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Apollo Team Activity Report (June 2019)page  1 2 3 

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
16 Jun 2019 06:56


Kamelito Loveless wrote:

1:1 reimplementation of AGA imply recreation of the custom chips at the gate level.

Reimplementing at RTL level makes more sense to me.

Of course one can have an esoteric discussion that e.g.
a Beatles music CD does not contain the original music.
And this is technically correct.

And all music CDs we can buy are technically not a 100% exact copy of the original music. But they are close enough for me.




Barana V
(Needs Verification)
Posts 59/ 1
16 Jun 2019 08:52


Yes , good analogy.
The whole point of recorded music is that it is impractical for everyone on the globe to get in a time machine and travel to England to hear the Beatles play.
(Geographic and time constraints)
And even then, the audio  _amplification_ equipment was not so good compared to what we have now.
Not even to speak of digital music fidelity.
The digital copies of the beetles make for much _improved_ enjoyment .
Welcome to the age of digital music? No. Welcome to the FPGA age.


Kamelito Loveless

Posts 260
16 Jun 2019 10:05


The problem is that you’ll need to do a full QA to test for compatibility thousand of games and demos which takes forever. A demo coder will not be able to found new trick for example and when found they’ll probably won’t work on the Vampire. The most interesting thing about the Vampire is it that it goes beyond the actual CPU and custom chips architecture.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
16 Jun 2019 14:24


Kamelito Loveless wrote:

  The problem is that you’ll need to do a full QA to test for compatibility thousand of games and demos which takes forever. A demo coder will not be able to found new trick for example and when found they’ll probably won’t work on the Vampire. The most interesting thing about the Vampire is it that it goes beyond the actual CPU and custom chips architecture.
 

 
  They already have been doing that... And it's not like they're starting from nothing - they're building on top of the Vampire V2 code base that they've had for several years so they've had people giving them reports of problems and fixes and all that. The V2 already runs a TON of AGA, RTG and demos for each, and the testers on their team have been banging through a ton more on the V4...

And the nice thing is that since it's all in the FPGA, if bugs ARE found down the line, they can always put out a new core to flash to it with fixes... No having to live for years with workarounds for a bug in firmware/silicon.


Manfred Bergmann

Posts 226
17 Jun 2019 08:10


I must say, you guys are awesome.

Manfred


Erik Roy

Posts 19
17 Jun 2019 08:57


This is very cool, when Will we see the v4 for amiga 500 and 2000,we have expressed interest for a 500v2, but Will rather have a v4 Any plans this year.



Renaud Schweingruber
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 378
17 Jun 2019 15:16


Erik Roy wrote:

This is very cool, when Will we see the v4 for amiga 500 and 2000,we have expressed interest for a 500v2, but Will rather have a v4 Any plans this year.
 

Hi Erik,

We are today focusing on V4 Standalone. V500 V2 will still be at the portfolio for some time.

IMHO, a smart move would be to get a V500 V2 now and if needed sell it when a V4 for A500 gets on the market. You shouldn't lose a penny on selling a V500.


Kyle Blake
(Needs Verification)
Posts 108/ 1
29 Jun 2019 05:05


This looks very good, my A1200 is hungry for such an upgrade.

But I have a question about the IDE connector, how does this present itself to the system? Does it interfere with motherboard IDE in any way?

At the moment I have a fastATA board installed only a few months old. It works by tapping kickstart rom, gayle and motherboard ide pin 1. Would there be a conflict with the vampire IDE?

I assume vampire IDE is faster? My current speed is some 9.5mb/s with 68030


Mr Niding

Posts 459
29 Jun 2019 06:59


Tuko;

As you know Im a big supporter of the project, so me linking a question from kolla is made out of genuine curiosity, not to be a Debbie Downer ;)

https://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=40755&forum=25&start=1800&viewmode=flat&order=0#824807

I replied (Overflow) that I belived the A3000/4000 wont get any Vampire love anytime soon. Am I incorrect in that belief?
And if thats the case, is reason for this the complexity for example Zorro3 presents?

I dont even have this hardware, so its merely a point of curiosity.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 Jun 2019 07:03


Mr Niding wrote:

I belived the A3000/4000 wont get any Vampire love anytime soon. Am I

I think you are right.
The simple reason why, is that making many many different cards is a lot of work. And we will need to work hard to satisfy the A1200 demands.


Mr Niding

Posts 459
29 Jun 2019 07:20


Thanks for the quick answer Gunnar :)

That puts any hypotetical issues to rest, beyond academic discussions, which Amiga forums got black belt in ;)


Renaud Schweingruber
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 378
29 Jun 2019 10:10


Ultimately, we would like to cover every Amiga Classic existing. It's a matter of "audience" which drives our focus.

A500, A600, A1200 and standalone are the biggest markets to address first.


Mr Niding

Posts 459
29 Jun 2019 11:01


Indeed. :)

I remember someone saying the same thing a while ago, I just wanted to "make sure", considering the argument being made.

Again; thanks for the quick feedback! :)


Crow Mohikan

Posts 78
29 Jun 2019 12:51


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Mr Niding wrote:

  I belived the A3000/4000 wont get any Vampire love anytime soon. Am I

 
  I think you are right.
  The simple reason why, is that making many many different cards is a lot of work. And we will need to work hard to satisfy the A1200 demands.

I am waiting v3000/4000 after v1200. I hope.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
29 Jun 2019 19:39


Hope to see July report :)

If Vampire was a LP, hope it would sell on a Rub A Dub Market :)
EXTERNAL LINK


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
29 Jun 2019 20:50


Having never owned one of the big box Amigas, I might be off on this, but I thought the 3000+4000 had processor slots similar to the A2000's?

I know that Kipper2K made an adapter board to allow you to plug a Vampire A500 v2 into it and then that board goes into the processor slot in the 2000.

Maybe something similar could be done for the 3000/4000?


Eric Gus

Posts 477
30 Jun 2019 07:06


crow mohikan wrote:

  I am waiting v3000/4000 after v1200. I hope.

Likewise... my A3000 would love to FINALLY get a CPU upgrade (yep its been stock since I bought it new from commodore)


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
24 Aug 2019 23:11


Just four more weeks left of summer. I hope the team is having a great time at Gamescom and will have more good news soon.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
25 Aug 2019 21:10


At least is time for a new report!


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
09 Sep 2019 21:12


Think we will get a quarterly update this week? It’s been nearly 3 months since this one June 14...

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