Mysterious A500 hardware ... Viper/E-Matrix 530 ?
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[H]omer
Viper 530 Accelerator for A500/500Plus.
I grabbed a picture of this off Power Computing's website a few years back.
To see this thing for yourself, go to:
http://www.genesis-x.nildram.co.uk/images/V530.JPG
All I know about this item, apart from what I can see in the photo, is that
I ordered one from Power Computing a few years back, and it never arrived.
Eventually they told me they had stopped stocking it, despite the fact that
it had only just been released???
I also recently discovered that this product also went by the name of
"E-Matrix 530".
What I would like to know is the following:
Who actually made the Viper 530? DCE or Power?
Were any actually sold anywhere?
Were they even built, or was it all vapourware?
Why were they so quickly withdrawn?
Why is there so little information available about these accelerators?
Why did Power continue to advertise them for a year, if they didn't have
any?
What's the REAL story behind this piece of hardware?
What's the story behind this change of name from Viper 530 to E-Matrix 530?
BTW - I still have all the magazines with the adverts as proof.
If you, or anyone you know, were privileged enough to actually buy or use
one of these things, let me know ... details.
Answers on a postcard to ...
[H]omer
Mikdom99
Power still sell the Viper Turbo 630, Amiga, UKPounds79.95
see
http://www.powerc.com/cgi-bin/psearch.cgi?uid=SS5v4B5ekgr5yLQ&sid=&aid=&cid=4&rn=524&nm=a600
also see Versalia
http://www.vesalia.de/shop.cgi
Viper 520/33MHz, 8MB turbo board
and
Softhut
Viper 520/33MHz w/FPU 500 $189.95
Get the Gen at
follow link "A500 Accelerators"
Kind Regards Michael
aka rockape
Mike Leavitt
> Does anyone have any concrete info on the following A500 accelerator?
>
> Viper 530 Accelerator for A500/500Plus.
>
> I grabbed a picture of this off Power Computing's website a few years back.
> To see this thing for yourself, go to:
>
> http://www.genesis-x.nildram.co.uk/images/V530.JPG
Strange, it seems to be a combination ram expander, and SCSI and IDE
controller, with a 2.05 rom chip on board. Unless it is really flat,
and fits into a chip slot (the rom chip slot?) I see no way it would
fit an an A500. Something rings a bell here, that it was very hard to
upgrade it to the 3.1 rom, but I don't know. Also, how would you
connect the SCSI, IDE, etc. to it? Extension cables to a backplane?
--
Mike Leavitt ac...@lafn.org + team Amiga +
Mark
It was actually designed for the 500, but it worked fine (and even stated in
the manual) in the 2000. I can't for the life of me remember what it was
called again, or who made it, but it had a side connector for the (included)
32 bit ram board. I'd imagine this is how this Viper530 plugs in.
-Mark
Ross Vumbaca
"[H]omer" wrote:
> Does anyone have any concrete info on the following A500 accelerator?
> Viper 530 Accelerator for A500/500Plus.
Yeah I remember this excellent looking accelerator. I beleive it was
made by DCE, but that's all I knew of it. There were 020 versions of it,
but nothing ever like this (SCSI + IDE controller). I didn't know that
power had axed it so early though, I thought a few people had one.
Regards,
Ross..
[H]omer
"Mikdom99" <mikd...@amigazone.com> wrote in message
news:9963...@amigazone.com...
> > Does anyone have any concrete info on the following A500 accelerator?
> >
> > Viper 530 Accelerator for A500/500Plus.
> > "E-Matrix 530".
> > Who actually made the Viper 530? DCE or Power?
> Power still sell the Viper Turbo 630, Amiga, UKPounds79.95
>
http://www.powerc.com/cgi-bin/psearch.cgi?uid=SS5v4B5ekgr5yLQ&sid=&aid=&cid=
4&rn=524&nm=a600
That's not a Viper 530
> also see Versalia
>
> http://www.vesalia.de/shop.cgi
>
> Viper 520/33MHz, 8MB turbo board
That's not a Viper 530
>
http://www.softhut.com/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/har
dware/accelerators/viper520.html&cart_id=2637872_5841
>
> Viper 520/33MHz w/FPU 500 $189.95
That's not a Viper 530
> http://www.amiga-hardware.com
>
> follow link "A500 Accelerators"
That's not a Viper 530
> Kind Regards Michael
>
> aka rockape
Oh well, nothing there then.
