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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Devils Advocate... Thinking Out Loud!

Adam Whittaker
(Needs Verification)
Posts 270/ 1
20 Sep 2018 01:04


so I have seen many hardware mods to various devices to add more ram by piggy backing ram chips... could such a thing be done to vamp? double the ram by piggy backing another chip the same size?


John William

Posts 563
20 Sep 2018 03:12


Adam Whittaker wrote:

so I have seen many hardware mods to various devices to add more ram by piggy backing ram chips... could such a thing be done to vamp? double the ram by piggy backing another chip the same size?

Errrm...piggy backing?


Ronnie Beck
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 199
20 Sep 2018 08:01


John William wrote:

Adam Whittaker wrote:

  so I have seen many hardware mods to various devices to add more ram by piggy backing ram chips... could such a thing be done to vamp? double the ram by piggy backing another chip the same size?
 

 
  Errrm...piggy backing?

He means where you solder a second ram chip on top of the exist ram chips.  Such hacks have been done for chip ram:
EXTERNAL LINK 
My guess is no.  But without a schematic it is hard to say for sure.  The chip ram piggyback mod can be done for chip ram because the required lines for the additional ram already exist.  The additional lines needed for this on the Vampire cards might not exist.

I am sure Majsta or one of the other guys could confirm this though.

I was going to ask why you needed more than 128 Mb of ram but then I remember the debate about bringing AMMX enhanced Java to the Amiga. *smirk*  Sorry, couldn't resist taking a stab at Java there.  :-D


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
20 Sep 2018 09:29


Adam Whittaker wrote:

so I have seen many hardware mods to various devices to add more ram by piggy backing ram chips... could such a thing be done to vamp? double the ram by piggy backing another chip the same size?

The AMIGA ram was clocked at 3.5 MHz
The Vampire2 SDram is clocked at 170 MHz

Those chip on chip solder hacks worked fine at 3.5 MHz at 170 MHz you can forget this.


Adam Whittaker
(Needs Verification)
Posts 270/ 1
20 Sep 2018 10:46


like I said -thinking out loud lol... whilst Im good with a slodering Iron Im no Electrical engineer! And for the record its not just amiga chip ram I haave seen it done with.


Louis Dias
(Needs Verification)
Posts 55/ 1
20 Sep 2018 14:00


What is the max amount of chip ram that can be allocated on Vampire?  2GB?


John William

Posts 563
21 Sep 2018 01:10


Louis Dias wrote:

What is the max amount of chip ram that can be allocated on Vampire?  2GB?

Heheheh. I like you - grin -


Tim Trepanier

Posts 132
21 Sep 2018 05:33


I'm sure someone can correct me if i'm wrong but:

The 68000 CPU has a single address space of 16MB
The 60020 CPU added an additional address space of 4BG
(68EC0020, like in the CD32 only has original 16MB space)

To be compatible with the 6800x0 line the Apollo core must support both the 16MB and 4GB address spaces.

Keep in mind that everything must have an address: ie., ROM, chip RAM, system RAM, expansion boards, etc...

Also, moving the ROM, or chip RAM out of the original 16MB of space would have compatibility issues. I'm not sure how severe.

Given the situation i think the best solution is the original 16MB contains 8MB of chip RAM and other needed items like the ROM. Then the other 4BG of space can be divided as 2BG for fast RAM (the AmigaOS can't allocate more then 2BG for any one application) and the remaining 2BG or expansion boards like Zorro cards.

Another very large addressing block could be added to the Apollo core. However, this would require both work on the Apollo core and AmigaOS would require a major update.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
21 Sep 2018 08:22


Louis Dias wrote:

What is the max amount of chip ram that can be allocated on Vampire?  2GB?

Chip-Ram means 2 things the VIDEO Chip can display it, and the AUDIO chip can play music from it.

With SAGA/AGA all the memory on the Vamp can be displayed and audio could be played from.
This means on a Vampire with 128 MB ram - you can display all 128 MB


Marlon Beijer

Posts 182
21 Sep 2018 16:11


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Louis Dias wrote:

  What is the max amount of chip ram that can be allocated on Vampire?  2GB?
 

 
  Chip-Ram means 2 things the VIDEO Chip can display it, and the AUDIO chip can play music from it.
 
  With SAGA/AGA all the memory on the Vamp can be displayed and audio could be played from.
  This means on a Vampire with 128 MB ram - you can display all 128 MB

Does the MPU relocate the Zorro II/Zorro III space so it doesn't clash with the 128MB chipmem? ;)



Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
21 Sep 2018 19:04


Marlon Beijer wrote:

Does the MPU relocate the Zorro II/Zorro III space so it doesn't clash with the 128MB chipmem? ;)

It does not need be relocated.
 

posts 11