Say hello to the brand new Amiga A500 accelerator card - the TF530 (Terrible Fire 530

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DjCook

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Hello folks,
We all love our Amiga A500, we clean them, we tune them, someone retrobright them, while other's are cutting, drilling and painting them to fit owners needs..
However, there are some things we all missing on A500 for use them more comfortable: more memory, IDE interface and maybe faster CPU..

Please let me introduce You a brand new Amiga A500 accelerator card - Terrible Fire 530*
TF530 was designed and created by one single person: Stephen Leary from Glasgow, Scotland. As the prices for Vampire A500 cards are dramatically rised and became unattractive for European users – he decided to create this low budget card to be able to reach excellent performance on our beloved A500 for everyone. The best part of it – he really did it in a very short time, and even more – he decided to opensource his project! I think everyone know what does it mean. It means: - we can install new super hardware in our A500, making it two times faster as a stock A3000 Amiga!

Technical information:
TF530 runs on 68030 Motorola CPU/FPU (25 - 50Mhz)
2Mb memory onboard FastRAM,
IDE interface
SPI port

Boards are arrived, production started at 17.03.2017

2017-08-16 19.09.06.jpg 20170716_162940.jpg 20170716_144620.jpg

About production:
As Stephen has no time to support this project - he has published all necessary stuff on github, so everyone who can solder - can build his own card, also everyone can sell them
(please read GNU Licence carefully).
I've waited some time with the hope someone will offer them, but as I see – there is no one. I can’t belive no one is interested, that’s why I decided to write this message and introduce this card here. Maybe the information wasn’t available yet, or some interested persons missed it..
I have ordered a bunch of pcb’s and all necessary parts to build these cards. To keep prices low – I have ordered almost all parts in China, so delivery time will be about 1 month. will produce some cards and offer them here. If the interest still present I will build a second bunch. I can’t say exactly now how much the card will cost, need to calculate first. Hope You understand, can’t do it for free (i have work and family, so please respect it), but I will do my best to keep the price low as possible. i think it can be sold at approx. 150€ relocator board, CF adapter & ribbon cable INCLUDED!
Maybe even I can sell some cards without CPU if someone have the processor already. CPU's and memory chips are the main problem, as these parts are most expensive.
I do Amibay support, and i donate to this site from each board I sell. It’s the nicest place in the net to communicate about retro, and we need to support it, if not us – who will?

Technical information of the boards i am offering:

CPU: 68030 40Mhz (Running on 50Mhz)
FPU: 68882 40Mhz (running on 50Mhz)
Memory: 12ns
Relocator: Yes (included)
Ribbon Cable: Yes (included)
CF Card Adapter: Yes (included)
Power splitter Yes (included)
so basically You need only CF Card with Workbench insalled to start to use it.
*You need Kickstart 2.05 and above (or any with scsi.device driver present), to be able to use IDE boot function of the TF530


Asking 150€ for the ready built fully populated board
PayPal as a friend/family or add 4% to cover fees
Also IBAN payment is accepted
Postage fees are 6,50€ to any country (tracked & insured)

Have also some A500 Amigas with
TF530 installed, recapped PSU, and original tank mouse
perfect for the persons who doesen't have A500, but like to step into Amiga world.
Ask me, if You're interested



I will update information as soon as I have any news, please express Your opinion about this project, and please let me know if You are interested, to be able to plan and order spare parts for the next bunch.


will try to combine postage (max 500g) if several parts are purchased!

Added @03.11.2018:
Dear TF530 users!
Stephen - the creator of Terrible Fire cards has released a new firmware
with a LOT of bugfixes!

https://github.com/terriblefire/terriblefire-binaries/blob/master/tf530/tf530_2018_11_4_beta.zip

Verified working with a 4Mb GVP ZII card installed A2000-HC+8

Both revisions working on the A2000 @ 50Mhz, 33Mhz and 25Mhz now
1,5MB Slow RAM issue fixed, Graphic issues on A2000 @50Mhz fixed
2-6MB Zorroll RAM cards working in pair with
TF530
now if these have correct Autoconfig settings
(not occupy all Zll space)

Im strongly recommend to update Your TF530 cards!!!

see Wiki to get more info about updates:
https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530/wiki
Also some limited support may be found on the Exxos forum:
https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1335

-Your 8 Bit Dreams-
 
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New expansions for Amiga are always good news.

