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Author Topic: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence  (Read 12653 times)

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Offline clusterukTopic starter

The journey that started 18 months ago to create a next generation Amiga on commodity hardware has now reached its first major milestone by becoming a completely driver native Aros system powered by the energy efficient Intel Atom processor. This has been achieved with the supply of hardware and in some cases financial rewards. The plan with the following steps has been to create a base reference platform for Aros and the Amiga community to build on and support.

Step 1: Network driver development by Nick “Kalamatee” Andrews, free to all.
Step 2: HDAudio by Davy Wentzler owned by Cluster UK ltd, free to end users.
Step 3: Catweasel driver development for Aros by Ian Gledhill, free to all.
Step 4: Intel GMA device developed by Michal Schulz and again free to all.

This work would not have been possible without the amazing team of developers working on Aros whose names are long and well respected but room does not allow all their names to appear. Please visit Aros.org for more details. Also a notable mention must go to Paolo Besser and the IcAros distribution that is supplied with all iMica systems.
In between this work other developments have been supported, more news on these later. However, we have also been experimenting with hardware configurations for the best type of iMica system, but it has become clear that one thing was important to all; it must be SILENT.

So now we announce the final iMica Atom system that we believe will achieve all the needs of the Amiga and Aros fan using low cost commodity hardware in a small and SILENT package.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXhCYdc3aM

This unit is not only power efficient and low cost, but can also be mounted behind the monitor to create a space efficient working area and no wires in front of the monitor when using a wireless keyboard and mouse. However, with its great looks and slim design it is doubtful you will want to hide it away.
This is not the end, this is just Stage 1.

Stage 2, optional case upgrade to hold, PCI Catweasel MK4, Slim DVD and Amiga/Mac/PC compatible floppy disk drive unit. This will be available to all iMica Atom customers.

Stage 3, Well we will tell you about that when we have something to show, but it will make the investment in the iMica Atom system a good investment, and might just inspire old Amiga users to get really excited about next generation Amiga’s including those with other Amiga OS flavours.

My thanks to all of the Aros and Amiga developers who have supported me over the last 18 months.

Stephen Jones
MD Cluster UK Software Ltd
Amiga 1000/3000, iMica Silent and NVidia Aros computer.
http://www.imica.net
Lets enjoy the Amigas future, THIS year is 25th Anniversary lets make it special.
http://www.amiga25.org
 

Offline Matt_H

Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2010, 01:56:07 PM »
Interesting. How long before this is integrated into the nightly build system, or is it already? My Eee901 is choking on Windows' piggyness - maybe I'll switch it over to AROS.
 

Offline dreamcast270mhz

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2010, 02:50:44 PM »
Sorry, I just can't get excited about a crappy Intel machine being passed off as Amiga.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2010, 10:44:35 PM by Argo »
My machines:
PowerMac G4 MDD 1.5ghz 1.25GB 10.5.8 & MOS 2.7
Mac Mini C2D 10.6.8 2GHz 3GB 250GB HDD
MacBook Retina 16GB 256GB SSD 10.8
iPad 2
Underground Gamer invites (a classic game site) PM

Need a part for a PC or Mac? PM me, I\'ll let you know if I come across it.

OS X trumps Windows on every level.

MorphOS, OS4 and Classic Amiga systems are the only ones who are real \'Amigas\', not that joke AROS or Amiga Forever.
 

Offline Crom00

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2010, 02:55:25 PM »
Guys I have a Lenovo S-10 E with Mac Os Snow Lepoard, Windows 7, and AROS. it rocks.

2.5 gigs of ram
!.6 atom cpu
320 gb hd
tocuhscreen mod
bluetooth

When someone makes a "actual Amiga" of equal or greater value for dollar... I'll be in there like swimwear. Until then I'm enojying my work commute and vlauable free time in style.
 

Offline klx300r

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2010, 03:24:00 PM »
Great news again and awesome video Steve!:) imagine if the Aros and AmigaOS camps were one!...if only that were part of the MAP
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Offline ChaosLord

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2010, 03:49:39 PM »
How is the performance of an Atom compared to 1 core of a Core2duo?
Wanna try a wonderfull strategy game with lots of handdrawn anims,
Magic Spells and Monsters, Incredible playability and lastability,
English speech, etc. Total Chaos AGA
 

Offline EDanaII

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2010, 03:50:56 PM »
Awesome, Steve. Looks like I've got some drivers to download coming my way and you've got some donations coming your way from me. There may be hope for AROS yet. ;)
Ed.
 

