Indivision ECS v4

[fastrobplus]

IComp started selling the Indivision ESC v4for Amiga 500/1000/2000 systems for about USD$150.
I'm mentioning it because he says he's selling cheaper now than a future price due to incomplete firmware.
While he does not mention how it's incomplete, he's on record as saying that the v4 is expected to support P96 RTG in a future software upgrade (and he also implies the driver will be sold/bundled with his new P96 software)

iComp shop page for Indivision ECS V4

[McTrinsic]

Im really tempted to get one. Unfortunately, I dont need one .

I am fully ok with the v3 I have. So maybe once everything is solved with one system I might explore the replacement of the v3.

[LineOf7s]

As someone who has one (v3), you might be able to help me out with a question about v4 in a way that maybe the official forum might not.

I have an RPGtoHDMI solution in my Amiga 500 that seems to be working great and doing what I need it to do (I can connect it via HDMI or VGA as needed). Is there anything you can see in the Indivision v4 that might make for a "better" solution as far as video capabilities? ECS with a OCS Denise and ECS Agnus (which I have) sounds interesting; I don't know what Graffiti mode is, but it's something I don't currently have access to (and don't know if I want); the in-built scaler with keyboard control; and the potential for a "framebuffer mode" and possibly a P96 driver for it...

I'd be interested in your more-informed-than-I-am opinion.

[McTrinsic]

Hi,

there are a few optimizations.

If you are interested in a „fire and forget“-device, that’s what the Indy is for me. It just works.

The other stuff is a bonus for me.

The v4 offers in addition:
- live config. You can switch configs via hotkeys.
- much more fine-tuned clock generation for better compatibility.
- P96 driver
- EDID monitor identification for better adjustment to the monitor

If you don’t need all that - no reason for an impulse buy.

See here:
https://forum.icomp.de/index.php?thread ... /&pageNo=1

[fastrobplus]

The v3 also has a known timing issue with timing on some (seemingly random) A2000 boards. I had to add a resistor to mine to keep the mouse from glitching. I know Jens knows of the issue and has likely designed to the v4 to work around this.

[LineOf7s]

Thank you for that. I'm not too worried about it being "fire and forget" or otherwise; always nice when it happens, but even the RGBtoHDMI needed a little tweaking.

- P96 driver

I know what the P96 driver is, and I know of its use with RTG cards, and I know of using it and the Native driver instead of FBlit+FText... but I'm not sure I'm wrapping my head around what the P96 driver will do for an Indivision, exactly. Any ideas? I mean, it sounds like it could be cool, but I can't work out how. Some sort of pseudo/halfway-house RTG-like solution? Extra screen modes beyond ECS/OCS? Perhaps to do with the ECS-on-an-OCS-Denise functionality he mentions?

[EzdineG]

Note that it is also a direct replacement for your Denise chip, giving you the ability to use it as an ECS Denise if you so choose.

It may even be similarly priced or cheaper than finding an actual ECS Denise if you want one.

[fastrobplus]

I know what the P96 driver is, and I know of its use with RTG cards, and I know of using it and the Native driver instead of FBlit+FText... but I'm not sure I'm wrapping my head around what the P96 driver will do for an Indivision, exactly. Any ideas? I mean, it sounds like it could be cool, but I can't work out how. Some sort of pseudo/halfway-house RTG-like solution? Extra screen modes beyond ECS/OCS? Perhaps to do with the ECS-on-an-OCS-Denise functionality he mentions?

The Indivision v1 had a framebuffer and famously somebody on A1K wrote a P96 driver that could use it to produce 256 color RTG in 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. It was more of a toy than anything useful. It was the slowest RTG solution out there (though I was able to use workbench friendly programs like iBrowse and ImageFX with it well enough.) Actually, given that people used to use things like processor intensive S-HAM mode or pseudo framebuffers like Graffiti, HAM-E or DCTV to render high(er) color images on an Amiga, this was a much more elegant solution.

A bigger issue was stability - the driver was a hack and it was always a coin toss whether the device would be come confused about what mode it should be running in (framebuffer or Denise) and would cause issues. At any rate, the indivision v2 and v3 removed the frambeuffer so all fan-development of the driver was halted.

The v4 not only adds the framebuffer back but Jens says he has better logic for mode changes, which could address the major issue with using the v1 as a light-duty RTG board. Also, it is implied that a new driver will be written by the P96 developer directly, so we'd have a formal, supported driver.

According to Jens, the v4 framebuffer also adds some kind of 2D acceleration.

[LineOf7s]

Thank you for that detailed explanation. I was unfamiliar with the history of the v1, so I've never known an Indivision that did more than "provide an Amiga video output you can use on any VGA monitor". Your explanation makes a lot more sense of the bullet point in Jens' discussion of it that said "add a framebuffer mode with 256 colours out of 21 bits colour, 1024x768 and 1280x1024 pixels". 256 colours or not, having the extra resolution would be very nice on a non-RTG machine with an OCS Denise running on a dirty ole 1280x1024 monitor.

I'm happy with my RGBtoHDMI solution at the moment... but this Indivision v4 may have a place in my future I wasn't expecting...

[McTrinsic]

Thanks for taking over here while
I was away