Taking Work Again?

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Some of you may have noticed I have been posting work progress and streaming a little bit again. Yes, I have started taking work again on a case by case basis. Mostly I am doing rebuilds of dead 4000 machines onto a new board.

The A4000 for now is my primary focus. You send in an A4000 dead or alive for a rebuild onto a new board, you get a 90% new board back. I will take the 23 pin ports and custom chips off is all. The rest is 100% new.

The cost for this service is $800 US.

Here is the most recent build progress completed February 12th, 2024 as an example.

Z3660 Accelerator First Boot A4000TX

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What is this? Its an WIP accelerator based on the 3660 design Chuck (John Hertel) did with a catch. Below is taken from the GitHub page. For more information visit this Discord and the Github links below. So far its running absolutely amazing.

Z3660 by sHaNsHe (Double H Tech)


Z3660 is an Amiga 4000 CPU accelerator board based on A3660 and Z-turn FPGA board.

Compared to A3660, Z3660 has some key differences:


1. Z3660 accelerator board can only use 060 CPUs. This could be changed in the future, but at this time, only 060 is supported.

2. If Z-turn FPGA board is NOT used, then you get a simple A3660. The only difference is that all A3660 PLDs are replaced by a XC95144XL-10TQ144 CPLD. It could be possible to use 060 up to 100MHz, but only 50 MHz and 64 MHz has been tested. A board with 128 MB of CPU RAM is in the works (to be connected at Z-turn sockets).

3. If you use a Z-turn FPGA board, then you can add 128 MB of CPU RAM (DMA compatible), 256 MB of Z3 RAM (not DMA compatible), RTG 16bit, Ethernet, AHI and MHI. Also there is a SD to SCSI emulation for using raw RDB disk images (USB storage maybe in the future). And of course, you can use a 68060 rev6 at 100 MHz.


Main branch. Z3660 with Z-turn FPGA

This main branch has everything you need to build a Z3660 with Z-turn FPGA.
If you want to build Z3660 without Z-turn FPGA, please go to wo_FPGA branch. The board is the same, but the CPLD firmware and BOM are obviously different.

Current version of Schematics is v021. It has all fixes needed by v02 to have DMA compatibility (tested with ReA4091 as bus master), so you can build it.

The exact model of Z-Turn board you will need is: MYS-7Z020-V2 ( mouser https://www.mouser.com/c/?q=MYS-7Z020-V2-0E1D-766-C-S ).

v0.2 Z3660 without FPGA

v0.2 Z3660 with FPGA
In this version you can see that I have used a 3V3 DCDC converter, instead of old linear regulator on VR1. Board has both footprints in one. Please be careful with its connection.

Note on RTG status: RTG is full working now. It has all features that ZZ9000 has (except obviously scandoubler). Due limitations of Z-turn, output video is limited to 16 bit.
Manufacturer ID was assigned to 5195 decimal, 0x144B hexadecimal (thanks to Olaf Barthel).
All RTG, AHI and MHI are based on ZZ9000 RTG (https://source.mnt.re/explore). It has the same band-pass filters as the AX module, but made in software by one of the ARMs.

And finally, a checkmate move…

Don’t have a 060 rev6 CPU, and still want to try Z3660 with a Z-turn?
sHaNsHe to the rescue!!! 😛

One of the Z-turn ARM CPU can run the emulation code of a 68040 CPU with JIT that reaches up to 120 MIPS!!!
It is based on Amiberry CPU code (for 32bit ARM). (And yes, I know, but Emu68 no longer supports 32 bit ARM).
You can even switch between the real 060 CPU and the emulation by clicking on an app (and rebooting).

Discord channel link:

Z3660 Offical Discord

Reshoot Proxima 3 Released!

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Purchase HERE: Reshoot Proxima 3 Download-Version

Reshoot Proxima 3 is available in the following variants:

Signature Edition (Soundtrack + Game CD)
Signature Edition (Soundtrack + Game CD) plus USB
Pure Edition (Game CD)
Digital Edition (HD installation archive download)
Soundtrack (Audio CD)
Poster A1

About Reshoot Proxima 3

Prepare for a pixel-powered thrill ride like no other!
Dive into the heart of classic gaming nostalgia with our top-down retro pixel art shooter for classic Commodore Amiga-platforms.
Traverse 5 breathtaking stages, from the fiery Sun to the eerie depths of Hell.
Brace yourself for lightning-fast, vertical-scrolling mayhem that will test your reflexes and courage.
“Reshoot Proxima 3” is the ultimate challenge for those seeking a technically astounding adrenaline rush.
Immerse yourself in a stunning mix of gameplay flow, pixel art and music.
Face unrelenting foes, and prove your mettle in this tough-as-nails shoot ’em up.
Are you ready to rewrite the cosmos and conquer the skies?

