Amiga.org - Why no Amiga equiv to Firebee?

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

I think there are fewer timing problems on the Amiga though. There were a few early games that ran way too fast on an accelerated Amiga but that is rarely a problem since AmigaOS 2.x days.

The Amiga had more advanced video and audio hardware than the ST. On the ST there's a lot of software-tricks that depends on a cycle-accurate 68k. So if you want to play ST-games, you need a 8MHz 68000 in many cases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

I wouldn't call the 68060 slow. The v4e ColdFire out clocks the 68060 by enough that it's going to be faster with ColdFire code but the 68060 can still hang with 68k code.

Sure, the 68060 is a good CPU, better than the ColdFire in most aspects. But there hasn't been made a 68060 this millenium. And even with the 68k emulation layer, the V4E outperforms the 060.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

The 68060 also benefits a lot with 68060 optimized code.

Well, if you can compile the code for the 060 you can also compile it for the V4E with even higher speeds ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

Well, that depends. There are very fast fpgas that could contain a CPU faster than the v4e ColdFire. They are very expensive now but dropping in price quickly.

Yes, in the future you can almost certainly get fast enough FPGA's at a reasonable cost. But will we get anywhere if we're always waiting for the next big thing? Today the V4E is the fastest option unless you go for a completely different architecture.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

The CF series doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

Absolutely true. The V4E is probably a dead-end. In the future I'm sure that a FPGA based solution would be better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

The Apollo core could be used for an Atari project as well. We could go in together to burn an Apollo only CPU or perhaps a chip with Apollo core and custom chips for Amiga and Atari. An fpga solution opens up a lot of possibilities.

Very true. Basically all you need is a motherboard with a huge FPGA and a load of connectors, and you can implement all sorts of architectures on it. But again, this is the future and not today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey (Post 686392)

It would be nice if some of you Atari CF guys could do some testing ;).

I just don't have the time I'm afraid.