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Information about the Apollo CPU and FPU.

Isn't the Motorola 68060 Chip An FPGA Based Core?

John William

Posts 563
07 Feb 2016 22:30

I have one question that baffles me. Aren't all the Motorola CPUs all of them ranging from 68000 CPU up to 68060 all started out as an FPGA much like Vampire before they where released and manufactured as  RISC or CISC or AISC or whatever it is called? Like in a technical point of view....aren't all the CPUs from Motorola, to x86, to PPC, to C64/Apple/NES CPu to whatever you name it...all of them started as FPGA then became read-only CPUs?

    If the answer to that question is yes. Then why do people still think Vampire is not a real legit Motorola CPU and why do people think it is an emulation and why do people think it is fake or prefer the so called legit CPU? In a sense, Vampire FPGA is a real CPU as said Blizzard accelerator card CPU....isn't it? Am I wrong? Other people saying will the Vampire is simple leaching the power out of the Amiga that makes the Amiga no more itself. My question, how is that any different than say someone buying an A4000, opening it up...putting an RTG card on the zorro slot, upgrade the 68040 CPU with 68060 CPU, or put Blizzard PPC, or install a sound card or use Mediator or whatever you call it for upgrades? Aren't all of these removing the Amiga's original custom chipset with something different than it was original designed with?

    So in a sense you still having your beloved Amiga, nothing changed, except you made it better that is all. Am I wrong in all of this?


Gregthe Canuck

Posts 274
08 Feb 2016 02:41

Yes


John William

Posts 563
08 Feb 2016 02:51

gregthe canuck wrote:

Yes

LOL! I know you wanted to summarize your answer, but that is ridiculous. :D


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
08 Feb 2016 09:01

The original Motorola processors weren't developed using fpgas because fpga technology (and probably chip synthesis from vhdl) weren't far enough at the time. However, today all cpus are developed using fpgas for test systems. A mask set for a recent chip technology costs some millions and even if you are willing to spend this money for a test chip you will have to wait several weeks to get it. This makes turnaround times prohibitively long. Using a big fpga you can just dump your code to it in half an hour and see how it does.

As for people, well, I'm sure the people you are talking about wouldn't accept a heart transplant because then they wouldn't be themselves any more. Or they'd better not for the sake of the human gene pool...


Michal Warzecha

Posts 209
08 Feb 2016 12:25

I will tell a liitle more than Gregthe Canuck- Yes and... no :)

  Apollo is not a Motorola CPU anymore. The true is- it's compatible, and we hope it's 100% compatible. But it's something more, much more than 060. It's faster, smarter, including new memory controller inside, new instructions, new 64bit architecture etc.
  People get wrong all idea behind that. Many people think it's some kind of emulator, and that's why it's bad.
  But it's just a CPU, normall CPU builded in, let's name it, test body, because We can name FPGA as test body. Is it worse than original? I think it's not, because Apollo core is many times better than precedessor (060) in almost every cases.
  If it will be an emultaor- it will be working with, for example, intel CPU inside, and change motorola instructions to intel, than calculate and change once again from intel to motorola- it will be an emulator.
  Apollo is CPU, not builded in normall CPU factor like Motorola (Freescale) or Intel, but it's done by Apollo team. It's still CPU. Not emulator, not VooDoo magic in plastic case. If someone has a problem with using that- no one will force to do that.
  I'm happy Apollo and Vampire card are existing. I can now speed up my old Amiga computers with fresh and new Vampire turbo cards aimed with Apollo core (CPU), 128MB of Fast RAM, DIGITAL-VIDEO, RTG, uSD slot and who knows what else Gunnar will fit there in future.

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