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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: stevee617 on August 13, 2012, 10:46:27 PM

Title: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: stevee617 on August 13, 2012, 10:46:27 PM
and said, "I need a project...think of something."

Give me some ideas...think of it as a feasibility study.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: som99 on August 13, 2012, 11:02:14 PM
Well I humor you and neglect what I think about the "EE/Circuit card/programmer designer" and write what I want. Sure a Accelerator card would be nice, but why not just give him the schematics for the A4000T and tell him to improve some parts and "make it happen".
Since I would love an 4000T board.

I can supply you with both schematics and functional specifications of the A4000T.

You can give them to him and see what he says for fun, even tho it won't happen :)

Ask him where he will get all components ;)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: bloodline on August 13, 2012, 11:19:29 PM
I've been pondering building an A1200 trapdoor slot to SPI bridge of some sort for a while... That would basically make the A1200 an SPI slave... Which would allow us to hook up a wide variety of cheap, but powerful embedded CPUs... I have a mind to get one of those $8 200Mhz ARM M4s in my A1200!!! ;)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: jorkany on August 13, 2012, 11:26:29 PM
At a car show in Daytona I once met a guy who put a 427 hemi into an old VW Bug. With enough money almost anything is possible. I don't see a lot of old Bugs going around with 427 hemis in them though even though I know one was made.

http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=3705
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: weirdami on August 14, 2012, 12:08:13 AM
Howabout something to go in that mysterious empty space under the disk drive in an A1200?
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: som99 on August 14, 2012, 12:26:03 AM
Quote from: weirdami;703357
Howabout something to go in that mysterious empty space under the disk drive in an A1200?

What do you want to put on poor old Lisa? ;)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: slaapliedje on August 14, 2012, 12:39:01 AM
I vote for having him help out the UltimatePPC project!  http://ultimateppc.nl/

slaapliedje
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: paul1981 on August 14, 2012, 12:47:19 AM
I'd like a joystick/port switcher.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: stevee617 on August 14, 2012, 01:16:31 AM
n/t
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: weirdami on August 14, 2012, 01:27:01 AM
Quote from: som99;703359
What do you want to put on poor old Lisa? ;)


Is that what that was for? All I remember is wondering why there was a door in the back leading to an empty space and never hearing of any peripherals that go in there. Did they intend for people to do Lisa mods?
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: mongo on August 14, 2012, 01:43:47 AM
Quote from: weirdami;703369
Is that what that was for? All I remember is wondering why there was a door in the back leading to an empty space and never hearing of any peripherals that go in there. Did they intend for people to do Lisa mods?


The door is generally used for an external SCSI connector on an accelerator board.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: som99 on August 14, 2012, 01:54:55 AM
Quote from: weirdami;703369
Is that what that was for? All I remember is wondering why there was a door in the back leading to an empty space and never hearing of any peripherals that go in there. Did they intend for people to do Lisa mods?

Im not sure we are talking about he same empty space. I was only making fun of the hole in the drive cage :O
Lets tell our random "EE/Circuit card/programmer designer" to complete the AAA chipset ;)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: Plaz on August 14, 2012, 01:55:56 AM
So just going to design it, or actually actually build it?
Low expectation "do-able" project with available documentation ... updated remake the 040 card for the 3000/4000.

Pie-in-the-sky project.... dual coldfire card. First coldfire runs the JIT compiler too manage CF unfriendly 68K code... feeds results to second coldfire that replaces the 68K.

Other than that I'm looking forward to UltimatePPC.

Plaz
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: commodorejohn on August 14, 2012, 02:23:22 AM
Is there any reason an accelerator couldn't be designed using a low-cost, fairly high-clock ARM or other microcontroller to run an emulated 680x0 with high-speed onboard RAM (as the first PPC Macs essentially did?) That'd be nifty.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: bloodline on August 14, 2012, 07:25:44 AM
Quote from: commodorejohn;703376
Is there any reason an accelerator couldn't be designed using a low-cost, fairly high-clock ARM or other microcontroller to run an emulated 680x0 with high-speed onboard RAM (as the first PPC Macs essentially did?) That'd be nifty.

That exactly why I want an SPI bridge :)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: ByteRyder on August 14, 2012, 12:32:18 PM
What we need is a full compatible AGA chipset upgrade like SuperAGA.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: Hattig on August 14, 2012, 01:30:18 PM
Quote from: ByteRyder;703402
What we need is a full compatible AGA chipset upgrade like SuperAGA.


I don't think that would make a spare time project!
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: Plaz on August 14, 2012, 01:34:10 PM
Was NatAmi project making any progress on that? I've not been following closely.

Plaz
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: kolla on August 14, 2012, 01:55:23 PM
I need something simple, a sort of breakout board for A1200/A600 mobos, with connectors that fit the ATX "window" of the 3 supermicro rackable cases I have.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: Hattig on August 14, 2012, 02:03:30 PM
Quote from: Plaz;703413
Was NatAmi project making any progress on that? I've not been following closely.

Plaz


It doesn't look good, in my opinion.

Still, the FPGAArcade is coming soon, and should be affordable, especially in comparison with the NatAmi.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: amiga-penn-wchester on August 14, 2012, 03:29:24 PM
Super AGA chipset, improved but backward compatible audio, on the software side, something better than 3.1 and more in the lean Amiga tradition.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: ByteRyder on August 14, 2012, 04:49:36 PM
Well, if you look to it marketwise a SuperAGA board would sell thousands of units.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: kedawa on August 14, 2012, 05:47:40 PM
A simple CD32 expansion with RGB video output and keyboard port.
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: VingtTrois on August 14, 2012, 10:39:52 PM
Quote from: kedawa;703459
A simple CD32 expansion with RGB video output and keyboard port.

+1


A new Sound card for all AMIGAs (inserted on PAULA?): 4 to 128 channels! :)
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: Hattig on August 14, 2012, 10:50:32 PM
Quote from: VingtTrois;703491
+1
A new Sound card for all AMIGAs (inserted on PAULA?): 4 to 128 channels! :)


I wonder if Paula, or a Paula-derivative, is the best model for a future sound card for classic Amigas?

If it was a good model, and capabilities were easily extended (more channels, higher bitrates, deeper sample depths, etc), then I guess an FPGA would be the best route. Which makes me wonder about a generic FPGA card for the Amiga, one that could be programmed on the fly (by the host Amiga even) to become whatever hardware you wanted it to be, whether that's a 16 channel Paula, or a simple RTG card, or a mixture. I/Os would be an issue - to be a sound card you need audio outputs, to be a video card you need a VGA/HDMI output, to be a USB card you want USB outputs...
Title: Re: If an EE/Circuit card/programmer designer came up to you at work...
Post by: VingtTrois on August 15, 2012, 09:01:50 AM
Just imagine PROTRACKER with 128 channels, 16 Indivision and 16 LCD Screens! :)