Features:

* Custom-made for Amiga AGA-hardware
* Fluid gameflow experience
* 5 uniquely themed stages
* adaptive attack wave design
* makes full use of AGA-chipset
* 24 bit color pixel art
* Steady 50 fps framerate
* 2 difficulty settings
* Energizing music and sound-fx
* Entire code in Assembly-language
* Local and global highscore table
* Available on CD-ROM boxed, USB and digital
* Exclusive for Commodore Amiga A1200, A4000 and CD32
* Compatible with most Amiga-emulation systems, MISTer, A500 Mini, PPC

Check out this great review from 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast!

A1222+ Production Underway

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Breaking News: A1222+ production underway through a 3-way agreement with ACube Systems, AAA Technology and A-EON Technology

Cardiff: 29/06/2023

In an exciting collaboration of Amiga technology companies, ACube Systems, AAA Technology and A-EON Technology have come together to announce the production version of the long awaited A1222+ computer.

This joint effort brings a new era of collaborative computing for Amiga enthusiasts by leveraging the expertise and resources of the three companies. The A1222+ is custom designed to run AmigaOS 4.x and also supports compatible Linux PowerPC operating systems as well as AmigaOS 3.x under emulation.

The motherboard’s compact and robust design is powered by NXP’s QorIQ P1022 dual-core PowerPC processor running at 1.2 GHz. It is supplied with version 2.3 of A-EON’s Enhancer software package which includes advanced video and graphics drivers and a whole host of updated applications, utilities and datatypes. ACube Systems have already successfully produced updated A1222+ v1.3 prototypes and will manage the new motherboard production and testing while AAA Technology will act as the main distributor for the new Amiga machine.

Enrico Vidale, Matthew Leaman and Laurent Zorawski, the CEOs of the three companies expressed their enthusiasm for this collaboration. They jointly stated,

“We are excited to announce our partnership and the beginning of A1222+ production. By combining our strengths and expertise, we aim to deliver an enhanced computing experience for Next-Generation Amiga enthusiasts. This collaboration marks a significant achievement for future hardware and software collaboration between the companies.”

Trevor Dickinson, who is funding the manufacturing run on behalf of A-EON Technology added,

“It has been a long and at times challenging task bringing the A1222+ to market. The project has been beset by delays and extreme world events which has resulted in component shortages and massively increased manufacturing costs. I am extremely grateful to ACube and AAA Technologies for helping to make the A1222+ system a commercial reality.”

Amiga enthusiasts who have eagerly awaited the A1222+’s commercial release can now look forward to its upcoming availability. Pre-orders for the A1222+ are expected to open in the coming months, with shipments set to begin shortly afterwards. Customers who committed to A-EON’s Early Adopter scheme will have first choice of refusal after which orders will be accepted on a first come first served basis.

Stay tuned for further updates as we explore the features, specifications, and availability of the A1222+.

About A-EON Technology Ltd.

Cardiff based A-EON Technology is well known for its long time dedications to the Amiga computing scene with its X1000, X5000 Next-generation power user systems and its growing software library tailored to Classic and Next-Generation AmigaOS platforms.

About ACube Systems srl

Italian Amiga specialist ACube Systems is recognised for its successful range of PowerPC based Sam computer systems. With a focus on quality and attention to detail, ACube will oversee the A1222+ production and ensure that each unit meets high standards before being made available to customers.

AAA Technology

AAA Technology is the Luxembourg based joint venture between, Amedia Computer France, AmigaKit Ltd. and A-EON Technology created to supply computer hardware and software systems to European Union and beyond.

Amiga 4000 Resin Printed Parts!

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I’ve been working on my personal 4000 for some time and sadly had to sell it off to cover some unexpected bills shortly after finished it. It’s with a new owner that loves it as much as I did making it.

So what do I do now? Well I’m making myself a new one. I’ve nearly got the new board completed and just need to solder a few more parts. The one missing thing was a case. I had most of one but it’s missing the front face and other plastic parts. What’s a guy to do? Well, if you know me you know I don’t give up easily. I had access to a large format commercial resin 3D printer. Below are the results from having the replacement parts professionally printed. I can’t wait to show all of you the completed project when I’m done now. Stay tuned!

New US Layout Amiga keys Arrived!

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It’s been a long wait but the first of the two sets of key caps I ordered many years ago from the kickstarter campaign have arrived. As reported other places I can confirm my set of US layout keys is missing the period. I’m told a replacement key will be sent out eventually, but no timeline on that has been announced. They otherwise look pretty great and I’m pleased with them.

