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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Vampire V3000/V4000page  1 2 3 

Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
21 Aug 2016 23:07


Captain Zalo wrote:

Thierry Atheist wrote:

For 500 Euro, later this year, or early next year (by April?) there is planned to be a standalone Apollo Core motherboard released.

What source do you have this from?


Hi Captain Zalo,

You must have missed this.

Look at Gunnar's posts #7 and #16.
CLICK HERE 
It's all there except for the date, which in some other thread it was implied that they hope to get it out by December of this year to April-May of 2017.... At least they would really like to.

edit by me
Okay, I see that you have posted in that thread before.
I seem to remember that they were talking about late this year, but can't find a reference to it, so I guess I'm wrong about that part of my post. I'll stop talking now.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
22 Aug 2016 13:11


I think is VERY important to look at some
REAL NUMBERS to visualize about what we are talking:

The CHIPMEM of the AMIGA did had a speed of 3.5 MB/sec max.
The FASTMEM or Zorro-Mem on the A2000 has a speed of max 3.5 MB/sec.
The CHIPMEM on your A4000 has a max speed of 7 MB/sec
The FASTMEM on your A4000/40 has read speed in the order of 11 MB/sec

The FASTMEM of the V600 is in the range of 400 MB/sec.

If we want to build a new card for the Amiga 4000 then I would use DDR memory - and we would look at something like
800 MB/sec for the FASTMEM.

If you look at the difference of the memory speed - its clear that you REALLY want to minimize the memory usage of any old memory - as all the old memory is really hundred or two hundred times slower than our new memory.

So even if you had a Z3 SCSI controller with memory - you really do NOT want to use this memory anymore as reading this memory is so slow compared to the new memory.

Even reading from the Vampire 500 IDE - is faster than reading from Amiga 4000 fastmem !!




Alan Haynes

Posts 140
25 Aug 2016 15:06


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
  Even reading from the Vampire 500 IDE - is faster than reading from Amiga 4000 fastmem !!
 

Will I be able to connect a normal 3.5 inch hard drive to the IDE port and have it work?

Alan from Downunder



Brian Robotham

Posts 52
25 Aug 2016 16:28


Alan Haynes wrote:

Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
  Even reading from the Vampire 500 IDE - is faster than reading from Amiga 4000 fastmem !!
 
 

 
  Will I be able to connect a normal 3.5 inch hard drive to the IDE port and have it work?
 
  Alan from Downunder
 

Yes, it is a 2.5" 44 pin header, same as the a600/a1200



Alan Haynes

Posts 140
26 Aug 2016 11:20


Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will there be a restraining bracket for the a500 V2 when used in the A2000?

Alan from Oz


Przemyslaw Tkaczyk

Posts 155
13 Sep 2016 12:27


Johannes Schäfer wrote:

    But A3000 and A4000 are rare machines. Most of them are fully upgraded with 68060, RAM, SCSI, Graphic card, network card and so on. This is history. But at the time you add an Arria 10 Vampire, you dont need this. Would you really use an A4000 as power adaptor for an Vampire 4000?
... 
    So here is the question: What special thing from your A4000 or A3000 do you need after you upgraded your Amiga with an Vampire?
   

First of all - not ALL A3000/A4000s are equipped with 060s. And even if they were - isn't the point of Vampire to bring ultrafast 68K core with a plenty of speedy RAM on board?

Second of all, if I could ditch my CyberVision 64/3D for a modern DIGITAL-VIDEO display, I would - as it doesn't hold today's standards (S3 Virge is obsolete to say it gently). Furthermore it would provide compatibility across different Vampire variants.

Then there is my Toccata, wchich I'd love to utilize in its full glory that 040@25 won't manage to do. A1200 soundcards are hard to come across, if you haven't noticed.

Therefore, I really hope that Apollo Team would release a V4000 version plugged in the CPU slot so that I have a superfast 68080 AMMX processor and real FastRAM so that I can stop using my 68040/25 and 16MB FastRAM from the mainboard, which is painfully slow.

If you don't have interest in one of these - that's fine - but please don't measure anyone with your own vision, and decide what's a "rare machine" and what's "history".

I love my A4K and for one I would be very happy to see V4000 as a 3640-style CPU card for easy drop-in replacement - with true FastRAM and IDE upgrade (as in V500).

