Accelerator cards

By BillGates

Supporter (16)

04-03-2023, 07:36

Is there anything for MSX computers that are like the Vampire Accelerator cards for Amiga?

See here
http://www.apollo-core.com/index.htm?page=products

I am new to MSX so any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

By lintweaker

Champion (465)

04-03-2023, 07:55

There were some examples of accelerator cards for MSX but not the the extend as for Amiga and Atari.
The LPE Z380 card comes to mind, or a recent development you can checkout this thread:
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/hardware/mclz8-project-fast-z80-replacement

By Manuel

Ascended (19471)

04-03-2023, 14:13

It's also the question why you'd want that. The best accelerator is the turboR with the R800. But to make use of it you either need software specifically written for it, or a game patch to enable the R800 (and adjust the code a bit here and there to cope with the faster CPU).

So, what do you want to achieve with the acceleration?

By tfh

Prophet (3347)

04-03-2023, 15:01

Maybe he is hoping that it would create a way to make the MSX able to do some day to day computing on it.
With the Vampire card in my Amiga 1200, I'm able to browse websites, play HQ video, do some decent word processing on a HD, 24bit interface. It's an all-in-one card with (very) fast CPU, 128Mbyte of memory, 24bit video, LAN, etc...

But I have no idea if there is a Z80 compatible CPU that can reach such speeds. Although the "68080" on the Vampire card is also not an official Motorola CPU, but a CPU created in FPGA. So one could create a something similar for MSX as well I guess...

Wouldn't it be nice if you could do this on your MSX:

By MsxKun

Paragon (1124)

04-03-2023, 16:53

Yeh, it's called MSX3 cartridge or something

By Wlcracks

Hero (566)

04-03-2023, 17:26

GR8NET has a co processor. But its not available in emulators.

By geijoenr

Champion (366)

04-03-2023, 23:29

Quote:

Maybe he is hoping that it would create a way to make the MSX able to do some day to day computing on it.

The problem with the MSX is that there is no actual software for that, even with a co-processing board it would take lots of effort to reach a point where you can actually do anything useful.

The case of the Amiga is clearly different because from early on there were quite powerful models based on the 68k with Amiga OS and lots of software. It made a lot of sense to make it just a bit more powerful with those expansion boards.

For MSX the most advanced OS is... SymbOS?

By tfh

Prophet (3347)

05-03-2023, 00:08

geijoenr wrote:

Quote:

Maybe he is hoping that it would create a way to make the MSX able to do some day to day computing on it.

The problem with the MSX is that there is no actual software for that, even with a co-processing board it would take lots of effort to reach a point where you can actually do anything useful.

For MSX the most advanced OS is... SymbOS?

A "bit" more powerfull? The "68080 CPU" is about 295x faster compared to a standard 68000 CPU in an A500, or 128x as fast as an 68020 in an A1200. Also 128MByte of very fast RAM was something a standard Amiga could only dream about.

As for MSX? Such software will only happen if the hardware exist.

Maybe the MSX3 could bring this to the MSX world, although based on my very limited knowledge about MSX3, I'd be having the feeling I'm just controlling an ARM based PC with my MSX (for the MSX3 cartridge model) or using an ARM based computer with MSX Emulator (For the stand alone MSX3).

By lintweaker

Champion (465)

05-03-2023, 08:32

It seems that in the MSX world there is also a bit less interest in accelerators (*) but they are also basically not there (any more/easily for sale). Maybe a catch 22 situation.
I think the MCLZ8 makes a very nice MSX accelerator, I'll be showing it at the MSX fair in Nijmegen. I gives a very nice boost to the MSX and (can) also provide lots of extra 'hardware' features.

(*) for me an accelerator is something that can (heavily) speed up a machine and provide extra capabilities normally not available/possible.

By lintweaker

Champion (465)

05-03-2023, 11:32

One important caveat I forgot the mention, for MSX accelerators which replace or takeover the CPU: the needed signals are not available on the cartridge slots. The accelerator board has to be placed inside the machine. Here you are lucky if the created PCB can be used in multiple MSX machines due to their many different PCB layouts and case designs.

By erpirao

Paragon (1315)

05-03-2023, 15:21

sorry for the google translation
On the subject of accelerators, could you follow the path opened by sharksym with the slt turbo, integrating it into an external fpga cartridge, which would add the cpu r800+? and maybe a more advanced video mode
Now, could the software be made compatible with these turbo modes?
what hardware will we add?
we make a "panasonic M2" from 3do?, a 32x of megadrive?
The truth is, "simply" if you could make a "32x" type cartridge that included opl4+9990+ram, just maybe a support cpu, you would earn a lot, but the 9990 is already very rare to find at a good price, and the opl4 are no better.