[H]omer
[H]omer
"Mike Leavitt" <ac...@lafn.org> wrote in message
news:3B62EC3F.MD-...@lafn.org...
> Hello [H]omer
> > Does anyone have any concrete info on the following A500 accelerator?
> >
> > Viper 530 Accelerator for A500/500Plus.
> >
> > I grabbed a picture of this off Power Computing's website a few years
back.
> > To see this thing for yourself, go to:
> >
> > http://www.genesis-x.nildram.co.uk/images/V530.JPG
>
> Strange, it seems to be a combination ram expander, and SCSI and IDE
> controller, with a 2.05 rom chip on board. Unless it is really flat,
> and fits into a chip slot (the rom chip slot?) I see no way it would
> fit an an A500.
Same way my CSA Derringer does now, on the ROM socket.
On the Viper 530 There's one internal IDE connector for a 2.5" internal HD,
an IDE and SCSI connectors for external HD's. You need to feed the ribbon
cables through the back of the machine (cut slots in the case) and into an
external HD box.
> Something rings a bell here, that it was very hard to
> upgrade it to the 3.1 rom, but I don't know
I didn't know that, maybe I saved myself a headache. Oh well.
[H]omer
[H]omer
"Ross Vumbaca" <ros...@au.com.optushome> wrote in message
news:3B638508...@au.com.optushome...
They didn't axe the Viper 520CD, just the Viper 530.
Why they would axe the superior product before its even been sold, I
don't know.
[H]omer
Paul R. Zager
>Same way my CSA Derringer does now, on the ROM socket.
Bbbbzzzzzzttt! No cigar.
The Derringer and it's older sibling the Mega Midget Racer both fit into
the 68000 DIP chip socket. The Mega Midget Racer is the one with the add
on memory card for the 32 bit memory. The Derringer has a 72 pin SIMM
--
Paul Zager
Proud Owner of Frankenthousand, the monster A1000
'030@50MHz, 2 megs chip/32 megs fast, 2 hard drives, OS 3.9
4xSCSI CD-ROM, SyJet, 56kHayes, 19" flicker free display
"Bride of Frankenthousand" A4000, Phase5 MarkIII '060@50;
2 megs chip/140 megs fast, PicassoIV, HD floppy, 4.5 gig SCSI3,
4.3 gig IDE, Concierto, 32x CD-ROM, GVP-I/O, GVP-4008SCSI,
19"MagView, X- Surf, DSL, OS 3.9. . . all in a big black Toaster Oven
case to compliment Frankenthousand
zipper
> They didn't axe the Viper 520CD, just the Viper 530.
> Why they would axe the superior product before its even been sold, I
> don't know.
A quick Internet search told that at least one fella does have
Viper 530 working on his setup :)
Z
Pablo Castiñeira
>
> > Why they would axe the superior product before its even been sold, I
>
> > don't know.
>
> A quick Internet search told that at least one fella does have
> Viper 530 working on his setup :)
Hi,
I´ve recently received some info about this board from DCE. As
Mr. Dellert says, there IS still a possibility to get this board
produced again, only depending on the amount of users interested
in it.
I offer myself to maintain a list of those of you who would like
this beast to be running inside of your 500. Just send a mail to
me and this list will go to DCE soon.
Regards,
Pablo.
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Pablo Esteban Castiñeira [mailto:pabl...@infovia.com.ar]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 1. August 2001 05:10
An: ser...@dcecom.de
Betreff: Discontinued Amiga hardware
Hello Mr. Dellert,
I was one of the many people who ordered this turboboard from Power
Computing back in 1998, which of course has never arrived, being told
it has been discontinued by its manufacturer.
