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Apollo Team Activity Report (November)page  1 2 3 

Renaud Schweingruber
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 378
03 Nov 2017 15:33


October has been a very exciting month for Apollo Team. With the help of jarpatus, work on FPU made several steps forward in the direction of bringing a superfast FPU to Vampire V2 users. Let’s try to sum up what happened on what will November be made of.
 
GOLD2.7 – Rounding with precision
After Activity Report from last month, lot of efforts have been put on getting 68080 FPU from a « I’m made for compatibility » to « I’m a cheetah, want to run against me ? » state. Jarpatus and Bax made together an impressive work on FEMU while BigGun started to integrate most used FPU instructions in core, resulting in great improvements in floating computation.
 
Also to mention that was first jarpatus steps in ASM. That’s pretty incredible and deserves a wave in the big Amiga stadium. That’s actually what Amiga-land needs to go forward.
 
Love it or not on Amiga, but Quake has always been a good benchmark to show off performance of an Amiga. Quake from ClickBOOM went from 3fps to some impressive 26fps on Vampire V2 with latest GOLD2.7 beta cores.
 
Resulting of this, GOLD2.7 is getting better and better and we are heading soon to a final release for public for our beloved Vampire V2.
 
Amiga32 – Vampires out of their coffin
Amiga32 was a very awaited event for the Apollo Team. We had set up some systems to show our work and brought V4 boards.
 
Vampire V4 was highly expected and shown at the show. We showed prototypes of it and even some early ones oddities of them. Some attentive people might also have had the opportunity to see a Vampire V4 booting on ceaich’s A500. A32 was also time to give first boards to team members attending the event. Lucky bastards.
 
We had at our booth :
  - Prototypes of the incoming Vampire V4, both A500 version and standalone
  - BigGun’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ on big screen with a stereo equipment to show off RiVA performance and nice looking ladies (notice the evil marketing trick to hypnotize Amigans for half a day)
  - TuKo’s A600 with Vampire 600 V2 showing some FPU things (Quake, AIBB, Arti’s ports, Demos, etc.)
  - Guibrush’s A600 with Vampire 600 V2 showing AGA GOLD3 beta cores with AGA games
  - Guibrush’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ showing a well made and complete EmuTOS/FreeMint distribution
  - Claude’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ showing MacOS emulation using ShapeShifter and Fusion.
 
Ambiance was incredible at this event and we have met several nice people who gave us motivation to work even harder. It was actually super nice to meet people we have been talking with since a long time on Internet and meet them there. Nice words we got were inspiring. High five to gentlemen who will recognize themselves ;-)
 
Jeff Porter also came to our booth and was impressed by our work. We also got some nice words from Trevor Dickinson. Thanks you guys.
 
Amitopia covered extensively the event :
EXTERNAL LINK 
EXTERNAL LINK 
EXTERNAL LINK 

 
We took also time to discuss some strategic things and shake corresponding hands as we have seen some good opportunities to work with other Amiga market actors for the future. Time will tell where it goes.
 
After the event, party ended how every birthday should end : in a karaoke bar. Some team members felt they had to show their rusty skills on stage. To be honest, narrator.device would have done a better job. Some other members with better manners preferred to savor some cigars.
 
What’s next ?
Bringing GOLD2.7 to both V2 and V4 is actually first objective of Apollo Team and providing boards to members is the best way to accelerate the test process. Note that Apollo Team is still aiming at end of the year to send first batch of Vampire V4 to resellers if our wives, children, cats or unicorns allow us to ;-)
 
Some Apollo Team members will also attend another event in France called Alchimie 12 in Tain. They will have some time to show off Vampire capacities and discuss what we are currently delivering and what we will bring in a near future.
 
Do not miss this nice event on next 10-11-12 of November : EXTERNAL LINK


Niclas A
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 219
03 Nov 2017 15:51


Thank you for that nice summery Renaud.
Things are looking great!


Crow Mohikan

Posts 78
03 Nov 2017 16:18


Did Team do anything for For v1200 and v4000 ?
Only for 500 and 600 again?


Vojin Vidanovic

Posts 770
03 Nov 2017 16:42


crow mohikan wrote:

Did Team do anything for For v1200 and v4000 ?
  Only for 500 and 600 again?

Team will answer, but to the best of my understanding ...

V4 is standardized design where just connector needs to be
different to fit another Classic model. So all V4 advance
and GOLD3 core advance is advance towards V1200/V4000 too.

Its just planned to be released afterwards, likely because
A500/A600 and perphals have been widely tested.


John William

Posts 563
03 Nov 2017 17:06


Renaud Schweingruber wrote:

October has been a very exciting month for Apollo Team. With the help of jarpatus, work on FPU made several steps forward in the direction of bringing a superfast FPU to Vampire V2 users. Let’s try to sum up what happened on what will November be made of.
 
