ACA 500 Plus expansion port compatibility thread

tbtorro

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Just had some experiments with my new ACA500Plus - awesome card, much more usefull than the ACA500.

I was curious about compatibility, so I've tested it with a number of accelerators to see if they work (at least 2 insertions) - NOTE this was basic boot test, so I didn't check for stability, RAM access etc. simply just to see if the system would boot. Feel free to add your own test results and I'll update the OP to have a rolling list.

Tested to boot:
ACA1221(lc)
ACA1221ec
ACA1230/56
ACA1231
ACA1232 (40mhz)
Blizzard 1230 128MB
Blizzard 1260 (75 MHz) 64MB

Tested, doesn't work:
BlizzardPPC 060/160
Microbotics MBX1230XA 50MHz
GVP 1230 Jaws II+ 50 MHz
M-Tec 1230 28MHz 8MB
ACA1232/33
Apollo 1260
Apollo 1240
Vampire
Blizzard 1220/4

Inconclusive:
(works for some not for others)
Blizzard 1220 4 and 8MB config
BPPC 333/50 on A1000 (no SCSI)
E-Matrix 1230-50 (no fast RAM)
ACA1233-40 (no fast RAM might need ACATune setup)
 
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ACA1221ec working great here, however this is also guaranteed from IComp so I guess it is not worth specifying? It is more interesting whether it works with unsupported accelerators, particularly 060 and PPC. :)
All variants of ACA1231 and 1232 should also work while some will have success with ACA1230 and others will not, so generally the ACA1230 will not work.
 
ACA1221ec working great here, however this is also guaranteed from IComp so I guess it is not worth specifying? It is more interesting whether it works with unsupported accelerators, particularly 060 and PPC. :)
All variants of ACA1231 and 1232 should also work while some will have success with ACA1230 and others will not, so generally the ACA1230 will not work.

Yes, this is also described at icomp wiki - but hey - it doesn't hurt to verify.. 060 as mentioned by me is booting fine in my ACA500Plus
 
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Just tested with ACA1232/33 and it did not work for some reason, although it was supposed to. I just get a black screen. Perhaps this will be fixed and then I will report back here.
 
Just tested with ACA1232/33 and it did not work for some reason, although it was supposed to. I just get a black screen. Perhaps this will be fixed and then I will report back here.

I'll put this to the no boot section until proven otherwise..
 
I've had a BPPC 333/50 work on a A1000. It is the combination of a particular BPPC, ACA500 plus and A1000. If I change one component, even another ACA500 plus from the same batch, it doesn't work. That's the part I find most puzzling. I can see it working with some accellerators or host computers but I would think that all ACA500 pluses would work identically.
 
My Blizzard 1220 4 and 8MB did not work with my aca500 plus neither did my apollo 06 card
 
I tested my E-Matrix 1230-50 and it will boot without the SIMM RAM and works, but there's no Fast RAM at all, and SysInfo says it's slower than a base A1200, so not much point ;-)
With the RAM it doesn't boot.

Also tested with my ACA1233-40 and it works but by default there's only 1MB Fast RAM available (think it needs the ACATune or whatever software to enable the rest of it). Or maybe it needs some of the other settings on the ACA500+ changed. If anyone knows the correct configuration to enable all of the RAM on the ACA1233 when used with the ACA500+ please let us know :)

Incidentally, when running on an A1200, the ACA1233-40 is around 1000 Dhrystones faster than the E-Matrix 1230-50.
In the SysInfo comparisions....
ACA1233-40 is 0.5 of the speed of an A4000
E-Matrix 1230-50 is 0.4 of the speed of an A4000
 
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Update on my BPPC. It seems like the SCSI won't work on any of them attached to the 500 plus. The on board CF works so it's not too great of a loss.
 
For me:

Aca 1231: working.

Apollo 1240, no mem no scsi: nothing works

Vampire: not working.
 
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Turns out that this does work but even the best pairing I have isn't that stable. It does work but booting doesn't always work - have to power cycle several times to successfully boot. It has many crashes that I can't always attribute to other issues. This should probably be taken off the compatible list.

I've had a BPPC 333/50 work on a A1000. It is the combination of a particular BPPC, ACA500 plus and A1000. If I change one component, even another ACA500 plus from the same batch, it doesn't work. That's the part I find most puzzling. I can see it working with some accellerators or host computers but I would think that all ACA500 pluses would work identically.
 
Not sure if this list is updated anymore but here goes.

ACA1221lc: working fine. Tested using ClassicWB 68k and FULL for hours with basic OS stuff, networking and WHdload games. Strangely WHdload has problems with some games, but using "NoAutoVec" option eliminates all errors...at least for me. I just enable it in the global prefs and voila games work.

Tested using Amiga 500 rev6a, OCS Denise, ECS Agnus, KCS Power PC board (acting as trapdoor extra memory), ACA500Plus and X-Surf 500.
 
I can confirm that my Blizzard 1220/4 with or without ADD4 board does not work with my version of aca500plus (big dismo)
 
Another one to the working cards list: ACA1232 (40mhz). Originally this card was EC030 but the cpu has been upgraded to full 030. No problems whatsoever.
 
I can confirm that my Blizzard 1220/4 with or without ADD4 board does not work with my version of aca500plus (big dismo)

Added thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Another one to the working cards list: ACA1232 (40mhz). Originally this card was EC030 but the cpu has been upgraded to full 030. No problems whatsoever.

Noted in the list thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure if this list is updated anymore but here goes.

ACA1221lc: working fine. Tested using ClassicWB 68k and FULL for hours with basic OS stuff, networking and WHdload games. Strangely WHdload has problems with some games, but using "NoAutoVec" option eliminates all errors...at least for me. I just enable it in the global prefs and voila games work.

Tested using Amiga 500 rev6a, OCS Denise, ECS Agnus, KCS Power PC board (acting as trapdoor extra memory), ACA500Plus and X-Surf 500.

Noted
 
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