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New Apollo Accelerators Cards Comingpage  1 2 3 4 5 

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
04 Jul 2021 18:43


Apollo Team proudly introduces the new V4-based Apollo FireBird (A500/A1000/A2000) and IceDrake (A1200) with unique values:

Based on the proven powerful V4 architecture
High Quality German production, software and support 
High Volume production; we will clear the all waiting lists very quick!
All components are future-proof and available
High-performance 512MB DDR3 memory
Additional features:
- 16bit Audio
- 2x IDE port for CF and CD-ROM
- 100 MBit Ethernet
- USB Joypad support

C5  FPGA (V4) with twice the capacity of the C3 (V2)

Apollo Team is fully committed to support a highly requested feature for these new accelerator cards: output of the native Amiga screen modes over DIGITAL-VIDEO output. This will require substantial R&D and we will update you with progress when we have more details to share.

While we can disclose that the Apollo Team is already testing operational prototypes of the next-generation accelerators, the reality is that there is still development work to be done before they are ready for large scale commercial production. Fortunately, we can build on the high-quality production line already in place for the V4 cards in Germany, and thus guarantee rapid upscaling of manufacture when production gets underway in Q4 2021/Q1 2022. The Apollo FireBird will be available first, followed closely by Apollo IceDrake. A third card for A4000 is in planning.




Leigh Russ

Posts 151
04 Jul 2021 20:09


No love for the 600 this time around?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
04 Jul 2021 20:49


Leigh Russ wrote:

No love for the 600 this time around?

Yes the Firebird and IceDrake are the two planned cards now.
There might come more next year... Maybe for CD32 and A4000.


Kriz Antikriz

Posts 27
04 Jul 2021 20:59


Woah, that is some great news!! Wish all involved best of luck and my full support for the future !!


Amiga Digital

Posts 7
04 Jul 2021 22:58


a quest , why not sata on the vampire board when it is posable , there are lot of sata easy to get


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
04 Jul 2021 23:06


This is fantastic news ..... But ....

let me get this right, we waited for the fastest A1200 card you could buy, and now we have all bought one, you announce a newer faster card?

i feel strangely ripped off.


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
04 Jul 2021 23:12


and the price of these cards?




Sean Sk

Posts 488
05 Jul 2021 00:48


Knight Stone wrote:

let me get this right, we waited for the fastest A1200 card you could buy, and now we have all bought one, you announce a newer faster card?
 
i feel strangely ripped off.

 
Are you kidding me? This happens all the time in the tech world. You buy something, and then not too much later, a newer model comes out. It's a fact of life. If you don't like it, then sell it. You'll probably make most of your money back.

@Gunnar - This is excellent news. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing what becomes available.


Tim Trepanier

Posts 132
05 Jul 2021 03:37


This is great news as long as we still have a choice of OS's to run.

Apollo OS has great potential but it isn't there yet for me and i don't know if it will be 6 months from now.

My current OS choices are Amiga OS3.2 and Coffin. I suspect we'll see the community produce add-on packages for Amiga OS3.2 which will result in my no longer using coffin.

Bootloader is a good sign that you'll support OS choices but i'd like to hear a commitment to continue to support OS choices.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
05 Jul 2021 07:15


Knight Stone wrote:

This is fantastic news ..... But ....
 
let me get this right, we waited for the fastest A1200 card you could buy, and now we have all bought one, you announce a newer faster card?
 
i feel strangely ripped off.

The ALTERA FPGA used on the V1200/V2 models did came out in the year 2007. From 2007 to today 2021 is in technology times a very long time.

In the year 2009, the successor model of this FPGA did came out.
And in 2014, ALTERAs developing tools stopped supporting the FPGA used on the V2.
The FPGA on the Vampire2 is since long time "end of live".
It has no software support since 7 years,
and the chips are now also not produced anymore.
You can not genuinely buy them anymore.

Making new cards, with new more modern FPGAs with more features is in my opinion the most sensible option.


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
05 Jul 2021 10:15


Ok Gunnar, that's an honest explanation. thank you.

Any idea on price?

and when are you taking preorders?

thanks




Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
05 Jul 2021 10:25


Knight Stone wrote:

Ok Gunnar, that's an honest explanation. thank you.
 
  Any idea on price?
 
  and when are you taking preorders?
 
 
  thanks
 
 

The IceDrake comes for the same price as the V1200.




Michael AMike

Posts 152
05 Jul 2021 10:57


Will there only be a "Gold 3 Core" with included chipset, or will there also be a core that only replaces the CPU of the Amiga?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
05 Jul 2021 11:10


Michael AMike wrote:

Will there only be a "Gold 3 Core" with included chipset, or will there also be a core that only replaces the CPU of the Amiga?

 
I sense a major misunderstanding in your post.
Nothings is ever replaced here.
 
 
The card is just an excellent AMIGA Accelerator.
  -The card adds to the AMIGA the 68080 CPU
  -It adds 521 MB fastmem
  -It adds two IDE ports
  -It adds 100MBit Network support
  -It adds 16bit audio support
  -It adds USB for Joypads
  -It adds SDcard support
  -It add DIGITAL-VIDEO our for Truecolor and more.
 
You can still boot Amiga games from Floppy and view them on your 1084 Monitor connected with SCART cable.
You still have monitor and audio out on Amiga mainbaord


Mikael Grahn

Posts 14
05 Jul 2021 12:07


This is awesome news. Makes me not feel so bad that I never got at the front of the Vampire V2 queue ;)


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
05 Jul 2021 12:25


I havent even used my V1200 yet - still in the box.
I wonder how much it will fetch on ebay...


Knight Stone
(Needs Verification)
Posts 136/ 1
05 Jul 2021 12:31


Is this the same FPGA that's used in the current V1200, or a larger one, as used in the V4SA?

I take it this will be considerably faster than the V1200?

thanks



Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
05 Jul 2021 12:35


Knight Stone wrote:

Is this the same FPGA that's used in the current V1200, or a larger one, as used in the V4SA?

Firebird and Icedrake both use the larger FPGA as in the V4 (80KLE)



Tim D

Posts 84
05 Jul 2021 13:10


Good idea, naming this after the AA3000+ PCI prometheus based daugtherboard Firebird....

Oh well, the Apollo name was already confusing giving the older Apollo accelerators.


Michael AMike

Posts 152
05 Jul 2021 13:47


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Michael AMike wrote:

  Will there only be a "Gold 3 Core" with included chipset, or will there also be a core that only replaces the CPU of the Amiga?
 

 
  I sense a major misunderstanding in your post.
  Nothings is ever replaced here.
 
 

Probably language barrier, each turbo card replaces the CPU of the Amiga host system.

Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
  You can still boot Amiga games from Floppy and view them on your 1084 Monitor connected with SCART cable.
  You still have monitor and audio out on Amiga mainbaord

Sometimes I feel like I'm writing with a politician, that was a simple yes or no question. Will the new generation of Classic Apollo turbo cards also replicate the chipset in the FPGA, or will it still be possible to use the Amiga chipset to its full extent.  (like the V1200)



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