In this article we have introduced you to the fourth PowerPC option for Amiga for users with MediatorPCI upgrade from Elbox.
First is the phase 5 cards, then it’s the AmigaOne series, Pegasos PowerPC series and Sonnet PowerPC support which is unofficial. The creator of this library is making nice progress and now his news even hit the media outside of the Amigaworld like HotHardware.
PowerPC Library Maker Dennis Boon gives bigbox Amiga machines more power
The SonnetAmiga project by Dennis Boon, makes it possible to use PowerPC-based PCI cards as accelerator board for WarpOS programs in the Amiga. You need to get yourself a MediatorPCI expansion. So, this is only a bigbox Amiga solution.
Including the Sonnet Crescendo 7200 included, already five PCI cards are supported with PowerPC.library
MediatorPCI PowerPC Library cards support
- Sonnet G3/G4 with max. 192 MB
- Rapture G4 7410@450 MHz with 256 MB
- Apocalypse G4 7410@450 MHz with 256 MB
- Ragnarok G3 750FX@800 MHz with 256 MB
- BigFoot Killer NIC M1 e300@400 MHz with 64 MB
Amiga Enthusiast Gets Quake Running On Killer NIC PowerPC CPU Core
At HotHardware site they write about Quake possibilities with this PowerPC PCI Support for AmigaOS. This option gives access to the PowerPC thru WarpOS. It is still in beta. However, it is nice of media outside of the Amigaworld to notice that Amiga’s can play Quake. But! The true fact is that todays nextgen Amiga home computers is capable of playing Quake too.
Also every classic Amiga that is equipped with CyberstormPPC or BlizzardPPC cards is also capable of playing Quake.
Get Amiga PowerPC Quake boost for just 30 Euros is Excellent Amiga News
In our article about the Sonnet cards, we concluded that the price for one can be a bit high. But one PowerPC PCI solution does actually sticks out.
The name of it is the BigFoot Killer INC card. This PCI PowerPC one can boost your Amiga experience with MediatorPCI installed for only 30 Euros. It should be the cheapest PowerPC extension for the Amiga, which amiganews.de reports here.
The BigFoot Killer INC is actually not a CPU card itself, but it is sold as a network card. It does however include a PowerPC processor. It uses MPC8343E and it is said that Quake runs twice as fast as on a CyberStorm PPC.
So. If you do have a MediatorPCI card expansion upgrade from Elbox installed. You can get this card or any other PowerPC card that is reported to work with PowerPC.library !
68080 FPGA accelerator cards for Commodore Amiga computers can also run Quake
The new Vampire 68080 accelerator cards for classic Amiga is also able to play Quake. In fact 68080 is now capable of running Quake at 32FPS in lowest screenmode. This will improve as the Apollo Team improves the speed of the FPGA.
Ragnarok is not officially supported but amiganews is reporting in their news item that the SonnetAmiga-Wiki says it already is running smoothly. Note that of each of the cards there are different versions and it is not clear if all of them work.
Lists of compatible software can be found in the Wiki. Here is those that does work
- Smokin’ Guns 1.0 (Q3 Total converision) by the Divine Cowcat
- OpenArena
- Quake 3
- Hexen 2 GL
- QuakeGL
- Quake II Cowcat version
- Quake II Hyperion version also works with some mods from Aminet
- WipeOut2097 Demo
- Wipeout2097 Full
- (Blitz)GlQuake Cowcat’s 5.08 version recommended (-ahi option) Since 192+ more mods supported (e.g. Q1Arena)
- Heretic II Demo
- Heretic II Full
- Cybermand
- CyberPi
- Landscape
- WarpRace
- VoxelSpace
- PixelOMania
- ShowInfo
- AFinch
- AFlops
- wosdb
- FlashMandelWOS
- lha_wos
- SysSpeed
- WhichAmiga
- WarpAMP
- AmigaAMP external WOS MP3 decoder (version 2.25 works fine with SoundBlaster 16 bit stereo++ output and Subspace PPC plugin)
- DNetc
- chunkyppc.library
- Earth2140 Demo
- Earth2140 Full
- Warp3D-PPC
- WarpSCUMM / WarpSDL (Tested with tentacle)
- RippleWOS
- vbcc suite (vasm/vbcc/vlink/vc/objdump/vcs)
- Heretic hicolor mode doesn’t work, requires 15 bpp mode (limitation of Voodoo 3)
- Heretic.elf (PowerUp version works with PUP emulation library under WOS). Faster than WOS heretic port. Bilinear and HiColor works fine (16bit PC on Voodoo).