I would like to ask you to briefly tell me about the main questions the
users ask in the newsgroup in order to clarify things:
- What has actually happened with this board?
This was a custom design made by us but produced and sold by E-Matrix =
(MTEC)
- Why has it been suddenly discontinued?
Ematrix is closed.
- Did it work as you expected?
The boards are working fine.
- Is there any chance to put it into production again?
???
- Do you still consider it as an expensive board to produce?
No, but there are not enough customers outside.
- Could a list of active A500 users still willing to purchase this
board make you consider to producing a unique short run of them?
Yes.
kind regards
Thomas Dellert
R&D Department
DCE Computer Service GmbH
Kellenbergstr.19 a
D-46145 Oberhausen
tel: +49-208-660673
fax: +49-208-630496
http://www.dcecom.de
ser...@dcecom.de
//
Daniele Gratteri
news:3d4ccd6b.01080...@posting.google.com...
> I offer myself to maintain a list of those of you who would like
> this beast to be running inside of your 500. Just send a mail to
> me and this list will go to DCE soon.
But, can you ask him about prices?
--
____
/ ___|____ Daniele Gratteri, Italian Commodore and Amiga user / /
| | |___/ E-MAIL: daniele_...@inwind.it / /
| |___|___\ URL: http://utenti.tripod.it/danielegratteri \ \/ /
\____| IRC: FIAT1100D - ICQ: 53943994 \/\/
Pablo Castiñeira
> > this beast to be running inside of your 500. Just send a mail to
> > me and this list will go to DCE soon.
>
> But, can you ask him about prices?
I think we'll first need the ok from DCE to produce it again,
and that depends on how many users are interested in it...
BTW, it was reasonably priced back then in 1998, not to mention
it should be even cheaper to build nowadays...
Pablo.
//
Patrick Ford
I'm guessing you had the one I first used, Microbotics VXL-30.
With a 68EC030 it allwoed MMU-like operations as if it was the full '030.
It also had 40MHz 68882 FPU on board.
It could use 2 or 8 MB of RAM, and although mine had only two it totally
transformed the whole idea of computing for me. Pagestream 2.2 was the
main beneficiary from my POV, but others like IFX blazed at incredible
spead.
The next one I got was PP&S 500-'040 which would not fit in A2000. I had
to cut a piece off the board, move components on the motherboard and cut a
hole in the bottom of the 5-1/4 drive bay to get it in.
--
--
My domain contains .co, not .com as appears in the header.
Patrick Ford Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Patrick Ford
> >
> > Strange, it seems to be a combination ram expander, and SCSI and IDE
> > controller, with a 2.05 rom chip on board. Unless it is really flat,
> > and fits into a chip slot (the rom chip slot?) I see no way it would
> > fit an an A500.
>
> Same way my CSA Derringer does now, on the ROM socket.
No! Accelerators cannot plug into the ROM socket. It just doesn't make
any sense.
Leilf Falkenstrom
>[H]omer wrote:
>
> > >
>> > Strange, it seems to be a combination ram expander, and SCSI and IDE
>> > controller, with a 2.05 rom chip on board. Unless it is really flat,
>> > and fits into a chip slot (the rom chip slot?) I see no way it would
>> > fit an an A500.
>> Same way my CSA Derringer does now, on the ROM socket.
You must mean the CPU socket. That is the only socket you can put a
thing like that. The second choice is the slot you have on the left
side of your computer (Zorro I ??)
I don't think that there was any accelerators made for the internal
expansion slot, or i'am wrong ?
>
>No! Accelerators cannot plug into the ROM socket. It just doesn't make
>any sense.
Kind regards Leilf
[H]omer
[H]omer
"Patrick Ford" <pa...@ihug.com.nz> wrote in message
news:3B6C35DE.MD...@ihug.com.nz...
Daniele Gratteri
> The next one I got was PP&S 500-'040 which would not fit in A2000. I
had
> to cut a piece off the board, move components on the motherboard and
cut a
> hole in the bottom of the 5-1/4 drive bay to get it in.
Still you have got that board? It works fine? How much memory is
possible to install?