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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Vampire V4 ADF Boot

Stefano Lodo

Posts 1
01 Feb 2020 13:46


Hello! I'm planning to buy Vampire V4 standalone, but I didn't understand how to boot from a floppy image (on Minimig it was possible to load an ADF file). Can you explain me something? Thank you :)


Ronnie Beck
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 199
01 Feb 2020 15:39


Hi Stefano,

So there are multiple approaches to pre-paring an Workbench for your V4.  You can use another Amiga or WinUAE to build a basic installation along with the drivers for all the cool V4 hardware (network and RTG).  The network driver is being polished right now and already looks pretty speedy (certainly faster than on the V2).

You can also buy a pre-installed WB on a CF from Cloanto but there isn't really any benefit to this apart from the convenience of having a pre-installed environment.  You still need to add the SAGA drivers to that image.

Our current plan is to provide a free AROS based image for all V4 owners.  This is pre-installed and tuned exactly to the V4.  It is currently a WIP but it already looks to be a great alternative to the traditional workbench.  In addition to being fine tuned to the Vampire's hardware it also has networking and many other features built in.  Check Pedro Cotters channel if you are interested in the progress.

I personally just used an A1200 with a CDROM to install WB 3.9, MUI, Roadshow and iBrowse.  Once the SAGA drivers are installed, it is easy enough to download anything else you need.  But I will soon switch to AROS full time because it is just simply better.

If you have trouble getting it going, drop us a line here.  Or we are available on IRC (Freenode has an #apollo-team channel) or on slack.com.


Jamie Chapman

Posts 69
01 Feb 2020 21:34


Out of curiosity, can the V4 boot from a floppy ,  does it have a floppy header or is it IDE only ? If it does have floppy can it boot the machine from a gotek like an Amiga ?


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
01 Feb 2020 21:35


Jamie Chapman wrote:

Out of curiosity, can the V4 boot from a floppy ,  does it have a floppy header or is it IDE only ? If it does have floppy can it boot the machine from a gotek like an Amiga ?

Just IDE.


Mo Retro

Posts 241
02 Feb 2020 17:39


Having an adf, classic floppy drive of gotek support is a thing that I miss on my V4. A lot of times I just want to use some scene disks that need to be booted to show their demo, slideshow, etc.
 
  I have a couple of thoughts going through my mind about possibilities:
 
  1) a) is the floppy support replicated in the core. Knowing that there's no floppy connector,?
  b) If yes could this be routed to the outside for interfacing?
 
  2)a) Would a RAD loaded with an ADF image survive a reboot of the V4 with the 3 finger salute?
  b)And could then this RAD be selected in the early boot menu?
 


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
04 Feb 2020 18:22


Mo Retro wrote:

Having an adf, classic floppy drive of gotek support is a thing that I miss on my V4. A lot of times I just want to use some scene disks that need to be booted to show their demo, slideshow, etc.

 
Lets remind us quickly what the VAMPIRE4 is.
Its not a Amiga 500 remake.. with 7 MHz (0.5 Mips Speed)
This would be the Minimig.
 
The Vampire-4 is the bad-ass AMIGA 5000 with 150 Mips, which we all waited for  but never came out.
Its much faster than any 68060 CPU, it has truecolor, 16bit Audio and AGA.
 
But why do I say this?
 
Because owners of Amiga 4000 with 040 or 060 will known that just running some old "Amiga floppy demos" ain't always working.
The reason is simply that many old demos were code with bugs, or oversights, which made this demos not run good on faster AMIGAs.
To run those demos WHDLOAD is really excellent.
 
So if your plan is to run relative old buggy demos .. then please use WHDLOAD which often will "repair" them to run a lot better then  from floppy.
 
 


Fat Barry

Posts 14
05 Feb 2020 19:11


And a Bad Ass machine it
  Certainly is
For sure....
 
 
 


Patrick Schubert /Cathal

Posts 1
05 May 2020 23:26


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  Because owners of Amiga 4000 with 040 or 060 will known that just running some old "Amiga floppy demos" ain't always working.

I Own a V4 and a A4000/060 and I think a ADF Boot / FlashFloppy Thing in the V4 would be great.

Not only for Demos, there are several reasons for booting from Floppy (ADF)

Is it really such a big problem to include that?

We have the SD Card in the V4, a perfect place for ADFs.




Tim D

Posts 84
06 May 2020 08:31


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  The Vampire-4 is the bad-ass AMIGA 5000 with 150 Mips, which we all waited for  but never came out.

It's a bad ass machine, but it's not an "A5000", it lacks any expandability whatsoever, which is what partly makes the big box Amigas so great.

It's more like an A1400 let's say a next gen A1200.



Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
06 May 2020 09:26


Tim D wrote:

  It's a bad ass machine, but it's not an "A5000", it lacks any expandability whatsoever
 

   
It it true that the V4 is small and is limited in size.
Nevertheless the Vampire4 has 3 expansion ports.
And you can today for example add a 2nd ETH port,
some other modules (Wifi Modules, and others) have been used in testing as well. What more modules the future will bring has to be seen.
 
 
Personally if I look back at my A4000, and what I used the expansion ports of my A4000 for - I can see that I aimed for:
  A) Ethernet
  B) RTG GFX Card
  C) Scan doubler
 
As all of these features are included in the V4 already and for them I need not even need to use one of the 3 expansion ports.
 


Tim D

Posts 84
07 May 2020 11:54


You have a point :)


Eric Gus

Posts 477
08 May 2020 06:46


a Realtime clock module would be nice, .. I know personally I really DO like a working clock on my Amigas.. (though it could be set via NTP and networking too)..

Wifi would be a nice alternative module for the v4 as well.


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
08 May 2020 08:08


eric gus wrote:

a Realtime clock module would be nice, .. I know personally I really DO like a working clock on my Amigas.. (though it could be set via NTP and networking too)..
 
  Wifi would be a nice alternative module for the v4 as well.

DS3231 Precision RTC Clock :-)


Barana V
(Needs Verification)
Posts 59/ 1
09 May 2020 11:04


Mo Retro wrote:

  Having an adf, classic floppy drive of gotek support is a thing that I miss on my V4. A lot of times I just want to use some scene disks that need to be booted to show their demo, slideshow, etc.
   
    I have a couple of thoughts going through my mind about possibilities:
   
    1) a) is the floppy support replicated in the core. Knowing that there's no floppy connector,?
    b) If yes could this be routed to the outside for interfacing?
   
    2)a) Would a RAD loaded with an ADF image survive a reboot of the V4 with the 3 finger salute?
    b)And could then this RAD be selected in the early boot menu?
   
 

 
  #2 vote for the lines from Pamela to cias and to header for some good ole fashioned Amiga dma fdd gronking action.
 
  Btw what's the saga equivalent to Alice called?

posts 14