PPC for Amiga tower... what is this?

[Tiago]

Hi

Amiga Blizzard PPC 603 200Mhz, 128mb OS4 accelerator

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Amiga-Blizzard-PPC-603-200Mhz-128mb-OS4-accelerator_W0QQitemZ250178747244QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4193QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is a board to Amiga 1200 tower conversion....

So, you grab 1 A1200 you put it on a tower case, you get this board, and the result is a power pc where you can run OS4 ??????????????????????

I thoght OS4 needs PPC architecture... Mboard, CPU, video card...etc... etc...

So what the seller want to say? is this PPC thing ???

[Harrison]

You don't need to upgrade to a graphics card or other expansions to use OS4. Just a PPC accelerator, HD and enough ram to run it. Although OS4 classic (the one that will be for expanded A1200's) will initially only work with certain PPC accelerator cards, mainly the Blizzard cards, so this one will work.

This Blizzard accelerator card is actually one of the best you can get. It isn't just a PPC accelerator, but is a combined card with both a 68K 68040 CPU to run older 68K code such as Workbench 3 and classic Amiga software/games, and the PPC accelerator to run newer PPC OS4 and PPC code.

However this one is the 68040 version which isn't as good. A better one with a 68060 CPU also exists. The problem with the 68040 CPU is that it runs much hotter than any other 68K CPU so can only be run in a tower conversion, and the 040 isn't compatible with as much Amiga software as the slower 030 or the much faster 060 68K chips. Not so many games will work with the 040 CPU either.

It is still good though. This accelerator card is highly sort after, as is shown by the current bidding on this auction and will be perfect for OS4 (if it is released as promised).

[Stephen Coates]

Does OS4 definately run on AGA or will it need a dedicated graphics card?

I'm guessing it won't need a graphics card, but I don't think it will be very good without one.

[Harrison]

I'm not actually sure about this, just guessing, but I think it would be mad not to support the AGA chipset as the lowest display hardware for the OS as it will be built into all classic Amiga systems. But it is true that it won't run well compared to a dedicated card as you would need to use a relatively low colour display mode.

[TiredOfLife]

It will run on AGA, confimed by one of the programmers.