Any need for a MiniMig 3.0?

[Illuwatar]

After reading about the success with the FPGAArcade project and the development of NatAmi, I start thinking of maybe quit the line of MiniMig designs. The 2.0 is completed, fully tested and with a few happy owners (I have basically sold out all units I had, more could be ordered if there are enough interest). The FPGAArcade is the biggest competitor to the MiniMig and if he can bring down the end customer price below €250 for a working board, then I can't compete price-wise even with the 2.0 MiniMig. In my plan, there is an improved 2.0 that integrates the Yaqube ARM-controller and more SRAM, but is there any idea to continue with it?

[persia]

Can NatAmi deliver what they've promised for the price they've promised?  We'll just have to wait and see.  The Amiga world is build upon the solid foundation of broken promises...

[billt]

If there's more ideas, why stop? What about FPGA with more IOs to give a PCI slot? CPU accelerator slot? Memory SODIMM slot? Zorro slot? Video slot (for Toaster)? I'm sure there's a bunch of things you or anyone could add.

[HammerD]

I think there is much interest in an updated classic amiga design that is very fast.  My A4000T/060 feels sluggish with all the latest patches and upates (like AFA_OS, etc), hard drive speed is about 9MB/sec only on A4091 scsi.  

I would be keenly interested in the Natami or similar faster "classic" machine, running an OS 3.9 BB2 or BB3 configuration.

If that means MiniMig 3.0 then I'm all for it.  I really liked your Minimig board design!! It would be cool if  you could modify that for fast gfx, hard disk, and cpu!

[mikej]

Illuwater,

Up to you, there is still a lot of work to do on my board and you are more than welcome to help out if you wish.

There are over 100 IO pins on the expansion connector, so PCI or even a complete 680xx daughter board is possible, along with network and USB.

I'm in Stockholm as well, PM me if you fancy a pint.

All the developer boards have gone/been allocated but if you want to work on one we can sort something out.

Best,
Mike.

[AJCopland]

I think, and I say this as someone helping out with NatAmi, that there's plenty of room for a MiniMig 3.0 and that it'd be a worthwhile addition to the Amiga family :-)

Seriously NatAmi is a WIP and there's always the chance something might hold us up/delay launch.

The FPGAArcade board is something that I want myself.

How about doing some of the other possibilities such as:
1. Allowing the expansion board connector for existing machines upgrades.
2. Integrate Yaqube's ARM controller.
3. Switch to using SD-RAM for main mem, even just 16MB would be ace!
4. Add a second/Larger-FPGA to use the softcore TG68.
5. Add a real zorro slot or two to make an A2000 replacement.

The list is endless and they're all good ideas. Our original Amiga's are getting old but people still love and own them.

FPGAArcade, NatAmi and MiniMig aren't competitors I think we're all just people trying to make slightly different Amiga's. The more options that we have and the more diverse the options that we have the better for building up solid communities that can share ideas and expertise.

Also what about your Mini-MiniMig? That looked really cool. The goal doesn't have to be BIGGER == BETTER, its just BETTER depending on what you want the machine to be.

Andy

[mikej]

While I agree with Andy, I would rather we all pulled in the same direction. I'm not suggesting my board is by any means perfect, and if I could have I would have bought one - it's much easier.

The risk is if we get lots of different platforms it will slow down development. That's one reason I'm working with  other people and why I've used the same ARM controller as Yaqube.

/Mike

[AJCopland]

@MikeJ
I suppose that's also a possibility, I rather hope that having more options would cover more of the amiga community and thus get more people involved. We could then all share from that larger pool of people.

As you say though, it might must end up splitting the same small group of people in multiple directions. We'll have to see. I'm all for sharing of our designs/ideas/code/goals but not if it means constraining people into one project or another.

Andy

[freqmax]

@Illuwatar,
NatAmi etc.. No hardware out, and nothing on licenses asfair. Fpgaarcade is nice and it's actually on its way out. But you could be the first to combine Minimig with an ZorroII slot (use the resistor + protection diode trick and check slewrate). Use SDRAM instead of SRAM = Plenty of more RAM for the same money x16 or such. Or make your board dual use. Standalone & daughter card. Minimig with yaqube ARM.
Portable version with TFT (rip screen & keyboard from a ultramobile). Include Ethernet onboard etc.

I think however it's wise to share the same hardware API from the HDL code. However pins may differ (.ucf). SPI commands should be as similar as possible etc.. However an 4-bit SD-card bus and mode might improve performance seriously.

AJCopland, 16 MB is max addressable for 68000 24-bit anyway

One little crazy idea.. How about hooking up an board with JTAG, "Keyboard/Mouse", video grabber. And let ppl develop remotely via internet to increase the number of possible developers? I know there's some catches. But it should help.

[persia]

Something like this:

would be nice...

[freqmax]

Any surplus source of iPads with broken motherboard..?

[mikej]

I'm waiting for something 4.3" across with 800x480 dots and touch sensor to arrive in the post.

[Sparky]

If you'd like my wishlist it would be a Minimig that was a similar form factor to the A1200 motherboard, with the SD slot lined with the PCMCIA slot, spare IO pins of the FPGA out to the expansion trapdoor and all the audio, video ports + usb out to the rear of the A1200 case.
Add to the design an A1200 keyboard to PS/2 usb converter like what the one from Individual Computers produce.
Though floppy drive might be an issue ... replace it with just a standard 1.44Mb floppy and no Amiga disk support ?

Means people could gut their old A1200 and slot in something more modern.

Of course wishes are easier to complete than reality :-)

[xyzzy]

Gutting old A1200s? Sacrilege!  :-o  :-P

How about an FPGA softcore 680x0 trapdoor accelerator combo card instead?

with... SDRAM, USB, Ethernet, UDMA IDE, Radeon gfx etc... ?

[Sparky]

xyzzy wrote:
Gutting old A1200s? Sacrilege!  :-o  :-P

How about an FPGA softcore 680x0 trapdoor accelerator combo card instead?

with... SDRAM, USB, Ethernet, UDMA IDE, Radeon gfx etc... ?

Half of them are dead or towered anyway .. making an A1200 shaped motherboard means no having to design a case :-)

In your wish list your forgot to add "Cell CPU core", Transputer and TARDIS functionality .. come on got to make work the guy for his money you know! ;-)

Mark