Natami started and stopped again

[IanP]

Natami did have a phased approach to development. The first prototype "Natami 30" was an add on for a modified C-One, their was a Zorro graphics card for the 3D core, Natami LX prototype, Natami MX prototype and two 68060 expansion boards.

Not enhancing the graphics to some degree would have been crazy when the idea of Natami was to provide a practical system for use as a main computer in the modern world (not outperforming the latest PCs just capable of doing the basics). There were some crazy performance claims being made by an individual  member of the team for the soft core 68K processor and graphics, apparently without consultation with hardware designer Thomas Hirsch and this I believe led  to the break-up of the team. With nothing more heard of the hardware in the intervening years I can only assume Thomas lost interest in the project. It's a shame as the hardware looked very promising and a lot of money and effort must have gone into the project. The "project" by Harold Neufeldt also made some very dubious claims and without anything like the tangible evidence of it being realistic that the Natami hardware had.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What a damned shame.  I would still spend money on the Natami if it came out today.  Oh well, more "vapor" in the Amiga world, we shouldn't all act so surprised.  :angry:

[Lurch]

Quite the contrary I believe. Most wealthy people (who have generated their own wealth - not just "won" it) are wealthy because they value a $...or a million$'s. They don't just "not care where it goes"

That's very true about people who have made the money on their own, but I'm sure there are a few people who have fallen into money "won it" somehow. ;-)

"they have no interest", as you say. If only there was a wealthy potential investor who could see a modern day rebirth of the Amiga, and who is interested in doing so, and actually DOES IT. Kind of like Trevor Dickinson

This is the hard part getting them interested again, when I mention the Amiga at work I get weird looks. I also notice the Amiga is often removed from computer history. So not sure why the Amiga is getting such a bad rep.

Thing is, given there are now 85 trillion variations of the Amiga, with it's carcass spread across all kinds of interpretations, it would be extremely difficult to bring it all together to monopolise on one particular variation of it - and at the same time legally limit every other incarnation possible. Which to me would be necessary to succeed.

This is the other thing that is hard, no one path. Should I spend money on this or that, in the end I just spent it on my classic was easier. But with the FPGA arcade I'm think that might make a nice replacement for my A1200.

The Natami IS the S*&T!

I for one would abso-friggin-lutely love to see the Natami finished!

It was so close, there is hardware somewhere after viewing pictures of it. But like other projects that I've got excited about the hardware is sitting on some bench somewhere unreleased. A lot like Elbox's PPC project, pictures were shown then nothing :-/

[Amiga_Nut]

Always said if I wont lotto (11mil this weekend) I'd like to invest in something Amiga. But winning is the hard part :-/

There are some very rich people in the world, worth billions. I'm sure a couple of million would go unnoticed to them, just they have no interest.
I could do with a million for my personal life ;-)

Alternatively as illegal scumbag tactics by Microsoft and Nintendo US were used in the 80s and 90s to create their monopolies if the US courts had any bollox they would have sued them until bankrupt and given the funds to Commodore (Microsoft), Sega (Nintendo) and Atari (BOTH Microsoft and Nintendo).

As a Commodore, Atari AND Sega fanatic the world could not have turned out a single bit worse than it has for home computing and video games hardware!

[Lurch]

As a Commodore, Atari AND Sega fanatic the world could not have turned out a single bit worse than it has for home computing and video games hardware!

I must admit I miss the platform wars, or going around to a friends place and he would have something different to try/play on.

Although after awhile it was A500's everywhere ;-)

[alphadec]

Must say or admit I have not been following amiga very close but as soon as I found out about "NatAMI" I wanted to know more as I found this project extremely interesting. But I see this project have run into some problems think it is very sad that a project like this cannot solve any problems . I'm still a huge amiga fan and still is still got my amiga and if a project like natami could produce a consumer product that we could buy. I would have bought it on day one. After what I have seen of the work they have done I can say that I want this hardware I am prepared to buy it ASAP!. So please anyone into this natami project please solve your problems, If money is the big problem then do a crowd founding. I love to do my part to get this project off and into the market.

