It has an MMU, but it is an evolved design from previous chips. This has good/bad points. Bad point is it is not backwards compatible. Good point is it is a forward-looking design supporting MMU features (such as non-executable memory) that are not in previous MMU designs. Also has other bonuses that contribute to overall system performance.
Gunnar has taken a long-term view on where the design should be going forward and I agree completely with the decisions being made. I am no fanboy but this guy does know what he is doing. Some short-term pain for sure as the tools/utilities catch up with the new MMU.
The FPU side - short-term the team has recently delivered the "femu" software that allows *any* FPU-less Amiga to run programs requiring an FPU. Pretty cool. Is it as fast as a real FPU - heck no! Does it let a lot of new programs run - yes. How much of a hit the software FPU makes on performance depends a lot on the program. Also this software is very new (version 0.10 recently released) so in theory the speed could be improved going forward.
Long-term the plan is for an FPU to be there in the core. It is just a resource/priority issue (and maybe an available LE issue). At least for now there is a short-term solution.
For some people a hardware FPU is very important. I can understand that completely. For example I think Quake ran at like 2 or 3 FPS (instead of not running at all). In that case you just need to keep waiting for the feature to be implemented... only 2 more weeks... 
Cheers!
Well, yes Greg, you are a fanboy.
And the new device has capacity to spare, so where is the f'ing fpu?
As far as 'completely agreeing' with Gunnar, see comment one.
On another posters comment about the Atari ST, you guys are aware that an Apollo core has been run on a Vampire installed in one of those, right?
It would be a waste of Gunnar's time and energy to develop a core specifically for that kind of a downgrade.
If you want a stanalone fpga AtariST, buy a MiST board (or a ColdFire based Firebee).
But then, this isn't an Atari forum, so...
Finally, more than a few of you are likely to be rubbed the wrong way by my post. If so, that's a good thing, as I feel its part of my obligation to counter the occasional really stupid comment.
Like Bloodline's slight of the PPC laptop project I'm an advocate of that has NO relationship to this project what so ever (neither is a substitute for the other, and they are in no way competing devices, so its just plain dumb to go there).
I am glad to see the Apollo core and the Vampire project evolving.
It has a great deal of potential, and I'd like to experiment with the standard Apollo core in applications outside of the Amiga.
One constraint I've run into is that the Vampire is not easily adapted to the processor socket used in an Atari MegaST.
That cpu could give the MegaST a boost above TT performance levels.
Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I'm a big 68K fans, and not necessarily limited to just Amiga (because frankly, you guys get more than a little weird when it comes to your platform).
So...this development is great news, and a credit to Gunnar and the rest of the developers.
It took an idiotically long time to get here, but lets face it, this new device is pretty much a Natami.
