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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

2 Mb of Chip Ram

Santiago Gutierrez

Posts 47
29 May 2019 00:23


Will the Vampire eventually provide the 2MB chipram without AGA chipset ?

Sometimes playing between Toaster, Lightwave, etc I will run out of memory chip and I was wondering if just the AGA update will provide 2 Mb of chip before I pull the trigger and buy the Indivision board expansion.

Thanks guys.




Herbert Markart

Posts 45
29 May 2019 05:18


As far as I know, V4 will have this feature. Including AGA.
@V2, as it is planned, will have AGA-Mode with extra chip-mem in Gold3.
If there is an Option to go RTG + extra-Chip-Mem I do not know.
Because of the Limitation of the chip used, they would have to provide 2 different cores to support both modes.




Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 May 2019 07:03


The GOLD 3 Core provides Chipmem upgrade.
The V4-SA Core currently has 11.5 MB chipmem.
Technically all 512 MB on the V4 can be mapped as chipmem.


Herbert Markart

Posts 45
29 May 2019 08:50


I think he is aksking for Gold3 but with RTG instead of AGA.
Is there something planned?


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
29 May 2019 09:50


Herbert Markart wrote:

I think he is aksking for Gold3 but with RTG instead of AGA.
  Is there something planned?

No, he asks for ChipRAM mapping ability in 2.12+

Sadly, as said that should be GOLD3/V4 cores feat.
if the team does not find a way.


Santiago Gutierrez

Posts 47
29 May 2019 12:36


Herbert Markart wrote:

  I think he is aksking for Gold3 but with RTG instead of AGA.
  Is there something planned?
 

 
 
  Exactly....... I want to keep ECS on my Amiga 2500 but I will love to have 2Mb chip so I will save that extra money for a new Vampire 1200. I dont want AGA........ just the memory :)


Sean Sk

Posts 488
29 May 2019 15:59


What Vojin said.
   
It would be up to Gunnar to see if there was a way to add an extra 1 meg of RAM to GOLD 2. That is the core you would need to use if you wanted to get a Vampire 500 for the Amiga 2500 and still be able to use thevA2500's own ECS chipset.
 
I'm assuming the Vampire 500 V2 would work in the A2500 yeah?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 May 2019 16:23


sean sk wrote:

What Vojin said.
   
It would be up to Gunnar to see if there was a way to add an extra 1 meg of RAM to GOLD 2.

Its physically impossible for the AMIGA chips on the mainboard to access memory on the Vampire.

The only way to use the Vampire memory is by using AMIGA/SAGA/AGA chipset inside the Vampire.


Santiago Gutierrez

Posts 47
29 May 2019 18:47


All clear now Gunnar, thanks a lot.
 
  This Amiga 2500 is gonna be a chameleon :)
 
  Thanks guys for the help.


MartinTomas Steffen

Posts 61
31 May 2019 08:25


For me it is still not clear.
Will Vamire V2 have RTG, FPU and SAGA or is the FPGA to small ?

For me it looks like we can load a 2.xx core for RTG, FPU but old Chipset ( and no extra chipram)

Or

Load a 3.xx core with SAGA ( and extra chipram) but no RTG and FPU ( just softFPU)

Again, I’m not talking about the V4 ( will buy anyway), I ask for Vampir V2.

I’m using my Vampire 500 V2 with my Amiga 1000, and chipram is a big problem.
But I love to have  RTG. So I will stay with Core 2.xx and buy a V4 standalone for SAGA.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
31 May 2019 09:26


MartinTomas Steffen wrote:

  For me it is still not clear.
    Will Vamire V2 have RTG, FPU and SAGA or is the FPGA to small ?
 

 
  Its simply too small, just like v1 vamp cant handle v2 cores.
  Even having a hard FPU was a squeeze, compromise and limit push
  (and FPU is not a full precision, like with V4).
 
  There is a FPGA hardware limit that cannot be expanded, except with upgrade to v4.
 
  So V3 core is alternate and easy reflash to get the (S)AGA chipset, and extra chip RAM and audio in DIGITAL-VIDEO as you described, with loss of RTG and hardFPU.
 
  There is a small chance (to have both V2 cores as one) for V1200 V2 (v3?) model by Majsta, if I get that right, it has larger FPGA then standard V2.
 


John Hankinson

Posts 6
31 May 2019 09:57


I guess for V1200 it's less of an issue as you already have original AGA, so all you really want is the core(080+fpu) and rtg.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
31 May 2019 10:12


John Hankinson wrote:

I guess for V1200 it's less of an issue as you already have original AGA, so all you really want is the core(080+fpu) and rtg.

Precisely. One of the main reasons why I am looking forward to the V1200 so much.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
31 May 2019 22:01


John Hankinson wrote:

  I guess for V1200 it's less of an issue as you already have original AGA, so all you really want is the core(080+fpu) and rtg.
 

 
  Even AGA equipped A1200/CD32 should benefit from SAGA V4 core:
 
  - 16/32-bit colour modes chipset non RTG modes
  - Enhanced blitter, faster then old AGA one
  - Enhanced Agnus with 2-12MB Chip mapped by DDR3 Fast RAM
  - 16-bit audio AHI and directly hitted Pamela like Paula
  - DIGITAL-VIDEO that includes audio
  - Faster mem. controller
 
 
  So essentially, the chipset would first time catch up with
  RTG/AHI solutions. Add mysterious 3D chip and voila, V4 cores
  should shrink a lot of past cards :)
 
  One could argue that SAGA begins with V3 cores, past usage of SAGA as term for advanced RTG core in v2 is a bit misleading.

posts 14