|
|
NAME
|
EXPANSION TYPE | WORKS? | NOTES |
| A.C.T. | Prelude | Soundcard | OK | |
| Alfadata/BSC | Multiface | Multi I/O | NO | |
| Aliendesign | Repulse | Soundcard | OK | Toccata emulation |
| ASDG | Dual serial board | Multi I/O | NO | |
| BSC/ITH | ISDN Master | ISDN | NO | |
| Commodore | A2065 | Ethernet | OK | |
| E3B | Deneb | USB + Flashrom | OK | |
| E3B | Highway | USB | OK | |
| Electronic Design | Framemachine | Digitizer | NO | |
| Great Valley Products | IOExtender | Multi I/O | NO | |
| Great Valley Products | Anet | Ethernet | NO | |
| Hydra Systems | AmigaNet | Ethernet | NO | |
| Index Information | Harlequin | Graphics card | OK | |
| Individual Computers | RapidRoad | USB | NO | Driver is problematic |
| Individual Computers | X-Surf | Ethernet+IDE | OK | |
| Individual Computers | X-Surf 2 | Ethernet+IDE | OK | |
| Individual Computers | X-Surf 3 | Ethernet+IDE | OK | |
| Individual Computers | X-Surf 100 | Ethernet | OK | |
| Ingenieurbüro Helfrich | Peggy | MPG Video Decoder | NO | |
| Ingenieurbüro Helfrich | Peggy plus | MPG Audio & Video Decoder | NO | |
| Ingenieurbüro Helfrich | Piccolo | Graphics card | OK | |
| Kato Development | Melody | Soundcard | NO | |
| MacroSystem | Maestro Pro | Soundcard | OK | Not in MovieShop |
| MacroSystem | Retina ZII | Graphics card | NO | |
| MacroSystem | Tocatta | Soundcard | OK | |
| MacroSystem | Vlab Y/C | Framegrabber | OK | |
| MacroSystem | Vlab | Framegrabber | OK | |
| MacroSystem | Vlab Motion | Digitizer | OK | |
| MacroSystem | Maestro | Soundcard | OK | Not in MovieShop |
| RBM Digitaltechnik | IOBlix | Multi I/O | OK | |
| RBM Digitaltechnik | IOBlix ethernet | Ethernet | OK | Buggy and slow |
| Supra | SupraModem 3400zi | Modem | NO | |
| Team 4 Video | Kasmin | Graphics card | OK | |
| Utilities Unlimited | Emplant | Emulation + SCSI + 2xSerial | NO | |
| Village Tronic | Ariadne | Ethernet + Multi I/O | OK | |
| Village Tronic | Ariadne II | Ethernet | OK | |
| VMC | ISDN Blaster | ISDN | NO | |
| VMC/Individual Computers | Hypercom ZII 3+ | Multi I/O | OK | |
| VMC/Individual Computers | Hypercom ZII 4+ | Multi I/O | OK | |
| Zeus Electronic Development | Connexion | Ethernet | OK |
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Zorro II compatibility
Unlike the popular Amiga Zorro II slots, the DraCo has a series of "compatible" Zorro II expansion slots, that due to some design flaws on its implementation, ultimately led to the fact that not all Zorro II expansion devices work with the DraCo. What follows is an updated attempt to outline what Amiga Zorro II cards have been reported working, and which devices have proven not work at all. If a device is not listed here, it simply means it hasnt been tested, so it may or may not work (please report your findings).
Thursday, August 29, 2013
The component module & the infamous Alpha coprocessor board
Very little facts are known of this board which never passed the prototype stages due to its fragility. It was supposed to attach to a header in the DraCo Motion/Vlab Motion and provide component output.
I have never seen a picture of this device, but it is absolutely not a rumour and it is based around the Philips SAA 7165 chip.
Speaking of rumors, many times during the life of the DraCo, Macrosystem advertised about a DraCo Direct card for rendering video effects in realtime. It was supposely a kind of coprocessor card based around a DEC Alpha processor at 233 Mhz (this was in a time where the Alpha processor was the king of the hill). The truth is, that this card never even reached the prototype stage.
DraCo memory map
DraCo has no memory at all at zero address, unless the AmigaOS MMU setup is still active,
and then it's only virtual.
