UltimatePPC and everything else

[psxphill]

And as the PowerPC chip is so much faster at emulating an 68000 than any 68000 can be, there is no point in keeping the 68040 running when you're running a PowerPC OS (eg. Linux, etc.) on your classic Amiga. In this mode it would run in a similar fashion as the Cyberstorm cards (but faster) and just do any 68000 stuff using JIT.

What is the point of the 040 then? Why not include a JIT in rom?
 
Also an A2000 CPU slot version would make me very happy.

[psxphill]

But is that really a limitation? The 68040 can access 4GB of physical memory; if the fastram is on the accelerator board then the limitations of the CPU slot is irrelevant. All access to chipram and chipset/peripherals will be routed through the CPU slot to the addressable memory space.

Yeah, the limit on ram is going to be how much free address space you can get. You wouldn't be able to put ram in the first 16mb, but zorro 3 cards would also cause you to lose more ram.

[psxphill]

It is if you wish to DMA to the memory via the system bus. If you're happy with using a temporary DMA buffer and copying when needed then adding extra memory is no problem.

I'm not convinced there is a limit, the accelerator slot must have a 32bit bus. There are however limitations in kickstart for memory sizing, but you don't need to use that.

[psxphill]

Unless it multiplexes address and data, 32 data lines does not necessarily imply 32 address lines...

I haven't been able to find pinouts via google of the slot, but I don't believe they are multiplexed. There are 200 pins, plenty to allow for 32 data & 32 address lines.
 
If the CPU slot only has enough address lines for 256mb then it wouldn't be able to access 256mb ram plus chipset and chipram & ZorRAM is 256mb. So I don't think any 256mb limit is due to hardware.
 
Using an embedded powerpc that is cut down in many ways, not just fpu, is disappointing.

[psxphill]

I was talking about existing binaries of which you don't have source code for (for whatever reason) and thus cannot recompile.

You could solve that with dynamic recompiling, but then using a real PPC is not a requirement then. It could use either ARM or Intel depending on cost, heat, performance etc.
 
The e500mc (32bit+compatible fpu) or e5500 (64bit+double speed compatible fpu) may have been a better choice.
 
A QorIQ P5020 would be real ultimate.

[psxphill]

A vast number of Amiga users never had a PPC anyway, thus have no investment in compatibility. They all have an investment in 68k.

Right now the only reason the phase 5 boards are desirable is that there is software that you cannot run using any other way. WinUAE with PPC support would make a huge dent on the market. An Amiga PPC board that allows you to run existing ppc software ( not necessarily using existing powerup/warpup binaries ) would destroy it.
 
Anything else is just another new amiga plan which nobody has any investment in & it might as well be one of the new quad core arm chips or an atom.

[psxphill]

But, what would be destroyed here? A Phase5 board? So what, amazing there is a new replacement

The ultimatePPC is not a replacement for a phase 5 board & neither is any of the "new Amigas". If you want an AGA machine with a PPC board that will run all software, then you have no choice put to pay the inflated price of phase 5 boards.
 
If the ultimate ppc had a CPU with the full FPU then the price of Phase 5 boards would drop. I just can't see this becoming the must have accessory.
 

So in theory you could use a soft 68K on x86 as well. Provided it was cheap because of the CPU. With that speed endianness becomes a low issue.

I agree, as the PPC they chose isn't compatible with alot of existing PPC software and will have to emulate the older processors to be able to run all software then using an X86 would make a lot of sense to run 68k & PPC software. If you could make it act like a bridgeboard as well then that would be even better.
 
There is no reason why an Amiga needs to have a real 68k at all. When you plug in an accelerator board it disables the onboard processor, on the german a2000 you had to remove the onboard processor. You'll need software to boot the machine up, which would either be an emulator that runs Kickstart or it could be something new that just configured hardware and then booted from hard disk. A boot menu could then allow you to pick between running kickstart under emulation or booting linux or windows.

[psxphill]

your comment that I dont need access to the kernel to write a driver, is exactly my issue - being told what I can and can't do. I won't want to buy into software to run as my hobby machine, that is locked down to a single piece of hardware, doesnt give me the freedom to work on parts that I want. Maybe I want to work on the core os. Or maybe I don't but I would like the ability to be there. right now the "morphos" team have the power to pull the plug on the os, or refuse to replacea keyfile if hardware was to die. No thanks.

Buy an UltimatePPC and get AROS running on it then.

[psxphill]

that sounds like an expensive way to run aros.
 
you know there is a difference between me having the freedom to do something, and you telling me to do something right ?

You either want to do something or you don't. If you're just in love with the idea that you should be able to do whatever you want but you're not going to contribute anything back then tough, nobody cares.
 
AROS on UltimatePPC is what you need to achieve your objectives, you just need to get over the idea that MorphOS or AOS4 should be open source.