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Roadmap for Apollo & Vampire2page  1 2 3 4 5 

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
08 Dec 2015 22:09


Here is a quick update on our Roadmap.
 
The Vampire is close to start shipping.
Shipping can start in probably 4 weeks.
 
Apollo Core runs good, stable and fast.
Testing progressed well and so far all looks pretty good.
Testing is not 100% finished yet.
We assume we need about 3 month to 100% complete testing.
 
Our release plan will be to ship V600-V2 with so called "silver" version of the core.
Silver means with good working core, with speed of 68060 CPU.
Which plays MP3, runs games  Workbench etc all well - as you have seen.
 
But as verification is not 100% completed
So we can not guarantee that nothing is hidden.
 
In 3 month we plan to release "golden" core update.
Golden Core will fix all issues if found any.
The Bios-update will be able to update from AMIGA CLI.
No extra tools will be needed for this.
 
At the same time with the "golden" Apollo core.
This means in about 3 month we expect the release the Vampire500.
The V500 will come bundled with golden Apollo.
 
Shortly after the V500 the V1200 is planned to be released.


Michal Warzecha

Posts 209
09 Dec 2015 09:21


And that's the news!
So, after silver release nothing in hardware will be changed? Golden will be only FPGA update?
Update to Gold will be free or paid?
And for now Vampire card is without full working DIGITAL-VIDEO and without uSD slot. Silver version will be aimed with DIGITAL-VIDEO and uSD?


Leo Foederer

Posts 27
09 Dec 2015 10:58


Great! Can't wait!
And a big thank you!


Chris Owen

Posts 1
09 Dec 2015 14:45


Sounds great!

Can I ask if there are plans to release Vampire models for A4000 and other big-box Amigas beyond this? I realise that the more popular models need to be catered for first.


Wawa T

Posts 695
09 Dec 2015 17:04


look here for the answer and lets concentrate on current development for now:
CLICK HERE


Tango One

Posts 102
09 Dec 2015 19:32


Will hdmi be included on the "gold" release. ?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
09 Dec 2015 22:32


Michal Warzecha wrote:

  And that's the news!
  So, after silver release nothing in hardware will be changed? Golden will be only FPGA update?
  Update to Gold will be free or paid?
  And for now Vampire card is without full working DIGITAL-VIDEO and without uSD slot. Silver version will be aimed with DIGITAL-VIDEO and uSD?
 

 
Yes, the card hardware will stay the same.
 
The SILVER CPU release will bring you the CPU which we use now.
In my opinion the SILVER CPU is very good useable already.
I think most of you have seen on the videos many games and tools running.
 
If we including the users find any bugs in the next 3-4 month then the GOLD CPU release will fix those bugs.
The GOLD CPU release will of course be free.
It will be a free online download and you can update your Vampire from AMIGA OS with it.

The SILVER Release is an option for people to get the card by the end of this year... if you want you can of course also wait for the GOLD release.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
10 Dec 2015 19:04


To clarify:
 
This forum is only for the team to explain details about Apollo,
and for customers to ask technical questions.
 
This forum is NOT for chatting.
 
Any "Bla Bla" will be deleted.
I hope you will understand this.

Thank You


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
11 Dec 2015 00:25


What plan(s) do you have for a stand alone Apollo Core computer?

Do you plan to bring back/restore the posts from before this website went down about 2 months ago?


Michal Warzecha

Posts 209
11 Dec 2015 09:52


I think standalone system will be connected directly to NatAmi, so, Chipset and all Amiga-hw will be done by Thomas, and CPU with FastMEM etc will be from Apollo team. Of course if it will happend. For now Apollo and Vampire is for existing computers and roadmap is clear- A600 for now, next will be A500 and compatible- A500+, A2000 (A1000 mayby too), CDTV (if will fit), next A1200 and big box Amigas (A3k, A4k). Then, mayby team will think about standalone system.


