New product: MNT ZZ9000

[Daedalus]

No, the PCI ports on the Mediator replace the ISA and video slots normally found there. The functionality of those slots is removed from the busboard entirely - you can't get it back from the PCI slots at all, so you can't use the AGA pass through. You need a working video slot to get the AGA signals from the motherboard.

[starship]

Hmm I must choose aga pass through or mediator.
Or waiting vampire4000.

[-Acid-]

Wow 10 months and still OP'er hasn't replied to a single post on here. Is this project going anywhere?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by -Acid-

Wow 10 months and still OP'er hasn't replied to a single post on here. Is this project going anywhere?

These two feeds are the ones to follow:

https://twitter.com/mntmn
https://mastodon.social/@mntmn

[Daedalus]

Indeed, he's not regularly on this forum, but the above feeds or a1k.org are regularly updated. As it happens, just a few minutes ago he posted a video on Twitter of the card running an RTG Workbench, then seamlessly switching to a scandoubled WHDLoad game screen. Looking very promising!

And, even though it's slow progress, this guy has a very good track record of delivering what are ultimately hobby projects.

[stevelord]

Doesn't look that slow. He's not far from a final board. I pre-ordered, really impressed with what I'm seeing.

* Seamless switching between AGA and RTG: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129344488630095873
* Network stack is working: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129514884218142720
* AWinQuake: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129521974160646144

Hopefully we'll see this by the autumn. I imagine he'll probably want to do another run before manufacturing.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by stevelord

Doesn't look that slow. He's not far from a final board. I pre-ordered, really impressed with what I'm seeing.

* Seamless switching between AGA and RTG: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129344488630095873
* Network stack is working: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129514884218142720
* AWinQuake: https://twitter.com/mntmn/status/1129521974160646144

Hopefully we'll see this by the autumn. I imagine he'll probably want to do another run before manufacturing.

looks great but for me I already have the VA2000 and CX boards which already let me switch between AGA and RTG seamlessly and already have an X-Surf 100 working great in my A4000 so can't justify upgrading to this new card just yet

[Jope]

.. but the CX2000 doesn't do the entire AGA colour space. You're switching between many shades missing and RTG. :-)

[IvanEBC]

Originally Posted by Jope

.. but the CX2000 doesn't do the entire AGA colour space. You're switching between many shades missing and RTG. :-)

Yeah, and this is alot to spend to gain the colours back. I wish the CX had an upgrade option or just re-release it so the rest of us who already paid alot for the VA2000 and the CX upgrade, could have the same features too. I don't need Ethernet etc, i just wanted my colours back.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by IvanEBC

Yeah, and this is alot to spend to gain the colours back. I wish the CX had an upgrade option or just re-release it so the rest of us who already paid alot for the VA2000 and the CX upgrade, could have the same features too. I don't need Ethernet etc, i just wanted my colours back.

I don't know, I mean that's like complaining that old A2000 flicker fixers didn't work with the full AGA colorspace in an A4000. Maybe it could be fixed in a core update, but if they just didn't budget for the extra bits for AGA support on the MNT VA2000 board then it's not a software fix. If that's the case it's probably not practical other than to rebuild the VA2000 to account for the extra bits-which would cost almost in the same neighborhood as the new board which has all the extra nice stuff on it.



Was the VA2000 advertised as supporting the whole AGA colorspace when you bought it, or ambiguous that it might?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Was the VA2000 advertised as supporting the whole AGA colorspace when you bought it, or ambiguous that it might?

There was never any implication given, that the full AGA colourspace would be supported.

One of the reasons why I never bought one back then, along with Zorro II speeds. Looking at the info page now, it mentions Z3 though. Perhaps I remember wrong or perhaps Z3 support arrived later.

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by Jope

There was never any implication given, that the full AGA colourspace would be supported.

One of the reasons why I never bought one back then, along with Zorro II speeds. Looking at the info page now, it mentions Z3 though. Perhaps I remember wrong or perhaps Z3 support arrived later.

The va2000 was originally made for A2000, the other machines and Z3 was a bonus at a later stage afaikr.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Marlon_

The va2000 was originally made for A2000, the other machines and Z3 was a bonus at a later stage afaikr.

Did/does the VA2000 actually run at Z3 speeds or just use more of the onboard RAM in a Z3 slot? I recall asking in the old thread for it and someone said something along the lines of "it just means it also works in Z3 slots." It says it gives you 32MB in a Z3 slot but I'm just wondering if the throughput is actually you know at Z3 speeds >10MB/s instead of the 3MB/s of Z2.

[ProfPlum]

This is an impressive looking card. I can't find any info on minimum requirements.

I.E. Kickstart/WB version, RAM, does it need an accelerator or a bare bones A2000 will do, etc ...

[Locutus]

Picasso96 requires a 020 at minimum, but even disregarding that i dont know useful RTG etc is with a plain 7MHz 68000......

[ProfPlum]

The ZZ9000 has started shipping (in fact, I should be receiving mine sometime soon).

I am curious if anyone with an A2000 has attempted to use this with a Vampire?
(Vampire for the accelerator, ZZ for the rest)

[stevelord]

Mine is due this coming week but I won't have time to do much until October due to house problems and A4000 problems.

One thing I'm really looking forward to is allocating more RAM via Z3 and coding to use the A9s to hand off media processing (e.g. MP3 etc).

[Mark sealey]

What zorro II space does this card take up ?

[johnnybarker]

Mine has arrived! Looks amazing. Will install at weekend and feedback.

[-Acid-]

When will the 2nd run be available and can it be pre-ordered or is there an orderly waiting list or anything along those lines?