Amiga 500 Side Expansion Slot
- I've got an Amiga 500 Rev6 with a 512KB A501 RAM expansion in the trapdoor expansion slot. I'm wondering just how much extra RAM you can add using just the trapdoor expansion, as I've got an ACA500 occupying the Zorro expansion slot.
- The Amiga 500 has a 'trap-door' slot on the underside for a RAM upgrade (typically of 512 KiB). This extra RAM is classified as 'fast' RAM, but is sometimes referred to as 'slow' RAM: due to the design of the expansion bus, it is actually on the chipset bus. Such upgrades usually include a.
Update: I'm having trouble with the Kipper2k board popping off the socket at the slightest move. I will add some text on how to ensure it doesn't when I get more info. If you've solved it let me know!
I am an Amiga 500 owner with several questions and ideas as far as expansion goes. I, at one time, owned an Expansion Tech Tool Box (2 2000 slot's with power supply) card cage with a Kronus hard card and 32 MEG Seagate Drive installed in it. I sold that and am again looking to expand my system. Installation is straight forward process: simply slot the A500™ memory expansion into the trapdoor slot. The trapdoor bay is covered by a small plastic door underneath the Commodore Amiga 500 computer which can be easily levered open. There is no need to unscrew, open or disassemble your computer.
I call these expansions enablers, because it used to take quite a bit of work and money to find the right hardware and building up the knowledge to set up a 'harddisk system'. Also, various transfer methods for getting files onto the harddisk was a pain to get working.Now, two products made in 2013, costing 50 or 80 EUR ($68 or $107) allow you to do both these things, saving a lot of hassle!The ACA500
I reviewed the ACA500 some months ago - it's an external board that you plug into the side of the Amiga 500, insert a CF card, and you're ready to go! It has 2MB RAM and a 14MHz 68000 CPU.Read the review to find out more about ACA500's features. I wanted this article to show how to install Kipper2k's expansion, step by step with pictures.Kipper2k's 8MB+IDE
This expansion has 8MB RAM and is an internal expansion that uses your existing 7MHz 68000 CPU.This means you have to open your Amiga - with a Torx #10 (2.5 metric) screwdriver. I've written some text to make the guide complete, but don't be afraid - it's really not very hard to install this board.In summary, these are the steps to upgrade your Amiga 500 to a 'harddisk' system with lots of memory:- Plug the board into the CPU slot, and put the CPU on the board
- Solder a two-pin connector to the motherboard
- Partition and Amiga-format a CF card and install Workbench on it
1. Open the case, remove the shield
Disconnect all cables from your Amiga.If the steel RF shield is covering the motherboard, it needs to go. Otherwise the board will not fit. Use a thin, flat screwdriver to raise the flaps holding it straight up, and remove the screws holding it.Take this opportunity to check for battery leakage! If you have an A500+, there's a barrel battery next to the trapdoor connector. If you have a trapdoor RAM expansion installed that has a battery, check that also. If they have leaked, remove them and clean any residue with alcohol. Your Amiga runs fine without a battery, and later you can get a replacement battery.
2. Remove the CPU, straighten its pins
Put first a small flat screwdriver, then a bigger one, between the socket and the underside of the CPU, wiggling at either end. When it's coming loose, make sure the CPU goes out of the socket as straight up as possible - put a finger on the chip to prevent one end from rising too much.To fit easily in the new socket, the pins must be 90°, like in the small closeup. If they are more like 100°, bend the pin row carefully against the table, put the chip on that pin side, hold it vertically with both hands, and push away from you gently. If a pin is bent sideways, bend it back gently with flat pliers.
You may want to take this opportunity to upgrade your Kickstart ROM chip! If you have Kickstart 1.3, you will need to boot to the harddisk from a floppy disk. Kickstart 3.1 is the best choice and allows you to run the latest Workbench with recent add-on software.
3. Insert board into CPU socket, insert CPU into board socket
The sockets of this board use round pins and holes, so you must use both care and a little force. Insert the board into the motherboard CPU socket, matching up the U-shaped notches. Press down firmly and make sure you don't get a bulge - all pins should go equally deep into the socket.Place the CPU into the board's socket, again matching up the end U-shaped notches, and just put your fingers lightly onto the CPU. Make sure all pins match up to the holes - guide them with a tiny screwdriver if necessary - and then press the CPU down into the socket.
