desiv Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) http://eab.abime.net...ead.php?t=65047 Basically, it's a piece of harware being designed that has a 68000 that can run at standard speeds or 50Mhz. Has IDE, RAM, etc... It has an FPGA for control functions.. It's being aimed at the Amiga, but the talk on there is that it should work on any system almost, including the ST... Just thought I'd mention it... desiv p.s. There are already people posting there saying they will buy one, if it supports the ST.. Edited July 18, 2012 by desiv 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) I am surprised not only about the new cards but that there seems to be talk about it working on ST, past accelerators for Amiga were always pretty specific to the hardware, I am guessing it is more wishful thinking / hope form ST owners. Would certainly be interesting if it could be simply flashed to utilize ST hardware, that would be win win for everyone. Edited July 18, 2012 by OldSchoolRetroGamer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Would certainly be interesting if it could be simply flashed to utilize ST hardware, that would be win win for everyone. Quote from one of the guys who will be making/distributing it: It should work in all devices that have a DIL socket. Now read that again... yes, it does not say Amiga. Although this was designed for the Amiga, reprogramming the FPGA should make it compatible with other devices as well, e.g. an Atari ST. I think one of the main differences is the use of the FPGA for the control/config. It looks like it allows pretty complete (if they are right) reconfiguring of things in software... It will be interesting... desiv p.s. One of the "drawback" of that method is that it looks like it will make the board a bit more expensive... No specific pricing yet.. Edited July 18, 2012 by desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+poobah Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 "reconfiguring things in software" is a non trivial task. The amiga and ST implementation of all the bells and whistles are quite different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 This is far from beeing functional. Even Amiga version is not finished. Atari version needs a lot of development. 8 MB RAM seems as harder part for instance. Personally, I don't think that it will be success, if price will be over 100 Euros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 My first thought was maybe it supplies Fast Ram only and you need to use the Amiga's onboard chip memory. But it seems not to be the case - I wonder though how they convince the chipset to access the Ram connected to the CPU socket rather than what's onboard the machine. Maybe you have to disable your Chip Ram or something. That's one big difference in architecture right there. On the ST, anything can be accessed by the chipset, there's no fast Ram as the Amiga knows it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 "I wonder though how they convince the chipset to access the Ram connected to the CPU socket rather than what's onboard the machine." It is simple to describe: By addressing space above 4MB RAM. Concrete, with 8MB you can (need) to address area 4MB-12MB, what is not used in ST, STE. FPA logic then must connect that RAM to CPU bus (+ handling signals like DTACK). And it will be in fact fast RAM. Actually, really slightly faster than regular RAM, which serves video. But slowdown is very little on ST, because smart concept and not big video RAM. Someone could say, why not doing video too in add on board RAM - eh, that is possible at very high price, so just forget it. DOn't want to go in details about here... In any case, you will have same limits by usage of 8 MB RAM as by TT and Amiga: no screen possible in that area. No direct floppy/ACSI hard disk access, becasue video and DMA can only 4MB (via MMU). I don't see it as much useful, simply because there is (almost) no ST(E) SW what can benefit from that RAM. Of course, nobody stops YOU to write it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+poobah Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I don't see it as much useful, simply because there is (almost) no ST(E) SW what can benefit from that RAM. Of course, nobody stops YOU to write it The accelerator, with a little bit of cache and nothing else would be cheaper and more useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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