Takers - One Woman's Opinion of the Amiga Mini

[Yasu]

I don't understand why anyone would want the old brands to come back.  They're just trademarks.  It's the combination of unique hardware and software that made my childhood computer so great, and that magic is gone forever.

I wouldn't expect Beatles fans to get excited about some bush league garage band bringing back the name, regardless of the quality of their music, because that would be straight up retarded.  And yet, here we are.

Word! Let the classic Amigas stay classic. I want my Workbench 3.1 to work on A1200 and my AOS 4.x to work on new hardware!

[Iggy]

x86 beats PPC hands down for performance, but it's not the only one that does.  Frankly, the endian issue makes x86 and ARM unattractive for running the old software.  Where will new software come from?

I'm watching the Apollo core (formerly N68070) from the NatAmi team.  Its opcode fusion feature will allow old software to gain new performance without recompiling at all.

Let me get this straight. X86 is more powerful then PPC so you choose 68K?
Oh, now we're going down the rabbit hole!

[Bamiga2002]

Think about the possibility of "Apollo" going 2-3Ghz (or more!) ASIC some day (hello Thierry! ). The 68k-architechture would get a super speed boost!
And it's also cool the 68k is further enchanced by the Natami-team

[Magitius]

Old brands do sell...otherwise there wouldn't be a new VW Beetle, for  instance. It borrows a bit from the past...but uses modern common  technology under the hood (VW Golf), instead of a boxer four cylinder  rear engine like the original. So why not buy a VW Golf instead, it's  the same car basically?

And if someone buys a new Beetle and  tells about it on some internet forum, there's a mocking party gearing  up at the vintage Beetle forums?

I think there's room for all camps, all publicity is good publicity and all camps gain from it.

[Bamiga2002]

Old brands do sell...otherwise there wouldn't be a new VW Beetle, for  instance. It borrows a bit from the past...but uses modern common  technology under the hood (VW Golf), instead of a boxer four cylinder  rear engine like the original. So why not buy a VW Golf instead, it's  the same car basically?

And if someone buys a new Beetle and  tells about it on some internet forum, there's a mocking party gearing  up at the vintage Beetle forums?

I think there's room for all camps, all publicity is good publicity and all camps gain from it.

A car for me personally is a way to get from spot A to spot B and all that matters that it works and does just that. But Amiga is a different thing to me and many others. So can't be compared IMO. Amiga is more than just a computer; it's about dedication, ideology etc. I guess you catch my drift here.

[Magitius]

A car for me personally is a way to get from spot A to spot B and all that matters that it works and does just that. But Amiga is a different thing to me and many others. So can't be compared IMO. Amiga is more than just a computer; it's about dedication, ideology etc. I guess you catch my drift here.

Well, just like you would use a car, many will use a computer. A  Commodore Amiga computer even...but so, enthusiasts will always have  their special thing and be proud of it, but general public uses a pc  Amiga as a tool to get the job done. Commodore USA is not about retro  hobby market, it's about making real business with a little bit of that  Commodore spirit. And no other modern pc computer manufacturer offers a  single bit of that spirit.

In the end, I find it a waste of time  to put such an amount of emotion and energy to the whole issue around  C=USA as seen on this forum. Nothing that will change anything...if  there's anything really to change.

[persia]

The new Beetle is built by Volkswagen and is a continuation of the Beetle line.  Volkswagen did not go bankrupt, have it's name sold at a fire sale to a totally unrelated company in another country, which then licensed the name to eight different car companies, the last of which decided to put an old beetle body around a golf cart and call it original.

[Digiman]

x86 beats PPC hands down for performance, but it's not the only one that does.  Frankly, the endian issue makes x86 and ARM unattractive for running the old software.  Where will new software come from?

I'm watching the Apollo core (formerly N68070) from the NatAmi team.  Its opcode fusion feature will allow old software to gain new performance without recompiling at all.

X86 is the only cheap AND incredibly powerful CPU now. Everything else is either a toy in performance or grossly overpriced alternative really.

What we need is either a port of OS4 to x86 64 and 32bit flavour with multithreading and multiprocessing Kernal. Or Amithlon+++ with the same.

On top of that MANY improvements for modern OS demands.

What is NOT required is support for a million gpu/audio/motherboard combos. Pick a locked hardware reference for one high end x86 setup and one medium spec desktop and ditto for laptop. Stick them in a bespoke case. Works well for Apple because you sell it on no virus/windows rot(registry bloat)/responsiveness etc

[_ThEcRoW]

A car for me personally is a way to get from spot A to spot B and all that matters that it works and does just that. But Amiga is a different thing to me and many others. So can't be compared IMO. Amiga is more than just a computer; it's about dedication, ideology etc. I guess you catch my drift here.

Ideology?, lol

[Middleman]

Forgive me for intruding here, but aside from PowerPC and x86, there is one other thing...