Amiga 500 Side Expansion Slot Machines
Note the two-pin header left of the Amiga - the IDE signal patch cable must be connected before we can start the Amiga.
4. Solder the two-pin header to the motherboard
This is a view of an upside down Amiga, seen from the expansion connector with the flap open.
Here, I put the header back on the cable, so it would be easier to see how I should orient it before I soldered.
Amiga 500 Side Expansion Slots
Orientation is important! The cable uses two colored wires. Look at the wire color to the frontmost pin on the board. Make sure the same color is connected to the frontmost pin when the header is soldered to the motherboard. These pictures show it in more detail.Then I held it, flipped the Amiga for easy soldering, and bent the legs a little to prevent the header from falling out.
5. Insert a CF card and power on!
These pictures show the specifications of the Kipper2k 8MB+IDE.Now, preparing an Amiga-formatted CF card is a separate chapter that requires more knowledge than this hardware installation. You could a) buy such a card pre-formatted from Amigakit, eBay, etc., or b) buy a CF card separately (I recommend SanDisk Extreme III 2GB), remove PC partitions from it (if necessary), and follow FitzSteve's video tutorial or Retrosofer's simpler one.Then, you'll have enabled your Amiga 500 to run Workbench with lots of memory and even launch games from Workbench!
So, which board is best!?
The gist of it comes from my first impressions of each card: The ACA500 is super great, but why only 2MB, and why no cover to protect it?? And for the Kipper2k: You mean I have to open the case just to put some files on the CF card, and why can't it boot to the CF card with kick 1.3, like my very old harddisk expansions??The ACA500 is super easy to install and has lots of modern features. Kipper2k requires soldering and some hardware knowledge and does exactly what it says on the tin, you get a CF card slot and 8MB RAM, and that's it.Quick comparison:
| Kipper2k | ACA500 | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 8MB | 2MB |
| CF slots | 1 | 2 |
| CPU boost | 1.33x | 4x |
| CF speed | 833 KB/s | 1970 KB/s |
| Compatibility | Perfect | Very good |
| Extra Features | None | Many |
Conclusion
The ACA500 is the better board for WHDLoad games and Workbench productivity. Kipper2K has two major features that utility users and programmers like me like a lot: The CPU and RAM stays exactly at the original speeds (so you can code programs for the A500 on your A500), and there's enough RAM to work on bigger projects.By installing a Kick 3.1 ROM chip, the ACA500's 2MB might be juust enough for most of what you want to do, and it does allow using a 512K trapdoor as extra chip RAM.I see Kipper2k's board as an exact internal replacement for the old harddisk boxes you plugged into the side of the A500. This is great for coders, not to mention people who don't want a board (or harddisk-box) sticking out of the side! But I think most users will be happier with the fast, easy-to-use ACA500 and its useful features.I'm a coder though, so I'll be using the Kipper2k board in my Amiga 500 for some coding to try it out properly!- Buy the Kipper2k board at Kipper2k.com
- Buy the ACA500 at f.ex. Amigakit.com, Vesalia.de or GGSdata.se
| Mission | Apollo Core | AMMX | Accelerators | Vampire 4+ | Shop | Resellers | Benchmarks | Download | Forum | Learn more | FAQ | Contact |
'This CPU that's on the Vampire is the best CPU I've ever had in an Amiga'
- Stephen Jones,
Director and Developer
| Specification >> |
Vampire 500 V2+ is your ultimate CPU accelerator board for the Amiga 500/1000/2000. Powered by the Apollo Core 68080 which is a code compatible Motorola 68K processor, it is up to four times faster than the fastest 68060 at time. It also brings your Amiga to next-gen level by bringing you digital video with millions of colours, Ethernet module connector and high-speed IDE port |
Designed for Amiga 500 rev 3, 5, 6a, 8 and Amiga 2000 where it connects to the CPU socket. Connecting to a CPU slot adapter on the Amiga 2000 is not officially supported but possible. With third-party accessories users can also connect to Amiga 1000. V500 V2+ offers you the best acceleration possible! |
