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hardware OS4   hardware OS4 : Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls.
   posted by shoe on 30-Nov-2005 19:16:01 (33746 reads)
It was back in December 2004 when we heard about the plans from ACK Software Controls on PowerPC-based expansion-cards for the Amiga 1200. A year has now passed and no one seem to have heard anything from ACK regarding these cards. Are the plans put on hold, or even canceled? Many questions without answers, only silence. So SAFIR decided to put on the Sherlock hat and took out the magnifying glass to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Enjoy the full article in English, Spanish and of cource Swedish.

[Edit 06-Dec-2005]
I'm glad to let you know that ACK Software Controls will indeed produce graphics cards for the PowerVixxen LT, and provide full specs for 3rd party developers.

Adam also verifies that the card works with the Mediator bus board.

/Shoe
[/Edit 06-Dec-2005]


A big thanks to the SAFIR-crew for helping out, especially tomazkid for the English translation and Jonas for fixing my broken HTML, also Hugo Espiñeira for the Spanish translation.
    

STORYID: 2730
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PosterThread
hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 14:11:44
#121 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

Quote:
Yes, new 1200s can be bought, but how many could there be? Once this comes out.....None!!!


Sounds like a good investment then. I think I'm gonna sell all my shares and buy A1200 from Ebay instead.

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Fransexy 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 14:42:51
#122 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 8-Jun-2004
Posts: 2334
From: Elche (Alicante), spain

@BigBentheAussie
Quote:
Why can't he put it in the A500 trapdoor?


Or the expansion slot of the CD32?

@news

Even more good news!! i can wait for it to make my a1200 mod that i have in mind


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billt 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 14:48:48
#123 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 24-Oct-2003
Posts: 3205
From: Maryland, USA

Quote:

Why can't he put it in the A500 trapdoor?
There's are probably a hundred times more A500s than A1200s and they're much easier to come by used/second hand. Besides which, if they blow up, they're common enough that you wouldn't feel so bad gutting them, and putting this in there by itself.


I'm sure he could if he wanted to.

But consider this, how many people that "only" have an A500 are willing today to spend so much money on it? I think it's fair to say that someone that has upgraded from an A500 to an A1200 for their base system, that these people are also more likely to buy CPU and graphics upgrades than people who were not willing to upgrade beyond their lowly A500 are willing to do now.

Also, it's been mentioned that the thing should work with Mediator 1200, allowing desktop PCI cards usage. You can't do that with an A500 CPU card.

ACK's card might be used without a host at all, which could be useful if/when the A1200 goes bad, in comparison to you buying more older but cheap A500s as replacements.


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hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 15:01:21
#124 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

Quote:
But consider this, how many people that "only" have an A500 are willing today to spend so much money on it?


I was first thinking the same and there is definately truth in it.
Then I was thinking about the enourmous prices people spend on Ebay for A500/A600 accelerators (far above A1200 prices!) or for stuff like the A1000 Phoenix board.

There are definately A500-geeks out there who would love to have such a device. But I agree, concerning sales, the A1200 market will be far more "lucrative".

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xeron 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 15:32:34
#125 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 22-Jun-2003
Posts: 2440
From: Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England, UK, Europe, Earth, The Milky Way, The Universe

I don't think you can put CPU upgrades in the A500 trapdoor slot, anyway. I thought A500 accelerators went in the 68000 socket, making them trickier to install. It also makes them harder to design in such a way they'll fit inside the A500 case.

Note also that the A1200 motherboard does at least have a 32bit data bus, which should make things like chip ram access slightly faster. (very slow instead of very very slow ).


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tjaoz 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 15:43:42
#126 ]
Member
Joined: 1-Aug-2003
Posts: 44
From: Unknown

@hatschi

Quote:
It's not my fault that the two statements that I quoted from their news-page are contradictory.

Since the two statements that I quoted are more recent than yours, it seems as if they have changed their opinion about the release date of the Shark twice.

You are wrong. You put wrong date of the Shark announcement quoted by you in part here. This announcement is of 12.10.2000--not 12.10.2001 as you wrote.

In fact, the two statements you quote are NOT more recent. So they did NOT change the message about the relase date of the Shark twice. They changed it once, in the first half of 2001, not presently, as you suggested in your comment #101.

Quote:
> It's not their fault that OS4 is not ready yet.

It's nobodys fault.

Really?
Nobody is responsible for this project?

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walter 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 16:04:29
#127 ]
Member
Joined: 12-Apr-2004
Posts: 52
From: Takoma Park, MD, USA

My Dad and I each have 1200s. If I can get the thing to work in
both machines, I'll buy one for each. I wouldn't be surprised if
half a dozen boards sold just to members of our local club
(NCAUG).

(I guess that means I'm giving up on a uA1 coming from Eyetech.
Oh sorrow! Oh grief!)

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hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 16:07:30
#128 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

@tjaoz:

Wow, even earlier then
So they announced to send out the developer boards for November 2000.
I still wonder if anybody has ever seen one of these.

"The first SharkPPC G3/G4 cards for developers will be available by end of November, with production planned to commence in January 2001."

Quote:
In fact, the two statements you quote are NOT more recent.


So the present statement on their website (2005) is not more recent than the one you quoted from June 2001?

Quote:
Nobody is responsible for this project?


Yes, Hyperion is responsible for the project. But I wouldn't go so far as you to say that they are "to blame" for anything or that something is "their fault". Until now, they have done an outstanding job!

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hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 16:09:15
#129 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

Quote:
I guess that means I'm giving up on a uA1 coming from Eyetech.


You should. Two dealers have already taken down their offers/preorders from their websites.