About this low cost accelerator showned in the video, it's not a 68030 but a 68020 processor.
The IDE and memory isn't on board.

The author uses a A508IDE board from Kipper2K which includes 8Mb and IDE device.
The 68020 accelerator is plugged onto the A508IDE board.

In this configuration, it's impossible to close the Amiga case since it's impossible to put the keyboard at its right place.

Here is a video of the 68030 version of the Terriblefire:

It's a very compact board! Really good job!


 
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Definitely interested if you decide to make and sell the 030 with IDE board!
 
Thank You for Your interest comraider, TF530 have first priority for me, boards and all parts are already ordered
 
Fyi: the creator of these boards is Stephen Leary, not John.
The John being mentioned in the video-clips is the creator of the Diagrom.
 
As i promised before - there is an update of the actual state:
Because of chinese new year festival there was a delay on all orders, however, the parts arriving now, i already have:

CPU's, FPU's, both type of Sockets, Xilinx chips, memory chips.
Boards itself are marked as shipped, but not arrived yet, need to wait a bit. i Think first boards will be ready end of month.
regards,

-Viktor
 
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Update:
Sorry for the delay (caused by german customs) the boards are arrived finally, production is now oficially launched (17.03.2017)
i still need to calculate the total price, however, it seems that it will be as i mentioned previously: 150€ for TF530 board, icluded IDE Adapter, relocator and ribbon (however, small correction is possible, i like to build some boards and test them first, shoot more pictures, then we can discuss the price..
Best regards,

-Viktor
 
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Declaring interest for one once you are ready. Does the price mentioned above include the CPU, etc or are there parts that still need to be acquired to make this work?
 
The boards will be sold fully assembled & tested - it means all parts like cpu, fpu, memory and even CF card reader with ribbon will present (except CF Card with 3.1 Workbench, as these are still under copyright) I don't, know how about if You can proove that You own them, i need to talk to admins about it first, before i can say something about preinstalled Workbench, i think there will not be such option, the user should buy 3.1 (or 3.9) and install it on the CF card with help of UAE. Same is with Kikstart ROMs.

@plasmab
thanks for Your update, relocation boards are already on the way to me, hope this time it will not take so long..

-Viktor
 
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Pre-installing workbench is ok as long as the buyer can provide photographic proof , something like a photo of the install disks with the member's username, Amibay and the date should be sufficient to prove ownership. its been done this way previously when Fitzsteve was pre-installing to CF card.

and I hope you make these in the future, No funds for a while and I would really like one.

I'm old school, that's why I sold my Vampire, I prefer real hardware.

another quick question,, does the IDE require Kickstart 3.1 or will it auto boot on kickstart 1.3
 
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Guys (TerribleFire Here)

The board is 2Mb only its wired up for 4Mb but i cant find the chips.

I'm surprised it costs 150€ to make (just from experience) it was $2.50 for the bare board, $5 each for the cplds then another $5 for the regulator circuit... $14 for the ram. The CPU is the big unknown.

- - - Updated - - -

another quick question,, does the IDE require Kickstart 3.1 or will it auto boot on kickstart 1.3

It will require Kickstart 2.05 (A600HD) or higher..
 
ok thanks about IDE kickstart.

im guessing most of the cost is the assembly, 030 cpu and shipping all included (i cant see small items anymore to solder myself).

for the price of €150 (£130) its cheaper than anything available and I love the idea of it fitting internally.
 
Hmm.. What can i say.. Everyone if free to build these, if my offered price is too high.. Stephen "forgot" to mention beside of CPU's, there are also FPU's, and CPU sockets - these are indeed expensive parts on this project. As i wrote before - was planned to ship them fully assembled, with CF Card adapter and ribbon. Soldering these boards takes several hours for me, also i have planned to support Amibay with donations from every sold board, if you have read my first post carefully..I was trying to be fair to all, so if i invest my time in it - i can't do it for free, hope everyone understand it..
regards,

Viktor
 
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Viktor, please don't be discouraged! It is amazing that you are stepping up to help the community. :)
 
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yes Viktor don't be put off, its great your offering this assembly service for those like me who cant do it for themselves :D

just keep making them for when I get some money saved up (y)
 
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