X-Pert Computer Services / Prodev Merlin

Manufacturer X-Pert Computer Services / Prodev, Germany	Date 1993	Amiga A2000 A3000, A4000	- -	Interface Zorro II Zorro III	Autoconfig ID 2117 / 3,4,201

Manufacturer

Date

1993

Amiga

A2000
A3000, A4000

-
-

Interface

Zorro II
Zorro III

Autoconfig ID

2117 / 3,4,201

RTG Graphics Card

although the Merlin was advertised to support 8 or 16 MB, that would be possible with ET4000W32i or ET4000W32p chips only
only 2 MB is possible in Zorro II mode

the clock speed of the blitter and memory can be selected with jumpers between 50-65 MHz (55 MHz is the default setting)

Notes

optional video module X-Calibur activates the S-VHS and Composite output connectors and is used to digitize video inputs
a genlock module was developed but never sold
the design of Merlin was not finished when the card went into production, leading to many problems

compatibility problems with other Zorro cards
incompatibility with 060 processors
incompatibility with all GVP processor cards
reset problems
the small registers of the ET4000 chip led to problems with 24 bit screens larger than 680×576 (8 and 16 bit screens have no problems)
EMI problems due to long traces between the ET4000 chip, the RAMDAC and the VGA output resulted in jittery display with higher clock rates
buggy Zorro interface with data integrity problems

X-Pert and ProDev both offered fixes but only ProDev's methods could cure most problems
Riedel Elektronik GmbH (formerly Ingenieurbüro Riedel) still offers fixing problematic Merlin cards
HD15 VGA connector
S-VHS, RGB, F-BAS output connectors
automatic monitor switch and video pass through
every Amiga graphics function is supported except the Copper
if more than one screen is opened the next one can be seen through a window on the foremost screen
Picasso96, EGS and ProBench drivers
supported by NetBSD and OpenBSD