Overview Features Coding ApolloOS Performance Forum Downloads Products Order Contact

Welcome to the Apollo Forum

This forum is for people interested in the APOLLO CPU.
Please read the forum usage manual.
Please visit our Apollo-Discord Server for support.



All TopicsNewsPerformanceGamesDemosApolloVampireAROSWorkbenchATARIReleases
Documentation about the Vampire hardware

GOLD3 When?page  1 2 

James Husted
(Needs Verification)
Posts 81/ 3
20 Jun 2021 10:19


Heya guys so with the pistorm being out I am seeing lots of talk about wanting OCS/ECS/AGA over the Vampires output and I think thsi stems from the fact the pistorm is going to do this also so will you be taking another look at adding this to the Vampire 2 line of cards? and yes I am fully aware that FPGA is near to its limit but surely people smart enough to create such a thing in the first place are smart enough now with all the experance from working on the V4 that they can rise to this challenge? If not I saw speak on the Discord about open sourcing the V2 but that was shut down quickly but maybe you should to allow the greater community to do what you cant or wont do? and before you all jump on me and say "use the vamp for what it does now not what you want it to do blah blah" its of no issue to me as I have V4sa but each day I am seeing more and more people griping about the fact that GOLD3 has stayed in pergatory!


Andrew Miller

Posts 352
20 Jun 2021 10:38


Recently Gunnar addressed this, gold 3 cannot fit on the v600 or v500, they are full. Maybe the V1200 it could fit, but you already have AGA so might not be worth it.
  As to open sourcing the V2, this is highly unlikely to happen as that would mean anyone would be able to use the 68080 core for free.
 
  Gold 3 was never promised for the V2 cards. Though there is an alpha that runs on the V500, but no FPU or RTG.

EDIT: The pistorm doesnt appear to output the OCS/ECS/AGA out of its RTG output. It also doesnt emulate any of the chipset as would be required to do this, and its a lot slower than vampire.


James Husted
(Needs Verification)
Posts 81/ 3
20 Jun 2021 11:02


Its a work in progress and yes they have it working using a small daughter board that sits under the denise and connects to the PI via its camera port. Also I understand that its full what I am saying is surely they have the skills to optimize it to make it fit - these guys are the best at what they do after all!




Andrew Miller

Posts 352
20 Jun 2021 11:28


There is no room left, optimizing (which has already been done) wont release enough space to allow the circuits for AGA/OCS/ECS to be implemented.
FPGA's consist of logic elements that can be configured to represent physical transistors/ gates etc. AGA uses about 80,000 transistors that's a lot of space.
It would be nice to have the RGB output rerouted and output via hdmi but I have an RGB -> SCART to DIGITAL-VIDEO adaptor.


James Husted
(Needs Verification)
Posts 81/ 3
20 Jun 2021 15:21


yea but those things are trash - its a far less elegant solution, I refuse to believe its not possible.


Andrew Miller

Posts 352
20 Jun 2021 17:17


It cant be done on the FPGA, you'd need to have all the chipset in the FPGA. In that case you'd be better with a V4.
There could be a way to reroute the rgb output to the pcb, but that would require a new pcb to be designed.
Only way would be to have something like an indivision in the A1200.
Even then you still need to change the source on the tv.

The experts say its not possible, they actually designed the whole cpu, added RTG and in the V4 fully implemented AGA, they also implemented a version of Gold 3 for the V500. They say its not possible, I tend to think they may know better than the two of us.


David Wright

Posts 373
20 Jun 2021 18:55


Why don’t you cajole Elon Musk into making an electric car with a 2,000 mile range?



James Husted
(Needs Verification)
Posts 81/ 3
25 Jun 2021 12:53


well if I was going to convince him to do anything it wouild be to make a more affordable electric car!


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
25 Jun 2021 16:37


Currently there is no possible solution to get 16bit audio.
  There was one dude on amibay who was producing replica clockport prelude cards - but he seems AWOL . Option is to add USB, and use a cheap usbaudio dongle. Again hard to get hold of and overkill if your just after an audio upgrade.
 
  No point in AGA on an AGA machine - will the Pamela implementation fit instead?


Mike Brantley

Posts 36
26 Jun 2021 03:25


Nick, I asked about a Pamela implementation in another thread and Gunnar said the V2 FPGA is too full for even just Pamela. Seems like they already have squeezed the most out of the V2 boards, alas. Don't get me wrong -- I am thrilled with my V2 in my A500 with everything it comes with. But I do have dreams about Miss Pamela. heh




Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
27 Jun 2021 08:05


Mike Brantley wrote:

  Nick, I asked about a Pamela implementation in another thread and Gunnar said the V2 FPGA is too full for even just Pamela. Seems like they already have squeezed the most out of the V2 boards, alas. Don't get me wrong -- I am thrilled with my V2 in my A500 with everything it comes with. But I do have dreams about Miss Pamela. heh
 

 
As we already explained the V2 cards (e.g.V500/600) use an FPGA of a size of 40000LE and use 128 MB of memory.
This FPGA is 100% full and does not allows more upgrades.
 
The today most advanced Amiga is the V4 with 80000LE FPGA and 512 MB memory. The V4 offers already 16bit audio, and also offer both RTG and PAL display over DIGITAL-VIDEO.
 
If you want a new standalone Amiga then the V4-SA is the best you can get. If you want all these features in an accelerator then V4 based accelerators will be the best option for you.


Jean-Baptiste Bolcato

Posts 61
27 Jun 2021 09:46


> V4 based accelerators will be the best option for you.

Wait, what? ...V4 based accelerators?
Is that coming any time soon Gunnar? That would be AWESOME.


Mike Brantley

Posts 36
27 Jun 2021 21:28


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:
 
  As we already explained the V2 cards (e.g.V500/600) use an FPGA of a size of 40000LE and use 128 MB of memory.
  This FPGA is 100% full and does not allows more upgrades.

Yes, I understood when it was explained before and get it and have not contradicted it. ;)

Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  If you want a new standalone Amiga then the V4-SA is the best you can get. If you want all these features in an accelerator then V4 based accelerators will be the best option for you.

Got it! :) V2 is maxed out. V4 has room for growth.



James Husted
(Needs Verification)
Posts 81/ 3
28 Jun 2021 10:23


V4 accelerators? - as the meme goes "Shut up and take my money"


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
28 Jun 2021 17:38


Im asking about the V1200 version - NOT the V500/600



Juan Jose

Posts 23
28 Jun 2021 21:34


nick fellows wrote:

Im asking about the V1200 version - NOT the V500/600
 

The FPGA in the Vampire 1200 is bigger than the one in the Vampire 500/600.
I'm sure there's still plenty of room to spare.


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
29 Jun 2021 12:54


Its like trying to get blood out of a stone - is there roadmap that says somewhere what features we can expect to receive on the V1200.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 Jun 2021 13:03


nick fellows wrote:

Its like trying to get blood out of a stone - is there roadmap that says somewhere what features we can expect to receive on the V1200.

 
The biggest problem of the V1200 is the years long waiting time.
Unfortunately we get no informations from Igor at the moment about production and waiting time. Without information, any planning is impossible and also the future of the V1200 is very uncertain.
 
While the Apollo-Team would like to help here, this is impossible.
We are really sorry here, this lies only in Igors control.


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
29 Jun 2021 14:32


Ok so what can be done to help ?



Nick Fellows

Posts 176
29 Jun 2021 14:44


The V1200 has shipped though - I get that there may be production issues producing more - isnt that different to the CORE updates ?

posts 37page  1 2