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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Vampire V2 A600page  1 2 3 4 

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 Nov 2015 18:00


Information about the Vampire V2 A600
 
  The Vampire V2 is a CPU and Memory Upgrade for the Amiga 600.
  It comes with some extra features on top.
 
  Main Feature:
 
  * APOLLO CPU
    Apollo CPU is a new 64bit core which is backward compatible 680x0 CPU Cores.
    According to AMIGA AIBB Apollo plus Vampire provides the performance of an 68030 @ 500 MHz
 
  * 128 MB Fastmem
    128 MB of Fastmem which which deserves this name.
    According to AIBB memtest and AMIGA busspeed this fastmem is the fastest AMIGA fastmem ever. Its even faster than the memory on several PowerPC Neo Amigas.
 
 
  Extra features:
  Not all might be enabled / will be enabled via update later
  * Digital Video Out
    Supporting up to 24bit truecolor and FULLHD 1920x1080 resolution
  * 16bit Audio
  * SD-Card is Hard drive
 


Z Kiss

Posts 6
30 Nov 2015 15:59


Glad to see the forums are back. I guess this means the release is imminent. Great news, although I only have an A500 and an A1200, so I hope the A500 or A1200 versions will be out sometime soon, too.
Also really glad to see that your dedication did not go away because of the dubious voices heard here and there. This is going to be an extremely huge achievement IMO.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
30 Nov 2015 20:33


Yes, the release of the Vampire2 V600 will be shortly.

Also, yes A500 and A1200 Versions of the Vampire2 are in the pipe.



Jaeson Koszarsky

Posts 1
03 Dec 2015 21:49


Any love for the big box Amigas?

What I'd really like to see is an accelerator for the DraCo.  Could a Vampire accelerator be adapted to plug into a 68060 socket? 

If it were a little more versatile, 68040/060 socket compatible, you could plug it into existing accelerators, broadening to customer base. Thinking something like the A3640 X-Calibur type add-on to make A3640 Vampire. 


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
04 Dec 2015 18:15


A600,A500/A1000/A2000,A1200
is the current roadmap.

In discussion was afterward a card fitting in A3000/A4000 CPU socket.
Not sure yet when this will come.


Aksel Andersen

Posts 120
05 Dec 2015 10:55


How does the sd-card perform as hd? Or is it not implemented yet?


Chris H

Posts 65
08 Dec 2015 14:34


I'm looking forward to see an A3000/4000 CPU-Slot solution in the future. Probably with some specific enhancements to cover the Big Box Machines differences.



Moon Spoon

Posts 3
08 Dec 2015 15:58


Hello,

is there any chance to break the 512KB chipram limit
of an amiga 1000 to give her 2MB chipram by using the vampire A1000?
Is it further possible to emulate
the Big Agnus?


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
08 Dec 2015 16:11


Moon Spoon wrote:

Hello,
 
  is there any chance to break the 512KB chipram limit
  of an amiga 1000 to give her 2MB chipram by using the vampire A1000?
  Is it further possible to emulate
  the Big Agnus?

Yes, this is possible. Among the many ideas for the vampire is to implement the AGA chipset inside the FPGA. This would not only give 2MB of chipmem but also all AGA capabilities.



Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
09 Dec 2015 22:25


Christian A. Holzapfel wrote:

I'm looking forward to see an A3000/4000 CPU-Slot solution in the future. Probably with some specific enhancements to cover the Big Box Machines differences.
 

A3000/4000 could be done after the A1200.
This was discussed internally already.
If demand is high enough certainly an option.


Igor Majstorovic
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 406
10 Dec 2015 12:02


Like BigGun said if demand is high we will build it but for now we have roadmap and some deadlines we need to follow. From my point of view every piece of hardware for any Amiga including A4000 is easy to make, there is nothing special about it or something that could surprise us.


Sascha Wintz

Posts 19
22 Dec 2015 19:46


Hello,

I have a question regarding the upcoming Vampire 500. Will the accelerator work in an european A500plus?

Thanks for the great work you guys are doing! Currently shopping for an A500 or A500plus :-)


Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
29 Dec 2015 23:35


First of all, FANTASTIC work by Big Gun and his team of Wizards!
Can't quite remember the last time I witnessed such awsomness at a "hobbyist" level.
Now to the question I had on my mind. As I'm about to receive my pre-ordered Vamp2 for the A600 (I hope) I'm turning focus to the "announced" A1200 version. How will this be designed? Is the idea to design a classic trapdoor expansion card? If so, will edge connector availability be an issue? Will the size difference open up any new possibilities?
I'm assuming here that "piggy-back" expansions are "nearly impossible" to do due to the placement of the CPU on the mobo. Hope someone could shed some light on this.
Thanx!


