Re: Amiga and Retina ZII

[Tobias Abt <tabt%studbox.uni-stuttgart.de@localhost>]

> > I own an Amiga 3000D and would like to buy a graphic card to run X
> > windows under NetBSD. I could get a Retina ZII card for a good price,
> > but... do I understand this right, there is *no* support for this card
> > under X Windows ? Would I be able to work with whis card with a text
> > console ? What card is recommended for A3k/NetBSD/X Windows ?
> 
> The Retina Z2 is quite old, slow, and can only be accessed in a
> segmented mode. AFAIK this is the reason why there are no drivers
> available. You will not be happy with it...

Right.

> You own an A3000, so why don't you get a real Zorro III board?
> I'd suggest to get a CyberVision64. It is one of the best (and
> best supported) gfx boards ever built for the Amiga, IMHO.

For the A3000 I would rate graphics boards in this order (best first):
- PicassoIV (has flicker fixer which is not a necessity for
  A3000 users but this one can do more than 50/60 Hz)
- CyberVision 64 (has display switch and can therefore show
  the Amiga signal when not active, blitter is slower as the one 
  on the PicassoIV)
- Piccolo SD64 (also has display switch, a bit slower than the
  CV 64)
- CyberVision3D (ScanDoubler does not work on A3000, so NO display
  switch, about as fast as the CV64)
- Retina BLT Z3 (NO display switch, about as fast as the Piccolo
  SD64)
- Piccolo (not SD64) and Spectrum (both have ZorroIII, but blitter
  is not very fast and high resolution display modes are more limited
  than with the other boards)
- PicassoII(+) (same chip as the Piccolo and Spectrum, but on a
  ZorroII-only board)
- Merlin (ZorroII/III, but ZorroIII often problematic, especially when
  used together with other expansion boards, chip is a bit faster than
  PicassoII, Piccolo and Spectrum)
- Domino and oMniBus (very old Tseng SVGA chips that have no blitter
  at all, ZorroII-only, very few high resolution modes, no TrueColor)

For the A4000 I would rate CV3D+ScanDoubler 2nd.

A2000 can't use CV64 and Retina BLT.

For NetBSD-only users the display switch might be irrelevant and
therefore CV3D and Retina BLT could be a good choice, too.

Dislaimer: this is based on my experiences on programming for these
boards (Picasso96 system) and I am biased as I get money for each
PicassoIV that is sold... :-))

Bye,                 \|/
  Tobias             @ @
+----------------oOO-(_)-OOo-----------+
| Tobias Abt                           |
| email: tabt%studbox.uni-stuttgart.de@localhost |
|   www: http://home.pages.de/~tabt/   |
|   irc: tabt@#AmigaGer                |
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