And to answer your question - A4000 is exactly this - my SPECIAL Amiga, not like any other I own. Build differently, with different form factor, and with different possibilities. And calling it a "power supply for Vampire" is quite outrageous. V4000 would mean a new life for this special machine.


Szyk Cech

Posts 191
13 Sep 2016 13:13


Is that true ALL A3000/4000 are equipped with modems 56kbps due to lack decent ethernet cards?!?


Salteadorneo Salteador

Posts 20
13 Sep 2016 13:13


I would also like to see a V4000 - V3000 (I have a A4000 060 and two A3000). Although he'd get four changes to the card. A Cyclone V instead of a Cyclone III (better than Arria 10 for keeping costs down), sata connectors instead of ide, and add a USB port and a pair of memory sockets instead of memory go soldered. And if an Ethernet port is included it would be great.


Marlon Beijer

Posts 182
13 Sep 2016 15:34


Przemyslaw Tkaczyk wrote:

Johannes Schäfer wrote:

  ... Would you really use an A4000 as power adaptor for an Vampire 4000?
  ...

 
... And calling it a "power supply for Vampire" is quite outrageous. V4000 would mean a new life for this special machine.

I reacted to this as well, such a stupid statement! You can still utilise everything on the A4000 board even though the Vampire replaces some parts of it. What's the difference in adding a 060 accelerator and a RTG card from adding a Vampire? If you want, you can just use the processing power of the Vampire and skip the rest of the features, but why would you? :P



Johannes Schäfer

Posts 47
13 Sep 2016 20:23


Thanks for replying that you are interested in using your Toccata with Vampire.
As I own a VLAb Motion more CPU Power would be nice for Non-Linear Digital Video editing.
Anyone more?


Nadyr Nick

Posts 54
13 Sep 2016 20:27


Przemyslaw Tkaczyk wrote:

Johannes Schäfer wrote:

    But A3000 and A4000 are rare machines. Most of them are fully upgraded with 68060, RAM, SCSI, Graphic card, network card and so on. This is history. But at the time you add an Arria 10 Vampire, you dont need this. Would you really use an A4000 as power adaptor for an Vampire 4000?
  ... 
    So here is the question: What special thing from your A4000 or A3000 do you need after you upgraded your Amiga with an Vampire?
   
 

 
  First of all - not ALL A3000/A4000s are equipped with 060s. And even if they were - isn't the point of Vampire to bring ultrafast 68K core with a plenty of speedy RAM on board?
 
  Second of all, if I could ditch my CyberVision 64/3D for a modern DIGITAL-VIDEO display, I would - as it doesn't hold today's standards (S3 Virge is obsolete to say it gently). Furthermore it would provide compatibility across different Vampire variants.
 
  Then there is my Toccata, wchich I'd love to utilize in its full glory that 040@25 won't manage to do. A1200 soundcards are hard to come across, if you haven't noticed.
 
  Therefore, I really hope that Apollo Team would release a V4000 version plugged in the CPU slot so that I have a superfast 68080 AMMX processor and real FastRAM so that I can stop using my 68040/25 and 16MB FastRAM from the mainboard, which is painfully slow.
 
  If you don't have interest in one of these - that's fine - but please don't measure anyone with your own vision, and decide what's a "rare machine" and what's "history".
 
  I love my A4K and for one I would be very happy to see V4000 as a 3640-style CPU card for easy drop-in replacement - with true FastRAM and IDE upgrade (as in V500).
 
  And to answer your question - A4000 is exactly this - my SPECIAL Amiga, not like any other I own. Build differently, with different form factor, and with different possibilities. And calling it a "power supply for Vampire" is quite outrageous. V4000 would mean a new life for this special machine.

I think the same; I wait Vampire4000


Nadyr Nick

Posts 54
13 Sep 2016 20:42


Johannes Schäfer wrote:

Thanks for replying that you are interested in using your Toccata with Vampire.
  As I own a VLAb Motion more CPU Power would be nice for Non-Linear Digital Video editing.
  Anyone more?

