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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: blakespot on February 06, 2013, 01:05:52 PM

Title: Draco Cube
Post by: blakespot on February 06, 2013, 01:05:52 PM
Wow. I just ran across this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRACO-CUBE-CLASSIC-AMIGA-CLONE-68060-50MHz-4MB-ChipRAM-128MB-FastRAM-2GB-HD-/221184613207?pt=Klassische_Computer&hash=item337fa15b57




bp
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: yssing on February 06, 2013, 01:21:50 PM
Its very cool, but the price is a bit to high for me.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Djole on February 06, 2013, 01:54:46 PM
I think the price is a bit too high, but Draco is cool for running RTG software.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Ral-Clan on February 06, 2013, 02:05:50 PM
Yeah, the Draco was cool....and they got the styling right too.  But of course it's missing all the custom chips (I guess this is how they got around copyright issues with Commodore) so you can only run RTG software.

EDIT: I notice on the showconfig screen on that auction that the Draco has a AGA Alice and Lisa - so I guess that Draco / MacroSystems was buying some MOS/CSG chips from Commodore.

Yes, it's very expensive, but the Draco was always sold as a professional video editing workstation, not to consumers.  So it was originally more expensive.  I also think that because of this machine's rarity the buyer will get what he's asking for (heck, even a Commodore-made machine with 68060 and RTG card would probably fetch near that nowadays).
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: haywirepc on February 06, 2013, 02:19:47 PM
Since I never did video on amiga, I never saw the appeal. I'd rather have an amiga 4000 with 68060 and rtg card.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: polyp2000 on February 06, 2013, 02:29:13 PM
I notice that it has 4mb Chip Ram.

How did they manage to get around the 2mb limit ?

Perhaps it would be worth finding out how they achieve this to allow
additional expansion on other amigas

N.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: videofx on February 06, 2013, 02:51:01 PM
It is cool but I decided to get a 4000T instead :)
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: bloodline on February 06, 2013, 02:51:33 PM
Quote from: polyp2000;725555
I notice that it has 4mb Chip Ram.

How did they manage to get around the 2mb limit ?

Perhaps it would be worth finding out how they achieve this to allow
additional expansion on other amigas

N.
Probably not a real Alice in there, just something (FPGA) that reports looks just enough like an Alice chip to get the OS to boot... The ram therefore is just regular ram tagged as chipram... :)
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: nicholas on February 06, 2013, 03:08:34 PM
I had a chance to buy one for about £400 nine or ten years ago but bought a BPPC/040 for £250 instead.

Wish I'd have bought the Draco now tbh.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Djole on February 06, 2013, 03:09:59 PM
I used to have 2 big tower Draco machines. Sold them 5-6 years ago for 300 euro both I belive.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Tripitaka on February 06, 2013, 06:07:33 PM
Quote from: bloodline;725559
Probably not a real Alice in there, just something (FPGA) that reports looks just enough like an Alice chip to get the OS to boot... The ram therefore is just regular ram tagged as chipram... :)


The chipram reported is the memory on the RTG card (a modified retina 3). The DraCo booted from an A3000 kickstart ROM with a load of patching done at boot.

It contained no real custom miggy chips.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Tripitaka on February 06, 2013, 06:14:42 PM
Quote from: nicholas;725563
I had a chance to buy one for about £400 nine or ten years ago but bought a BPPC/040 for £250 instead.

Wish I'd have bought the Draco now tbh.


Why? Seriously, I see no reason to own one.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Nostalgiac on February 06, 2013, 08:30:22 PM
I'l love one but cannot justify the cost :(

On a funny note: look at the serial number... they seem to have sold 600+ million of them :p

Tom UK
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: nicholas on February 06, 2013, 09:46:58 PM
Quote from: Tripitaka;725590
Why? Seriously, I see no reason to own one.

I would say the same about the BPPC too.  I sold mine as it was pretty useless.
Title: Re: Draco Cube
Post by: Gulliver on February 07, 2013, 12:58:24 AM
I have two DraCos. They are really great.

They run AmigaOS friendly software like a breeze, and can run E-UAE 68k for hardware banging stuff.

From an engineering point of view, they are a very advanced 68k computer architecture. MacroSystem took the Amiga platform concept and modernized it by adding some interesting features.

They are really good as servers (thanks to NetBSD).

It is very cool to edit home video footage with MovieShop on them.

I only regret that nowadays I have little spare time to play with them.