BlizzardPPC scsi upgrade.

I think yes! you just need some resistors that are missing and the actual scsi chip....
 
I believe the difference is in both the hardware and the frmware on the card.

If you could source the SCSI controller, the header and decoupling capacitors then you have a start, but the hard bit is likely to be the FlashRom.

The best person to ask would be Stachu, he knows more about these than anyone else I know.
 
It can be done, just question of time and resources.

FlashRom is the easiest and part to be honest. :)
Memory flash can be done within 2min (I have few AM29F040B IC's + programmer).
BUT:
I'm not sure if onboard CPLD logic chips has different configuration on SCSI cards.
Never tried this as in my opinion it's much easier to sell current card and buy card with SCSI option.

If the CPLD configuration is different; the source of 100% working chips is required.
There is only one source of such chips: 100% working Blizzard PPC with SCSI.
Or defective Blizzard PPC with SCSI as spare parts source, however very risky source as wanted IC's can be defective.

Conclusion:
Upgrade is technically possible, but doesn't make sense from financial point of view in my opinion.
 
From what I read on Amiga.org, Stachu is able to upgrade a Cyberstorm to 604e 350MHz. But the Blizzie is a different monster...
 
I remember from older posts in EAB/.org , that only the scsi chip/caps-resistors was the difference... but ofcourse I have no real means to support it :p
 
stachu100 said:
It can be done, just question of time and resources.
.....Conclusion:
Upgrade is technically possible, but doesn't make sense from financial point of view in my opinion.
Click to expand...

@stachu: since my total ignorance on technical stuff, and seeing how skilled you are, amongst/together/among with other members here as well (it seems that the "elite" of Amiga technicians/hackers/modders/experts gather all together here in this forum as well as on EAB) i was wondering how factible would be (if possible, of course) to "upgrade" these cards to produce G4 accelerators).

Why i ask this? well, last night i was reading one issue of Amiga Format, and one ad (Gordon Harwood), was claiming "latest G4 accelerators from phase 5 are coming soon".

I think just before phase 5 went bankrupt, they were producing (i dont know on which stage they were at that moment) these accelerators, the "next gen" accelerators for Amiga at that time (1999/2000).

Dont know if the circuits are available, dont know copyright issues (DCE?), dont know how difficultl/different are G4 from actual PPC cards, how viable would this be ($$$ speaking), but...imagine an ideal situation: G4 accel designs are with no copyright/easy to get/easy to build/reverse engineering. A bunch of the most talented guys from this forum join forces to produce a batch of this. For sure, there would be many Amiga users interested in this upgrade (myself included).

I would prefer 100000 times this kind of upgrade than buying a "new Amiga", or an efika, or any other thing like that.

It will bring even more power to the Amiga, regardless somebody (i know they will) claiming "old stuff, non sense upgrade, etc).

From my humble point of view, if this is possible to do and doesnt cost 10000 euros each card, it would be a winner and would bring more fresh breath to the platform

Just my toughts. If they are totally out of this earth...excuse my ignorance.:D. Dreaming is yet free...:D and if this discussion has been, erm, discussed long time ago...again apologies..

Maybe in that time it was not viable, maybe now G4 chips are cheaper...i dont know..wish i had the skills to do that..but you have my full support if that counts (y)

Sebastian
 
Sebastian,

First of all I'm not a technical elite; that's for sure. :)

I'm actually having the same dream as you that someone will create "Super Turbo Board" for Classic Amiga.
But I'm not able to create such card by my own; I even do not have enough time my for private life (yesterday I finished my work at 4:00 a.m.).
So I cannot even take a part with such Team.

But nevertheless:
I made very rough calculation I ended up with about 2 million EUR to finish such project assuming that it will start from scratch which is more or less the case.
I'm not talking about hardware only; new drivers had to be written, tested, debugged,...

So even if we will be VERY optimistic about market size and expected retail price or such card the conclusion will be always the same: ROI for such project will be biggest
nightmare for every book keeper. ;)

Of course if someone skilled enough will have enough time and money; such card can be created cheaper.

And last thing:
Even now with 060@50MHz the ZORRO III slots are bottleneck with data transmission inside the system...
So having G4@1GHz putted inside old architecture will not boost performance that much, sorry.

Such "Super Turbo Board" should have onboard PCI-X (or AGP), USB, LAN, sound, WIFI, SATA which will increase significantly cost of such board....

So personally I'm pessimistic about this dream become true; sorry to say.
 
@stachu: very interesting your point of view my friend. One doubt i have now: since the G4 were advertised as next gen amiga turbo boards, the bottleneck in that time already existed. So, what were the benefits of such card in that time? Surely , phase 5 knew what they were doing... For me, a G4 card, maybe with scsi add on, even if today scsi is dead, or maybe other add on wich doesnt mean huge increment in costs...may be very factible of build.... im basing this on the example of the 8 Mb card memory for the A600 (the A608, first done by 2 amiga enthusiasts from Russia, then taken by Zetr0 & the others...) 8)...so...taking that as a clear example of what could be achieved in this era...maybe using some FPGA to buildo such a G4????

just some more toughts.....

I can conform myself with just a G4...of course with all the add ons you mention would be a dream, but only a plain G4...how far/difficult would be???
 
gavilan said:
Surely , phase 5 knew what they were doing...
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure - we all know how they ended. ;)
I think that this informatio was published just to grab some money from diving market/naive users.
 
stachu100 said:
gavilan said:
Surely , phase 5 knew what they were doing...
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure - we all know how they ended. ;)
I think that this informatio was published just to grab some money from diving market/naive users.
Click to expand...

Well..it wasnt actually "their" fault, but the Amiga changing hands very often...confusing everything (and everybody).
It woul still be interesting to see what others n the forum think about all this
 
Thanks! I knew posting here would answer my questions.. :)

You guys rule..
 
Sorry to bring this thread back,but it refers to the marking on SCSI chip. This needs a little more research but I don't have the time. This may or may not effect Blizzard cards.

The 53c710/20 has been know to have problems on some computer(s) and I can not confirm all of the following markings.

609-3400546*
609-3400563
609-3400643
609-3400654*
609-3400669*

*these chips are known to have problems with some computers,but 609-3400643 is also known to have problems. There may have being software work around and as said before may not even affect amiga that use the 53c710.

Some of the marking above have conflicting reports so its best to do your own research as list above maybe incomplete.

Here I do have a updated SCSI which is the faster version LSI 53c710-1 with markings 609-3400563.

NOTE: SCSI here has a change of bus and is clocked with PPC processor minimum 75Mhz reason for upgrade.
 
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