{"id":379,"date":"2023-09-11T20:13:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T20:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/?page_id=379"},"modified":"2025-09-13T20:42:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:42:43","slug":"tf536-info-and-installation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/tf536-info-and-installation\/","title":{"rendered":"TF536 Info and Installation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You can buy the TF536 on Amibay<\/a> or RetroKit Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TF536 Info and Installation<\/h1>\n

Description <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The TF536 is a 68030 accelerator for the Amiga 500\/2000 running at 50 MHz, with 64MB Fast RAM and an IDE controller.<\/p>\n

A500 installation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Open your Amiga 500\/Amiga 500+, remove the top shield (if present), then gently remove the 68000 CPU using a flathead screwdriver, by prying on both sides little by little. The empty socket will look like this:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0287.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Make sure to precisely align the A500 relocator pins with the empty 68000 socket and push the relocator in. WARNING: misaligning or breaking any pins can damage the card or the computer. Please refer to the picture below that illustrates what the card looks like once installed:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Operation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to be able to boot from a CF card, you need to install an appropriate Kickstart 3.1 ROM chip. These can be purchased from various official Amiga resellers.<\/p>\n

The A500 was originally shipped with Kickstart ROM version 1.2 or 1.3. If you attempt to boot the computer without upgrading the ROM chip first, the IDE interface won’t be recognized at all. Also, under Kickstart 1.3, the onboard FAST RAM won’t be recognized either and the card will only run at 7MHz.<\/p>\n

The A500+ was originally shipped with the Kickstart ROM 2.0 (37.175). This version also won’t recognize the IDE interface.<\/p>\n

A500 motherboard versions older than rev6 (such as rev5 and older) require additional modifications before the ROM chip can be upgraded. Although the card will work on Amiga 2000, not all ZII expansions cards will work properly in conjunction with the TF536; For example, the SCSI cards that try to DMA into Z3 Fast Ram won’t work properly. The card won’t work on the Amiga 1000 without additional modifications (the original boot ROM code is not compatible with the 68030 CPU).<\/p>\n

Compatible CF cards<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the TF536 IDE interface should recognize any CF card connected, some will perform very slowly. If your card performs very slowly, you should try a different type, for example the 8GB Blue and White card from ebay normally performs very well.<\/p>\n

It is also important to remember to install the MMU.library v46 package from Aminet and enable MuFastRom. This will significantly speed up the entire system, and specifically the IDE port transfers, since the ROM will be relocated to Fast 32-bit ram instead of being accessed from slow 16-bit ROMs.<\/p>\n

Compatible CF adapters<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please always chose the V.H2 44-pin adapter. Avoid V.Bx series of adapters since they are not compatible.<\/p>\n

CF card image<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can download a preconfigured CF card image from here<\/a>, that is already preset to achieve maxium performance out of the TF536. You can decompress it, then write it onto an 8GB CF card using Win32DiskImager. Please note that this image requires Kickstart 3.1 to operate properly. It is normal that some WHDLoad games won’t work, depending on your system configuration. For example, A1200 games run only on AGA chipset and won’t run on A500. Other games require 1 or 2MB Chip RAM memory and will not work on a stock A500\/2000 configuration (512K Chip RAM) and may require additional hardware modifications to the machine, such as an addition of extra chip ram.<\/p>\n

Using a 512K Rom chip on rev5 A500 and older
\n<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The A500 rev5 has an incorrectly wired ROM socket, so using 512K EPROMs and Mask ROMs (necessary for kickstarts 2.0 and greater) without modifications is not possible.<\/p>\n

However, this modification is very simple to do. Please refer to the following pictures that show the top anDthe bottom of the motherboard with the modification in place:<\/p>\n

On the top of the motherboard:<\/p>\n

Lift the EPROM pin 31 (middle of the socket in the picture) out of the socket and solder a wire to pin 21 (at the leftmost edge of the socket in the picture. Do not lift pin 21):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the bottom of the motherboard:<\/p>\n

Solder a wire between pins 1 and 31 of the ROM socket. Note that you can also do this on the top part but it seems easier to do on the bottom:<\/p>\n

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The interesting case of Walker (Psygnosis game) crashing on TF536<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

If you try to run Walker, either WHDload or floppy versions on the TF534\/TF536, after a short while, you will encounter the following crash error:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What is happening?<\/p>\n

Well, it turns out the Walker game has an interesting bug. Whenever INT6 is triggered, this causes the game to crash as the game does not know how to handle this interrupt.<\/p>\n

The 534\/536 pokes IPL1\/IPL2 lines as part of the logic that makes it possible not to use an external INT2 wire (like was the case for the TF530). This normally does not cause any issues except with this specific game, however in this case, whenever INT6 happens, the game crashes.<\/p>\n

Because this cannot be fixed as part of the firmware, the game would need to be patched to deal with INT6. A WHDLoad bug has been reported, which you can follow here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Usage with an Amiga 2000 and a CPU Slot adapter<\/b><\/u><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

– Open your Amiga 2000, remove the drive cage, then gently remove the 68000 CPU using a flathead screwdriver, by prying on both sides little by little.<\/p>\n

– Plug the TF536 with CPU Slot adapter in the CPU slot.<\/p>\n

WARNING<\/span>!<\/b> Check the orientation carefully. On the back of the CPU Slot adapter, you will notice the text \u201cBACK OF A2000 —->.\u201d Make sure that the arrow is pointing toward the back of the A2000 motherboard. If the card is plugged in reverse, this will damage both your TF536 and the A2000 motherboard.<\/p>\n

Please refer to the pics of the board plugged into the A2000 EATX motherboard. The procedure is identical on regular A2000s:<\/p>\n

 \"\"<\/p>\n

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Adding a CD-ROM together with a CF card<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

To add a CD-ROM as a slave device, first you need to buy a 44 to 40 pin adapter such as this one (available for example on Amazon US<\/a> and Amazon Canada<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(If the first option does not work for you, or if you prefer a different solution, you can also use this cable<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Next, you will need a standard PC 40-pin flat cable with 3 connectors. (Do not connect anything to the MOLEX power connector.)<\/p>\n

You will also need a 40-pin CF card adapter to be configured as MASTER and a CD-ROM drive to be configured as SLAVE.<\/p>\n

The 40-pin CF connector will have to be powered through its own floppy-style power connector.<\/p>\n

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You can buy the TF536 on Amibay or RetroKit Australia. TF536 Info and Installation Description  The TF536 is a 68030 accelerator for the Amiga 500\/2000 running at 50 MHz, with 64MB Fast RAM and an IDE controller. A500 installation Open your Amiga 500\/Amiga 500+, remove the top shield (if present), then gently remove the 68000 CPU using a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template\/page\/fullwidth.php","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-379","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alen.dreamhosters.com\/terriblefire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}