WinUAE 4.10.0 Now Available for Download

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Another major new release of the gold standard in Amiga emulation is now available for download. Go grab it from here: https://www.winuae.net/

Major update

  • 68000 based unexpanded (with optional Slow or Fast RAM expansion) configurations are now 100% cycle-accurate.
  • Big thanks to ross for writing test programs that required perfect cycle accuracy. Lots of expected and unexpected hardware features found and implemented.

Featute updates that got delayed but will be implemented in 5.0

  • OCS and ECS Denise mid screen resolution changes are not pixel perfect, correct chip model specific bit pattern is not emulated yet. AGA is pixel perfect.
  • Not all blitter line draw width != 2 (invalid line draw configuration, normally not used) conditions are 100% accurate.
  • Disk status/interrupt timing is not fully confirmed yet.

New hardware emulation features and update

  • 68000 emulation is finally fully cycle accurate, last missing part, interrupt level change detection timing, is now cycle accurate.
  • Custom chipset interrupt timing is now cycle accurate.
  • CIA emulation is now fully cycle accurate. Timers were accurate previously but now also interrupt timing, TOD counting, CPU/E-clock sync, and more, including undocumented side-effects are cycle accurate.
  • Serial port internal timing, interrupt timing, including SERDATR status bits are now cycle accurate (I used serial port interrupts as a timer in my cputester real 68000 interrupt timing tests)
  • Audio interrupt timing is now cycle accurate (Was almost fully accurate previously).
  • Blitter timing is now cycle accurate (previously startup behavior and interrupt timing was not fully accurate).
  • Blitter line mode with invalid settings (for example width not 2, octant and line direction mismatch etc) is now almost accurately emulated. Some conditions are not fully correct.
  • Copper is now cycle accurate, previously some special cases were not handled correctly.
  • More undocumented chipset features implemented.
  • A1000 Denise bug emulated: sprites end horizontally 1 lores pixel later than bitplane horizontal window end. Currently enabled when A1000 Agnus is selected.
  • OCS/ECS vs AGA EHB on/off mid screen change different behavior emulated.
  • Emulated chipset mode display is blanked if programmed mode is active but has invalid configuration (for example too short or too long sync pulses or missing syncs, genlock sync enabled without genlock, etc).
  • Optional display mode change resync black screen delay.
  • Programmed custom chipset modes again use also blanking timing to position the display in addition to vsync and hsync (Most real world SVGA monitors do the same).
  • Max allowed programmed mode non-interlaced vertical line count is now 800 (increased from 592), special 700+ line programmed modes are possible and compatible with real SVGA monitors.
  • Refresh cycles conflicting with bitplane DMA is now accurately emulated, including all display and audio related glitches it can cause.
  • Optional Chip RAM and Slow RAM power up pattern emulation, enabled by default.
  • Color palette is now filled with pseudo-random contents at power up (was all black previously).
  • Monitor type selection. Composite sync or H/V sync. ECS Agnus/AGA programmed display modes can generate different C-Sync and H/V sync signals.

New other features and updates

  • RTG (uaegfx) Picasso96 v3.0+ mixed mode screen draggging is enabled by default.
  • RTG (uaegfx) blitter emulation now supports previously unsupported less common blitter operations.
  • RTG (uaegfx and emulated boards) automatic integer scaling support.
  • On the fly FloppyBridge drive change to normal or back now triggers automatic disk change condition.
  • Harddrive panel Full drive/RDB mode is now normal checbox. Hopefully it is less confusing than button that didn’t look like a button.
  • Larger default GUI size and slightly larger font if Windows desktop is large enough (at least 1600*1024).
  • CD audio is now always mixed with Paula audio. Separate CD audio output support removed.
  • Some American Laser Games didn’t have ROM descrambling support, also added missing ROM variants.
  • Added American Laser Games Quickstart support.
  • Added NVRAM path to Paths panel. Arcade/CD32/CDTV hardware NVRAM files default to this path.
  • Keyboard reset change, reset state is kept until at least one key is released.
  • CTRL+C in console log/debug window does not anymore close WinUAE. CTRL+C in newer Windows versions can be used as a Copy operation.
  • Changed CTRL+F12 fullscreen/windowed switch: If already switched from full-window to window. Next CTRL+F12 will return back to full-window, not fullscreen.
  • Optional interlace mode filter profile added.
  • DirectDraw mode was replaced with GDI mode. GDI mode does not support exclusive fullscreen but supports basic scaling modes and uaegfx hardware cursor that DirectDraw mode did not support.
  • Palette mode screenshot support. If enabled and screen has <= 256 colors, palette mode screenshot is created. It also attempts to preserve first 32 color entries if possible. RTC is automatically enabled if chipset extra= and system has fast ram, slow ram or chip ram expansion.
  • Save MSM6242B RTC model control registers to RTC file if they are modified. Previously only RF5C01A (Used in big box Amigas) control registers (and NVRAM) was saved.
  • If Quickstart ROM based Arcade hardware config (Arcadia or ALG) is selected, NVRAM file name is automatically set to ROM name. Genlock video file path is also set if ALG ROM is selected. Config files are not affected.
  • ROM file list sorting changed, added grouping, sort by group priority first (KS ROMs, extended KS ROMs, freezer ROMs etc..), then alphabetically.
  • Sometimes old graphics was temporarily visible in RTG modes if RTG had visible black borders (depends on scaling mode) and screen was switched and new screen had larger size/resolution.
  • Added “Slow” flag to RAM panel. If set, selected memory bank has Chip RAM timing but is not Chip RAM capable. Advanced chipset panel “C00000 is Fast RAM” removed, it is not needed anymore.