Offline Crom00

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2010, 03:58:22 PM »
Performance on a atom is a bit slower. Chugs a bit more if you're doing imageFX or prodctivity stuff but I use it for games. I use this as a ebook, movie, emulation station web browsing thingy.
 

Offline clusterukTopic starter

Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2010, 05:01:02 PM »
Thanks for nice comments

Atom has great uses but this is meant to be a silent machine with reasonable power so it cannot compete with a Core 2 Duo except for the fact that it is SILENT :-)

I have both fast and quiet.

As for Intel is evil, well good enough for 99% of the computing world and leaves me beer money.
Amiga 1000/3000, iMica Silent and NVidia Aros computer.
http://www.imica.net
Lets enjoy the Amigas future, THIS year is 25th Anniversary lets make it special.
http://www.amiga25.org
 

Offline EDanaII

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2010, 05:15:54 PM »
Actually, because of Crom00's post that the iMica drivers for sound are compatible with the drivers on his Lenovo, I got to thinking about my Lenovo SL-510. So, I just downloaded it and gave it a try. So far, works fine.

It also appears that the Intel GMA drivers will also be compatible with my Lenovo, so I can't wait to get my hands on those, as it will get me out of this stretched 1024x768 display and into a 1366x768 one.

You DEFINITELY got donations coming your way, Steve. :)

This also means that I now have both an iMica like Atom system as well as a Core2Duo one. Very nice. I'm actually getting excited for AROS. (And it's unusual for me to get excited by anything.) Excellent job, everyone!
Ed.
 

Offline EDanaII

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2010, 05:23:29 PM »
Oh, and while I'm thinking about it.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2010, 10:44:04 PM by Argo »
Ed.
 

Offline the_leander

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #11 on: May 22, 2010, 05:45:06 PM »
Quote from: ChaosLord;560229
How is the performance of an Atom compared to 1 core of a Core2duo?


An Atom is roughly clock for clock about as fast as a Pentium 3, so it's a little slower than a Pentium M at the same clock which is itself a little slower than a Core Solo, CoreDuo is two Core Solos and is slower than C2D by a reasonable margin (not to mention quite a bit hotter).

You're realisitically looking at around at less than a quarter of the speed of a C2D with an Atom. With the newer i3,i5 and i7 gear that performance gap is only going to increase.
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Offline Louis Dias

Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #12 on: May 22, 2010, 07:20:54 PM »
Quote from: the_leander;560254
An Atom is roughly clock for clock about as fast as a Pentium 3, so it's a little slower than a Pentium M at the same clock which is itself a little slower than a Core Solo, CoreDuo is two Core Solos and is slower than C2D by a reasonable margin (not to mention quite a bit hotter).

You're realisitically looking at around at less than a quarter of the speed of a C2D with an Atom. With the newer i3,i5 and i7 gear that performance gap is only going to increase.


People seem to be missing the point.  This 1.6 GHZ Atom-base Amiga-like unit costs $300USD.  What you should be comparing it to is a SAM.  It probably outperforms SAM and is 1/3 the cost too boot and is SILENT and has a nice case and mounts behind a monitor.

AresOne is the high-end machine.  This is Imica.

Congrats to Stephen!  Now if only SSD prices would drop. ;-)
 

Offline TheBilgeRat

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #13 on: May 22, 2010, 08:25:43 PM »
It also positions itself for thin client roles and POS machines as well, where a bazillion cores aren't necessary (i.e. into linux embedded territory).  Interesting times!
 

Offline the_leander

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Re: IMICA Atom becomes Aros fully native and celebrates in Silence
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2010, 09:38:02 PM »
Quote from: lou_dias;560272
People seem to be missing the point.


No I'm well aware of the point thanks, I was simply asking a direct question with a (very rough) comparison between different processors.

Quote from: lou_dias;560272
This 1.6 GHZ Atom-base Amiga-like unit costs $300USD.  What you should be comparing it to is a SAM.  It probably outperforms SAM and is 1/3 the cost too boot and is SILENT and has a nice case and mounts behind a monitor.


I would imagine even with a GMA500 the graphics chip is far more capable as well, oh and it'll have working USB...

Does AROS have an integrated UAE type emulation layer like MorphOS or Amithlon?

Quote from: lou_dias;560272

Congrats to Stephen!  Now if only SSD prices would drop. ;-)


Hear hear.
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