  GOLD2.7 – Rounding with precision
  After Activity Report from last month, lot of efforts have been put on getting 68080 FPU from a « I’m made for compatibility » to « I’m a cheetah, want to run against me ? » state. Jarpatus and Bax made together an impressive work on FEMU while BigGun started to integrate most used FPU instructions in core, resulting in great improvements in floating computation.
 
  Also to mention that was first jarpatus steps in ASM. That’s pretty incredible and deserves a wave in the big Amiga stadium. That’s actually what Amiga-land needs to go forward.
 
  Love it or not on Amiga, but Quake has always been a good benchmark to show off performance of an Amiga. Quake from ClickBOOM went from 3fps to some impressive 26fps on Vampire V2 with latest GOLD2.7 beta cores.
 
  Resulting of this, GOLD2.7 is getting better and better and we are heading soon to a final release for public for our beloved Vampire V2.
 
  Amiga32 – Vampires out of their coffin
  Amiga32 was a very awaited event for the Apollo Team. We had set up some systems to show our work and brought V4 boards.
 
  Vampire V4 was highly expected and shown at the show. We showed prototypes of it and even some early ones oddities of them. Some attentive people might also have had the opportunity to see a Vampire V4 booting on ceaich’s A500. A32 was also time to give first boards to team members attending the event. Lucky bastards.
 
  We had at our booth :
  - Prototypes of the incoming Vampire V4, both A500 version and standalone
  - BigGun’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ on big screen with a stereo equipment to show off RiVA performance and nice looking ladies (notice the evil marketing trick to hypnotize Amigans for half a day)
  - TuKo’s A600 with Vampire 600 V2 showing some FPU things (Quake, AIBB, Arti’s ports, Demos, etc.)
  - Guibrush’s A600 with Vampire 600 V2 showing AGA GOLD3 beta cores with AGA games
  - Guibrush’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ showing a well made and complete EmuTOS/FreeMint distribution
  - Claude’s A500 with Vampire 500 V2+ showing MacOS emulation using ShapeShifter and Fusion.
 
  Ambiance was incredible at this event and we have met several nice people who gave us motivation to work even harder. It was actually super nice to meet people we have been talking with since a long time on Internet and meet them there. Nice words we got were inspiring. High five to gentlemen who will recognize themselves ;-)
 
  Jeff Porter also came to our booth and was impressed by our work. We also got some nice words from Trevor Dickinson. Thanks you guys.
 
  Amitopia covered extensively the event :
  EXTERNAL LINK 
  EXTERNAL LINK 
  EXTERNAL LINK 
 
 
  We took also time to discuss some strategic things and shake corresponding hands as we have seen some good opportunities to work with other Amiga market actors for the future. Time will tell where it goes.
 
  After the event, party ended how every birthday should end : in a karaoke bar. Some team members felt they had to show their rusty skills on stage. To be honest, narrator.device would have done a better job. Some other members with better manners preferred to savor some cigars.
 
  What’s next ?
  Bringing GOLD2.7 to both V2 and V4 is actually first objective of Apollo Team and providing boards to members is the best way to accelerate the test process. Note that Apollo Team is still aiming at end of the year to send first batch of Vampire V4 to resellers if our wives, children, cats or unicorns allow us to ;-)
 
  Some Apollo Team members will also attend another event in France called Alchimie 12 in Tain. They will have some time to show off Vampire capacities and discuss what we are currently delivering and what we will bring in a near future.
 
  Do not miss this nice event on next 10-11-12 of November : EXTERNAL LINK 

I have a question to ask about a600 users. The v4 is big concerning the a600 and the a600 use the same method as the as a1200 when it comes to accelerator expansion port. How do you intend to fit the v4 in a tiny case like a600? Does the user have to sacrifice disk drive?



Ian Parsons

Posts 230
03 Nov 2017 18:37


I think there has probably been some misunderstanding or miscommunication about the Vampire 4. I think what was probably intended was to say that the Vampire 4 was a new class of Vampire accelerator that would have common features across all the versions (Cyclone V, 512MB, GPIO, Ethernet, USB, Digital Video, Micro SD) and that the 500 (1000, 2000, CDTV) accelerator and the Standalone would use a common board design. It may be possible to make an adaptor to fit this accelerator to an A600 but such an adaptor does not yet exist. The A1200 (and A3000, A4000, CD32) accelerators will need alternative board design(s) to handle the various 32 bit CPU slot/connector interfaces. I may be wrong about that but it seems the most likely scenario to me.


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
03 Nov 2017 18:42


In fact I even recall an A1200 Vampire accelerator prototype being mentioned on IRC but there was a problem with it so another board needed to be made (to fix the problem).


M Rickan

Posts 177
03 Nov 2017 18:46


Apart from comments alluding to the fact that Hyperion are looking forward to working with the Vampire team, were there any other "strategic" opportunities that have been made public?

