Sneak preview: Thrust is the way...

To be continued.

Apollo Team Activity Report: GOLD 2.7 core, GOLD 3 core, Vampire V4

Apollo team has released an activity report on their forum website, addressing some current issues, like the halted Vampire V2 600 production, as well as ongoing new developments.

Some highlights from their report:

- GOLD 2.7 includes faster IDE, hardware sprites, optimized rewrite of RTG graphics driver, MapROM functionality, hybrid software/hardware FPU, HyperThreading, and more

- GOLD 2.7 core will be available for Vampire V2 500, V2 600, and V4

- GOLD 3 will bring AGA support to OCS/ECS Amigas, and seems to be routing Paula-audio to the HDMI output

- a list of non-Amiga website reports about the Vampire V4, which boldly shows that the outside world does take notice

Judging from the list of new features of the GOLD 2.7 core users can expect a major overall increase in performance.


Especially the Apollo core's current lack of an FPU is a crucial difference to "real" M68k based accelerators (with an FPU), but it looks as these days will soon be gone. It'll be interesting how the other manufacturers of accelerator boards will react to this - namely: phase 5 - as they now have some serious competition when it comes to floating-point number crunching.

Again, Apollo team has given us some spectacular report on their progress. Together with the latest phase 5 announcements this makes 2017 probably the most exciting Amiga year since the turn of the millenium!

Sources:
forum.apollo-accelerators.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1822

BANG! There it is: Vampire V4 standalone & Vampire V4 Amiga 1200

And this is how things happen. You have an Apollo team, and a Vampire team, and Kipper2k and Majsta and all the others, and they just go the way, all the way.

Today has been announced Vampire V4, and what a beast it is: it comes in different flavours, including an Amiga 1200 version, and a standalone version.

Among it's features are the Altera Cyclone V A5 FPGA, 512MB DDR3 RAM, FastIDE with two connectors (40 and 44-pin), HDMI* video out, dual Kickstart-flashrom, USB, ethernet, and MicroSD storage. Additionally, the standalone version will feature two DB9 mouse/joystick ports.

From the official announcement: "The Vampire V4 standalone system will be a complete new Amiga system powered by the 68080 CPU core and the complete SAGA chipset (AGA compatible)."

Probably most interesting are three I/O ports on the new Vampire V4. Currently we have no information about these, but could this be the basis for a new standard of Amiga expansion devices? Will this be what people build upon, and make the Vampire V4 the new Amiga?

It has to be said, though, that there's some sort of question mark regarding the Amiga 600 version of the Vampire boards. The announcement of the V4 says "Amiga 600 with kippa’s adapter (if produced)", and assuming that "kippa" is "kipper2k", things don't look too well: recently, kipper2k left a note on his website (see sources, below) that he doesn't intend to continue making the Vampire 600 boards. Let's just hope this doesn't affect the overall roadmap of the Vampire boards, and that someone will build the adapter for the V4 600.

Anyway, exciting times we live in!

Congratulations!

  

http://www.apollo-accelerators.com/images/v4.jpg

*) probably, see sources below

Sources: 
http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2017-08-00003-DE.html
http://www.apollo-accelerators.com/files/V4_announcement_v1_5.pdf
http://forum.apollo-accelerators.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1804
http://kipper2k.com

Vampire V2 / Apollo-Core GOLD3 boldy goes AGA chipset emulation!

Here's the next step in Vampire/Apollo-core development, and what an important step it is: Amiga-chipset emulation, namely AGA, is making good progress - now Vampire boards can do AGA graphics and audio via HDMI!

Once again, and finally, it looks like it's really happening: the looooong overdue update of the Amiga's screenmodes and connection capabilities in regard to modern displays.

Additionally, some programs - probably mostly games - will benefit from this new stage of Apollo-core in a specific way: due to not only the super-fast CPU-emulation but also the new AGA-emulation both residing on the Vampire now, there's no need for "turtle mode" anymore - in other words: the CPU doesn't have to wait for the slow Amiga-mainboard chipset blitter anymore, giving huge performance boosts to blitter-heavy applications.

