Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
Thread: New A600/A1200 accelerators in development!!!
Harrison 11:44 17th September 2010
Some amazing news!

Jens "Paradroid" Schönfeld from Individual Computers is developing new accelerator cards for Amiga 600- and 1200-computers. An official announcement or confirmation is still not available but three different models are going to be published in December:



According to Jens Schönfeld the main focus is a fast memory access. Therefore all boards will not include a FPU.

Besides, the boards will also not have a jumper or other preferences. You can only add a clock.


Source of news: http://www.amiganews.de/en/news/AN-2...-00024-EN.html
[Reply]
Tiago 12:23 17th September 2010
That is fantastic news !!!!
i wounder how much will be the A600: 25 Mhz, 32 MB RAM ...

the A1200: 28 Mhz, 64 MB RAM, about 99 Euro looks a good price,
but the A1200: 56 Mhz, 64 MB RAM for 199 euros is a bit expensive... isn't it?

my blizzard 1230 iV 32Mb was around 140 euros... and the average price would be in 130-180 in ebay...
maybe 199 euros for a brand new card is a good price, but can the 56mhz can be as good as an old 1230 50mhz ?
[Reply]
Harrison 14:04 17th September 2010
I don't think they will be as good as the original Blizzard 1230 cards. They don't have an FPU option for one, and I'm wondering if the ram will be part of the card, rather than a simm, so no upgrade possible.

However, for anyone wanting a new 030 card for their A1200, they are still a great solution. Not many people are going to ever need more than 64MB of ram either.

As you say, €199 is quite expensive, but ho much was the 1230 when new? I can't remember. And don't forget that it is more expensive per item to do limited fabrication runs than it is to mass produce thousands.

Not sure on the price of the A600 accelerator, but that is the one I'm most interested in, as the original A630 has always been so rare, and commands very high prices when one does come up.
[Reply]
Tiago 14:59 17th September 2010
Yes ithe A600 accelerator is my target also.
I allready have a 1230 blizzard in my A1200 tower and a normal 8mb card in standart 1200, so, i will not look for a new one. But in my A600 i only have a A603 1mb ram so total 2mb ram. i would like to have 25 Mhz, 32 MB RAM.
But it all depends on price.
[Reply]
AD-RS1600i 15:02 19th September 2010
This is really really great news!!!! I would love the 630 card for my A600 !

I really hope the Amiga community gets behind Individual Computers and buys some of these, even if they are not quite on par with the cards from the Amiga's hey-day as - to my mind at least - Individual Computers are really sticking their neck out making an A600/A1200 accelerator in the year 2010...

Personally I hope the chips are integrated, as for my A600 32meg will be more than enough and I am sure reliability/performance will be better soldered on the board + not to mention better space usage when squashed into my little A600 (I'm thinking of the relative merits of the Apollo VS Viper back in the day) - personal opinion obviously..

I am soooooooooooooooooo excited - I could not have afforded to replace my Viper 630 otherwise, they are that pricey second hand due to limited supply (I feel, it was only me and a few other A600 nutters back in the late nineties who must have brought these cards!! lol

Within reason (based on price) I will try my best to buy a A630 to support Individual Computers - what a coool concept!

.......................I'm in danger of burning the smiley face button out

---------- Post added at 16:02 ---------- Previous post was at 15:20 ----------

Having a quick think about it, the only jumper I would like is one to disable the accelerator as I am worried about classic games running at 900mph!

Still very excited!!!!! - I know what I am treating myself to this Christmas he he he
[Reply]
Harrison 14:49 20th September 2010
Blizzard accelerators can be disabled by holding down a key for a couple of seconds at boot time. It would be great for these to do this instead of needing a jumper changed. Other recent hardware has also done this, such as the Amigakit sold kickstart rom switcher that switches roms when the reset keys are held down for 5 seconds.

However, don't forget WHDLoad. If you run games from HDD using WHDLoad, then they should still run at the correct speed, even with a faster processor installed. Also removes the need to load games from floppy or the time waiting for them to load.
[Reply]
AD-RS1600i 16:42 20th September 2010
Wow, I didn't realise WHDLoad could compensate for faster processors as well - that really is a neat solution!

I agree about a dynamic solution rather that requiring a jumper change which is really old skool and a bit crude to be honest Still i wouldn't gumble if it did require a jumper change, just nice to have the opportunity to own one!

Really looking to their release how ever they are packaged to be honest!!
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