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Enter
the DRAGON
[17
December 2004]
ELBOX COMPUTER is proud to announce its breath-taking
new product for Amiga 1200 computers - DRAGON ColdFire.
DRAGON is a ColdFire-based accelerator card combined with
the PCI/AGP Expansion busboard.
With its DRAGON ColdFire development, Elbox brings to
Amiga computers top performance of the latest Freescale's
ColdFire V4e core based-processor, the successor of the
68k dynasty. DRAGON-equipped Amiga computers are ready
to run most of the 68k Amiga programs/applications several
times faster when compared against Amiga 1200 with the
fastest 68060 accelerators.
'By combining many attractive features like the high-performance
ColdFire processor, fast DDR memory, AGP graphics, powerful
PCI 66MHz technology and comprehensive software support,
DRAGON-equipped Amiga computers turn into modern, fast
and extremely functional power machines,' said Maciek
Binek, president and CEO of Elbox.
The DRAGON's mainboard and the DRAGON's ColdFire CPU card
are designed on two separate circuit boards. With modular
design, the DRAGON can be easily upgraded and configured
to meet the needs of the most demanding Amiga users.
DRAGON Technical Specification:
- ColdFire MCF5475 processor (410MIPS) running at
266MHz
- Two sockets for DDR-266 SDRAM modules, support up
to 1GByte of memory (1GB/s peak)
- One AGP slot (264MB/s peak access from the main
processor)
- Five 66/33MHz, 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.2 compliant
(264MB/s peak)
- 2MBytes of 32-bit Flash memory (containing upgradeable
DRAGON firmware)
- Asynchronous design with fast access to Amiga 1200
motherboard hardware
- Multi-channels DMA support (PCI <-> PCI,
PCI <-> DDR, PCI <-> AGP,
PCI <-> A1200)
- Auto-Recharge Battery-backed Real Time Clock
- Four high-speed programmable serial (UART/USART/IRDA/modem)
controllers (optional)
- One Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface and two FastEthernet
100Mbps controllers (optional)
ColdFire processor:
The DRAGON ColdFire will initially be available with the
fastest ColdFire MCF5475 processor in clock speed of 266MHz.
MCF5475 features the V4e ColdFire core with MMU, dual
precision FPU and EMAC. The 266MHz version of the ColdFire
MCF5475 processor provides raw performance of 410MIPS.
Up to 1GB of DDR SDRAM:
The DRAGON comes with two DIMM slots for ultrafast DDR-266
SDRAM memory. This high-speed memory rushes data at up
to 1GB/s throughput. It is over 25 times faster compared
against the fastest A1200 accelerators available so far.
As memory is scalable up to 1GB, you can add RAM to meet
increasing demands of your applications and workflow.
AGP Graphic Slot:
The DRAGON comes with the 3.3V 66MHz AGP slot which supports
up to 264MB/s data throughput. The following AGP graphics
cards will be supported: Radeon 9700, Radeon 9500, Radeon
9200, Radeon 9000, Radeon 7500, Radeon 7000, Voodoo 5,
Voodoo 4, Voodoo 3.
PCI Expansion Slots:
The DRAGON comes with five 66/33MHz, 32-bit PCI slots
compliant with the PCI 2.2 specification. The DRAGON system
can be configured with PCI 66MHz or PCI 33MHz expansion
technology. All PCI slots provide DMA capability. The
DRAGON's ColdFire processor has linear access to the 4GB
PCI space.
Multi-channel DMA support:
DRAGON hardware provides Multi-channel DMA support. PCI
bus master cards can provide DMA accesses to all DRAGON
resources: the AGP card, DDR memory, other PCI cards and
the Amiga 1200 motherboard space. DRAGON' PCI-to-DDR Direct
Memory Access can reach up to 264MB/s throughput. This
feature allows even the fastest mass storage PCI controllers
to run at their top performance.