Has anyone had a look at Amiga's archival Atari, and the Coldfire Project to revive the old ST/TT platforms? > http://acp.atari.org/

Because it seems they (ACP) got a much better 68k chipset around (using the Freescale Coldfire chip, a much faster and compatible variant of the old 68k chip. Do you think such a board/chip could be converted to run classic Amiga software? I mean the Coldfire project does have ISA and PCI connections at the back (to connect with PC parts) and with the advent of FPGAs anything could be possible. Maybe a joint Atari+Amiga legacy board project could be worked on?

[dreamcast270mhz]

X86 is the only cheap AND incredibly powerful CPU now. Everything else is either a toy in performance or grossly overpriced alternative really.

What we need is either a port of OS4 to x86 64 and 32bit flavour with multithreading and multiprocessing Kernal. Or Amithlon+++ with the same.

On top of that MANY improvements for modern OS demands.

What is NOT required is support for a million gpu/audio/motherboard combos. Pick a locked hardware reference for one high end x86 setup and one medium spec desktop and ditto for laptop. Stick them in a bespoke case. Works well for Apple because you sell it on no virus/windows rot(registry bloat)/responsiveness etc

While I can concur I don't want another pc-clone with a different OS under the hood. A better idea would be to make an Amiga clone using modern hardware with an x86 CPU and several off the shelf chips to make it function like an Amiga, then add a 68k CPU for emulation purposes.

[spirantho]

@Middleman

There have been many discussions about the Coldfire. The big problem is it's just not compatible enough, you need to recompile to make any real use of it....

Plus we're already well catered for with AOS and MOS using the much faster PPC chips, and with NatAmi making their own 68k core which should in time be faster in real usage than the Coldfire.

[Bamiga2002]

Ideology?, lol

I'm glad you've been entertained . Maybe that's not the right word (ideology) but i'm not a native english speaker so excuse me :juggler:

[Digiman]

I can understand why people like ppc I suppose, since many legacy apps can be run on it if they are system friendly. Unfortunatly, most amiga games and many apps were never written to be system friendly, so that leaves very few apps that don't require an emulator.

Unfortunately, fpga could be a solution for amiga future but can't really be a solution because os3.x is closed source. Maybe aros 68k will change that.

People can complain about cusa using linux but...

Its got smp, tons of applications, and is much more technically advanced. I don't know the legalities of why they can't advance that idea further and create a workbench like file structure and gui, but apparently they can not do that or risk legal actions, which is a shame. This idea once proposed as annubis. (linux underneath an amiga like os file structure and gui) Me, I think thats a fantastic solution for this whole debacle.

Then you could have an amiga like os on an amiga branded pc that ran all legacy apps beautifully and seamlessly. The amiga look and feel would be preserved, but what if you added a new piece of hardware? (Almost anything these days has linux drivers) It would just work. period. Can't do that on aros, morphos or os4 (and you never will be able to. NEVER)

So maybe COS as much as it was mocked here was just a first step in the right direction. If they finished the job (and were legally allowed to) I think everyone who likes amiga would be incredibly happy with the results.

I don't know what will happen, but its fun watching.
As the boing ball turns...

C= OS isn't even the bare minimum for generic PC motherboard +Linux distro.

I have posted a screenshot of the correct way to mod Linux for Amiga users twice before. C=USA are slackers.

1 Case looks arse (and an off the shelf HTPC case too).
2 OS GUI looks arse (std xubuntu looks better loool)
3 OS is not ideal for purpose (Linux is for tinkerers and the apps are inferior to Win/OSX even if they have an alt).
4 Won't even play 2008/9 Crysis at HD rez with that slow GPU, maybe 2005 Battlefield 2.

Anyway at the very least I would expect an option to purchase a dual boot Windows and Amithlon/OS3.9 setup.

[Digiman]

And the award for "not reading the sentence fully and thus missing the point hilariously" goes to...Middleman!


...wha...? Are you even reading what you're writing? God knows I love old-ass PCs, but seriously, holding up ISA, with its jumper configurations and interrupt conflicts, as an example!? PCI is more like it, but let's take a moment and note that the Amiga had an autoconfiguring expansion bus a decade before PCI came out. And what the hell can't you upgrade in an Amiga? The one irreplacable bottleneck is the actual bus itself, and that's no less true on any PC you care to show me.

But between A1000 and A4000 they made no improvement to the machines A/V until 1991. Improvements like more colours on screen in 320x200, more blitter bandwidth, HAM8. All could have been done before A500+. Sound was never improved, even dual Paula config would have been welcome in AGA.

Commodore failed to realise they were fighting two fronts. Mac+PC for £2000+ and £150 SNES+SEGA and finally. More money was lost to console sales than 486PC Doom £1000 setups, and by 1988/9 there were non x86 computers/consoles with 256 colours vs the A500 using 2.5 year old A1000 chipset for 5 years was a joke! (and a pig ugly case)

(ECS extras were a waste of time for 95% of us and potential buyers)

[Magitius]

The new Beetle is built by Volkswagen and is a continuation of the Beetle line.  Volkswagen did not go bankrupt, have it's name sold at a fire sale to a totally unrelated company in another country, which then licensed the name to eight different car companies, the last of which decided to put an old beetle body around a golf cart and call it original.

I don't think average Joe cares, it reads "Commodore Amiga" and they're going to sell a good number of those branded golf carts anyways.