The V500 is designed for the Amiga 500. It is meant to replace the 68000 CPU. Therefore, it plugs into the 68k CPU socket of the Amiga 500. Of course, the old 68000 CPU must be removed from the socket before plugging in the Vampire 500 V2+. To ensure full connectivity removing Kickstart chip might be necessary. The Vampire 500 V2+ can also be plugged into the on-board 68k CPU socket of the Amiga 2000. Again, the old 68000 CPU must be removed from this socket before plugging in the Vampire 500. We know that the Vampire 500 works perfectly in the Amiga 2000 if the installation is done correctly. On both the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000, the 500 V2+ can be physically plugged into the 68k CPU socket in only one way. Accidentally plugging it in upside down is physically impossible. Some adapters allow plugging the V500 V2+ into the Amiga 2000 CPU slot instead of into the on-board 68k CPU socket. We know that the Vampire 500 works well if this installation is done correctly, but you must be careful about these risks during installation:
Please be aware that problems caused by Amiga 2000 CPU slot adapters are not covered under warranty. A500 installation info: for proper connectivity Kickstart chip might need to be removed (so that both CPU along with Kickstart slot are empty) Using third-party accessories it is also possible to use V500 in Amiga 1000. |
Vampire 500 V2+ is equipped with the 68080. It is a new CPU you can code as easy as any previous Motorola 68K processor. 68080 is an affordable CPU for your Amiga that is way faster than the fastest 68060. It is 100% code compatible with all CPUs and FPUs of the Motorola 68000 family. 68080 in the V500 does on average 149 MIPSDesigned according to modern processor standards, it's fully written in VHDL, and is intended to run on Altera Cyclone FPGAs. OS 3.x currently recognizes this new processor as a 68040. Still we recommend to use brand new open-source Apollo OS that will be able to make full use of advanced V500 features. Below is benchmark done with the SysInfo tool for various configurations. All tests show that 68080 is much faster than 68060 200Mhz - scores are all confirmed by SysInfo, SysSpeed and AIBB benchmarking tools. Just compare the SysInfo results below: |
No other A500 accelerator is a match for Vampire 500 V2+
AMMX is a 64 Bit SIMD extension to an 68k processor. AMMX is optimized for integer and pixel operations. Thanks to AMXX, software on Vampires can run much faster that on other accelerators or Amiga computers. Thanks to AMMX, the 68080 at 80 mhz achieves performance close to the PowerPC 750 at 800 MHz. AMMX brings the 68080 to 600-800 MHz PowerPC G3 levelNote that AMMX and MMX have very little in common other than sharing three letters. The instructions are different and AMMX brings a significant number of features that MMX simply lacks. For graphics and video operations the integer math is most important. Excellent design gives AMMX a huge advantage over SSE for 2D game coding For 2D games AMMX beats SSE hands down. Just have a look at the results below: |
This result is possible thanks to use of AMMX
This new FPU Core is mostly hardware-implemented, very close to a 68060 FPU and 100% pipelined. The whole set of instructions from the 68040 and 68060 is available, as well as the whole 68881 and 68882 subset. From an end-user or end-coder perspective, the 68080 FPU does not provide any new floating point instructions or any other big changes; the FPU instruction set is the legacy one. 68080 FPU is very promising showing 35-40 MFLOPS in SysInfoSince the 68080 is aiming at 68040 compatibility, we decided to implement a full 040/060 FPU in hardware and to offer an efficient FPU interface for the instructions that are not implemented in hardware. As a consequence, all the legacy 68881 and 68882 instructions are handled with new optimized mechanics. The result of this work consists of an autonomous FPU, not relying on any third-party tool / library anymore (as opposed to what 68040/68060.library does). V500 FPU is also able to use a dedicated Floating Point Software Package (FPSP 080). The original 68080 FPU was designed to perform all calculations in 80-bit “extended precision”, like the original 68k FPUs. This is too big to fit into FPGA. Therefore, the V500 FPU features 52-bit precision. |
Please note that this chart shows the V500 V2+ FPU running in debug mode. With all FPU features enabled, results can be 3-4 times faster.
We are developing the fourth-generation Amiga chipset. Its reduced version is implemented in V2 accelerator series. It features new chunky mode with built-in RTG and Truecolor 32-bit color depth.