[ElPolloDiabl]

There are a couple FPGA projects in the works. Minimig 2, the FPGA Replay.
The FPGA Replay is fast with the 060 and it will be available soon.

[biggun]

There are great FPGA systems on the market.

SOCKIT for example:

* An FPGA with over 100,000 LE
* 512 KB build in 2nd Level cache
* 2 Gigabyte of fast DDR3 Memory
* Ethernet
* USB
* VGA out
* Audio out

Such board would give a perfect new AMIGA.

[alphadec]

There are great FPGA systems on the market.

SOCKIT for example:

* An FPGA with over 100,000 LE
* 512 KB build in 2nd Level cache
* 2 Gigabyte of fast DDR3 Memory
* Ethernet
* USB
* VGA out
* Audio out

Such board would give a perfect new AMIGA.

I hope natami can sort out any problems they have or release a realistic system ECS!. But will look at SOCKIT when it is availible.

[mikej]

There are great FPGA systems on the market.

SOCKIT for example:

* An FPGA with over 100,000 LE

Such board would give a perfect new AMIGA.

The problem is not the hardware - making boards is cheap nowadays. The problem is the huge amount of work required to target the IP to a specific platform.

FPGAArcade Replay boards have been around for a couple of years now with developers and it's got to a good coherent firmware/library state. Much of the same code is used to power Vic20/C64/Amiga/whatever cores on the same platform.

I designed the board to be good enough, then we have been focusing on the important stuff ever since.
/MikeJ

[biggun]

But will look at SOCKIT when it is availible.

The point is that socket _is_ available.
Its been sold hundreds of times already.

Halve a year ago the Sockit was on promotion for $99.
Now its back to its normal price of $299.

[biggun]

The problem is the huge amount of work required to target the IP to a specific platform.

I agree that targeting new stuff like the USB chip requires new logic.
And getting a driver for the new logic will take time.


But the original AMIGA stuff like the
68K CPU, the AMIGA chipset, the planes, Sprites, Blitter, Copper, even RTG chipset
is more or less just drag and drop.


The keypoint is the memory bus.
If the design uses a standard ALTERA bus like AVALON,
then compiling the desing for the SOCKIT is really only drag and drop.

Also the VGA out chips are usally very easy to address
and adapting to another chip is not rocket science..

If the design uses a non standard bus - then you need to write a little bus bridge.
This is work of days but thats it then.

I compiled the CPu for the Sockit board - this was very easy.
You only need to create the proper PLL, and can compile it already.
Its work for 20 minutes including the compile time.

[alphadec]

The point is that socket _is_ available.
Its been sold hundreds of times already.

Halve a year ago the Sockit was on promotion for $99.
Now its back to its normal price of $299.

I am convinced

http://youtu.be/Ug4_yh3Q288

[mikej]

I am convinced

http://youtu.be/Ug4_yh3Q288

oh, it's much better now

[alphadec]

oh, it's much better now

Better! ?

[biggun]

Tell me does AMIGA still have a future?
What do you think?

Does selling 100 or 500 devices give a future?

Or would it make sense to aim for something like high end AMIGA for $99?
Such a system could be sold ten thousands of times.
Would ten thousand new AMIGAs give the platform more future?

Why are developers working on FPGA stuff like this?
Are they in for making a quick dollar on this?
Or do they want to revive the platform,
Do they believe with selling 500 pieces they can revive the AMIGA?

Or would opening their sources to allow production of 10,000 units be better?

If people would free their sources would this be better for the AMIGA?
Would the people do this or would they ask for something like bountie to do this?

Lets say you have something like a AGA++ chipset and a 200 MIPS 68K CPU.
Would these FPGA source alone make the AMIGA revive -
or would you need a strong company which is able to pump in real money
to push the devices on every XMAS tree?