The Apollo Team seems to not sleep a lot! Only 16 days after their Gold 2.7 release for all 68080 accelerator cards, they now have managed to launch Gold 2.8. With Gold 2.7 Apollo Team introduced full FPU implementation and even let V500+ users activate Fast IDE.
Gold 2.8 builds on what Gold 2.7 gave and takes the Vampire FPGA line further! The Amiga future is brighter than ever for sure and now its time for all 68080 users to upgrade!
Apollo Team is moving the Amiga forward
The Apollo Team is fantastic. Their update cycle is now shorter, which means that they will for sure make sure that updates for the 68080 will come more often than before. If they actually manage to do this, then Apollo Team will for sure be on line or even better in updating cycles than both MorphOS Team and Hyperion Entertainment which is behind AmigaOS 4.
Here is the highlights for the Gold 2.8 Release
- Improved HDMI DMA support for misaligned Screen Pointers
- Minor FPU fix
- A500 RTC fix
- Improved SDcard / SDNet
- V500+ Expansion port enabled (ETHERNET/USB/.you_name_it.)
Amitopia waited for the EXE version that lets you update the 68080 core to Gold 2.8 from AmigaOS itself. There are other options like using a USB Blaster but this option is more for advanced users. Also its not so user friendly. With the EXE file you execute the upgrade and when finish you turn off your Amiga 500 or Amiga 600 with Vampire FPGA inside and then on again. Now you’re 68080 runs Gold 2.8!
Get the Gold 2.8 below here and do remember that you can choose between x10 and x11. This is related to speed that you want to use. Amitopia uses x11 which is clocked at 78MHz with our Vampire V500 V2+ card. However, if you notice any minor issues then its recommended to go for x10 which is a bit slower that runs at around 70MHz.
Here you can download Gold 2.8 for either V600 V2 or V500 V2(+)
We are very happy to see Apollo Team pushing development forward. This signal is what the Amiga community needs.
Source
Amitopia Own Experience
Apollo-Core.com
