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"turbo" Vampire Edition

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
01 Apr 2016 17:02


The Vampire can now be ordered in two versions:

a) Normal Vampire as before

b) Turbo Vampire Edition which has a fast FPGA and is tested to run fast.

The "fast" Edition is tested to run roughly 20% faster.


Teemu Korvenpää

Posts 26
01 Apr 2016 19:35


and no aprill fools :)


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
01 Apr 2016 19:47


Teemu Korvenpää wrote:

and no aprill fools :)

No, this serious.
Its just a faster FPGA Chip.


Amiga 4Life

Posts 101
01 Apr 2016 19:54


Thank you...


Matthew Langtry

Posts 199
01 Apr 2016 20:47


I think this is April Fools too


Brian Robotham

Posts 52
02 Apr 2016 03:52


hi, this is no aprils fools, certain boards will allow a higher clock value. For those boards that i build and test at x14 i will sell them as "Black edition" guaranteed to run at least x13 clock speed. My board will do an insane x16 clock speed. When user clock speed is enabled those with the "Black" boards will have a faster core speed


Captain Zalo

Posts 71
02 Apr 2016 06:45


Brian Robotham wrote:

hi, this is no aprils fools, certain boards will allow a higher clock value. For those boards that i build and test at x14 i will sell them as "Black edition" guaranteed to run at least x13 clock speed. My board will do an insane x16 clock speed. When user clock speed is enabled those with the "Black" boards will have a faster core speed

Good news for those of us who have moved the old hardware out of the vanilla coloured plastic.
What is the reference clock speed on the non-BE versions vs an overclocked BE? And will heat dissipators and/or active cooling help stabilizing a clocked board?

I'm up for such a board once the A1200 V2 arrives.


Brian Robotham

Posts 52
02 Apr 2016 18:06


the standard Vampire will be default clocked at x11 with no guarantees of working at a higher clock speed. There is very little extra heat generation with the faster clocked, no need for a heat sink or fan



Michael AMike

Posts 152
03 Apr 2016 13:10


Brian Robotham wrote:

hi, this is no aprils fools, certain boards will allow a higher clock value. For those boards that i build and test at x14 i will sell them as "Black edition" guaranteed to run at least x13 clock speed. My board will do an insane x16 clock speed. When user clock speed is enabled those with the "Black" boards will have a faster core speed

I've a Vampire with a 6n FPGA and the I've got the card from you. Before I made the SilverCore Update 2 the card was much faster. (Sysinfo - 104.000 Drystones) After the update the card delivers "only" 74.000 Drystones. Is there also an SilverCore3 update available with X14 speed? Thanx :)


Brian Robotham

Posts 52
03 Apr 2016 14:40


hi,

  sorry, sounds like i slipped up and left a test core on, once you reflashed it upgraded to the latest public core. User options will be a future update


John Heritage

Posts 111
04 Apr 2016 13:03


Hi - what voltage is the logic running at on the Vampire?


Tango One

Posts 102
04 Apr 2016 14:14


the "turbo" version is it using cyclone-3 ?


Johannes Schäfer

Posts 47
04 Apr 2016 18:16


The difference is exyplained here:
EXTERNAL LINK 
It´s still the Cyclone 3, but there are different versions with different clock rate with different price.

EP3C40F484C8N = Standard Clock
EP3C40F484C6N = Turbo Clock (to be enabled by user by tool in future)



Brian Robotham

Posts 52
04 Apr 2016 18:38


Johannes Schäfer wrote:

    The difference is exyplained here:
      EXTERNAL LINK     
      It´s still the Cyclone 3, but there are different versions with different clock rate with different price.
     
      EP3C40F484C8N = Standard Clock
      EP3C40F484C6N = Turbo Clock (to be enabled by user by tool in future)
     
   

   
   
      Hmm,
      This is not entirely correct.  The 6N has been tested by Altera and is deemed to run at a better speed than minimum spec.  The 8N is untested by Altera and is marked 8N accordingly. There are 6N chips that will not do better than x13 so it is hit and miss. I bought 10 x 6N chips, only 2 of them performed better than the 8N variant. I bought a batch of 40 x 8Ns and over half of those work at x14.
   
      The user tool in the future  will work on all chips and is hit and miss as to whether your chip will work at a given speed. If your chip crashes at a given speed it will default to a lower speed.  For reference i have 2 x 8Ns that work reliably at x15 so don't be surprised if they would go faster than your 6N if you have one.
 
  To ensure there is a guideline, the "Black Edition" is guaranteed at minimum x13, and the standard guaranteed at x11


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
05 Apr 2016 01:33


Great.

So, according to majsta, we have quirky chips, when operating outside of the "parameters" of the FPGAs they sell to us.

It wouldn't be "AMIGA" if it wasn't the case, eh? ;-)

Seriously though. I'm still "on board" with this!

This news is SUPER TERRIFIC!!

Now, combined with (theoretical) more RAM on the A1200 (and 4000?) version(s), these are the FASTEST AUTHENTIC AMIGAS in the WORLD!!!!

P.S. It's a long shot, but would people be willing to sponsor a board to send to Dave Haynie? If we got HIS "stamp of approval" on this, well then, THAT would be the BEST advertising possible! I know that he has enough money to buy his own board, but he's probably left this behind him, as today's computers are just so much faster and "better" than our's are, you know? (If I BELIEVED that fantasy I wouldn't be here.) I don't know the prices, but it seems that (was it?) 150 Euro is about $225 Canadian for the Vampire 2. The faster board is about, I'm guessing, $100 more? The A1200 will have extra RAM. Add another $100? If the total is $425, if some people were willing to spend an extra 5% (~$22), it would take only 20 people's contributions to get one of these for Dave Haynie!

PR wise, I think it would be an excellent choice and I would go for that "deal" when I buy mine.


John Heritage

Posts 111
06 Apr 2016 17:33


Can the clock go up if you increase the voltage?


Brian Robotham

Posts 52
06 Apr 2016 18:09


John Heritage wrote:

Can the clock go up if you increase the voltage?

ya, the clock can go up in smoke if you increase the voltage...
  Dont try this at home, you will fry it.


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
06 Apr 2016 21:41


Brian Robotham wrote:

John Heritage wrote:

Can the clock go up if you increase the voltage?

 
 
 
ya, the clock can go up in smoke if you increase the voltage...
Dont try this at home, you will fry it.

When I read that, I was trying to press the "thumbs up". Where is it?


posts 18