Chipset revision in V500 currently consists of two new chips:
Isabel (slimmed Lisa video chip with new chunky mode)
Anni (improved Alice DMA chip)
Chipset in V2 explained
Chipset in V2 supports new Chunky Mode. Since ReTargetable Graphics became a standard for graphics cards we integrated RTG API into Vampire 500 V2+, so that you can code directly like the Amiga chipset. We wanted to keep the feeling and coding the same like on Amiga. It is similar to adding an RTG graphics card features to your A500 allowing you to display up to 1600×900@24Hz in Truecolor (32-bit). Only RTG screen modes are output from V1200's interface. Screen modes that use the classic Amiga chipset are still transmitted from the legacy video outputs of the Amiga. Vampire 500 V2+ features built-in RTG capabilityThe new chunky plane can be displayed on its own by any dedicated RTG driver and allows you to play games like Quake or Diablo with excellent framerate. Our current chipset implementation in V500 features built-in RTG capability. Although Vampire 500 V2+ chipset comes without planar modes capability, this is already enabled on your original motherboard so you can still use existing functionality. V500 provides you with the fastest RTG graphics card performance. It leaves all previous generation of graphics cards behind, including CyberVision64, Picasso IV, or Mediator with Voodoo or Radeon according to P96 Speed benchmark. RTG built-in into Vampire 500 V2+ surpasses all RTG graphics cards used on Amiga systems. |
V500 gives you more memory than any other Amiga computer. Now you can enjoy new heights of performance, easily leaving all PPC-based solutions behind. Vampire 500 V2+ comes with 128 MB SDRAM memory onboard. Excellent results of the V500 memory: 529 MB/s Fast RAM access speed |
Say goodbye to obsolete PowerPC hardware
You can connect ENC28J60 Ethernet Module to Vampire 500 V2+ and enjoy great Internet connectivity. On V500 board revisions starting with 2.2 this is possible using dedicated Ethernet Module Connector and flat ribbon cable (female-to-female). On V500 board revisions earlier than 2.2 this is still possible using I/O Expansion socket and Dupont jumper wires (male-to-female) using GOLD2.9 and higher only.Do NOT use it on earlier cores because of pinout differences. With extra Ethernet module you can surf the Web on Vampire 500 V2+For detailed installation instructions go here. |
Vampire 500 V2+ offers you extraordinary IDE speed. We push the technology forward and make a big leap into the future of our platform. V500 includes a 44-pin IDE port that reaches speeds of 14MB/s for a start. Vampire 500 V2+ gives you over 14MB/s IDE speedWith a green and energy-saving approach in mind, we moved from legacy 3.5' floppes to using microSD cards, while still taking the legacy IDE design into consideration. The CompactFlash IDE port is an ideal solution, as our favourite personal computers were designed for native IDE use. Vampire 500 V2+ works with most MicroSD and MicroSDHC cards, up to Speed Class 10. It works from OS 3.x with the sagasd.device and will all filesystems supported on the Amiga (FFS, SFS, PFS, FAT32, ext2/ext3). |
- Hardware-accelerated video playback |
*** Important information: ***
IDE 44-pin: Please note, there is power on the IDE-44 port. Wrong placement on this plug can destroy the device.More info >>
Some adapters might allow the user to plug in the card “rotated”. Please understand that this wrong connection of the card will result in short circuits - probably destroying the Vampire and the Amiga.
There are some 3rd-party adapters on the market (e.g. Kipper2K's) that does not meet our safety guidelines and can damage both your V500 and your Amiga.
Please be aware that problems caused by Amiga 2000 CPU slot adapters are not covered under warranty.
A500 installation info: for proper connectivity Kickstart chip might need to be removed (so that both CPU along with Kickstart slot are empty)
On V500 board revisions earlier than 2.2 it is still possible to connect Ethernet module using I/O Expansion socket and Dupont jumper wires (male-to-female) using GOLD2.9 and higher only. Do NOT use it on earlier cores because of pinout differences.
- Please note that not all mice and keyboards might work. Here is the list of compatible Peripherals >>
a) Performance is application-dependent. See Benchmarks >>
b) Functionality varies between different TV/monitor models. Please make sure the display is able to show V500 V2+ modes first.
c) Speed boost depends on the device PIO mode support.
CPU Accelerator for AMIGA A500/A1000*/A2000
* third-party accessories might be required
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