Most bang for 600 USD?

[danbeaver]

Many of these ideas are "neat!"
But let's look at the numbers:  The latest & greatest (by some opinion) Amiga is the X1000; price? About 2 grand USD. Number sold? I don't know, but I guess maybe a few hundred. Number of active Amiga users worldwide? Maybe 5,000. The number who just want to play retro games? Let's guess 1/2 to 2/3rds. The number of new, non-Amiga users, "Techies," who would buy a new Amiga? Probably the same number who bought an X1000 (mind you these are folks who may have heard of the Amiga name, could afford it, and decided they could put to use such a machine)?  Maybe a few hundred.

So, how do recoup your R&D?  You all answer that question, because 600 USD doesonly go very far.

[The main question, by the way has a punch-line if you add an "s" to the word "bang"]

[persia]

So what tech gear is popular now?  Phones and tablets.  Portable is "in," but what to do with portable that hasn't been done.  Some group raised USD 8,000,000 on kickstarter for an Android game machine, an Android TV like Apple TV.  It'll likely sell but I don't see a "wow" factor to it.

It almost has to be something that isn't out there right now or something that is out there but poorly implemented.  This is something even Apple has a hard time doing, they wowed people with iPod and then built on it with iPhone and iPad, but they really only got the "wow" thing once.  And getting the "wow" thing once made them the biggest market cap company there ever was....

[Iggy]

When you add any accelerator to an Amiga then cycle accuracy is no longer possible.

Amiga's are not cycle exact machines in any case.
Compare models with different processors, different models, different chipsets.
None are identical, so cycle exact reproduction is unimportant as it doesn't affect software.

[freqmax]

Amiga's are not cycle exact machines in any case.
Compare models with different processors, different models, different chipsets.
None are identical, so cycle exact reproduction is unimportant as it doesn't affect software.

A lot of software for the A500 did operate in a very hardware dependent manner. I guess it's the same for A1200. The common denominator is a simple and thus cheap machine and cheap machines that are good sell a lot (usually). That's why other models doesn't really apply.

Regarding the next wow-omg machine. It's likely better to focus on the tech crowd (or artistic crowd). As the ones that are happy with plain office computer likely won't get it anyway.

Raytracing, Software radio, "hw-x11", are some of the power applications. What signal bending hasn't been done yet in a machine a that a high school can afford?

[psxphill]

A lot of software for the A500 did operate in a very hardware dependent manner. I guess it's the same for A1200. The common denominator is a simple and thus cheap machine and cheap machines that are good sell a lot (usually). That's why other models doesn't really apply.

There are some games and demos that got upset if the processor could run while the blitter was stealing bus cycles as they didn't bother to check for the blitter to finish. When the A3000 came out things started getting better as you couldn't rely on the user to turn off their accelerator.
 
However this can be solved without cycle accuracy, disabling caches and running from chip ram would slow it down enough for it to work. There are patches for alot of software too. Nobody wants to spend $600 on something that can only run at 7mhz, if thats what you want then buy an a500 or a minimig.

[freqmax]

Nobody wants to spend $600 on something that can only run at 7mhz, if thats what you want then buy an a500 or a minimig.

Different subjects, don't confuse them.

[wawrzon]

Interesting project. No updates for 3 years on gba1000?

on a1k there is sort of limited production run of upgraded gba1k.. 060 is included onboard and the like afair.
http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33085&highlight=gba1000
please dont apply in the thread, the limit of customers (some 20 or so) has been met.

[persia]

Niche products aren't going to make the techies drool....

[freqmax]

So what makes them drool?

[danbeaver]

So what makes them drool?

The "That's Neat!!" factor.  They then lay awake in bed thinking how much they would enjoy something, "That Neat."

[jackflash]

How about a 3D headset with an inbuilt computer, wifi and sensors (gyro, accel, gps and camera) that can superimpose a virtual world on the real world. Add a hand controller that also has gyro and accel. Imagine playing a laser battle or swords and sorcery battle against other players at your local park

[commodorejohn]

"And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony."

[Iggy]

"And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony."

If its going to be equine I want a quarterhorse. They're like big puppies.

[jackflash]

How about a drop in replacement for existing accelerator CPUs using fpga or emulation on Arm or Atom processors, it would be useful to others outside the Amiga community using 68K

[Mrs Beanbag]

How about a drop in replacement for existing accelerator CPUs using fpga or emulation on Arm or Atom processors, it would be useful to others outside the Amiga community using 68K

That's what I said!

In fact I've been conferring with some techies on this, we've decided that since you have to sync down to 14MHz to communicate with the A1200 chipset, a USB connection would be fast enough.  So build a board that connects the trapdoor slot to a USB socket, that allows you to read and write directly to the CPU buses, connect to a Raspberry Pi, and run the 68k emulator there.  This would be an interesting experiment, if nothing else.

[danbeaver]

Would you explain the need to "sync down to 14 MHz" and how a serial interface can handle that much bidirectional data?  This is just because my degree was not in engineering, electrical or otherwise.