Tuesday, September 15, 2015

HC508 Amiga 500 accelerator card

Finally, the project has reached a stage when complete system tests are possible The integrated CF + IDE allows running the complete OS 3.1 with WHDLoad.

Key features:
  • 68HC000 CPU running at 50 MHz (100% MC68000 compatible)
  • 40 pin IDE connector for HDD, CD ROM etc.
  • Integrated CF card connector
  • 8 MB Fast RAM (1 wait state)
  • 512k FlashROM for Kickstart (1 wait state)
  • Utility for disabling / enabling every module separately (XCPU, XRAM, XROM, IDE)

The HDD read rate is really great: with an IDE HDD it produces 4.8-5 MB/s, while the CF card's transfer rate varies around 3.2 MB/s. On the picture below the IDE HDD read speed is shown.


As before, this (3rd) prototype board is also home made. Top and bottom views are available below:


And a small video which demonstrates the system performance. The complete OS 3.1 boots in 2 seconds from a CF card. Frontier is running with 40-50 FPS. Who needs more? :)