PiStorm

[Harrison]

Now this could be a real game changer. Anyone wishing to buy existing Amiga accelerators, or any newly developed accelerators like the Vampire, will know they are expensive.

But not now with the PiStorm.

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/19/pistorm-brings-modern-muscle-to-the-amiga/

For just £38 (RPi 3 at £23 plus custom cable at £15) you can have a real Amiga running a very nice setup.

Someone has developed the ability to utilise a Raspberry Pi 3 connected to an A500/+ using a $15 custom cable. The PiStorm software then emulates an 030/040 up to 75-80Mhz, as well as emulating RTG, SCSI disk enulation (allowing you to connect any USB hard drive to the Pis USB port and run HDF files. And you can emulate any kickstart rom.

The video sorting RTG running is quite something.

I've not bothered needing adding with real Amiga hardware for years, other than using my existing setups. But the ability to do this at such ac price is really tempting me to dig one of my spare A500 Plus out.

This could be a wake up call to expensive accelerator developers.

And this is a RPi3. I wonder what could be achieved with a RPi4? I wonder if an A1200 version is possible?

[Harrison]

Forgot to mention video output. No more need to mess around with scan doublers etc. The PiStorm is currently utilising both its HDMI ports. One for RTG and one for RGB to SCART to HDMI.

But they are now working on linking the Denise chip and forming a single output!

[Kin Hell]

A very interesting concept H. :thumbs:

[Harrison]

Someone on Amibay is currently building some of the interface boards to connect the RPi up and run this. He's now planning on obtaining a few more to sell to the community. Really tempted to get one and give it a go. The developer is working on many updates to make it emulate faster CPUs (it's already gone up from an 020 to an 030 at 75-80Mhz).

There's also talk of work starting on an A1200 version. I would be really interested in this.

[Kin Hell]

I'd give an A1200 version a go but have no urge what so ever of buying an A500 just to try it as it stands. :shades:

[J T]

Now this could be a real game changer. Anyone wishing to buy existing Amiga accelerators, or any newly developed accelerators like the Vampire, will know they are expensive.

But not now with the PiStorm.

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/19/pist...-to-the-amiga/



Link seems broken but I think the concept is really cool, using a new computer to boost up an old one. My mind boggles at the amount to technical skills it must take to design something like this.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm assuming this is what the link should have been: https://hackaday.com/2021/04/19/pistorm-brings-modern-muscle-to-the-amiga/

[Harrison]

Link fixed. That was the one.

[Kin Hell]

I'd give an A1200 version a go but have no urge what so ever of buying an A500 just to try it as it stands. :shades:

Two years on.... so it's been a while......


Well.... I'll be goddam....

I am seriously impressed with a Pi3A+ on AmigaKit's PiStorm32-Lite board....

It made my A1200 render things before you click "Go".

S M O K I N G ! ! ! ! :yesyes:

Pi4 is more than twice as fast.... If you can find one this side of Xmas 2023. ;)

[Harrison]

I've always been tempted to try a PiStorm, but I don't really use real Amigas these days. Still tempted though as I have many I could setup. I do follow those building and testing the new updates and it is seriously impressive. It has however killed the need for dedicated hardware like a Vampire.

[Kin Hell]

I've always been tempted to try a PiStorm, but I don't really use real Amigas these days. Still tempted though as I have many I could setup. I do follow those building and testing the new updates and it is seriously impressive. It has however killed the need for dedicated hardware like a Vampire.

Thing is H, the Vampire emulating the Chipset isn't the same.

I'm currently writing Caffeine OS to a 64GB Microdrive to try on the PiStorm32Lite in my A1200. I am using Raspberry Pi Imager 1.4.7 to do this. - I'll let u know how it goes.

I've also been naughty & have a Pi4B (https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b?variant=20064052740158) arriving sometime soon.

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This is running off the Pi3A+ HDMI output. I have an RGB-Scart link to another LCD capable of 15Khz.

This is very impressive stuff.:thumbs:

- - - Updated - - -

I also find this very interesting too....

https://github.com/PiStorm/cm4board/tree/master/CM4_PiStorm32Lite

This basically connects an A1200 to the PiStorm32-Lite board & then uses a Raspberry Pi Coumpute Module (https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-compute-module-4) for

You can then add an I/O Module giving full on USB, Ethernet & HDMI

https://www.patreon.com/posts/eagle-has-landed-79775148

All available via GitHub (https://github.com/PiStorm)

[J T]

This stuff is impressive but also quite technical. I love the concepts and the ideas behind the execution but could never actually do any of this myself. Is there an easy-viewing youtube video on this, something that a bozo like me could watch and understand?

[Harrison]

@Kin. That is impressive.

It is still quite mad how much the invention of the RPi unlocked the creativity and ingenuity of the retro scene. Just using the cheap computer to run emulators was impressive enough, but the genious to turn that on its head and use them to accelerate real retro hardware just blew me away when the first project was publicly shown.