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Wizzard_o 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 16:56:35
#130 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 13-Sep-2004
Posts: 701
From: UK, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Alpha Quadrant, The Milky-Way, Universe. 1.1.1.3.44.HP

Bye bye apollo '040 card!
Does Grfx card & USB work within a standard A1200 case?

wizz.


_________________
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tjaoz 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 18:20:22
#131 ]
Member
Joined: 1-Aug-2003
Posts: 44
From: Unknown

@hatschi

Quote:
So the present statement on their website (2005) is not more recent than the one you quoted from June 2001?

There is nothing strange in that.
From their point of view nothing has changed since 2001 - Amiga OS4 is still not released.

Let me remind you:
The AmigaOS 4.0 releasement was scheduled for summer 2001 (Amiga Inc.), later it was rescheduled for March-April 2002 (Ben Hermans), later for "when it's done"...

So give Elbox a break! It's not their fault that OS4 is not ready yet.

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ikir 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 18:59:25
#132 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Dec-2002
Posts: 5647
From: Italy

@tjaoz

I'm an Elbox fan but Hyperion never received a Shark prototype. As we know OS4 project target has been changed a lot, indeed OS4 we are going to use in few weeks/months is much much much more better than the initial project (warpos kernel ecc from 2000/2001).

Simply OS4 is the biggest leap in amiga hystory, and the nice thing is that you can enjoy it already even in beta if you bought an A1.


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Seer 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 19:43:07
#133 ]
Team Member
Joined: 27-Jun-2003
Posts: 3725
From: The Netherlands

I don't think you can put CPU upgrades in the A500 trapdoor slot, anyway. I thought A500 accelerators went in the 68000 socket, making them trickier to install.

Or on the left side expansion slot, like some GVP combo (HD + 68030)... Could be the best A500 expansion ever made..


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Foody 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 7-Dec-2005 23:26:28
#134 ]
Super Member
Joined: 3-Sep-2003
Posts: 1467
From: Canada

@Seer

But isn't an Amiga 500 a 68000 OCS

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Samwel 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 0:22:56
#135 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 7-Apr-2004
Posts: 3404
From: Sweden

@Foody

Yes they are.. Unless you don't have a A500+ which is a ECS 2MB chip
RAM equiped A500 machine.

This isn't a problem though as the A500 part is only used during startup
and when accessing the chipset, which shouldn't be that often if you have
a graphics card connected.

A hell of alot more A500/A500+ machines have been sold (+3 million) in
comparison to A1200 (about 300 000) so in terms of sales a A500 version
should out sell the A1200 version by atleast two times. Even if alot of A500:s
ain't used anymore.

Maybe Adam could make an adapter for the A500 expansion bus and
add support for it in the firmware?

Last edited by Samwel on 08-Dec-2005 at 12:24 AM.


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hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 1:33:58
#136 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

@Samwel
Quote:
Unless you don't have a A500+ which is a ECS 2MB chip

Just for the record: There was never a A500+ which came with 2MB Chip RAM. Most were supplied with 1MB Chip RAM (ECS chipset) and Kickstart 2.0.
There were however cost-reduced A500+ version which only had 512KB Chip RAM.

What you probably mean is the maximum addressable Chip RAM:
The Agnus 8372A had a maximum of 1MB while some later models came with the 8372B/8375 BigFatAgnus which could address a maximum of 2MB Chip RAM (just like any A1200).

Sorry for this being a little OT.

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Kronos 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 4:29:27
#137 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 8-Mar-2003
Posts: 2667
From: Unknown

@hatschi

ALL A500+ came with ECS-Denise, 2MB-Agnus, OS2.04, batt-clock and 1 MB of chipmem onboard.
Another MB could be fitted into the trapdoor.

The last A500s (and none of these were sold as "+") were indeed based on the A500+ PCB, but only had OCS-Denise, OS1.3, no clock and just 512k. Not sure about the Agnus, but AFAIR it was still the 1MB-type.


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hatschi 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 6:25:45
#138 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 1-Dec-2005
Posts: 2328
From: Good old Europe.

Quote:
ALL A500+ came with ECS-Denise, 2MB-Agnus, OS2.04, batt-clock and 1 MB of chipmem onboard.


No, unfortunately not. Not -all-. I remember this was an issue discussed in Amiga-mags at that time. Typical for Commodore, they were mixing cases and mainboards, just using what was "lying around" (already known from C64 times). So there were in fact Amigas branded as A500+, who just had 512kb Chip RAM onboard and Kickstart 1.3. These ones (Rev 8a) had just OCS (Highres Denise removed), but luckily had the BigFatAgnus still in place. A friend of mine (poor guy) got one of those crappy ones back at that time. Some however were not even complaining when they got one of these, since compatibility with games was key at that time.

The Rev8 (without "a") is the one you described above.

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shoe 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 10:50:32
#139 ]
Super Member
Joined: 14-Sep-2003
Posts: 1585
From: Gothenburg, Sweden

Wizzard_o,
Quote:
Does Grfx card & USB work within a standard A1200 case?


Probably.


@tjaoz,

Again, please keep this thread on topic, bashing OS4 release dates and quoting Ben Hermans is not helping anyone.

Thank you.
(edit: sorry I missread your post somewhat, I realize you are just defending Elbox which I fair.)

/shoe

Last edited by shoe on 08-Dec-2005 at 01:42 PM.

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amipal 
Re: Interview with Mr Adam Kowalczyk - ACK Software Controls
Posted on 8-Dec-2005 16:58:20
#140 ]
Super Member
Joined: 8-Apr-2003
Posts: 1907
From: Saltdean, East Sussex, UK

I'd much rather have an A1200 with one of these in, if only for the case styling - the A500 is roughly the same size as an oil tanker...


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