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Author Topic: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!  (Read 22259 times)

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Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #14 from previous page: November 14, 2012, 08:29:33 AM »
Ok everyone, here as promised is the first redux of the Thylacine. Only two caps moved, but almost half the card cut away as wasted space. First off, here is the layout of the Thylacine as it was released:



Now, here is my first redraft:



I plan on doing more to it, I just wanted to show you guys that I'm not just sitting here with my thumb in. :)
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2012, 08:51:43 AM »
Quote from: noXLar;714912
Nice work.. is this a zorro card?


Yes sir it is, a Zorro II USB controller. I will be doing up an A500 version shortly, just so the A500 can have a USB solution that doesn't require a clockport or adapter. Thanks for the kind words!
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2012, 12:26:08 AM »
Hi guys, sorry I didn't pop by for a short time,  I am working on projects for other systems as well so I figured my time would be better spent working on things then following the threads for a short time. Anyway, in regards to what some people are saying about starting out slow and small, I am absolutely going to do this. An accelerator project is a long term goal, something to work towards, not something that will be popped out ASAP. I have a lot to learn before staring on a project that complicated.

The Thylacine will absolutely be supplied with a backplate. It's much cheaper for me to make it way shorter and supply a backplate then to waste so much PCB stock to make it reach the back of the case. I am going to try and build a hub onto the card, and I will absolutely look into the chip that contains a built-in ethernet controller. This way it's two things in one, not to mention when I do the A500 version it will be the first standalone USB/Ethernet solution for the A500. ;) Once that is done, I am going to try and build my first original Amiga-specific device. Let's for now put aside the accelerator and decide what the first piece of original hardware I design should be. So everybody complete this sentence: The piece of Amiga hardware I want the most, besides an accelerator is ________.

@trekiej: To answer your question, I don't have a bio posted anywhere, but if you want I'll tell you a little about myself. My name is Conrad and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. When I was 2 years old my father started teaching me the basics of computers on our 386, and by 3 I was operating the computer independently and slowly learning how to program. When I turned 5 my father gave me his Commodore 64 so I could have a computer of my own, and I was hooked on classic computers from then on. I decided soon after that some day I would start a computer museum, and I started collecting computers from anywhere I could get them. My parents were very supportive of this and drove me hours away to pick up free machines and paid lots of money when people were selling what I wanted. Through my whole childhood and teenage years to the present I amassed a huge collection of classic machines of every flavour, with my collection currently numbering about 300-400 unique models, if you're counting duplicates I don't even want to venture a guess. Anyway, somewhere along the line I decided that I would try to collect the best of every line of classic computers and to expand them as far as they could go. As a teenager I had a bit of a rough patch in my life, but with the help of my family I was ok and stronger for the experience. After secondary school I did an education consisting of electronics, computer hardware, networking, security, and system design. One thing that I have always found frustrating is that there always seems to be hardware that everyone wants and no one wants to produce. Finally after losing my job due to a dip in the economy, I decided to make classic computers my job. I figured that this venture may allow me to start a computer museum down the road, and if not, well at least I will have had a load of fun along the way! That about brings it up to now. I can go into more detail if you want later, but for now there is a nice abridged bio!
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2012, 08:47:51 AM »
Quote from: AmigaClassicRule;715267
Sorry for not jumping the wagon. But as Amiga history showed us, promises made but no actual delivery.

As soon as the products are shown in amigakit, then I will be all giddy.

Like I have said to others, your skepticism is 100% understandable. I hope you won't take offence when I say I look forward to proving you wrong. Although, I will probably be offering products through my own online store and not Amigakit;). No, just kidding, of course I will offer products to resellers!

Seriously though, as I have said to many others many times, don't expect miracles and a giant fountain of Amiga products to explode out of my house and rain products down on the masses. I will be starting small and working my way up. I am thinking my first original product should be an 802.11g card in various flavours for different Amigas. How does that sound to everyone? A nice simple start but a very useful product.

EDIT: I think this module might be a good place to start. It seems to be very simple to interface to and provides exactly what people are looking for, a wireless networking solution for the Amiga. I'm going to start looking into it immediately. http://shop.wiznettechnology.com/Sub_Modules/en/product/detail_page.asp?cateid=52&pid=1020

EDIT2: Whoops made a mistake thought that one had interfaces that it doesn't. Oh well, time to keep looking
« Last Edit: November 17, 2012, 09:51:46 AM by TheRogue »
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #18 on: November 26, 2012, 03:45:02 AM »
Sorry I haven't dropped by in a short while. I have been working on a  project on the Apple II front. I decided to 'put up or shut up' as some  might say, and produce something of high complexity so that everyone  will know I'm serious. I determined that this project is what I can get  out fast enough (looking at shipping in late January-early February), so  I decided to focus on this and get it done so people can see I'm  serious. So for all the Apple IIGS users out there, I am proud to bring  you a reverse engineered clone of the TransWarp IIGS Accelerator! The  card will ship around the time I quoted or possibly sooner. It will come  stock clocked at 12MHz with 32k of cache. Price is targeted roughly at  CAD$150-CAD$175 although there may be a small shift in either direction  depending on certain factors. Yes I know its not Amiga, but I have had  so many people tell me to produce something of high complexity that does  not have schematics or Gerber files available for it to prove that I'm  not a troll and do actually know what I'm doing. This is what I  determined that I can make available in the shortest time, so this is  the first project.

On the Amiga front the Thylacine redesign continues incorporating a 4  port hub and ethernet (the hub chip contains built in ethernet). A wifi board is in the works already, with every feature you mentioned planned. An accelerator is still a ways off yet, but as soon as I'm able to do so, I plan to produce one. I would like to produce some sort of FPGA-on-Zorro-Card development platform, like Carte Blanche for the Apple II. I will look into it for sure! So stay  tuned! Any AIIGS fans out there feel free to PM me with preorders for the TransWarpGS!
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2012, 08:58:14 AM »
I have a box that will let you do that in front of me. Its called a beige G4 mac. :P I'm just joking and not trying to make fun of you at all, just making a joke. Seriously though although the IIGS shares some superficial characteristics with the early Macs, it it a completely different architecture. The Macintosh line was based on the 68k processor, the same as the Classic Amiga, but for system 8.5 and beyond they switched to the PowerPC processor, same as used in the CSPPC and the new AmigaOS4 based machines. The IIGS on the other hand is based on the 65816 processor, a 16-bit extension of the 6502, the processor used in the Commodore 64, and the Apple II/II+/IIe/IIc/IIc+. The IIGS was fully compatible with the other machines in the Apple II line thanks to the 65C02 compatibility mode of the 65816, but was also a significant extension to it with a full color GUI (the first available from Apple) and full 16-bit software, it was also the first machine to feature ADB. Despite these superficial similarities however, it is a totally different machine and will never run MacOS or Mac software. Furthermore, an FPGA would not be fast or large or complex enough to run a full PowerPC Mac core, which is what would be required to run OS9 on a IIGS. Sorry, its not a request I can grant.
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy:
 

Offline TheRogueTopic starter

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Re: New project for the benefit of all classic computing!
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2012, 05:56:25 AM »
Hey guys, just a short post as I am busy like crazy with things on this end. I will reply to everyone's messages and comments tomorrow perhaps. For now, I just wanted to announce the blog for this project. You can check it out here:

http://retrologycomputing.blogspot.ca/

If you want to post a comment or two there, feel free!
Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun. Leave him lying in his  uniform dying in the sun. War, it\'s never been so much fun!:destroy: