Two new µ-A1's models on the way

[Waccoon]

µ-A1-I (for industrial).

I don't see the logic, here.  Most PPC solutions are built-to-order for high volume, and if you're low-volume, you'll want to use less efficient off-the-shelf components to increase your flexibility.  If IBM was making these boards, I could understand, but nobody is going to buy them from Eyetech unless they have no business sense whatsoever.  This isn't a knock on PPC, but let's face it, nobody is going to buy 50 PPC boards at $600 each for a kiosk when they can get a prebuilt system from IBM will a full replacement service
guarentee.  Most kiosk machines I've seen use Celeron-powered IBM desktops because they need the corporate support, not efficient hardware.

These mobos make sense for PPC developers who want a full desktop to write software for their embedded devices, but then they'd just get the "commercial' version.  Who is going to buy one of these "industrial" models?

Competitively priced? Compared to what?

I don't think price has anything to do with it.  Supply alone is a reason to be wary.  If Eyetech wants to sell AmigaOne boards, that's great, but if they're trying to diversify their product line to extend outside the Amiga community, I doubt they'll find any real business, which is quite ironic.

1 PCI slot...

I still don't understand why people WANT motherboards with only one expansion slot.  They must really like cheezy graphics and CPU-hungry on-board components.  I'd like to know how much CPU time the hard drive controller and audio system use on the AmigaOne boards.

Yes, you can build a pizza box, but you still can't make a laptop.  Besides, with the rise of flat-panel displays, I'm surprised more companies don't make sideways computers that mount behind the monitor.  You can still get a machine with PCI slots if you do that.

CPU Cooler - £10.00

Why does everyone insist on using tiny HSFs for the CPU?  I thought the PPC was supposed to be so cool.  A plain, passive heatsink for $2 should do fine for such a chip.

One A1 reseller equiped their boards with Thermaltake Orb coolers.  Despite their small size, they make a LOT of noise -- I know because I used them for a while.  I don't recommend them at all.

...and it is cpu fan failure which is one of the major causes of unreliability in computer systems.

I've never had a CPU fan die on me.  I've seen other peoples' computers with dead fans, but that's because they're clogged with dust and were kept on the floor.  My uncle's computer suffered from the fan detaching from the heatsink completely because the fan screws were too tight and the plastic broke.  Meanwhile, AmigaOne resellers are attaching their overkill copper fans with thermal tape.  Just try an tell me the fan won't fall off in a year.

The biggest killers are dust, the lack of air filters, add the complete lack of experience with building and attaching themal solutions.  I've been building computers for years and I could make a great passive cooler for Eyetech.  I don't like what I'm seeing from the Amiga dealers at all.

[Waccoon]

The same as they use on every other system you can buy from any other OEM these days; barely any, in practice.

Assuming you do streaming only.  When you add on mixing, 3D effects, filtering... then your CPU cycles will start to disappear real fast.  Piping information is easy.  I'ts procesing that's hard.

That's what many people don't realize about external USB2.0 hard drives.  I was going to get one myself to replace my internal backup hard drive, until I realized that many external drives can suck between 25% to 50% CPU utilization.  Ouch.

You can't? [regarding laptop]

Well, given the determination and fanaticism of the Amgia community, I suppose someone will try.  But, it still won't be practical.  :-)

I wonder how long an AmigaOne would last on batteries...

However, ITX is still the favored form factor for this, because most people looking for 'cute' PC-in-monitor designs don't give a crap about expansion.

Those mini-PC designs annoy me.  Why make a mini tower a foot tall and put it beside the monitor when you can put it behind?

But there's no retaining mechanism for something that heavy,* so welcome to catch-22.)

That's the limiting factor with the "module" design.  OK, you got your shiny new G4 or G5 in your AmigaOne.  How do you cool the beast with something that won't crack the chip or fall off?

It doesn't help that the PPC is used in embedded applications where custom heatsinks are used.  IBM isn't capping their cores except on the low-end G3, which doesn't really need a heatsink, anyway.

uh last I checked windows XP cost ~ $100 for the consumer version and ~$200 for the pro version. So the price of OS4.0 is really not out of line

I agree.  Still, they'd probably make more money if they didn't build up for a huge release every five years.  There should have been an OS 3.95 or whatever (stupid version numbers).

My take is that the "industrial" AmigaOne won't run OS4 -- if will run Linux.  What's the point in spending that much money for a Linux box when you can build one yourself, and any Amiga user will buy the commercial board.

Again, I don't see the point of making the board.  Seems to me Eyetech is suffering from supply before demand.  Who is their customer?  Do their supposed customers really want a board built like this?

[Waccoon]

Indeed, and we were promised some sort of miracle API for that 5 years ago... but who expects it to be ready?

The only sound API I've seen from Amiga so far is the "dancing potato" MOD player.  :-)

This could depend on your USB host controller. Which does mean I'll have to go back and look at what those 50% utilization reviews tested with.

Yeah.  I was looking into backup software recently and thought about getting an external hard drive.  In the review I read, all the external drives sucked a lot of cycles, though they did vary quite a bit.  I'll see if I can find the link again, as I read it a few weeks ago.

Note:  The drives were tested with a HD benchmark program.  It did not involve running actual backup software, which usually eats up a lot of CPU time because of the use of compression.

There are still through-holes for the standard GPU cooler spring-clip mount, right?

Are there?  I thought the only holes were for the module mounts.

How exactly do you cap a microBGA or whatever these things are?

The same way they do it with northbridge chips -- with plastic.  My point is not to disipate heat, it's to protect the chip from damage.  I used to mount a 300 gram copper cooler on an AMD Thouroughbred B processor, and that was a real nail-biter, even with a shim.  I really, really don't like exposed cores.  AMD was insane for using the flip-chip design with their Athlons.

[Waccoon]

USB uses a client/server protocol (server is your CPU  ) while Firewire uses a peer to peer protocol. One puts the load on your CPU while the other shares the load.

It makes that much difference?

I'll never understand why USB was built to be a server/client system.  Almost all high-speed USB devices I've used and my customers have used (such as printers and digital cameras), have enormous problems running on a hub and will only work if plugged into a USB root.  Believe me, I sell cameras, card readers, and other USB equipment, and deal with the USB hub problem ALL THE TIME.

It's such a widespread problem with so many different hubs, I can't help but blame the USB standard.

They fix that issue on the K8 generation i.e. AMD usually follow Intel in that particular area.

That's why I said "was".  I ended up getting a P4 before the FX came out, though, and I'm quite happy with it.