Companies designing and making expensive hardware for retro systems is becoming less attractive, and with the small price of the RPi you know if one breaks it's not going to cost the earth to find a replacement.

@JT. If I see a video about this in my travels I will post a link. I didn't know about urilising the extra RPi modules for things like Ethernet and USB, so will be taking a look when I get chance.

[Kin Hell]

This stuff is impressive but also quite technical. I love the concepts and the ideas behind the execution but could never actually do any of this myself. Is there an easy-viewing youtube video on this, something that a bozo like me could watch and understand?

You'll need an A1200, a PiStorm32-Lite & a Raspberry Pi. Chuck em all together & off you go.

There are many links on YouTube but this one is kinda cool. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Ra86PE5Cs

@ Harrison

I am gobsmacked fella. Now I have the Pi4 Revision B in there, I have 1.9GB Fast Ram & have gone from nearly 900 MIPS to 2006 MIPS. - Even the same MicroSD drive has gone from 21.5Mb/sec to 24.5Mb/sec. :cool:

I had to write to FOL @ AmigaKit with an issue though....

Raspberry Pi3 uses "brcm-sdhc.device" instead of the default "scsi.device".

Raspberry Pi4 uses "brmc-emmc.device" but there is no reference to this yet.

I've asked FOL to change the Wiki (http://wiki.amiga.org/index.php?title=Pistorm32-Lite) to reflect this requirement for Pi4 users.

[Harrison]

Is it Amigakit and FOL that are leading the PiStorm project?

So you know what the issue was with Amigakit and if its fully sorted now? They got kicked from Amibay a while back for not completing orders and not being contactable.

[Kin Hell]

Is it Amigakit and FOL that are leading the PiStorm project?

So you know what the issue was with Amigakit and if its fully sorted now? They got kicked from Amibay a while back for not completing orders and not being contactable.

There are several vendors manufacturing PiStorm32-Lite boards. Cheapest I've seen is here: - https://www.arananet.net/pedidos/product/pistorm32-preorder

LOL.... & there I was worrying for how many years about being kicked from AmiBay. :lol:

:sly: Shower of Sh!t springs to mind! - Even SpeedGeek moved all his experience/hacks/data over to EAB. :yesyes:

[Kin Hell]

So we got jiggy some more with the Pi scene & Emulation....

So, we went Pi3A= & then Pi4B & now CM4 on a Purple Headed PiStorm32 Lite! 1449

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I bought this from a Guy in Sweden after seeing an advert of his on the Web. Hew was kind enough to include a small RTC (small chip on riser. Bat is underneath) as seen on the break out board. :D

Assembly....

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Fitting....

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Very slight interference with Modules Cooling Fan....

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[Harrison]

Very nice. Have you benchmarked it yet?

[Kin Hell]

Very nice. Have you benchmarked it yet?

See post #100 here....

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=107190&page=5

Still all a bit "Pie in the Sky" on the Amiga side of things. - Hardware implemented but no drivers yet! :dry:

RaspberryPi (Linux) is very impressive! :shades:

[J T]

The purple board looks cool

[Kin Hell]

The purple board looks cool

:D

I have a CM4 lite module arriving soon. No Wi-Fi, eMMC Storage & just 2GB Ram. - 2GB is the most CoffinOS & CaffeineOS use anyways.

This will let me play with CaffeineOS from a MicroSD. The onboard eMMC storage is a tad faster than mSD but I need a 64GB mSD to write CaffeineOS. Can't run the two together though....

Amiga M2, USB & Ethernet is still waiting for drivers. - Linux M2, USB & Ethernet is bang on. - To a degree, Amiga is almost there on M2. - EMU68 kicks in but the Amiga Partitions are not available to boot from.

I might get to play this weekend & will post benchmarks as soon as I can. :thumbs:

[Kin Hell]

Didn't get to play as much as I would have liked this weekend. Royal Fail excelled on Saturday & didn't deliver my 2nd class Signed for Parcel despite it being posted on Wednesday! - Really!?!? - four frickin days! :blink:

I managed to install CaffeineOS 9.22 to the 32GB eMMC storage on the CM4 module. Where Pi Imager refused to write, Rufus 3.18 USB Writer took an hour & a half to write the 28GB Image, but it failed with an error right at the end. Prolly cos there wasn't enough space to write all the required zeros at the end of the image. (Packers)
Anyway, after setting the Jumpers for normal boot, she's flying but the overclock string for the Pi4 board isn't functioning. Need to read up elsewhere....

Here she is @ stock speeds:

Everyone's favourite in SysInfo. - Drive speed:

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Info.....

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SysSpeed MIPS....

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SysSpeed Drive Speed....

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The Beach Ball render in AIBB completes in 0.10 seconds. - The Pi4B did it in 0.08 seconds but was running an overclock. - That's faster than your screen can refresh @ 60Hz! :eyebrow:

[Harrison]

Very nice.