Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: Tahoe on January 23, 2005, 08:20:24 PM
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Heya!!! What's this then?
http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5159323441&fromMakeTrack=true
Sounds good, really good actually, specially if you check
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-32234/ppcrulez/amijoe.html
Is this card supported in any way? Using any PPC software?
Sounds really good, having an IDE controller, PCI connector and SO-Dimm memory slot....
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:-o
My guess it's as useable as the Nyx prototype PCBs.
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The card was never commercially released, so that must be a prototype for sale. As far as I know, there's absolutely no support whatsoever for it.
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Even though it's never going to work, it would be worth having from a collectables/historic point of view.
Maybe it oculd go to computer museum in the "Didn't quite make it out on time" section ? :-)
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At least we have concrete proof that the AmiJoe really existed! I wonder how many of them were produced? Anyway I'm going to bid for this beuty, as someone said it's worth having from a historical / rarity point of view.
Who knows, maybe I can give it to a good engineer who would replicate it's design and turn it into a commercial product! Pre-Orders anyone? :lol:
Jethro Tull
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At least we have concrete proof that the AmiJoe really existed! I wonder how many of them were produced? Anyway I'm going to bid for this beuty, as someone said it's worth having from a historical / rarity point of view.
Who knows, maybe I can give it to a good engineer who would replicate it's design and turn it into a commercial product! Pre-Orders anyone? :lol:
Jethro Tull
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There are at least 3 custom design IC's on it, reverse engineering it would be very tough indeed. Also, there is still a flaw in the design of the PCI Bridge.
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I imagine from an electrical point of view the card works fine, but I bet the logic to glue it to the A1200 bus is not done/finished/started.
If you could work out that you'd be in business :-)
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But it doesn't have a classic 68K cpu fallback, they intended to run 68K emulation. But with no software written for it that means falling back to the 020 :-o
Anyway, having the card is really, really cool but of no use at all. The only viable option would probably be reverse engineering it, but then you would still have to write warp support software for it, or design your own....
Maybe Elbox is interested?
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Who designed the AmiJoe in the first place? Couln't he (or she) finish the job? Why dosen't Eyetech help him (or her) complete the board and make the product their own? Seeing so much enthusiasm for this card and other PPC accelerators, and second hand PPC cards always fetching good prices, I think there is a market for such a product.
Owners of classic Amigas will give OS4 a shot if it's bundles with a good PPC card which is readily available at a good price. It's still niche market mind you, but probably profitable, none the less.
Cheerio
Jethro Tull
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Who designed the AmiJoe in the first place?
I believe Dave Haynie (http://www.amiga.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=15) did most of the work. (Lots of interesting things he's worked on!)
Couln't he (or she) finish the job?
He probably could have at one point. But Met@box went under before that happened. And, after the way he's been screwed around by various "Amiga" factions, I doubt he's too interested in any projects associated with it, anymore... And who can blame him?
Why dosen't Eyetech help him (or her) complete the board and make the product their own?
Because that design work was done for Met@box, who knows where/if the designs are still kept. And even if they are still around, who owns them?
Plus the thing is way outdated at this point. AND it still needs a lot of work, AND IIRC Dave said that the prototype boards were all pretty much fatally flawed hardware... They were very early testing designs, not intended to be anything near a finished product. So trying to reverse engineer one is beyond pointless.
Basically, the AmiJoe G3 board is a tremendous collector's item. Unfortunately, that is all it is. The design was never completed or functional, and to make it so would involve as much (or possibly more) work than starting over from scratch. Just because it kind of looks like a finished product doesn't mean it is. You'd think that Amiga fans, of all people, should have caught on to this by now..........
EDIT: Actually, I'd be quite wary bidding on this item...
"krisentina" looks an awful lot like "krystyna" of eBay scamming infamy. (Ryan's mom.....)