The target price is 99,90 EUR.


The "big" Amiga models don't have to stand back: We'll have big memory for a small budget soon. The new BigRamPlus offers 256MBytes of memory for A3000(T) and A4000(T). The full-size Zorro-3 card will be available from all Individual Computers resellers at 99,90 EUR (*).


The fine print:
(*)recommended retail price including 19% VAT. Price may differ in your country. Shipping cost may be added.

[kipper2k]

looks like we are getting spoilt .

[Lord Aga]

Whoa, what a set of news.
Wonder how much of a gain we get with ACA1220... Any clues ?

[lolafg]

Great to see a lot of new products , and with good prices

[Retrofan]

Incredible. I was imagining there was something in the wind, but I never could imagine something like " ACA500 has a CPU-slot compatible with our accelerators for A1200 computers".

I have to read this a couple of times.

[duga]

Marvelous.

[johnim]

ACA500 has a CPU-slot compatible with our accelerators for A1200 computers

can you use any 1200 accelerators or just aca line

[frank_b]

Will the 500 unit work with an a1000 too?

[nikos.rizos]

An amiga 500 equiped with an ACA1230/1 with all bells and whistles!

I just died and went to amiga heaven!

THANK YOU JENS!

[Methanoid]

Thank you Jens.. nice timing, nice range....

How will the 16.6MHz 1220 compare to the old Blizz 1220 @ 28MHz - will your superfast Ram trickery boost it enough? Otherwise 16.67 vs 14.3 Mhz isnt a huge improvement? Ram normally just doubles speed without any CPU improvement doesnt it?

I can see an ACA620 being on my shopping list!

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by johnim

can you use any 1200 accelerators or just aca line

I'll only guarantee it to work with my own A1200 accelerators. If it works with others: Good for you! If it doesn't, I can't give any additional support. I mean.. look at the price - it barely covers production cost and only pushes sales of my other products (well, at least that's the plan).

Originally Posted by frank_b

Will the 500 unit work with an a1000 too?

The ACA500 is made for the A500 and comes with an elaborate mounting kit. The board consists of two parts, one that sits in the 68000 socket, and another that contains the accel/CF-slot/A1200 slot. It'll work on a technical basis, but probably not mechanically. However, I still have that open promise of "2MByte chipram for A1000", which I may combine with a nice solution for the ACA500.

Originally Posted by Methanoid

How will the 16.6MHz 1220 compare to the old Blizz 1220 @ 28MHz - will your superfast Ram trickery boost it enough?

The 68020 is much slower on the bus than 68030, so superfast memory won't boost it that much. It will mostly gain from the bare fact that it has fastmem, but other than that, it's more like a memory expansion to the A1200. A rather large one, that is :-) As mentioned in the news item, it's only "turbo" from the A500 viewpoint.

Originally Posted by Methanoid

Otherwise 16.67 vs 14.3 Mhz isnt a huge improvement? Ram normally just doubles speed without any CPU improvement doesnt it?

Yep, that's about it. However, with that much RAM, you can hold lots of stuff in ramdisk and avoid HD-waiting times ;-)

Jens

[duga]

I suppose there's no Ethernet stuff on the ACA500 as it's not mentioned?

[Calabazam]

Awesome.
What is the schedule for all of this?

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by duga

I suppose there's no Ethernet stuff on the ACA500 as it's not mentioned?

Not directly on the board, no. However, the old concept that we discussed in the A1K-thread under "ACA520" (which will not come out under that name!) is still there: The 86-pin side slot of the A500 will be mechanically blocked by two connectors. One is the mentioned IDE, and the other is a fast local expansion slot, which I intend to use either for USB or Ethernet. You might remember that I've bought a Poseidon source code license last year? And that I have the X-Surf in my portfolio? I intend to make something of it

Jens

[duga]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Awesome.
What is the schedule for all of this?

BigRamPlus: "Soon"
ACA620: "Q4/2012"
The rest: One can only guess.

[keitha1200]

Anything with IDE and additional memory for the 500/500+ and is reasonable price is completely 'fantastic'.

A 500/+ with ide, increase in speed and memory: Does make the A600 slightly obsolete 'joking'

[duga]

The A600 is smaller, has at least 1 MB chip mem (compared to 0,5-2 MB in the A500) and has the PCMCIA slot for ethernet.

[keitha1200]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The 68020 is much slower on the bus than 68030, so superfast memory won't boost it that much. It will mostly gain from the bare fact that it has fastmem, but other than that, it's more like a memory expansion to the A1200. A rather large one, that is :-) Jens

Ah the same technical concept as the 030/040 etc acc, and the 020 is acting in the same manner as these other cards as to allow additional memory 'brilliant'

Similar price as a second-hand memory expansion on UK ebay (£50-£60)

[johnim]

thanks jens

[wXR]

Wow, this is indeed awesome.

Jens how far are we from being able to fully emulate chips like the 68020 in very inexpensive FPGAs, to the degree that accelerators at this price range could be built around them?

I know that these cards are mostly targeted at the casual WHDLoad user, but like a lot of people here, I'm sure, I am eager to get more power into these old beats and would be interested to know what speculatively might be in the pipeline someday.