Were AGA ugrades really unrealistic?

I remember when the AGA machines came out and there were a lot of A500 owners writing into the magazines complaining that their machines were going to be rendered obsolete, and were angry that there was no AGA upgrade option. A lot of the magazines argued that upgrading A500s to A1200 AGA specs was architecturally impossible. I was wondering if this was really the case.

We know that the A500 was based on a 32bit processor and architecture which was actually quite functionally similar to the A1200, and that it was easy enough to stick a 020 or faster processor in there. So really, was it that unrealistic to think that Commodore might have been able to create drop in replacement AGA chipsets and ROMs in the right packages for A500s and other machines that would give AGA compatibility? I don't know if there was a fundamental restriction of the A500's design in terms of available data lines or whatever which makes this an impossible...

It was all down to accessing Chip Ram afair things....

The newer AGA chipset could, where as the ECS couldn't, until some time after.... :dry:

Despite this, AGA should really have been AAA, but C= were sat on their A$$es too long, reaping the rewards of their Gaming machine A500 pinacle @ the time....

They did offer compatibility by offering the 3.1 ROM across all platforms. The only limitation was the Chipset using the 3.1 ROM. ;)

Kin

But was there anything technical stopping them producing versions of the AGA chipset that could be dropped into the A500s (and maybe A2000s), replacing the OCS or ECS chips and offering the AGA screenmodes and functions?

Aside from the board architecture, no, but equally due to new custom chip access, yes. :whistle:

Kin

Actually there was a piece of hardware that enabled a 500 to become an AGA machine, apparently it actually worked. A picture of the exact card was on the A.org website.

Now now tokyoracer, you should know better....

/....not wanting to pass up on a baiting opporunity too discreetly....

....Got a link!? :p

Kin

I have seen it too... this was a phase5 prototype board . It was essentially a clip-on A1200 for the A500 , not commercially viable BUT it was a proof-of-concept and a statement: YEAH, PHASE5 OWNS YER AMIGA, WE CAN DO WHATEVER THE H*LL WE WANT WITH IT!

...and they did with their csppc/bppc/g-rex boards and all their top quality products :D

Bring it on that man.... "keropi". :bowdown:

Kin

http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/3552/1_2381.jpg

Okay ddni, ....but some more info would be appreciated. ;)

Kin