Terrible Fire 534 68030 board.. question

[project23]

I'm sure there's fastram with the pistorm, correct me if i'm wrong?

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by Malakie

For me the other question is the graphics output.. does it allow for both Amiga and HDMI video at the same time? I hate emulator video output because there is no aliasing and everything looks blocky, especially text, when compared to standard Amiga video output.

Well, AFAIK it's one or the other at the moment. That being said, updates could change that of course, who knows? I see no reason why that shouldn't be possible with the right drivers etc.

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by project23

I'm sure there's fastram with the pistorm, correct me if i'm wrong?

Yes there is; the Pi3 A+ for example, has 512 MB onboard; it's able to use 136 of this as fastram on the Amiga.
EDIT: It seems it's "only" 128 MB (in the Z3-space). So it's probably if being used alongside 8 MB in the Z2 space. Still, that's far beyond what I'd ever hoped for on my CDTV. :-D

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by Malakie

Ok, so you mean it is literally running emulation software ON an actual Amiga? I.E. bypassing the hardware pretty much to process whatever you run on it?

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of the actual Amiga hardware if you are installing an emulator inside that takes over the work?

Well, only partially. I think it's somewhere between a Vampire and a plain accelerator; it still uses Denise, Agnus, Gary and all that stuff and it's main purpose is to pretend to be a Motorola 68k xxx CPU, but with the ability to use the onboard RAM, Wi-Fi,HDMI, USB port and SD-card slot.

What really makes this one stand out from other accelerators is the ability to have the entire range of CPU's and kickstarts merely by changing the config and reboot, and of course, the ability to plug it into many different models, be it a 500, 600, 1200 or CDTV for example (my own is a CDTV, and that complicates certain upgrades).
I just bought a TF534, and then I ran into this one... still haven't had success with the TF in my CDTV (seems to be the KS3.2 or extended ROM 2.30, which causes it), but the Pistorm installation should be successful.

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by Chucky

it is RTG output.. nothing else. I think they are working on a scandoubler-addon?

Apparently you can use the Amiga's RGB output, too; RTG is just an option with the Pi. Anyway, since people mention incompatibilty between the TF's and SCSI cards, hmm I don't know... I like using my Ultra Wide SCSI drives with the CDTV, and it seems the Pi will be compatible with respect to that. I should soon be able to install and test it, then I'll report back with my experiences with a CDTV-accelerated Raspberry Pi (or was it the other way around?)

[Chucky]

on the CDTV will the cdrom work.... as that code is a hack

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by Chucky

on the CDTV will the cdrom work.... as that code is a hack

Can't tell, but my own drive hasn't been working for some months now, so I'm using a Toshiba SCSI-drive now. Hopefully I'll get the CDTV's own drive working during winter; as far as I can tell, it's a matter of cap replacement.

But I see no reason why it shouldn't work with the Pistorm, or at least - should if the emulator is programmed in a way that allows it. I'll be able to tell, even though the drive doesn't work at the moment, since it still shows up in the early start menu.

[brufnus]

Originally Posted by Chucky

on the CDTV will the cdrom work.... as that code is a hack

Oh, and by the way... the Pistorm uses the CDTV's extended ROM's (eventually as images), so I suppose it's good to go with regards to the CD-ROM drive. Hopefully everything will work, my SCSI controller, 8 MB fast RAM on the diagnostics port, the internal CD-ROM drive, midi ports, etc. I also look forward to the release of the new extended ROM 2.35, this sounds very promising! :-D