Free Amiga 1000 Kickstart Switcher with Gerbers

[RizThomas]

So far so good...firing my A1000 at keast once a week ..been ok but this is NTSC

[Hook]

Thanks for the Kickstart switcher! I've installed this in my NTSC A1000 yesterday, along with a TF536. It's a tight fit but it works great!

[nospam2000]

I'm working on a external board connected to the expansion port which contains the following features:
1. usable for A1000 and A500
2. 2x 512 KB Kickstart Flash ROMS to be flashed by yourself without a programmer. This doesn't require any changes in the Amiga or any Gary Adapter or extra cables. (the functionality has been tested already on another prototype board).
3. A68k socket to place a TF536 or hopefully also a Vampire card on it
4. FPGA socket to use an FPGA as a CPU emulation

The first prototype boards will arrive in around one week.

I put this now all on one board, but probably in the end this will become multiple boards.
The combination of an A1000 and A500 on the same pcb doesn't make much sense for a customer, although it simplifies testing and costs for me.
FPGA Board and Turbo Card cannot be used at the same time.

Is anyone interested on such a board?
What features would be most important for you and what do you not need?

[Huxley]

Speaking as someone who owns an A500 and recently took possession of a pair of A1000's (with no accessories or KickStart disks), I'd definitely be interested in this project.

Asking as someone who loves these systems but knows little about their inner workings: would it be possible for the A1000 edition of this upgrade to allow for alternate keyboards to be used? I'm having a terrible time finding an A1000-style keyboard for any price...

Huxley

[intric8]

I have a feeling this would not play nice with my Rejuvenator, but I could be totally wrong. It happens all of the time.

Speaking just for me, since I have neither a TF or Vampire, can you explain a little bit more about the "FPGA socket to use an FPGA as a CPU emulation"? That sounds very interesting. You might should consider making this board its own thread whenever your boards arrive. (Or, I think I can help with that now if you like.)

I think it would also be quite cool - since I'm just dreaming here - if the expansion could be easily disabled via hardware switch in case one wanted to load a game via floppy that has to be booted.

As an A1K fan that uses his expansion port today, my only concern would be if I could continue to use my Microbotics 2MB RAM that I also use for its SCSI port. That's how I boot via "hdd." I wonder if I could stick this board out of the Microbotics side port? Oh man that would look nuts, but it would be an interesting experiment for sure.

Not sure about you guys, but the expansion ports on some of my A1Ks can be a bit finicky at times if the connection isn't spot on. Sometimes how an expansion "hangs" on the outside can have a dramatic effect on it working, even if the angle change is a fraction of a millimeter.

[obitus1990]

Certainly a cool idea. I too am interested in hearing more about the FPGA socket for an emulated CPU.

[nonarkitten]

I might be interested if it could also be mounted internally as well. I personally don't like having bits hanging outside my case.

[nospam2000]

would it be possible for the A1000 edition of this upgrade to allow for alternate keyboards to be used? I'm having a terrible time finding an A1000-style keyboard for any price...

There are products for USB to Amiga keyboard adapters, e.g. "Sum A234/CD32". Unfortunately the A1000 has a different connector, but I think the electronics are the same.

I was asked to build such an adapter as well, but that is another project.

Michael

[wildcopper]

Same here - my ACA500+ works on my A1000 but the way it hangs in the air makes me nervous. I've found that the 1.88" wide blue painter's tape roll is the perfect height to support it.

This sounds like a great project. I'd be interested. How do you switch between kickstart versions?

[nospam2000]

I have a feeling this would not play nice with my Rejuvenator, but I could be totally wrong. It happens all of the time.

I don't see why it should not work with the Rejuvenator.

There might be some issues:
1. When using a TF or Vampires, the internal 68k CPU has to be removed, because it would still create the Eclk even when the internal CPU is put to HALT or BUS GRANT is used to disable it.

2. For the external Kick Flash I use the /OVR signal which is normally handled by the A1000 PALs or the A500 Gary to disable CHIPSELEC of the internal WOM/ROMT. As long as those are still in place and the memory area from 0xE00000 to E7FFFF is not occupied by other ROM, the Kick Flash should also work.

Speaking just for me, since I have neither a TF or Vampire, can you explain a little bit more about the "FPGA socket to use an FPGA as a CPU emulation"? That sounds very interesting. You might should consider making this board its own thread whenever your boards arrive. (Or, I think I can help with that now if you like.)

That is experimental. I want to use one of the QMTECH FPGA boards which you can find on AliExpress as a base, e.g. the QMTECH Intel Cyclone IV EP4CE55. I haven't started with the VHDL code, but the schematic and layout of the base board should be finished although not tested, yet.

I think it would also be quite cool - since I'm just dreaming here - if the expansion could be easily disabled via hardware switch in case one wanted to load a game via floppy that has to be booted.

At the moment I placed 5 jumpers and one of them disables the Kick Flash at 0xF80000, but it leaves the range at 0xE00000 active to be able to do the flash programming while the active Kickstart runs from internal WOM/ROM. It is also needed, because the flash will be empty when it is delivered or probably flashed with the DiagROM.

As an A1K fan that uses his expansion port today, my only concern would be if I could continue to use my Microbotics 2MB RAM that I also use for its SCSI port. That's how I boot via "hdd." I wonder if I could stick this board out of the Microbotics side port? Oh man that would look nuts, but it would be an interesting experiment for sure.

There are no buffers at the Zorro I bus (in contrast to Zorro II), so the load to the bus lines could become too high when too many cards are chained, but two should probably work.

Not sure about you guys, but the expansion ports on some of my A1Ks can be a bit finicky at times if the connection isn't spot on. Sometimes how an expansion "hangs" on the outside can have a dramatic effect on it working, even if the angle change is a fraction of a millimeter.

I don't have an A1000 myself, that's why I additionally need an A500 connector for testing. So I have no experience with such problems.

Michael