- Crossfire II demo
- Crossfire II full (seems to work with FM801 PCI audio OK)
- Doggy
- AMP2 runs well, still unknown whether plugins work (DivX_3 works fine in AMP2 BETA- faster than FroggerNG, DVD works but sometime sound little crackling)
- FroggerNG – 512×384@16bpp DivX plays well, 640×480@16bpp MPEG-2 with MP2 Audio plays well
- Payback – Slows down to 603e speed due to audio hardware banging.
- Freespace The Great War (including cinematic)
- ScummVM WOS 0.7.1 – Tested with DOTT, Full Throttle, The Dig. COMI is not playable (yet) due to stuttering. (Seems to work with FM801 PCI Audio OK)
- WarpSNES (only use Paula 8-bit DMA)
- AmiGenerator runs near perfect (with 1MB of L2 cache) with args: frameskip 2 fragments 10 latency 10 freq 22050 simple (faster cards will run with simple off)
- Mame Amidog version runs well tested TMNT and Simpsons beat-em-ups, rate 22050 frameskip 1 or 2
- NeoMame Amidog version runs well with Neo Geo games with rate 22050 frameskip 2
- WarpDT WarpJPEG WarpPNG (Sonnet needs to be initialized within the startup-sequence for this)
- Nightlong PPC version (Needs screen promotion to 16-bit BE on Voodoo)
- Warp Emulation Suite (aka WES) WarpMame and WarpNeo Mame run well since 183 with args -blitppc -sr 22050 tested with D&D ToD, D&D SoM, Xmen Vs Street Fighter, AvP, etc http://caesar.logiqx.com/php/emulator.php?id=warpmame, requires speedhack executable or DisL2Flush=1 and -blitppc for good speed in later games. WarpMess works but is slow running Genesis.
- ADoomPPC (Doom I & II WADs)
- Apdf with ppc.library plugin, fixed in 185
- WarpHexen runs at 320×200, doesn’t allow higher resolutions
- RTGMaster libraries – needs retesting
- PPCLibemu
- Stat
- WOSIdle
- WarpStat
- ShowTasks
- Warp3D_CPU_PPC (Read documentation carefully regarding env settings)
- WolfpacWOS runs fine with env:wolfpac/usertg = 1 (tested at 640×480 max)
- UltimatePPC (the program on Aminet, not the board).
- BogoMips (see git for source). 1016.96 yeah! 😛
- E-UAE (or UAEWOS 0.8.12). Tested with Workbench 3.9/RTG, AIBB, Test Drive, James Pond.
- FFMPEG
- GLMatrix (edit executable for widescreen modes)
- SopoBlock
- SID4Amiga
- ProstationAudio seems to work, I think PPC is only used for importing MP3s
- Vmac old, slow, buggy and only supports AGA (working as intended)
- TrueReality (Nintendo64 emulator) – Mario64 works fine and looks good in high resolutions as 1024×768
- BOR WarpOS Aminet version
- Candy Factory Demo v1.54 Uses ppc.library Amiga Native Screen only. Only supports 320×256 images
- SULACO (by ENCORE- Amiga Demo WOS/WArp3D) works perfectly and really fast!
- By Night (by ENCORE- Amiga Demo WOS/Warp3D) works perfectly and really fast!
- Third Eye Conqueror (by Madwizards- Amiga Demo WOS/Warp3D)
- OpenBOR WOS
- Bermuda Syndrome
- Reminiscence port of Flashback engine
- Dosbox 0.72 loses audio sync after somewhere after 1250-2000 cycles only good for some 2d games
- Mini Metal Slug
- Exult
- Dosbox 0.74 various levels of performance based on PPC board installed and configuration options. Ragnarok will run as high as 6000 cycles without audio skipping depending on application.
- ScummVM WOS 1.8.1 COMI runs with some stuttering, MT-32 emulation is slow.
It’s really great seeing PowerPC support for AmigaOS is getting improved. For MediatorPCI owners, get the latest libs.
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Just Today, You can get latest PowerPC Library on Aminet here
Source: amiganews.de, sonnet wiki, elbox.com
