Amiga.org

Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Retail News / Sales => Topic started by: System on September 26, 2005, 01:45:04 AM

Title: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: System on September 26, 2005, 01:45:04 AM
On the occasion of the British event Big Bash, the Swedish dealer Guru Meditation and the young hardware smiths Troika disclosed their cooperation in the development of the mini-ITX PowerPC board "Amy'05". The aimed production costs per board lie under 400 British pounds (around 590 Euros).

Meanwhile, Troika presents itself on the web with a new homepage, which, apart from remarks about the previous history of the project "Prometheus," which is now designated as "Amy," also specifies more components of this board than those known so far. However, the prototype that was announced for the event in Peterborough is no longer completed on time.

The specifications of the planned PowerPC board:
Update:
According to a message (http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2590&start=60#31032) from the developer, differently from stated, the upper limit of 400 British pounds should not be about the production costs, but about the end user price.

Original : http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2005-09-00125-EN.html (http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2005-09-00125-EN.html" target="_top)
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: InTheSand on September 26, 2005, 02:52:48 AM
Great news... but....

It's still too expensive IMHO... £400 is not "low cost". I realise the cost of small production runs pretty much rules out "low cost" in the real sense of the word, but spending NZ$1000 on a purely hobbyist platform is not something I can do.

Looks like my classic hardware will continue to suffice, along with WinUAE and AROS.

Just my 2c worth...

 - Ali
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Dr_Righteous on September 26, 2005, 03:20:45 AM
Price is still way too high... Especially with such limited expansion capabilities.

Try again folks. Next time try this on for size:
FULL ATX BOARD
CPU slot designed for Sonnet Encore/ST G4
5 PCI (AGP would be nice, but we CAN do without it)
2 USB
2 Serial
1 Parallel
2 IDE Interfaces
2 RAM banks
NO built-in video, sound, network or other built in costly crap we can use cheap existing PCI cards for.

Betcha that board can be made for 400USD instead of 400GBP!
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: TheMagicM on September 26, 2005, 05:12:58 AM
$590EU = $710 US$...   :-o  :-o  :-o  :-o  :-o

ODW = $799  US$ ....
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Dr_Righteous on September 26, 2005, 05:59:07 AM
I will say this, it IS cheaper than A1.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Lemmink on September 26, 2005, 06:22:15 AM
Quote

Betcha that board can be made for 400USD instead of 400GBP!

Nope. I guess it would cost nearly double the price of the current Troica board.
Belive me, those guys arent stupid, if this could be realised for such a low price they sure would have done this.
It might be hard to accept for some people, but this is about the pricetag that is attached to any homebrew motherboard projekt. There will be absolute no cheaper Amigamotherboard made in many years to come, if you don`t go into the direction of massproduced embedded systems that run OS4 "by accident" but only have about the CPU power of an old CSPPC.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: JoannaK on September 26, 2005, 06:40:11 AM
Lemmink: Etl all.. Have any of you ever designed/made even single board yourself... Or at least having even some basic knowledge of real-world PCB-design and manufacturing?

I'm asking this cause I'm grown highly bored to all of these nonsense comments that people post on various forums. Each and every time someone pre-announces a new 'Amiga' system (or some Turbo-board) there's allmost identical discussion... Never have I seen any Real and verifiable facts (like production/parts costs) been mentioned...

Ah well.. Perhaps I do expect too much from still remining Amigians.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: restore2003 on September 26, 2005, 08:01:44 AM
@JoannaK:

Why dont YOU design a full featured MB for under $400 then if your so bored?
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Piru on September 26, 2005, 01:54:38 PM
@restore2003

That is exactly what Joanna has done.

Not that you care, or anything.

PS. And before anyone asks: No those boards won't run OS4... :-)
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: cv643d on September 26, 2005, 05:46:53 PM
The price is a bit high I think. But buyers who really wants a new "Amiga" will probably buy it.

Its to bad AmigaOS is stuck on PPC. If it was open and x86 we could use it on 386-486 to modern computers. I remember back in 1998 when I upgraded to a Pentium233. I thought, wouldnt it be cool if I could run 3.1 on my old 486.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: TheMagicM on September 26, 2005, 07:06:31 PM
cv643d..

get AROS..
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: JoannaK on September 26, 2005, 09:18:46 PM
Piru: Yep. Past tense.. Last boards I did were couple MPC5200 based systems (quite comparable to Genesi Efika, but we were there allmost a year earlier) at spring 2004 ..

Anyhow.. I'm likely to leave it all behind for now. I'm in University at the moment, and It'll be possible I choose another career path after I get my Msc ...  :idea:
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Offa_ on September 27, 2005, 04:16:24 PM
@JoannaK

It should be added at this point that the price concerns not only the board, but also the operating system. I won't pretend to know if the pricing is fair though.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: amipal on September 27, 2005, 06:52:20 PM
@cv643d
Quote
Its to bad AmigaOS is stuck on PPC. If it was open and x86 we could use it on 386-486 to modern computers. I remember back in 1998 when I upgraded to a Pentium233. I thought, wouldnt it be cool if I could run 3.1 on my old 486.

And then Hyperion would have to support every single x86 motherboard out there. The way it is now, they only have to deal with a very small selection.

IMHO, the Troika board gives most users what they wanted: an OS4-capable board which is cheaper than the current systems and doesn't use the Articia chipset.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Prmetime on September 28, 2005, 01:21:25 AM
The one thing I am confused about is the graphics.  There isn't any mention of a chip on the motherboard and there also isn't a typical graphics card slot.  So is the PCI slot the only way to get graphics output?
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Offa_ on September 28, 2005, 08:20:21 AM
@prmetime

Yes
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: JoannaK on September 28, 2005, 11:19:04 AM
Offa: Assuming:
A) That this baord is ever finished and will be sold price given.
B) That there's ever be final OS4
C) And that OS4 will someday be ported to this card.

Personally .. I'd rather wait for final product (or at least real Proto, not just Dpaint mockup) and annoucements of OS licensiung etc before going too far on Hype..
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: DFergATL on September 28, 2005, 06:06:08 PM
Bummed!

I was really hoping they could pull of a real inexpensive board.  I am an old Amiga user from way..way back and would love to have a new one.  But the cost is what is preventing me from doing it.  I just can't afford to put together a complete system at these prices.
Title: Re: Troika and Guru Meditation disclose cooperation (Update)
Post by: Offa_ on September 29, 2005, 03:47:42 PM
The FAQ got updated to say that they might sell it for under 400 USD. It remains to be seen if they manage to do it of course.

@JoannaK

Of those things, I'm most worried about Amiga Inc ATM.