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!