New product: MNT ZZ9000

[Jope]

Potentially it will. You will probably be the first one to test. It will only work in Zorro II mode.

[Pyromania]

I’m thinking of ordering one of these beauty’s and dusting off my Amiga 3000 to put it in.

[Jope]

Go for it. :-)

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by Jope

Potentially it will. You will probably be the first one to test. It will only work in Zorro II mode.

It would be cool if the firmware could support the double-clocked Z2 mode that some A1200 busboards support.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

It would be cool if the firmware could support the double-clocked Z2 mode that some A1200 busboards support.

Yep, would be nice. This would probably require a separate firmware branch. It's open source though, logic gurus with an elbox busboard feel free to help. :-)

[mnemo]

I should be getting my ZZ9000 I ordered in September for my A3000 this month when batch 6 will finally be shipped. I'm really pumped to finally get the Amiga running with normal monitors and TVs.

[emiespo]

Originally Posted by mnemo

I should be getting my ZZ9000 I ordered in September for my A3000 this month when batch 6 will finally be shipped. I'm really pumped to finally get the Amiga running with normal monitors and TVs.

That’s IMHO the best feature of the board. No hassle, no double cables, great digital output.

Biggest issue is that the switch doesn’t always happen automatically (some non-os friendly games fail, but games starting from WHDLoad always work).
Then it doesn’t support SuperHighres (not a big loss, but VirtualKarting exploits it ahah) and it would be great - imho - if it had a switch for scanlines. That could be done by someone who knows how to change the firmware.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mnemo]

Originally Posted by emiespo

...and it would be great - imho - if it had a switch for scanlines. That could be done by someone who knows how to change the firmware.

So it does NOT show scanlines by default, right? I really, really, REALLY *hate* fake scanlines on retro hardware and software. Brrrr.

[emiespo]

Originally Posted by mnemo

So it does NOT show scanlines by default, right? I really, really, REALLY *hate* fake scanlines on retro hardware and software. Brrrr.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY *hate* VGA-like pixel size on an Amiga native screenmode, given the target device was either a TV or the 1084s, without the PAL/NTSC scanlines everything looks entirely different than what it used to be.
Gfx artists knew that and exploited it in many games.

And they still help on a higher dot-pitch monitor as the M1438 that I used to have

All IMVHO

The Pi-HDMI seems to support them, but I couldn't find anyone showing them on YouTube, just to assess how good/bad they are.

[emiespo]

Originally Posted by emiespo

I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY *hate* VGA-like pixel size on an Amiga native screenmode

Well, VGA-only, DoublePAL, etc... they looked like VGA but all unusable and barely any game could work with them (maybe SimCity 2000, but at a super-slow speed).

[Overmann]

Is there a list of ARM-programs for the ZZ9000 somewhere? I can't find anything but Lukas Hartmanns Twitter regularly teases cool stuff running on the ARM.

[gdonner]

Originally Posted by Overmann

Is there a list of ARM-programs for the ZZ9000 somewhere? I can't find anything but Lukas Hartmanns Twitter regularly teases cool stuff running on the ARM.

Not that I know of; supposedly there are people working on ARM apps, but other than the upcoming firmware v2.0 (release date unknown) that will add the ability to run Linux through the ZZ9000 (among other improvements/features) I honestly have no idea what ARM apps are in development.

It's slow going on the development side of things with the ZZ9000; Lukas has a lot on his plate with the open source laptop, and to my knowledge all other ZZ9000 development is strictly volunteer based.

Your best bet for info is the ZZ9000 IRC channel (below); I haven't been able to get mIRC on my PC to connect, so I've been out of the loop for quite some time now.

#mnt-amiga on irc.freenode.net

[Jope]

The channel is on the https://libera.chat/ network after what happened to freenode.

[Overmann]

Cool! Thanks, I'll check it out.. If I can figure out this IRC thing.

[gdonner]

Originally Posted by Jope

The channel is on the https://libera.chat/ network after what happened to freenode.

