Indivision ECS ... what does it do exactly? (Amiga 600)

[Jepplen]

I've come across this board of goodness, but what does it actually do for an Amiga 600?

As far as i understand it gives you more colours in OS3.9 (is it 256 colours?) or maybe i got that wrong.

Please fill my empty head with some great info and why aren't Indivision producing it anymore?


Cheers!

 

[fitzsteve]

It's a Scan doubler (converts the 15khz display to 31khz) so you can use a VGA Monitor.

There are some clever trick modes done by the FPGA such as the 256 Colour mode but they only work on specific software like ADoom, it's not a graphics card as such.

As for why they aren't being produced, you'll have to ask Jens.

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/news.html

More info on the Indi ECS here:

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Indivision_ECS

 

[Jepplen]

So i wouldn't really need it if i'm using a modern TV with RGB->SCART?

Are there any Graphics cards for the A600 that would give you more colours?
Google hasn't helped as much as i would've liked it to.

 

[fitzsteve]

Unless you want the features such as the chunky 256 colour, HAM picture viewer and SuperPlus/HighGrafx you don't really need it.

As for Graphics Cards, no none for the A600. The A1200 has a Blizzard Vision, that's the only RTG card for a wedge Amiga and this needs a Blizzard PPC.

 

[eXeler0]

Depends on what you do with your A600. If you only play games in lowres, tv + scart is fine.
Regarding graphics cards.. Theres something called Grafitti. An old device that gave Amiga a chunky graphics mode, but its a stretch to call it a graphics card.
But you might be in luck in a while. There's currently a pretty cool project going on (well its actually 2 projects merged into one). Its called Vampire 600 v2. Its an accelerator for the A600 using the Apollo core (an FPGA re-implementation of the 68020-ish CPU) (originally made by another team) and its made in such a way that it might be possible to add a graphics core to it.
Dont hold your breath just yet though. You orobably wont see that graphics core for quite a while yet.
But just the fact that its planned for a ~25 year old computer is pretty amazing IMO; -)

 

[Jepplen]

Unless you want the features such as the chunky 256 colour, HAM picture viewer and SuperPlus/HighGrafx you don't really need it.

Are you saying the Indivision ECS will give the A600 256 colours in Workbench? Or what is "Chunky Colours"?

Depends on what you do with your A600. If you only play games in lowres, tv + scart is fine.
Regarding graphics cards.. Theres something called Grafitti. An old device that gave Amiga a chunky graphics mode, but its a stretch to call it a graphics card.
But you might be in luck in a while. There's currently a pretty cool project going on (well its actually 2 projects merged into one). Its called Vampire 600 v2. Its an accelerator for the A600 using the Apollo core (an FPGA re-implementation of the 68020-ish CPU) (originally made by another team) and its made in such a way that it might be possible to add a graphics core to it.
Dont hold your breath just yet though. You orobably wont see that graphics core for quite a while yet.
But just the fact that its planned for a ~25 year old computer is pretty amazing IMO; -)

I just posted some questions in the Vampire 600 V2 thread

I would use it pretty much only for gaming via WHDload, but i want to run it on OS 3.9 and with a nice colour quantity so it looks great!
Turning it into the ultimate A600 build for a relatively cheap buck.

I preordered the Furia EC020 accelerator, but seeing as i will be stuck with 16 colours, i'm contemplating to cancel that preorder, even if i would rather have a the real hardware instead of an FPGA emulating it.
However, if the FPGA means i can have everything i ever wanted and the other alternative leaves me a bit stranded, the choice is simple.

 

[fitzsteve]

Unless you want the features such as the chunky 256 colour, HAM picture viewer and SuperPlus/HighGrafx you don't really need it.

Are you saying the Indivision ECS will give the A600 256 colours in Workbench? Or what is "Chunky Colours"?

Depends on what you do with your A600. If you only play games in lowres, tv + scart is fine.
Regarding graphics cards.. Theres something called Grafitti. An old device that gave Amiga a chunky graphics mode, but its a stretch to call it a graphics card.
But you might be in luck in a while. There's currently a pretty cool project going on (well its actually 2 projects merged into one). Its called Vampire 600 v2. Its an accelerator for the A600 using the Apollo core (an FPGA re-implementation of the 68020-ish CPU) (originally made by another team) and its made in such a way that it might be possible to add a graphics core to it.
Dont hold your breath just yet though. You orobably wont see that graphics core for quite a while yet.
But just the fact that its planned for a ~25 year old computer is pretty amazing IMO; -)

I just posted some questions in the Vampire 600 V2 thread

I would use it pretty much only for gaming via WHDload, but i want to run it on OS 3.9 and with a nice colour quantity so it looks great!
Turning it into the ultimate A600 build for a relatively cheap buck.

I preordered the Furia EC020 accelerator, but seeing as i will be stuck with 16 colours, i'm contemplating to cancel that preorder, even if i would rather have a the real hardware instead of an FPGA emulating it.
However, if the FPGA means i can have everything i ever wanted and the other alternative leaves me a bit stranded, the choice is simple.

No, it's low resolution and specific compatible applications such as Adoom 1.4

 

[Jepplen]

I see, thanks friend, i think i will be looking at the Vampire600V2 instead

- - - Updated - - -

HMMMMMM
I found this youtube video of a guy running the ECS and getting 256 colours on an A600.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDBCi3RS7u8
I thought the ECS didn't give you a colour boost?

That's all i wanted to be honest.

Also this one of a guy using the Indivision ECS + Picasso96 (driver i asume?) on a stock A600 and also getting 256 colours....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjdEGoWUFbo

So the only thing i would need to get 256 colours is the ECS and of course the A604 to put it on?
Then i could add an accelerator card and be set.

Or am i missing something here?

 

[BlindGerMan]

You need an accelerator with MMU to use the 256 Color mode on the workbench!

 

[fitzsteve]

Lol, that's my video, the first one. And as explained it's only supported software that can take advantage of the 256 colour mode, it doesn't magically make your A600 capable of displaying 256 colours in workbench.

As I understand it the Picasso hack is not particularly useful in real life, just proof of concept and too slow to be a proper solution

 

[Jepplen]

omg haha small world!
Ok ok so i can only dream about 256 cols ... except :razz: There's the Vampire600v2 and once we can upgrade it with the apollo-core, we'll be pretty much set and i'll 256 the crap out my workbench!