Firebird PCI Daughterboards

[hese]

Finally I had some time to finish the first revision of this project.

Firebird PCI Daughterboards

Firebird is a PCI daughterboard series for the Amiga 3000, Amiga 4000 and AA3000+ motherboards.
The PCI bridge is based on the Prometheus by Grzegorz Kraszewski / Matay.

Firebird A3000 Daughterboard rev1 specification

• Replaces the original A3000 daughterboard, fits in the standard desktop case
• 3x PCI slots with 3.3V support
• 4x Zorro III slots with DMA capability
• 1x Video slot

Photo gallery

Firebird A4000 Daughterboard rev1 specification

• Replaces the original A4000 daughterboard, fits in the standard desktop case
• 4x PCI slots with 3.3V support
• 4x Zorro III slots with DMA capability
• 1x Video slot

Photo gallery

Firebird A4000 Daughterboard rev1.1 specification

• Replaces the original A4000 daughterboard, fits in the standard desktop case
• 4x PCI slots with 3.3V support
• 4x Zorro III slots with DMA capability
• 1x Video slot
• 1x Clockport

Photo gallery

Firebird A3000 Daughterboard rev1.1 specification

• Replaces the original A3000 daughterboard, fits in the standard desktop case
• 3x PCI slots with 3.3V support
• 4x Zorro III slots with DMA capability
• 1x Video slot
• 1x Clockport

Photo gallery

Firebird AA3000+ Daughterboard rev1.1 specification

• Fits to the AA3000+ motherboard
• 3x PCI slots with 3.3V support
• 4x Zorro III slots with DMA capability
• 1x Video slot
• 1x Clockport

Photo gallery

Some notes of the Firebird rev1.1 daughterboards

• The PCI firmware is based on the Prometheus Resurrector firmware by Michael Böhmer, with some corrections done by shanshe and myself.
  The PCI firmware should functionally be equivalent to the Prometheus Firestorm used in the Firebird rev1 boards.
  The difference is the rev1.1 uses Xilinx XC95144XL chips where as the rev1 uses Altera EPM7128SQC160 chips. And the Prometheus Firestorm firmware for the Altera is not open.
  
  
• The clockport firmware is based on the Matze's Zorro-LAN-IDE board, with some modifications done by myself.
  Firebird's clockport is not autoconfiguring. The clockport resides in the Zorro II I/O space ($E9xxxx-$EFxxxx), the clockport address is relocatable with jumpers.
  The clockport can be enabled / disabled with a jumper.
  
  
• Firebird's clockport is otherwise equivalent to the A1200 clockport ($D8xxxx and $DCxxxx) but it resides in a different address.
  Therefore the software for the clockport device needs to be patched (the $D8xxxx address changed) before the clockport device can be used in the Firebird.
  This requirement is the same as when attaching a clockport device to a clockport connector found in various Zorro II cards*.
  * unless clockport device software can locate the correct clockport address via autoconfig. Most don't and even if they do, the software supports only specific Zorro II cards.

Link to Firebird PCB sales thread here

 

[Timtheloon]

Great work as always hese

Glad to see you have managed to incorporate a video slot too.

does it work with all buster revisions?

look forward to your "for sale" thread when it goes live
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On that note @All this is NOT a "For Sale" thread so please do not declare interest here and wait until hese decided to do his for sale thread

 

[Rakeim132]

I'll definitely be interested to have a pair... or three.

 

[Nelson]

Good news. Thnak you!

 

[hese]

SuperBuster-9 or newer is required for the PCI.

 

[THW]

Good job! The Alteras are hard to get.

 

[sax]

Is this working with Sonnet PPC too?

 

[timmie]

Yes, it should. The firebird version for the AA3000+ works with PCI PPC cards, so I expect these as well.

 

[hese]

I don't have PCI PPC cards so I don't know but if they work on the Firebird AA3000+ as timmie mentioned, then they work also on the Firebird A3000 and A4000.

 

[hese]

Ok, let me know if you need help locating the sales thread.

 

[hese]

I've been asked to do a revised version of Firebird daughterboard that fits to the A3000 motherboard housed in a Checkmate 1500 case.
Some info about A3000 motherboard in Checkmate 1500 case here.

I'm gauging how much interest there would be for a Firebird A3000 Checkmate edition daughterboard.

Do you have a Checkmate case with A3000 mounting kit?
Would you be interested in a Firebird Checkmate daughterboard for A3000? Or for AA3000+? Or both?

You could either post your interest here or by private message.

 

[anightin]

Definitely interested Hese

 

[Hannibal]

Lacking schematics and block diagrams, are there any suggestions for debugging if the boards don't work?

 

[hese]

How the boards do not work?
The Prometheus is not detected in the autoconfiguration? Or something else?

I do not provide schematics.

There are only three reasons why the board wouldn't work:
1. Bad solder joints.
2. Bad chips.
3. Badly programmed chips.

 

[qz3fwd]

I have ordered a fitting kit from Simon and so by very definition I am interested. I requested black PCB from Simon to match the motherboard PCB/or blue to match the ZZ9000..

 

[qz3fwd]

To clarify I am interested in an AA3000+ Firebird Checkmate Daughterboard!

 

[macce2]

I'm interested in the ready-to-use installed Firebird Daughterboard for Amiga4000 !
How much would that cost approximately ?
Also interested in PCB board plus all the chips etc. needed included.
Availability / price ?

 

[Nelson]

I'm interested in the ready-to-use installed Firebird Daughterboard for Amiga4000 !

This is not a sales thread. You have to express your interest here.

 

[bax]

I received my A4000 PCB some time ago. Building went smooth (I do appreciate the comfortably sized pads for the 1206 resistor packs) but I ran into a snag regarding the Altera CPLDs. As it turned out, two Chinese sources were selling me bad/used chips (as opposed to their listing). Both sets didn't respond to JTAG at all. I even went as far bending their respective pins up and tested the CPLDs individually. Anyway, third time is the charm as people tend to say. I was able to source two good chips in the end.

So far, I've only tested with a VoodooIII 2000 as PCI card which works well in 2D and 3D (alongside some Zorro-II/III boards). One thing to keep in mind with PCI boards (also applies to Mediator) is that there will be a considerable boot delay due to the 512 MB expansion space window of the board. I didn't find a 68040.library yet that won't cause a long (20 seconds or more) delay. For the 68060, there is a libary available on EAB (originally for Phase5 boards, updated by Speedgeek) that'll be quite a bit faster than the combination of MMULib and it's 68060.library.

 

[Raef]

Hi can you make a dual firestorm for the a4k desktop tower it supports 2firestorm if im correctly recall