DraCo memory starts at 0x4000 0000, 0x4200 0000, 0x4400 0000, 0x4600 0000,
with at least 4 MB in the first slot, and not more than 32 MB in each slot.
The AmigaOS MMU table is somewhere in the first 2 MB.
A full 128 MB DraCo looks like this with NetBSD:
memory segment 0 at 40000000 size 00200000
memory segment 1 at 40200000 size 07e00000
and then it's only virtual.
DraCo memory starts at 0x4000 0000, 0x4200 0000, 0x4400 0000, 0x4600 0000,
with at least 4 MB in the first slot, and not more than 32 MB in each slot.
The AmigaOS MMU table is somewhere in the first 2 MB.
A full 128 MB DraCo looks like this with NetBSD:
memory segment 0 at 40000000 size 00200000
memory segment 1 at 40200000 size 07e00000
Friday, June 14, 2013
DraCo Motion storage times
Storage time is the amount of raw video footage that can be stored based on hard drive size and quality settings. The following table will allow you to estimate the amount of minutes of video footage depending on the size of your drive, and the quality settings you select.
| Minutes/GB Drive | ||||
| Comparable Quality | MB/Second | 4GB | 9GB | 18GB |
| 1 VHS Longplay | 0.50 | 136 | 306 | 612 |
| 2 VHS Longplay | 0.60 | 96 | 216 | 432 |
| 3 VHS Longplay | 0.75 | 76 | 171 | 342 |
| 4 VHS | 1.00 | 68 | 153 | 306 |
| 5 VHS | 1.50 | 48 | 108 | 216 |
| 6 VHS | 1.75 | 38 | 85 | 170 |
| 7 S-VHS, Hi8 | 2.00 | 34 | 76 | 152 |
| 8 S-VHS, Hi8 | 2.50 | 28 | 63 | 126 |
| 9 DV, MiniDV | 3.10 | 23 | 52 | 104 |
| 10 Beta | 3.20 | 22 | 49 | 96 |
| 11 Beta | 3.30 | 21 | 47 | 94 |
| 12 Beta | 3.50 | 20 | 45 | 90 |
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Motion-Jpeg compression
Motion-Jpeg (MJPEG) is the video compression format that the DraCo uses when capturing and editing footage.
It basically works by compressing each video frame as a jpeg image (a second of video has between 24 to 30 frames per second depending on the video norm used). Its major advantage was that it did not require a lot of processing power from the host device to capture and manipulate this format. Its biggest flaw is that it uses lossy compression, so depending on the compression ratio used, some blockiness may be visible.
A big advantage of this format is that it is still being used a lot in networked enviroments and security facilities due to its tolerance on degraded streams and faulty conections. A packet lost of MJPEG still permits any suitable player to continue playing the original video feed without further fuss, unlike some modern compression codecs that rely on previous images to continue reproducing video.
Other advantages are the openess and simple nature of their encoders and decoders, unlike for example, H.264, VTASC, etc.
On the downside, there is lot of room for improvement in the compression concept of this codec, for both being lossy, which results in its reduced video quality, and for not achieving the immensely high compression rates we witness nowadays.
Every video codec we have nowadays, is only good certain tasks. There is no ideal one. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.As they say, in the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
It basically works by compressing each video frame as a jpeg image (a second of video has between 24 to 30 frames per second depending on the video norm used). Its major advantage was that it did not require a lot of processing power from the host device to capture and manipulate this format. Its biggest flaw is that it uses lossy compression, so depending on the compression ratio used, some blockiness may be visible.
A big advantage of this format is that it is still being used a lot in networked enviroments and security facilities due to its tolerance on degraded streams and faulty conections. A packet lost of MJPEG still permits any suitable player to continue playing the original video feed without further fuss, unlike some modern compression codecs that rely on previous images to continue reproducing video.
Other advantages are the openess and simple nature of their encoders and decoders, unlike for example, H.264, VTASC, etc.
On the downside, there is lot of room for improvement in the compression concept of this codec, for both being lossy, which results in its reduced video quality, and for not achieving the immensely high compression rates we witness nowadays.