AGA chipset emulation is still work in progress (e.g. currently PAL only), and hasn't been released to the public yet, but you can already watch some impressive demo videos:

Vampire 600 V2 / GOLD3 "No more turtle mode", parts 1 and 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYxEFUgWe1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_rfkqPymg

Source:
http://apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=1&note=6563

Accelerators galore

In recent times, a lot of new hardware developments for retro computers are popping up. Among these are a remarkable number of different accelerators for the Amiga 500, 600, and 1200 - here's an overview of what's currently available and/or in development.

Please note that information provided here may not be 100% complete. Read about the boards' details on the websites provided, or get in contact with the developers, if in doubt.

Have fun choosing your next-gen Amiga accelerator!

ACA500plus

Individual Computers brings us this accelerator board for the Amiga 500, with some interesting features - like e.g. built in Kickstart ROMs, AmigaOS 3.1 installer software, and a connector for A1200 accelerators.

CPU: MC68EC000 at 14 to 42MHz
8MByte RAM
8MByte FlashROM
two CF-card slots
Action Replay-compatible freezer
7-segment display "DisMo"
Kickstart V1.2, V1.3 and V3.1, and AmigaOS 3.1 installer in FlashROM
Extension connectors: A1200-compatible Clockport, local 16-Bit extension port, connector for A1200 accelerators

Website(s):
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/de/shop/product/ACA500plus.html

ACA1221ec

Individual Computers' low-budget accelerator for the Amiga 1200, sells for only about 120 Euros.

CPU: 68EC020
17 to 42 MHz
16MB RAM, 9MB of which are usable FastRAM
1MB-MapROM option
2 clockports, one of which is hi-speed (for RapidRoad USB host controller use)

Website(s):
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/de/shop/product/aca1221ec.html

ACA1233n-40 and ACA1233-55

Individual Computers' 68030 accelerators are still available.

CPU: 68030 at 40 or 55 MHz
128MB RAM
MapROM option
Clock port

Website(s):
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/ACA12xx.html

Furia EC020 for Amiga 600

On sale for quite some time now are the Furia accelerators for the Amiga 600, available via online stores (e.g. http://vesalia.de or http://lotharek.pl )

CPU: 68EC020 at 33MHz
FPU: 68882 (if present) 
9.5MB FastRAM 
Maprom function

Website(s):
http://www.kuchinka.cz/furia/

TerribleFire TF520, TF530, and TF540

Stephen Leary's open-source DIY accelerators for the Amiga 500. Documentation on how to build the 68020 and 68030 CPU versions (TF520, TF530) are already available via GitHub and YouTube (see links below), and just recently Stephen has begun developing the 68040 version (TF540).

CPU: 68020, 68030, or 68040
FPU: 68881
IDE controller

Here's a demo of the TF530 in action, comparing a stock A500's performance to that of a TF530-equipped one, using "Frontier - Elite II":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRO9j2G9owc

Website(s):
https://www.youtube.com/c/TerribleFire
https://twitter.com/terriblefire

https://github.com/terriblefire/tf520
https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530

Wicher 500i

Accelerator board for the Amiga 500, from Poland.

CPU: MC68000/68010
Max. clock: 50MHz
RAM: 1-8 MB SIMM 72 (FPM,EDO)
IDE Controller
SPI Controller

Here you can see it in action:
https://youtu.be/WWG1BVmYEXU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-r4OQP9Sc

There's also a Wicher 2000 accelerator board for the Amiga 2000 planned.

Website(s):
http://retro.7-bit.pl

HC508

Homebrew accelerator for the Amiga 500 by blogspot/YouTube user "m68k". Not much is known about this one, especially if it'll be sold to the public or made open-source one day.

68HC000 CPU at 50 MHz, 100% MC68000 compatible
IDE-controller (40-pin) for HD and CD-ROM
integrated CF-Card slot
8 MB FastRAM (1 wait state)
512k FlashROM for Kickstart (1 wait state)
Utility to individually (de)activate any module (CPU, RAM, ROM, IDE)

Here you can see it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK1h65u8UIU

Website(s):
http://amigaprj.blogspot.de

Vampire 500 V2 and Vampire 600 V2

FPGA-based accelerators - and much more - for the Amiga 500 and 600. Amiga 1200 version is in development. CPU performance far beyond that of a 68060, SAGA graphics with Full-HD resolution, HDMI output, 128MB RAM, MicroSD card slot, IDE controller (Vampire 500 only). The ultimate boost in performance!

Website(s):
http://apollo-accelerators.com