Wawa T

Posts 695
11 Dec 2015 10:48


if apollo team will gradually implement the amiga chipset functionality into the fpga along with the core, then a standalone system will at some point emerge of it automatically. i had the word elsewhere, that the problem might be to implement the fpga chipset replacement alongside the original one on the motherboard, as the original chipset that also drives i/o and input devices, may need to be turned off to avoid conflicts. however indivision flickerfixer proves some point as it is already replicating part of the chipset in parallel. so it remains to be seen. one way or the other, one step at a time.


Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
13 Jan 2016 22:09


@Gunnar, in post above you rate the core Silver or Gold depending on stability, but how does it relate to the feature set as explained in Vampire v2 thread.
(Full Picasso 96 with DIGITAL-VIDEO out, SD card, 16-bit Audio etc..) (And FPU?)



Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
14 Jan 2016 23:01


Daniel Sevo wrote:

@Gunnar, in post above you rate the core Silver or Gold depending on stability, but how does it relate to the feature set as explained in Vampire v2 thread.
  (Full Picasso 96 with DIGITAL-VIDEO out, SD card, 16-bit Audio etc..) (And FPU?)

The Silver Core - which was released now
Enables 128 MB Fastmem.
A very fast 68K CPU.
Including Video out (with a subset of resolutions)

More features will come with Gold-Release.


Markus Röhstö

Posts 1
20 Jan 2016 11:49


I am an A1200 owner who found your project while looking for a suitable accelerator and will defenetly buy one as soon as the A1200 version of Vampire comes.
      I do however wonder about one thing. The ACA1221 accelerator has one feature that in my book is on the border between "nice to have" and "need to have" namely MapRom. MapRom enables 1mb of ram to be used as ROM providing both better ROM speed and the ability to use other versions without raplacing hardware roms.
     
link to specs for the ACA1221
EXTERNAL LINK   
     
Is this a feture that you are planning? Is it even possible?


Nixus Minimax

Posts 416
20 Jan 2016 12:14


Markus Röhstö wrote:
MapRom enables 1mb of ram to be used as ROM providing both better ROM speed and the ability to use other versions without raplacing hardware roms.

Don't worry, the rom is in the fastmem.




Wawa T

Posts 695
27 Jan 2016 18:24


Don't worry, the rom is in the fastmem.

 
  thats what i wonder about. why vampire needs to contain a kickstart image (in the flash?) while the hardware, its being accomodated by, always contains one anyway.


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
28 Jan 2016 13:22


Here's my guess.

DDR2 RAM is faster than accessing FlashROM, meanwhile, loading from FlashROM to the DDR2 RAM is instant, compared to loading from a hard drive!

"Nothing but the BEST, for Amiga!", I say.

Can't wait for the A1200 version with more than 128 Megs of RAM AND a faster FPGA!!!!!

Ryu is talking about running his website on his A1200 on AmigaWorld.Net....
EXTERNAL LINK  Can't wait to hear of someone running a website using an Apollo-Core!!!


Wawa T

Posts 695
28 Jan 2016 15:07



DDR2 RAM is faster than accessing FlashROM, meanwhile, loading from FlashROM to the DDR2 RAM is instant, compared to loading from a hard drive!

an amiga has a kickstart in rom, not on a hard drive, you know. the direct acces to this rom may be not be as fast as to a kickstart mapped to a fast ram, but it shouldnt be noticeably slower to load it up at boot from there, than from the accelerators own local flash. it probably a fraction of a second, one way or the other.

i simply wonder why is that neccessary at all.


Billy Nest

Posts 30
23 Feb 2016 14:09


Michal Warzecha wrote:

  next A1200

Hi I'm an Amiga 1200 owner and i would like to see a future card for my A1200 from your team beyond my expectations.
Is there a prediction for the A1200 apollo accelerator whet it will be released ?

I have an Apollo 68040/25mhz accelerator card from the oldies :)
Cant wait to dump this old thing for something fresh and new.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
23 Feb 2016 18:14


wawa t wrote:

i simply wonder why is that neccessary at all.

Does your AMIGA has an AROS rom already in your ROM chip?
Does your AMIGA has already rom chip with driver for our SD-Card interface included?

If you can answer both of them with yes then then flash chip is not needed for you.

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