I'm: VlabM + toccata.
Needed for Vampire4000 (as I'd like/useful): FPGA ARRIA 10, 1 or 1.5 Gb Ram (not soldered), SATA four ports (very important to not use any more old scsi2 or scsi3). Included or as optional ethernet card and USB (possibile also a battery clock inside CR2032 ???).



Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
13 Sep 2016 21:58


Yeah Nadyr, at least 2 SATA ports would be INCREDIBLY useful, 4 would be ideal. I'd put in a SSD and a 1+ Terrabyte external drive.

That way, it would be more portable as you could leave the bulky (and overheating) hard drive at home.

B.T.W. I am now CERTAIN that the standalone 68080 Apollo core'd S-AGA AMIGA will sell OVER 3,000 units!!!!


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
13 Sep 2016 22:11


While Mr. Trevor Dickinson's capital must be stretched to it's limits.... Show him a 100% working standalone S-AGA 68080 Apollo Core'd AMIGA and I strongly believe that he would try to find a way to finance a big ASIC POWERED RUN of units!!!!!

I really really believe that it COULD happen!


Nadyr Nick

Posts 54
14 Sep 2016 00:09


Thierry Atheist wrote:

Yeah Nadyr, at least 2 SATA ports would be INCREDIBLY useful, 4 would be ideal. I'd put in a SSD and a 1+ Terrabyte external drive.
 
  That way, it would be more portable as you could leave the bulky (and overheating) hard drive at home.
 
  B.T.W. I am now CERTAIN that the standalone 68080 Apollo core'd S-AGA AMIGA will sell OVER 3,000 units!!!!

I'll need two internal units SATA (hd or ssd), plus an internal DVD, and if possible an external ESATA (I'd like more an USB unit as external).
The "big hardware problems" about A4000/3000 at the moment are: -1) CPU card 680x0 slow, -2) RAM in CPU card slow and low (need 512Mb, but better 1Gb or 1.5Gb), -3) SCSI2 or SCSI3 or IDE controllers slow.
If the Vampire4000 can solve these three big problems I can buy two of these cards, and sure many other end-users will do the same.
Then, if possible, It could be very useful the possibility to add a NIC ethernet 100mbps and USB (at least 2 USB 2.0), and also a simple coin CR2032 battery, all these in the Vampire4000 itself.


Captain Zalo

Posts 71
14 Sep 2016 06:01


You just described a stand-alone Vampire...


Nadyr Nick

Posts 54
14 Sep 2016 11:54


Captain Zalo wrote:

You just described a stand-alone Vampire...

Amiga 4000/3000 (also A2000) can use pacticular Zorro3/Zorro2/SlotVideo cards: es. VlabM, Video Toaster, SunRize cards ...etc...
and all these cards could not used in a Vampire stand alone mainboard.
So for exemple I'd buy two Vampire4000 with ARRIA 10 FPGA cards and one Vampire stand alone mainboard with ARRIA 10 FPGA, for different use.
I could also buy a Vampire1200 with Cyclone V (or ARRIA1 10) to play old games Amiga and other stuff as Amiga demos, apps ... those don't need "professional hardware" (usable either in A4000/3000/2000).

 


Jan Vonka

Posts 60
28 Sep 2016 11:22


Is there any memory limit for A3/4000 Fast CPU Slot? I thought when all accelerator boards are limited to 128 MB max, then this could be the real limit. I would really wish at least 256 or more MBytes for Bog Box Vampire.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
29 Sep 2016 06:43


Jan Vonka wrote:

Is there any memory limit for A3/4000 Fast CPU Slot? I thought when all accelerator boards are limited to 128 MB max, then this could be the real limit. I would really wish at least 256 or more MBytes for Bog Box Vampire.

no there is not physical limit.


Jan Vonka

Posts 60
29 Sep 2016 11:37


Gunnar, thank you for this info and thank you for doing this project because I see it a one of the most important milestones in Amiga history. Good job apollo-core team and keep it up ;o)

Back to the theme. If I can say my wishes about Vampire for bigboxed Amigas, it would be following:

- min. 256 MB RAM
- 2-4x SATA connectors
- 1x eSATA connector
- RTG with DIGITAL-VIDEO and 3D instruction set for Warp3D

I think we dont need Soundcard, USB, SCSI, ETH ... as these are already in most of these boxes.

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