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
30 Dec 2015 16:13


Daniel Sevo wrote:
Is the idea to design a classic trapdoor expansion card? If so, will edge connector availability be an issue? Will the size difference open up any new possibilities?

Yes, no, perhaps.



Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
01 Jan 2016 04:20


I learned about Kipper2k's source for the edge connectors, so OK, no problems there I guess.
The most obvious addition over the final 600 v2 would be more RAM I assume.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
01 Jan 2016 08:21


Daniel Sevo wrote:

The most obvious addition over the final 600 v2 would be more RAM I assume.

From my point of view it makes sense for all three cards
the V600, V500, and the V1200 to have the same configuration.

Yes - I know some people will always want to have more.

But if you look at the current Vampire, then we see that it offers already :
* the fastest available 68k CPU
* the fastest available fastmem for Amigas
* the fastest available GFX card for A600/A500/A1200
* An SDCard interface faster than any FastATA solution

And this all for a very good price.



Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
03 Jan 2016 23:11


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
  From my point of view it makes sense for all three cards
  the V600, V500, and the V1200 to have the same configuration.
 
  Yes - I know some people will always want to have more.
 

 
  I hear ya, but here's why.
  *There are Blizzard PPC out there with 256 MB RAM, ppl don't like to "downgrade" from what they are used to.
  *The trapdoor design should not be as restricted in size as the 600 version and since it's a significant redesign anyway, I don't think ppl expect the exact same price for the various versions. If 256MB RAM adds €10 in component cost then I don't think anyone would mind, precisely because of what you say next:
 
 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  But if you look at the current Vampire, then we see that it offers already :
  * the fastest available 68k CPU
  * the fastest available fastmem for Amigas
  * the fastest available GFX card for A600/A500/A1200
  * An SDCard interface faster than any FastATA solution
 
  And this all for a very good price.
 
 

 
  Yes, this is astonishing value for any Amiga-fan, thats my point, I for one would gladly pay more that what I payed for the 600 version. First of all there are no comparable products, but 060 cards with 32/64MB selling for €500.. (And ppl buying them..) there is margin in the pricing I believe.
 
  Anyhoo, even if specs are unchanged, I'm counting myself *very lucky* we still get stuff like this in Amigaland in 2016 from hard working enthusiasts like you and your Apollo team.
 


Niclas A
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 219
04 Jan 2016 18:43


Daniel Sevo wrote:

Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

   
    From my point of view it makes sense for all three cards
    the V600, V500, and the V1200 to have the same configuration.
   
    Yes - I know some people will always want to have more.
 

 
  I hear ya, but here's why.
  *There are Blizzard PPC out there with 256 MB RAM, ppl don't like to "downgrade" from what they are used to.
  *The trapdoor design should not be as restricted in size as the 600 version and since it's a significant redesign anyway, I don't think ppl expect the exact same price for the various versions. If 256MB RAM adds €10 in component cost then I don't think anyone would mind, precisely because of what you say next:
 
 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

    But if you look at the current Vampire, then we see that it offers already :
    * the fastest available 68k CPU
    * the fastest available fastmem for Amigas
    * the fastest available GFX card for A600/A500/A1200
    * An SDCard interface faster than any FastATA solution
   
    And this all for a very good price.
   
 

 
  Yes, this is astonishing value for any Amiga-fan, thats my point, I for one would gladly pay more that what I payed for the 600 version. First of all there are no comparable products, but 060 cards with 32/64MB selling for €500.. (And ppl buying them..) there is margin in the pricing I believe.
 
  Anyhoo, even if specs are unchanged, I'm counting myself *very lucky* we still get stuff like this in Amigaland in 2016 from hard working enthusiasts like you and your Apollo team.
 

I don't think the cost of ram chip is the issue. Its timing and routing the hardware that is a challenge.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
04 Jan 2016 21:00


* The Vampire-600 design is fully finished and is sold right now.

* The Vampire-500 design is very similar to the V600 and will be available to buy very soon.

* The Vampire 1200 could be very similar to the V500 - only changing the connector - then should also be available to buy this year.

- If you want a complete different card which requires a complete new design - then this will impact the time to market.

 



Wawa T

Posts 695
04 Jan 2016 22:16


i think the sensible thing to do is to finish the vampire 500 as is, market it, and hold on with the design of the a1200 version to be able to consider and adjust to the audiences reaction. dont let yourself to carry away planing too far (as much as potentially planing to narrow). a500 is a huge market and allows for getting a gasp of reality while hopefully not demanding significant improvement. this market is starved anyway. according to the previous experience, till an a1200 will come into the equation, a considerable time will pass, allowing to rethink and redesign the approach, if neccessary, according to the demands and to the atm technically available options.

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