2MB of 32-bit Flash memory:
DRAGON includes 2 MBytes of the 32-bit extremely fast
Flash memory. It includes factory-programmed DRAGON's
boot firmware and diagnostic software. Flash ROM allows
remapping of the Amiga Kickstart, as well.
FastEthernet 100Mbps and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (optional):
The DRAGON's MCF5475 processor has one built-in Hi-Speed
USB 2.0 controller and two FastEthernet 100Mbps controllers.
External ports for these controllers will be available
on an optional module. Hardware-acceleration encryption
(DES, 3DES, RC4, AES, MD5, SHA-1, RNG) is built into the
processor. Dual-channel architecture permits single pass
encryption and authentication.
High-Speed serial controllers (optional):
Up to four programmable serial controllers (PSCs), each
with separate 512-byte receive and transmit FIFOs for
UART, USART, modem, codec, and IrDA 1.1 interface, are
built in the DRAGON's MCF5475 processor. External ports
for these controllers will be available on an optional
module.
Compatible Tower systems:
The DRAGON ColdFire busboard is designed to be used in
the following tower systems: Mirage 1200, E/BOX 1200,
Power Tower, Winner Tower and Infinitiv Tower. Besides,
an Elbox custom-designed case for the DRAGON ColdFire
system will be announced soon.
Supported AGP and PCI cards:
- Graphic cards (Radeon 9700, Radeon 9500, Radeon
9200, Radeon 9000, Radeon 7500, Radeon 7000, Voodoo 5,
Voodoo 4, Voodoo 3)
- Sound cards (Sound Blaster 4.1 Digital, Sound Blaster
128 and cards based on the ForteMedia FM801 chipset--e.g.
Terratec 512i Digital)
- Serial ATA controllers (SiI 3114 support in development)
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0 controllers (Spider and Spider
II)
- TV tuner cards (based on Bt848/849/878 and FUSION
878/879)
- Fast Ethernet 100Mbps cards (based on RTL8139 chipset)
- Ethernet 10Mbps cards (based on RTL8029 chipset)
Pricing and availability:
The DRAGON ColdFire is planned to be available by the
end of January 2005 for a very attractive price, offering
superior price/performance ratio. The suggested retail
price is 349 EUR. (VAT excl.)
Registered owners of Elbox MEDIATOR PCI busboards for
Amiga 1200 computers will receive a special incentive
upgrade offer.
Update (31 January 2005): Unfortunately, things
are not always going as expected.
We planned starting sales of Dragon cards for the end
of January. Some of the subassemblies have not reached
us on time, though. Therefore, the sales starting date
will be slightly delayed. But we have also very good news
for today: We have just completed the development and
beta testing of the Dragon drivers for ATI Radeon 9200/9500/9700
graphic cards. These drivers are the first Radeon drivers
for Amiga computers, which support all overlay modes provided
by these card' hardware: 15-bit PC, 16-bit PC, 32-bit
BGRA, VYUY422, YVYU422, YUV9 and YUV12. These functions
are crucial not only for using TV cards without any CPU
load, but also for smooth playing of the compressed video
files.
Update (25 February 2005): Freescale has rescheduled
the start of the volume production of the ColdFire MCF5475/266
processors to June 2005.
Update (18 April 2005): Pictures of the production
version of the DRAGON 1200 PCBs have been published in
the Elbox website.
Update (05 July 2005): The initial pieces of the
ColdFire 5475 processors in the long awaited qualified
MCF5475/266 version reached us today! So far only PCF5475/266,
the engineering versions of this processor, were available.
Next week, the CPU cards in the Dragon 1200 boards, on
which our developers work, will be replaced with new processor-equipped
versions.
Update (15 July 2005): The Dragon 1200 CPU cards
with MCF5475/266 processors reached our developers. Picture
of the CPU card with fresh ColdFire processor has been
published in the Elbox website.
If you have any questions related to the DRAGON ColdFire
busboard, email them at dragon@elbox.com.
Answers to most frequent inquiries will be published in
FAQ
section of the Elbox website.
DRAGON - The Dawn of the New Era
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