In an ideal world, it would be great to get another Apollo licensee on board to develop additional hardware.


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
03 Nov 2017 18:59


A1200.net (new a1200 cases and keycap kicksatrters) revealed they had received a V4 standalone prototype from the team at Amiga 32. I'll leave it to you to speculate why.


David Wright

Posts 373
03 Nov 2017 19:14


Well, in endeavors such as this, fun should be a high priority. Good to see that along with recognition from the Amiga greats.


Hugo Pereira

Posts 72
03 Nov 2017 19:30


Congratulations on the fantastic work you have been developing!


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
03 Nov 2017 19:34


Ian Parsons wrote:

  The A1200 (and A3000, A4000, CD32) accelerators will need alternative board design(s) to handle the various 32 bit CPU slot/connector interfaces. I may be wrong about that but it seems the most likely scenario to me.
 

 
The Vampire2 does have a AMIGA bus with 24 address and 16 Data lines.
This bus on the Vampire2 does perfectly match the A500/A1000/A2000/A600
 
The Vampire4 has an AMIGA bus with 32 Address and 32 Data lines.
This matches the A1200/A3000/CD32/A4000.
When you connect the Vampire4 to an A500/600/A2000/A600 this works too - just some lines are then not connected.
 
The Vamp4 was designed from the beginning to be able to be connected to all AMIGA models.


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
03 Nov 2017 19:54


But the Vampire 4 we have seen appears to only have a socket for a 68000 DIP connection not for a full 32 bit bus so although the main components don't need to change the connection and hence board layout does, correct?


Rod March

Posts 119
03 Nov 2017 22:42


Super exciting to see the ongoing development, can't wait for 2.7. Fantastic work Apollo team!


Mr Niding

Posts 459
04 Nov 2017 08:00


Ian Parsons wrote:

A1200.net (new a1200 cases and keycap kicksatrters) revealed they had received a V4 standalone prototype from the team at Amiga 32. I'll leave it to you to speculate why.

This plus Hyperion being positive with regards to working together with Apollo crew; Thumbs up!

I know many have very unfavourable views of Hyperion, BUT isnt one of the main complaints about the community that its too fragmented. IF 2 entities align with Apollo then it can only be a good thing.
Thor and Olaf is 2 very capable coders, and I would love to see them work with the Vampire beyond their current projected 3.1 fix.

Im sure Steve will point out Hyperions trackrecord, and I agree, but I choose to see the positive possibilities (with Thor and Olaf).

Anyhow Tuko, you forgot to mention the MOST important development from the show;

EXTERNAL LINK


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
04 Nov 2017 09:59


Mr Niding wrote:
This plus Hyperion being positive with regards to working together with Apollo crew; Thumbs up!

I know many have very unfavourable views of Hyperion, BUT isnt one of the main complaints about the community that its too fragmented. IF 2 entities align with Apollo then it can only be a good thing.
Thor and Olaf is 2 very capable coders, and I would love to see them work with the Vampire beyond their current projected 3.1 fix.


Hi Mr. Niding,

I'm extremely excited by the thought of some portions of AOS being recompiled with new 68080 assembler instructions being used!!!!!!

Whether they be the fused instructions, or the 64 bit ones, or S-AGA, or AMMX2 or heck, ANYTHING!!!!!

It'll be the first REAL advancement in YEARS AND YEARS for AOS "proper"!!!!!!

How could ANYONE be opposed to THAT!??!?!?!!!!!
Mr Niding wrote:
Anyhow Tuko, you forgot to mention the MOST important development from the show;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op71KUOqiXY


The easiest way to be vulnerable to blackmail, is a _______ video. :-DDD


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
04 Nov 2017 10:04


Whilst activity on OS3.1 is welcomed I'm not getting excited about it yet. Chances of Apollo optimisations from an official release remain slim at the moment.


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
04 Nov 2017 10:07


A NEW ERA of AMIGA has dawned, TO BE SURE!


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
04 Nov 2017 10:11


Ian Parsons wrote:
Whilst activity on OS3.1 is welcomed I'm not getting excited about it yet. Chances of Apollo optimisations from an official release remain slim at the moment.

Hi Ian,.... I'm betting against you on that one...

When they see that Vampires outnumber all other Amigas in use...... it's INFECTIOUS, you know???


Vojin Vidanovic

Posts 770
04 Nov 2017 10:43


Thierry Atheist wrote:

  When they see that Vampires outnumber all other Amigas in use...... it's INFECTIOUS, you know???
 

 
  He ment at current proposal of OS 3.1 fix. You should separate Hype boys greeting Apollo team and this fix project.
 
  Surely, if that goes financially viable (OS 3.1 fix) and Vamps make a de facto standard with v4 and standalones, it might be possible to add Vamp support in the future.
 

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