PCMCIA RTG card 'P-Vision' in advanced development

[Higgy]

I just saw on an Amiga Bill video there is a RTG graphics card quite advanced in design being worked on, which plugs into the PCMCIA slot for use with A600/1200.

Native 15khz RGB graphics are not mixed in, so you will need 2 screens or a work around.

Seems like it will be open source, quite easy to solder and has a reasonable BOM cost. So our usual TF card builders could/might be able to make some.

A1k.org seems to be the place where the dev is, but you will need a A1k.org login:
https://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?thr ... 22/page-16

Just when you think there is nothing else to buy for your Amiga, some new cool projects appear :ugeek:

[rubber_jonnie]

I just saw on an Amiga Bill video there is a RTG graphics card quite advanced in design being worked on, which plugs into the PCMCIA slot for use with A600/1200.

Native 15khz RGB graphics are not mixed in, so you will need 2 screens or a work around.

Seems like it will be open source, quite easy to solder and has a reasonable BOM cost. So our usual TF card builders could/might be able to make some.

A1k.org seems to be the place where the dev is, but you will need a A1k.org login:
https://www.a1k.org/forum/index.php?thr ... 22/page-16

Just when you think there is nothing else to buy for your Amiga, some new cool projects appear :ugeek:

Interesting concept, but my A1200 has an accelerator that doesn't get on with PCMCIA (I found this out after I'd bought the accelerator, many years ago) so my question would be, in the case of this adapter would it likely not work?

[matt020]

Interesting concept, but my A1200 has an accelerator that doesn't get on with PCMCIA (I found this out after I'd bought the accelerator, many years ago) so my question would be, in the case of this adapter would it likely not work?

If your accelerator doesn't get on with PCMCIA, maybe its time to upgrade in 2025.

There's this thing called the TF1230. Designed by a legend in the community. Priced very well. With 030 CPU. Has LOTS of memory. Ta-da!

[rubber_jonnie]

Interesting concept, but my A1200 has an accelerator that doesn't get on with PCMCIA (I found this out after I'd bought the accelerator, many years ago) so my question would be, in the case of this adapter would it likely not work?

If your accelerator doesn't get on with PCMCIA, maybe its time to upgrade in 2025.

There's this thing called the TF1230. Designed by a legend in the community. Priced very well. With 030 CPU. Has LOTS of memory. Ta-da!

Well I am aware of that, but it isn't what I'd describe as cheap exactly when I'm also looking to get an ATW800/2 at the moment as well. If I did change accelerators I think a PiStorm is more likely.

But it isn't a machine I use a huge amount and I have to think about what I want to do with it.

[Higgy]

I think you would need to wait and see what the Graphics card gets tested with, but it sounds like there could be issues.

The PiStorm is best bang for buck, and when the 'Framethrower' gets released the Amiga native RGB will also be outputted and mixed with the PiStorm RTG HDMI.

I like the sound of this P-Vision card for my TF1260. Would be a sort of ultimate 'original chips' A1200. I know there are (original) PowerPC+RTG cards for A1200, but they are mega expensive.

[rubber_jonnie]

I think you would need to wait and see what the Graphics card gets tested with, but it sounds like there could be issues.

The PiStorm is best bang for buck, and when the 'Framethrower' gets released the Amiga native RGB will also be outputted and mixed with the PiStorm RTG HDMI.

I like the sound of this P-Vision card for my TF1260. Would be a sort of ultimate 'original chips' A1200. I know there are (original) PowerPC+RTG cards for A1200, but they are mega expensive.

The problem I ran into with the PCMCIA slot an my accelerator is that when the accelerator is configured for 8 Megs, it prevents anything working in the card slot.

It's not a huge issue to be fair, but can be annoying, though less of an issue since I got a Gotek as I was using a CF adapter to write ADF files to disk, so that really isn't an issue so much any more since the physical disk is gone.

I suspect the same issue with 8Meg and the CF adapter would cause problems with the P-Vision too. I'll need to figure out some sort of plan for upgrading I think, as whilst the accelerator is pretty decent I could get something better.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, going to look closely at the PiStorm Lite, it should have all I need and then I can sell my old accelerator to get some money back.

[alexh]

Pistorm32 Lite for A1200 and the as yet unreleased Pistorm16 for A600 offer a better RTG solution. Especially with Framethrower in the works (A600 ready now, A1200 early 2026).

There is quite an interesting PCMCIA project being worked on which is a RPi Pico under the hood.

https://www.yyzkevin.com/pcmcia-pico-w-card/

It can be RAM, Ethernet, Wifi, Sound Card, Mass Storage etc. etc.

[rubber_jonnie]

Pistorm32 Lite for A1200 and the as yet unreleased Pistorm16 for A600 offer a better RTG solution. Especially with Framethrower in the works (A600 ready now, A1200 early 2026).

There is quite an interesting PCMCIA project being worked on which is a RPi Pico under the hood.

https://www.yyzkevin.com/pcmcia-pico-w-card/

It can be RAM, Ethernet, Wifi, Sound Card, Mass Storage etc. etc.

Sounds like even more reason to go for the PiStorm32 Lite.

[alexh]

The problem I ran into with the PCMCIA slot an my accelerator is that when the accelerator is configured for 8 Megs, it prevents anything working in the card slot.

That only happens with cheap accelerators with processors with only 24-bit address lines. Ones with 32-bit address lines leave a hole for PCMCIA in the memory map.