ATARI 8bit accelerators - Rapidus and F7

[thorfdbg]

 

Jesus... Rescue on Fractalus looks amazing...

 

Certainly, at least the fps looks great. However, it also shows some serious limitations of the accelerator: the DLI timing is off (naturally, because the CPU has now many more cycles than the original 6502), thus it modifies registers in the wrong spot, showing some artifacts: The left window edge is off (missile position register changed too early), and the GPRIOR register is changed too early, causing two bad lines right above the cockpit.

[drac030]

DLI timing is off (naturally, because the CPU has now many more cycles than the original 6502)

 

Yes, 1280 clock cycles per scanline (in turbo mode).

 

As for the software, there are also mono's software sound synthesizers like PSG Player and (currently being developed) SoftSynth Player. The first one just simulates the Yamaha PSG, the other one plays SoftSynth tunes. These programs can run on a stock Atari, but can also take advantage of a faster CPU if one is present so that the synthesis works better.

Edited August 10, 2015 by drac030

[+Larry]

I don't think there will be a problem spurring interest in Rapidus. He will sell as many as he can make, and quickly, apps or not.

Actually, I'm not sure what you mean by apps...won't this run at least some regular atari stuff? The very last thing I'd be interested in would be a spectrum emulator.

 

"Apps" would be software written to take advantage of the accelerator's speed and large linear memory. Linear memory in particular.

 

-Larry

[pirx]

Well reptile give him a vodka! (post 162)

 

Ha! This is my new fav. ponglish

And you know what, it is actually quite reasonable literal translation ^_^

[drac030]

Yes. The Google translator is incredibly stupid and mixes up words which look the same but have different meaning. The reason is that the translator tries to translate sentences doing simple searches and matching words in its dictionary instead of making some logical analysis of the sentence's structure.

 

Dobrze gada dać mu wódki.

 

Dobrze = well (hit)

gada = of reptile (miss)

dać = give (hit)

mu = him (hit)

wódki = vodka (hit)

 

Just one miss, but a fundamental one. "gada" is not a noun, it is a verb: gada = he talks / he is talking / he says / he is saying. The sentence means: "he is saying (the) right thing, (therefore) give him some vodka".

 

Sorry for the off-topic.

Edited August 10, 2015 by drac030

[576XE]

I love Google translate too!

 

Thus translating from Polish to Russian goes in 2 steps Polish-> English and English -> Russian.

 

I think that somewhere in Google translate lives some idiotic author but not the interpreter.

 

Thank you Konrad for your help.

 

And there is Chinese "Gada Wodka".

[danwinslow]

 

gada = of reptile (miss)

 

Just one miss, but a fundamental one. "gada" is not a noun, it is a verb: gada = he talks / he is talking / he says / he is saying. The sentence means: "he is saying (the) right thing, (therefore) give him some vodka".

 

Sorry for the off-topic.

 

Interesting! So does 'gada' in any sense have anything to do with a reptile, or what that just a complete and total miss?

 

In english you might say -

 

'Give that man a kewpie doll!'

 

Which is almost as bizarre.

[drac030]

These are two homphones: gada = of (a/the) reptile, and gada = he speaks/talks. The first one is a form of the noun "gad" (a/the reptile), the other one is a form of the verb "gadać" (to talk/speak). You can either estimate probability of encountering one of these in the context (and machines are not capable to do that because they do not understand the context) or do the serious grammatical analysis of the sentence, which would indicate that you have to understand a verb here because otherwise the sentence lacks the expected predicate (and machines are not capable of doing that either because they are not able to do such analysis, apparently).

 

EDIT: style

Edited August 10, 2015 by drac030

[pirx]

Well reptile, give Draco vodka!

[drac030]

Well reptile-m, yes, I do believe

 

To get back to the topic: yes, the firmware is being developed. There are also last amendments being made to the CPLD code. The Rapidus accelerator is really close to release. The 20 MHz version I have works really very, very, very well. And it is VBXE and U1MB compatible, so you do not have to throw off extensions you have so far.

Edited August 10, 2015 by drac030

[JamesD]

 

Certainly, at least the fps looks great. However, it also shows some serious limitations of the accelerator: the DLI timing is off (naturally, because the CPU has now many more cycles than the original 6502), thus it modifies registers in the wrong spot, showing some artifacts: The left window edge is off (missile position register changed too early), and the GPRIOR register is changed too early, causing two bad lines right above the cockpit.

As long as the accelerator board allows you to return to standard speed, games that have too many problems should be able to run okay at regular speed.

Some intermediate speed between the two may let such programs run without those errors but still faster. Maybe double normal speed.

A few tests might be in order to find the "sweet spot" if it exists.

[foft]

One option could be to allow the higher clock during vbi only (in compatibility mode).

Edited August 11, 2015 by foft

[pirx]

you mean when screen is not drawing?

[foft]

you mean when screen is not drawing?

Yep that is what I meant. The 'i' crept in there:)

[danwinslow]

How is the progress on rapidus going?

[flashjazzcat]

How is the progress on rapidus going?

Looking at this in Google Translate, it appears people are placing pre-orders:

 

http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=214812#p214812

[danwinslow]

Uh...ok. Did I miss a memo? Are they generally taking pre-orders or is it just for folks on that board?

[ZuluGula]

I don't think he's taking pre-orders. He probably just want to estimate how many people would be interested in first batch. This board should be available for purchase in mid January.

[danwinslow]

Are we there yet?

[576XE]

Everyone who has unsocketed live nononsence 130XE needs F7.

Me too!