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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Ext. Graphic Card

Herbert Markart

Posts 45
08 Sep 2019 12:02


What do you think guys?
Is it possible to make this run in Co-Work for i.E.: an Amiga2000?

EXTERNAL LINK 
All the connectors are already on that Zorrocard. USB, HDMA as well as LAN.
So the Vampire could stay inside :)


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
08 Sep 2019 12:55


Herbert Markart wrote:

  What do you think guys?
  Is it possible to make this run in Co-Work for i.E.: an Amiga2000?
 

 
possible? : yes
clever? : no
 
With Vampire you have both the fastest CPU and the fastest GFX.

Using the Z2 Card will slow you down.

Memory speed to this Z2 card is like 3 MB/sec
Memory speed to Vampire SAGA is like 500 MB/sec
 
This means GFX will be a lot slower if you not use SAGA but this Z2 card.
 


Roger Andre Lassen

Posts 150
08 Sep 2019 13:43


Gunnar: 
Is there a reason why we cant use higher resolutions in SAGA ? I´d like to go higher.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
08 Sep 2019 13:49


Roger Andre Lassen wrote:

Gunnar: 
  Is there a reason why we cant use higher resolutions in SAGA ? I´d like to go higher.

higher resolution than what?


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
08 Sep 2019 14:47


Only good thing on the card is:
 
  a) Its brand new Zorro card for big box Amigas
  b) It has ARM co-processor but no software on Amiga side to use it
 
  It is however, completely unrelated to Vampire, as we currently have Vamp just for A1000/A2000.
 
  This card I believe was also done on FPGA tech, and yes, it could be used in conjunction with Vamp, but that is all - and that is depending how well vendor supports it in AmigaOS 3.x.
 
  And it costs ˆ329.00 - as Vampire. So mighty gfx or CPU+RTG I would pick second. But some rich A2000 owner could do both.


Herbert Markart

Posts 45
08 Sep 2019 15:10


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  higher resolution than what?
 

  For the sake of modern Monitors, 1920x1080 would be nice. But is that possible for an V2(+) to archive?
 
  My cards limit was 720p and that was not stable. At least with that Monitor of mine. My current Monitor is 1280x1024 which is also not archived. 800x600 only. And for the sake of a clear display, I only can say: use the black borders and only display it in the middle or I can make a big screen but blurred because the monitor has to push it up to his native resolution.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
08 Sep 2019 15:20


Did you try to set your card to 1280x720@25Hz and did you use a DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater?



Herbert Markart

Posts 45
08 Sep 2019 15:21


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  Did you try to set your card to 1280x720@25Hz and did you use a DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater?
 
 

  Yes. However this was again not stable with that monitor i have.
  I do not use an repeater.

BTW: Which resolution gives the vampire to monitors in Gold3?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
08 Sep 2019 15:26


Herbert Markart wrote:

 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

    Did you try to set your card to 1280x720@25Hz and did you use a DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater?
   
   

    Yes. However this was again not stable with that monitor i have.
    I do not use an repeater.
 

A repeater is NOT expensive it cost $4.
 
You need to question what do you want to do with the Amiga?
  * Play NEOGEO games?
  * Play DOOM / Quake?
  * Use MAC OS?
  * Play Video?
  * Play fast RTG games?
  * Play SDL games?
 
Nothing of this will ever work with a Zorro card anywhere as good as with SAGA on the VAMP.

A FULLHD Picture in 32bit truecolor is exactly 8 MB in size.
This means if the Zorro bus has a speed of 3 MB/sec - you need 2.7 seconds to transfer 1 screen to the GFX card.

Is this clear to you?
 


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
08 Sep 2019 15:34


Herbert Markart wrote:

    I do not use an repeater.
 

 
 
  v2 was not fully DIGITAL-VIDEO compilant, because license fee was too high, Igor improvised digital out (he did it on his own).
 
  So DIGITAL-VIDEO output is not really DIGITAL-VIDEO compliant so an DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater might be needed to get a stable image.
 
  One in all,  Gold3 or not, you need a repeater if you want improved video signal and higher res stable with v2.
 
  Hope v4 will not have this problem.

You do not need any external gfx card, and Zorro III, while being nice and Autoconfig in 90s, was even abandoned with DraCo as too slow for serious audio-video processing and higher resolutions. Like ISA cards - EISA,VLB,PCI and PCI-E were invented to push more data on bus and offered a way forward for more powerfull video and audio cards.
 


Herbert Markart

Posts 45
08 Sep 2019 15:38


Thank you for your explanations.
I know it is good to ask here first :)

I'll try with an repeater.

I got one more thing:
I've got an DIGITAL-VIDEO-Splitter to move out the Audio-Signal to analogue (Preperations for GOLD3).
I am unsure if this one is active so it would make a more stable signal. But i will give it a try.


Martin Soerensen

Posts 232
09 Sep 2019 09:09


It should work fine as a scan doubler for ECS graphics, however it would be silly to use the gfx card part of it since it is a lot slower than using SAGA RTG. Ethernet might also be usable on it, however you can also get this working quite cheaply on the Vampire so it would be quite expensive to install this card only to use it as a scandoubler. Might as well just buy an OSSC. :-)


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
09 Sep 2019 13:26


I think we just need apply some common sense and some humbleness.

The Amiga is a computer from the 80th.
At that time 640x480 was considered a very high resolution!

The BUS inside the A2000 matches the Computer needs of that time.
Its a very good bus for its time.

I think if you set yourself "humble" goals what your AMIGA from the 80th should do for you than you will not get disappointed.


Istvan Hegedus

Posts 22
09 Sep 2019 19:23


I have this card in my A4000 and I like it. I love the vampire (have it in my A2000) but unfortunately it will not be available for A4000 for a couple of years thus I needed a solution to use a modern monitor with it. If we compare its price with Indivison AGA then it is a much better choice for nearly same price and its picture is much better plus I can use it as RTG.
In an A2000 I would however not install it, there I use the vampire with Indivision ECS.

posts 14