Thanks Jope! I've updated the Compendium page to reflect this.

[mnemo]

Just saw this on Twitter... ZZ9000 Price increase and probable delay.

Due to the global semiconductor shortage, I have increased the price of ZZ9000 to 389 EUR (399 EUR for the Amiga 500 version), and out of abundance of caution moved the delivery target of batch 8 to May 2022. I'm very sorry for this. 1/2

We are counting how many of the current orders we can fulfill, evaluate further options and will update you again tomorrow. 2/2

[Source]

[mnemo]

News again from Lukas on Twitter: "We found a supply for key parts and have adjusted our shipping target for MNT ZZ9000 back to the end of this year. To make this work, we have to pay a significantly higher price for parts, so we raised the price of the product by 40 EUR (to 389 EUR)."

Shop page says: "If you pre-order today, you will be in Batch 8, which is planned to ship Nov/Dec 2021."

[videofx]

Thank god I ordered last year. My card just arrived

[mnemo]

In case you missed it, the ZZ9000AX Amiga Audio Expansion is now available for pre-order for €79 plus shipping.

From the page:

ZZ9000AX is the sound module for the ZZ9000 multi-functional Amiga expansion card
bringing your Amiga audio experience to the next level.

High fidelity Analog ADAU1701 audio codec with 28/56-Bit SigmaDSP® processor
16-bit (per channel) stereo sound output at 48000 Hz (DAT quality)
Mix in and enhance Amiga Paula audio and/or analog CD Audio
16-bit stereo sampling
4x RCA connectors for line inputs and outputs
AHI driver
Add dynamic effects like graphic EQ or reverb and create your own DSP programs with
free SigmaStudio software (on Windows)
Active op-amp output filter stages
4-layer design with solid ground planes for optimal signal quality
Open source drivers and firmware, PDF schematics
Additional features and capabilities will be available via ZZ9000 firmware updates
(for example MP3 decompression)
Important: Requires a ZZ9000 card to operate. Includes all necessary cables
and steel slot bracket.

Limited batch 1 presale starting on 2021-08-17 with lower introductory price. 

Estimated to ship December 2021.

[mnemo]

Firmware v1.9 was released last evening. Including new screenmodes, e.g. 2560x1440@30Hz.

https://source.mnt.re/amiga/zz9000-f...-/releases/1.9

Release Notes:

• zzusb.device now in ZZ9000 ROM (Remove Devs:ZZ9000USBStorage.device!)
• Automatic discovery and boot from USB stick partitions (currently OFS/FFS only)
• "Turbo" method of setting up drawing registers now the default (helps with CyberStorm MK1, for example)
• 2 different palettes supported for 8-bit P96 split screen (requires P96 3.1.4+)
• Support for new Multi Monitor feature of P96 by setting DISPLAYCHAIN ToolType of ZZ9000 to NO (requires P96 3.1.2+)
• Horizontal Panning support in RTG modes
• Ethernet negotiation doesn't block boot anymore
• Native Capture: Fix rare Column Swap Bug
• Native Capture: Optional "Non Standard Sync" modes that are closer to the original refresh rate, enabled by setting ENV:ZZ9000-NS-VSYNC. Needs a tolerant display
• Native Capture: Moved all switching (incl. NTSC/PAL) code to vblank interrupt, fixing some RTG/native switching bugs
• INT6/INT2 Interrupts reworked in ZZ9000Net.device to support interrupt sharing with other cards and ZZ9000AX.
• New Screen Modes:
  • 2560x1440@30Hz
  • 1600x1200
  • 720x480
• Fixes compatibility with some displays vs 1.8

Known Problems:

• 256 MB AutoConfig Memory enabled only after first reset
• Autoboot and AutoConfig Memory features can lead to problems with some special Amiga setups. Use alternative firmware versions to disable these. With Autoboot disabled, you can use zzusb.device from Extras drawer in the installer archive.

Important:
Requires new RTG driver version 1.9. Please download and install ZZ9000Installer1_9.lha on your Amiga.