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Michael R

Posts 281
02 May 2017 21:02


eric gus wrote:

Hopefully the vampire team also has some tricks up their sleeves for 512k chip machines (like original A500/2000) to open that up to 2meg chip sometime in the future.

I seem to remember a discussion about that. The memory is all Vampire RAM now so Chip Mem and Fast Mem are using the same. It may involve re-mapping memory addresses so that the 2MB range of addresses is reserved in Vampire memory so that games/apps looking for those addresses find it and assume that 2MB Chip Mem is installed. Of course I could have been imagining that. I've been wrong before! ;-)


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
03 May 2017 09:54


eric gus wrote:

Hopefully the vampire team also has some tricks up their sleeves for 512k chip machines (like original A500/2000) to open that up to 2meg chip sometime in the future.

I would be very surprised if they don't as it would be against the Vampire "spirit" :-)

Just wait a little longer.... and, damn, why only 2mb?


Ian Parsons

Posts 230
03 May 2017 11:18


I think to begin with they may be using the existing chip ram, I think this is what was said on IRC a few  days ago. That may have changed by now for all I know though, particularly with the bandwidth needed for AGA.


E Penguin

Posts 46
03 May 2017 12:12


OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
03 May 2017 12:58


Daniel Lakey wrote:

OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.

Personally have nothing against that... Its still Amiga... Vampirized Amiga! Chip Ram on the A2000/A500 is 16bits?


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
03 May 2017 13:00


Daniel Lakey wrote:
OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.

So for some philosophical reasoning I should have some analog-digital converter stuff between the Amiga's RGB output and my monitor and should switch monitor inputs all the time? If Amiga custom chips had been available in 1993, Phase5 would have put them on their Cybervision cards alongside the RTG chip. This is just the same what is happening here.



Saladriel Amrael

Posts 166
03 May 2017 13:12


Daniel Lakey wrote:

OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.

My understanding is that this is what Vampire is all about.
And I'm Ok with that


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
03 May 2017 13:19


Pedro Cotter wrote:
Chip Ram on the A2000/A500 is 16bits?

Yes.  With no bursts or caches.

Even AGA with full page-mode is 64-bit bursts on 32-bit bus.  Not good by today's standards.


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
03 May 2017 13:24


Heck!!! I might even donate the Ram from my A2000 to a purist in despair!!! LOL!!!


E Penguin

Posts 46
03 May 2017 14:28


Saladriel Amrael wrote:

Daniel Lakey wrote:

  OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.
 

 
  My understanding is that this is what Vampire is all about.
  And I'm Ok with that

I disagree - and side-projects like the Parasite seem to show that the Vampire philosophy involves using the native functionality when it's there. Otherwise, why bother with the Parasite at all and just do everything in the FPGA?



Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
03 May 2017 15:53


Daniel Lakey wrote:
I disagree - and side-projects like the Parasite seem to show that the Vampire philosophy involves using the native functionality when it's there. Otherwise, why bother with the Parasite at all and just do everything in the FPGA?

I think that the Parasite is for use until the Vampire board is fully functional (please, no data jokes, please).


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
03 May 2017 16:20


Samuel Crow wrote:
Pedro Cotter wrote:
Chip Ram on the A2000/A500 is 16bits?
Yes.  With no bursts or caches.

Even AGA with full page-mode is 64-bit bursts on 32-bit bus.  Not good by today's standards.


Hi Samuel,

But the AGA chipset is 16 bit?

Also, the fastram on the A2000 is 16 bit, because the 68000 is 32 bit internal, but 16 external?

On a side note. Can AMOS Professional 1.12 read input from a mouse wheel? I tried looking it up on the internet but couldn't find out.


John William

Posts 563
03 May 2017 17:16


Daniel Lakey wrote:

OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.

And upgrading your PC x86 is not changing it's nature to some computer in other chip?


Eric Gus

Posts 477
03 May 2017 17:54


Daniel Lakey wrote:

  OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.
 

 
  I also don't have much of a problem with that..  as long as the original functionality isn't lost, if thats what is required to gain things like 2mb chip and PAL display modes on an original stock NTSC A500 with 512k chip, I am ok with that sacrifice ..


E Penguin

Posts 46
03 May 2017 19:08


John William wrote:

Daniel Lakey wrote:

  OCS/ECS modes should still use the chip mem though; if the FPGA starts doing everything then it becomes an Amiga-on-a-chip with the rest of the computer just being a fancy keyboard adapter.
 

 
  And upgrading your PC x86 is not changing it's nature to some computer in other chip?

The PC is a soulless machine of utilitarian blandness



Samuel Crow

Posts 424
03 May 2017 19:22


Thierry Atheist wrote:

Samuel Crow wrote:

  Even AGA with full page-mode is 64-bit bursts on 32-bit bus.  Not good by today's standards.
 

  Hi Samuel,
 
  But the AGA chipset is 16 bit?
 
  Also, the fastram on the A2000 is 16 bit, because the 68000 is 32 bit internal, but 16 external?
 
  On a side note. Can AMOS Professional 1.12 read input from a mouse wheel? I tried looking it up on the internet but couldn't find out.

AGA is 32 bit with a 16 bit blitter.  Fast RAM outside of an accelerator card is 16 bit also.  Scroll wheel support was not available on AmosPro 2.0 or earlier but may come out with AmosPro 2.1 soon.


Rafal C

Posts 3
03 May 2017 19:57


I heard that currently AGA implementation is using real CHIPRAM, are you planning to do something faster, like mirroring CHIPRAM (caching writes) in reserved part of Vampire's RAM?


Rafal C

Posts 3
03 May 2017 20:06


Pedro Cotter wrote:

 
  I would be very surprised if they don't as it would be against the Vampire "spirit" :-)
 
  Just wait a little longer.... and, damn, why only 2mb?

You have to think thirst about how amiga works. The chipset doesn't have access to Vampires RAM, so if a program place a music in the area after 512kB, Paula wouldn't be able to play that, because that area doesn't physicly exist. It exists only in Vampire, so in order to do that you have to implement Paula in Vampire too and any other device that uses CHIPRAM through chipset. The only problem with that might be a floppy drive i think.



Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
03 May 2017 20:37


Yes Rafal, you are right.
There's probably ways to achieve that.
In the end i think that a compromise is to be reached... 


Mark Smith

Posts 30
03 May 2017 23:51


Rafal C wrote:

 
  You have to think thirst about how amiga works. The chipset doesn't have access to Vampires RAM, so if a program place a music in the area after 512kB, Paula wouldn't be able to play that, because that area doesn't physicly exist. It exists only in Vampire, so in order to do that you have to implement Paula in Vampire too and any other device that uses CHIPRAM through chipset. The only problem with that might be a floppy drive i think.
 

Or implement audio over DIGITAL-VIDEO with an AHI driver?  Limited use case though I suppose as AGA software is probably going to want to use the Paula audio.

I suppose you could implement a mirror of ChipRAM on the Vampire and mirror writes to the real ChipRAM from Vampire ChipRAM, CPU reads would be nice and fast.  But thinking on that how would the Vampire know if Paula or some other device writes to the real ChipRAM ?


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