Clone-A demonstration successful, new Catweasel drivers, Breakpoint sponsoring

[Zac67]

Just add two USB ports somewhere so we can
- attach a keyboard
- access a USB stick as harddrive
 :-D

[XDelusion]

Ok, ya a Joystick type deal (it better be a CD32 or better type joystick, not one of those 2600 POS') with a memory card reader and USB ports...

...that would be awsome, even if it did only have a crappy 68000 in it.

[ferrellsl]

I agree.  I don't see much of a market for Amiga custom chip replacements.  To use them, you still need an old working Amiga motherboard.  My money would be better spent on a total Amiga replacement such as the Minimig.  It doesn't make much sense to purchase custom chips for motherboards that are no longer produced. And what happens when the supply of motherboards runs dry or your current aged and decrepit motherboard dies?

[XDelusion]

Well I know at least in the case of the 1200, you can use standard PC power packs with little hacking involved. Granted that still does not solve the problem of a dead or dying Mobo.

 Another thought I was having is that with custom hardware is that we should not have need for these over priced accelerator boards anymore right?

[Donar]

...I don't see much of a market for Amiga custom chip replacements...

And that possibly is the reason individual computers will not make/sell "Custom Chip Replacements".
They only re- engineered one chip after another, replacing the Original Chips of Olivers AMIGA 500 with FPGA Clones, so they know everything- even bus communication is 100%. -> They won't sell these as they are only engineering samples.
It's like Commodore did not sell "Lorraine" to end customers.

My money would be better spent on a total Amiga replacement such as the Minimig.

All chips should/will be merged into one FPGA and put on an itx Board that works on it's own (like MiniMig).

Another thought I was having is that with custom hardware is that we should not have need for these over priced accelerator boards anymore right?

Erm, which Accelerator Boards will you use instead? Someone had to develop a new one so we get access to new maybe not so expensive accelerator Boards. They are expensive because they are rare... and maybe new ones will be expensive too because of low quantities.

Bye

[JimS]

I don't see the "amiga on a stick" and "replacement chips" as being an either-or situation. Make 'em both, if possible. A lot of folks might like to keep their old hardware running as long as possible for nostalgia if nothing else. Too bad the FPGAs used in the cloneA are too expensive, according to a post over on AW.

[Louis Dias]

What about a brand new Amiga with a 400MHz Coldfire cpu?  Can this Clone-A chip be any faster than the originals?

Turn up the juice!

[XDelusion]

Yes, if that was not Vapor, I'd be thinking about those possabilities too! That coldfire had me excited for so long... :/

 As for expensive accellerator boards. I was thinking, since they are designing the chips, and hopefully some day motherboards to put them on, I would figure they could design the new boards so that you can just drop a chip on it, as opposed to having to buy some expensive expansion board you know?

 But I don't know how all that stuff works, I don't understand why a 68xxx board could not work like a standard PC board where you just change jumpers or something in the bios to adapt for the new CPU.

[Schoenfeld]

lou_dias: Please keep the Coldfire out of this discussion. Coldfire is not a desktop CPU, therefore it is not suited for the Amiga. The 68K compatibility is advertised, but not working to a degree where it can run un-patched classic Amiga applications. What you need is a true 68K CPU or a clone that behaves exactly like a 68K - anything else will  have to run emulation, which kills the MHz and de-grades the CPU to something slower than an un-accelerated A500.

*Please* end the discussion about the Coldfire. I have been sceptical from the day it was announced, I have found it "too slow and not suitable" in 2001, and I have been attacked for sharing my opinion about the "ColdFusion" board and my prediction that it will not see the light of day - at least not in working condition. Now that my preditions came true and two announced projects are still not available, please start making up your own mind and don't believe what someone is trying to tell you in order to sell his stock of other hardware - be it from England or from Poland.

Jens Schönfeld

[CodePoet]

Someone needs a hug :-D

[XDelusion]

Me gives Schoenfeld a BIG smooshy HUGG!

We are talking possabilities here my friend. What's up with the Amiga community turning into a bunch of flamers anyhow?

 Oh well, another BIG HUGG for you sir!

[yssing]

Great news

I am dying for a new amiga mobo...

[Donar]

But I don't know how all that stuff works, I don't understand why a 68xxx board could not work like a standard PC board where you just change jumpers or something in the bios to adapt for the new CPU.

We speak here of different generations of 68k CPU, like in PC world the different generations are not pin compatible. You can not stick a Core2Duo in a 486 motherboard.

...Coldfire is not a desktop CPU, therefore it is not suited for the Amiga...

Oh, not again ;-)

Clone-A is not a desktop chip set/motherboard, therefore it is not suited for the Amiga.

It works the other way around also. :-D

What you need is a true 68K CPU or a clone that behaves exactly like a 68K.

The true "powerfull" 68k CPU's are very expensive, and i have heard that FPGA's are not big enough (or too expensive) to clone one of the last generation 68k's.
 

...anything else will have to run emulation, which kills the MHz and de-grades the CPU to something slower than an un-accelerated A500...

Do you really think that a chip that is (MIPS wise) 4 times faster than a 68060 will be slower than a 68000 at 7 MHz, even if it's running Emulation? I have seen screenshots from ATARI Coldfire project running TOS on a Coldfire Evaluation board that look otherwise.

If somebody would hack a PPC 970 on Clone A you had an bicycle with turbine...

I have been attacked for sharing my opinion about the "ColdFusion" board and my prediction that it will not see the light of day - at least not in working condition.

Sorry but i sometimes have the impression that people criticise you for the way how you give your statements, and not because you just say: "It can not work because of xyz".

ok
coldfire mode = off
topic CLONE-A = on

:-)

[XDelusion]

Aghhh, I understand the CPU situtation a little better now. Bummer.

[MskoDestny]

We speak here of different generations of 68k CPU, like in PC world the different generations are not pin compatible. You can not stick a Core2Duo in a 486 motherboard.

That's not exactly a fair comparison. A Core2Duo won't work in a 486 motherboard, but it will run pretty much all code written for a 486. A ColdFire CPU won't execute all code written for the 680X0 line. Even the trap-based compatibility library doesn't make it 100% compatible, though it's hard to say what percentage of Amiga software would have problems. A relatively simple dynarec (well simple by dynarec standards anyway), could take care of the rest of the incompatibilities, but it's unclear whether the parties involved in these ColdFire projects have the skill, time and resources to make it happen. And of course, once you start talking about emulation you have to ask yourself if you would be better served with a more powerful processor of a different architecture, but if you're asking those kind of questions you probably shouldn't be troubling yourself with accelerators for obsolete computer hardware anyway.

I personally would like to see a ColdFire accelerator and/or ColdFire + FPGA chipset implementation even if all it could run was AROS and recompiled apps (assuming a full 68K port of AROS ever gets off the ground anyway).

[Donar]

Maybe you missed the initial question to my reply?

Question:

As for expensive accellerator boards. I was thinking, ... they could design the new boards so that you can just drop a chip on it, as opposed to having to buy some expensive expansion board you know?

Answer:

We speak here of different generations of 68k CPU, like in PC world the different generations are not pin compatible. You can not stick a Core2Duo in a 486 motherboard.

So to speak: If there is a 68020 on the board, you can not make a drop in replacement with an 68060.

 :-D