Now this could be a real game changer. Anyone wishing to buy existing Amiga accelerators, or any newly developed accelerators like the Vampire, will know they are expensive.

But not now with the PiStorm.

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/19/pist...-to-the-amiga/

For just £38 (RPi 3 at £23 plus custom cable at £15) you can have a real Amiga running a very nice setup.

Someone has developed the ability to utilise a Raspberry Pi 3 connected to an A500/+ using a $15 custom cable. The PiStorm software then emulates an 030/040 up to 75-80Mhz, as well as emulating RTG, SCSI disk enulation (allowing you to connect any USB hard drive to the Pis USB port and run HDF files. And you can emulate any kickstart rom.

The video sorting RTG running is quite something.

I've not bothered needing adding with real Amiga hardware for years, other than using my existing setups. But the ability to do this at such ac price is really tempting me to dig one of my spare A500 Plus out.

This could be a wake up call to expensive accelerator developers.

And this is a RPi3. I wonder what could be achieved with a RPi4? I wonder if an A1200 version is possible?
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Forgot to mention video output. No more need to mess around with scan doublers etc. The PiStorm is currently utilising both its HDMI ports. One for RTG and one for RGB to SCART to HDMI.

But they are now working on linking the Denise chip and forming a single output!
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A very interesting concept H.
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Someone on Amibay is currently building some of the interface boards to connect the RPi up and run this. He's now planning on obtaining a few more to sell to the community. Really tempted to get one and give it a go. The developer is working on many updates to make it emulate faster CPUs (it's already gone up from an 020 to an 030 at 75-80Mhz).

There's also talk of work starting on an A1200 version. I would be really interested in this.
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I'd give an A1200 version a go but have no urge what so ever of buying an A500 just to try it as it stands.
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Link seems broken but I think the concept is really cool, using a new computer to boost up an old one. My mind boggles at the amount to technical skills it must take to design something like this.

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I'm assuming this is what the link should have been: https://hackaday.com/2021/04/19/pistorm-brings-modern-muscle-to-the-amiga/
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Link fixed. That was the one.
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Two years on.... so it's been a while......


Well.... I'll be goddam....

I am seriously impressed with a Pi3A+ on AmigaKit's PiStorm32-Lite board....

It made my A1200 render things before you click "Go".

S M O K I N G ! ! ! !

Pi4 is more than twice as fast.... If you can find one this side of Xmas 2023.
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I've always been tempted to try a PiStorm, but I don't really use real Amigas these days. Still tempted though as I have many I could setup. I do follow those building and testing the new updates and it is seriously impressive. It has however killed the need for dedicated hardware like a Vampire.
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Thing is H, the Vampire emulating the Chipset isn't the same.

I'm currently writing Caffeine OS to a 64GB Microdrive to try on the PiStorm32Lite in my A1200. I am using Raspberry Pi Imager 1.4.7 to do this. - I'll let u know how it goes.

I've also been naughty & have a Pi4B arriving sometime soon.

Screen Grab01.jpg

ScreenGrab02.jpg

ScreenGrab03.jpg

This is running off the Pi3A+ HDMI output. I have an RGB-Scart link to another LCD capable of 15Khz.

This is very impressive stuff.

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I also find this very interesting too....

https://github.com/PiStorm/cm4board/..._PiStorm32Lite

This basically connects an A1200 to the PiStorm32-Lite board & then uses a Raspberry Pi Coumpute Module for

You can then add an I/O Module giving full on USB, Ethernet & HDMI

https://www.patreon.com/posts/eagle-has-landed-79775148

All available via GitHub
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