4.9.x bugs fixed

  • Sprite to playfield and playfield to playfield collisions were unreliable.
  • RTG (uaegfx) overlay was not drawn. 32-bit Windows only.
  • Magic mouse mode without virtual mouse driver installed: mouse position was incorrect in RTG modes and it also ignored scaling modes.
  • If hardware emulated RTG board VRAM was immediately (no gap in address space) after any RAM/ROM region and JIT direct was enabled: first 4096 bytes (host CPU page size) of VRAM was not fully JIT direct compatible and any direct read or write to first 4096 bytes would not access VRAM correctly, causing unexpected graphics glitches.
  • Quickstart panel floppy bootblock check used current track of drive (not track 0). Broken when FloppyBridge support was added.
  • Hires resolution and hires BPLCON1 bit set (or shres and shres BPLCON1 bit): single pixel horizontal offset may have appeared in right side of screen. AGA and non-subpixel mode only.
  • CD32/CDTV Quickstart mode “remembered” previous DF0: setting and didn’t disable it by default (even if Quickstart panel showed it as disabled).
  • CD32/CDTV Quickstart panel DF0: was not possible to select/enable.
  • Z2 RAM configuration was unreliable.

Older bugs fixed

  • CHD CD image CD audio timing fix.
  • Direct3D11 with custom shaders leaked memory.
  • Directory filesystem softlinks fixed.
  • 68060 without FPU or disabled FPU and executing FPU instruction that uses -(An) or (An)+ addressing mode: D7 was modified when exception stack frame was created.
  • Reading from non-existing custom register always returned 0xFFFF instead of data that previous cycle’s possible DMA access transferred.
  • Higher 68000/010 integer clock multipliers (4x+) in CE mode: chipset access timing was not accurate.
  • Second 1M extended ROM bank is now internally split to two 512k banks. Non-aligned bank start and size caused problems in some configs.
  • Hardware emulated RTG boards that have physically swapped red and blue output (Spectrum, Piccolo, Piccolo SD64) had wrong colors in 24/32-bit modes.
  • Piccolo Z3 and Piccolo SD64 Z3 had wrong autoconfig board logical size (which crashed the driver).
  • CD audio was not resumed if WinUAE was unminimized and minimize was configured to pause emulation.

Debugging related updates and fixes

  • Ultra extreme overscan mode. Shows complete full raster including blanking regions. Horizontal and vertical blanking disabled. COLOR0 changes are always visible.
  • DMA debugger shows CIA accesses (including cycles lost due to E-Clock sync) and Chip RAM RAS/CAS addressing values.
  • DMA debugger shows CPU memory access type (instruction fetch or data access). Interrupt level and interrupt level change detection are included.
  • DMA debugger shows CPU opcodes in basic form (“NOP”, “MOVE” etc), vertically. Which can look a bit weird…
  • Added CPU STOP state information to DMA debugger (| = STOP idle cycle, + = STOP idle cycle and higher IPL detected = STOP ending soon)
  • Visual DMA debugger shows conflicting cycles as blinking red pixels.
  • Horizontal and vertical position are now included in debugger history output (H/HH)
  • Added OR, AND and XOR operators to debugger calculator (|, &, ^).
  • sp command parsed attached sprites incorrectly.
  • It was not possible to enter debugger anymore if CPU was stuck in stopped state after entering and exiting the debugger once.
  • Tracing STOP instruction now works differently, each single step executes one internal STOP “round”.
  • Memwatch break point that crossed 64k “bank” didn’t map last 64k “bank” if it was only partially needed.
  • Self modifying code (smc) debugger feature now clears detected modifications if 68020+ instruction cache is flushed.
  • DMA debugger (both console and visual) better support for variable/toggling horizontal and vertical line counts.

Detailed change log in winuaechangelog.txt