Every video codec we have nowadays, is only good certain tasks. There is no ideal one. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.As they say, in the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
From DraCo to Cassie
The DraCo was not a comercial success, but that didnt stop MacroSystem. They took the DraCo and redesigned it to make it more affordable and easier to use for common people that had no Amiga knowledge. In fact, the DraCo was the development box used to program the software for what would be called the Casablanca, now known as the Casablanca Classic.
The first thing they did in this new design called "Casablanca", was to drop Amiga compatibility, whilst retaining and heavily modifying AmigaOS to suit their new standalone NLE hardware. The Amiga workbench was now, never again available, you were directly taken to the video editing suite (a deeply enhanced and modifyed Movieshop) which was called System Software.
The filesystem was changed for a custom developed one, to ensure users wont pry, accidentally harm or pirate software. In fact, a couple of hardware and software protection schemes were devised to discourage piracy, such as unique id hardware number, and floppy hardware id track that checked floppies to prevent the interchange between systems.
A 2x20 char LCD was placed on the front of the Casablanca to display status messages. This LCD was driven by the parallel port lines, whilst a real parallel port was never implemented.
A FireWire connector was mounted but required the optional DV module to become active, which was very similar to the one that was available for the DraCo.
Zorro II and DraCo Direct slots were absent in this new design. Also, the maximum system memory was reduced to 32MB available in only 2 sockets (the DraCo had 4 sockets that could together hold a total of 128MB).
The Altais graphics card was removed completely, making place for a DraCo Motion integrated framebuffer solution that pushed its frames thru the video outputs.
Furthermore, MacroSystem decided to change the main processor they were using, for a low cost version of either the 68040 or 68060 which offered the same performance, but with less features (no MMU and no FPU).
In the end, the "Cassie" as it was affectionaly adressed by its users, was a top seller for MacroSystem. They sold more than 45,000 units and the company grew exponentially.
Summary of changes between the DraCo and the Casablanca:
The first thing they did in this new design called "Casablanca", was to drop Amiga compatibility, whilst retaining and heavily modifying AmigaOS to suit their new standalone NLE hardware. The Amiga workbench was now, never again available, you were directly taken to the video editing suite (a deeply enhanced and modifyed Movieshop) which was called System Software.
The filesystem was changed for a custom developed one, to ensure users wont pry, accidentally harm or pirate software. In fact, a couple of hardware and software protection schemes were devised to discourage piracy, such as unique id hardware number, and floppy hardware id track that checked floppies to prevent the interchange between systems.
A 2x20 char LCD was placed on the front of the Casablanca to display status messages. This LCD was driven by the parallel port lines, whilst a real parallel port was never implemented.
A FireWire connector was mounted but required the optional DV module to become active, which was very similar to the one that was available for the DraCo.
Zorro II and DraCo Direct slots were absent in this new design. Also, the maximum system memory was reduced to 32MB available in only 2 sockets (the DraCo had 4 sockets that could together hold a total of 128MB).
The Altais graphics card was removed completely, making place for a DraCo Motion integrated framebuffer solution that pushed its frames thru the video outputs.
Furthermore, MacroSystem decided to change the main processor they were using, for a low cost version of either the 68040 or 68060 which offered the same performance, but with less features (no MMU and no FPU).
In the end, the "Cassie" as it was affectionaly adressed by its users, was a top seller for MacroSystem. They sold more than 45,000 units and the company grew exponentially.
Summary of changes between the DraCo and the Casablanca:
| Item | DraCoVision | Casablanca |
| Numebr of PCB boards | 4 | 2 |
| Casework | Yeong Yang cube server | Low profile rack (VCR style) |
| Power Supply | AT 230 watts | built-in low wattage without case |
| CPU | 68060RC50 | 68LC060 or 68LC040V |
| Simm sockets | 4 | 2 |
| Max RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| CIA´s sockets | 2 | None |
| Draco Motion CVBS output | Yes | None |
| Graphics card | Yes, Altais | None, integrated into Draco Motion´s video output |
| Hardware floppy copy protection | None | Yes |
| Zorro II Amiga compatible slots | 5 | None |
| DraCo Direct slots | 4 | None |
| Front mini LCD (2x20 characters) | None | Yes (parallel port driven) |
| Status leds in front panel | Yes, 8 leds | None |
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