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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: spudje on July 06, 2015, 11:05:04 AM
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Since I've only recently actively rejoined the Amiga world I'm trying to make sense of all the initiatives that have been around the past few years to recreate the Amiga (hardware). Maybe good to have this overview for other people (re)newing their Amiga involvement as well. I'll sum up what I know and will most likely be wrong to some aspects and most importantly incomplete. So please correct, add, etc.
Planning to make a nice table to get a good overview of all models and their features.
Software Emulation (in a dedicated hardware device)
* Armiga
url: http://www.armigaproject.com/
What is it: Software Emulation on ARM architecture
Supported hardware: Amiga 500 1MB (OCS, kick 1.3). Potentially AGA support in the future
Special characteristics: Two variants: 1 without and 1 with floppy drive. Floppy drive only used to create adfs, not to run software from.
Availability: (Beta) available now
Hardware Emulation (FPGA)
* Minimig
http://somuch.guru/minimig/
What is it: FPGA based implemented Amiga architecture
Several versions exist:
- Minimig v1.1 (dedicated hardware board): Sold out (?)
- Minimig on DE1/DE2 (core for more generic FPGA platform)
- Minimig on MIST (core for more generic FPGA platform)
Supported Hardware: Minimig for Mist: ECS & 68000, AGA & 68020
Availability: Mist available (http://amiga.amedia-computer.com/, http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=96)
* FPGA Arcade
url: http://www.fpgaarcade.com/
What is it: FPGA based implemention of several retro computing platforms including Amiga
Supported hardware: ?
Availability: About to be shipped?
* FPGA Replay
url: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55885
Is this actually the same as the FPGA arcade?
Native Hardware implementation(FPGA)
* Amiga 550/500++ (are these the same?)
What is it: New mainboard for Amiga 500
Availability: Status unclear. Original team stopped development.
* Amiga GB1000
What is it: New mainboard for Amiga 1000
Availability: Sold out
* Amiga Reloaded
url: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Amiga_reloaded
What is it: Indivision Computing new Amiga mainboard that should fit both A500 & A1200 cases
Supported hardware: AGA chipset, for details see url
Availability: First prototype planned for 2016 Q1
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* Minimig
What is it: FPGA based implemented Amiga architecture
Several versions exist
Availability: Discontinued
Is it really so? I see it is still on sale.
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Is it really so? I see it is still on sale.
I'm not sure. I believe the original one is not produced anymore. The minimig cores are still available for MIST etc. Updated the overview accordingly.
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FPGA Replay and FPGA Arcade are indeed the same device.
Note that it will come with either an FPGA 68k CPU, or a daughterboard supporting a 68060 and even more RAM.
I think the last category should be "New motherboards for existing chipsets".
The Chameleon C64 also runs the Minimig core.
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The Replay is the same as the FPGArcade... The names sort of interchangable, but the Replay is the name of the board in question, and FPGArcade is the "company", even though it's one guy. ;-)
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The Replay is the same as the FPGArcade... The names sort of interchangable, but the Replay is the name of the board in question, and FPGArcade is the "company", even though it's one guy. ;-)
Because more confusion has *always* helped the Amiga market. :laughing:
Don't forget to add MiST to your list, whatever the heck that thing is. Funny thing, I can name all the original Amiga models and rattle off their technical specs blindfolded and with one hand tied behind my back. It hurts me in my soul when I see comments like "I didn't know the A3000 came in a tower model", etc. But I just can't wrap my head around all these remakes and variants! Sure would be nice if everyone could just work together, but now I know I'm really dreaming! :lol:
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Because more confusion has *always* helped the Amiga market. :laughing:
:lol:
Well, I don't know about "helped", but "always been a part of", most definitely. ;-)
Let's give it two weeks more..... ;-)
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There was the C-One. It was primarily aimed at C64 enthusiasts but the Minimig and other cores were ported to it.
http://c64upgra.de/c-one/
There was Natami. The original prototype used the C-One as it's basis with a custom 68030 card in a PCI slot.
http://translate.google.fr/translate?u=http://obligement.free.fr/articles/natami_nouvel_amiga_classic.php&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8
The NatamiLX board was later produced. I think there were 3 or so built for team members before the project fizzled out.
http://www.natami.net/hardware.htm
While not an Amiga reimplementation, an offshoot of the Natami is the Phoenix Apollo 680x0 FPGA core accelerator project. The 68000 FPGA core Vampire 600 card gives simliar speed to an 68060.
http://www.apollo-core.com/
Another project from Jens Schoenfeld was Clone-A. The was planned to be a cylce exact reimplementation of the Amiga. Jens made drop in FPGA replacements of the custom chips and took an A500 to a few shows and asked people to bring their own disks to try and find anything that didn't work on it.
The eventual intention was to have an ASIC fabbed but licensing issues with Amiga Inc forced him to shelve the project.
The Indivision scandoublers re-use some of the tech he developed during his research and it sounds as though some of the logic will be re-used on the Amiga Reloaded.
http://www.totalamiga.org/files/TA25_JensIviewExtract.pdf
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Thanks for the summary/topic, I've missed a lot of these projects completely.
Software Emulation (in a dedicated hardware device)
* Armiga
url: http://www.armigaproject.com/
What is it: Software Emulation on ARM architecture
Supported hardware: Amiga 500 1MB (OCS, kick 1.3). Potentially AGA support in the future
Special characteristics: Two variants: 1 without and 1 with floppy drive. Floppy drive only used to create adfs, not to run software from.
Availability: (Beta) available now
Silly question: what's the difference between this, and any other UAE type setup? No disrespect intended.
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Thanks for the summary/topic, I've missed a lot of these projects completely.
Silly question: what's the difference between this, and any other UAE type setup? No disrespect intended.
Nothing much. It's an out of the box compact solution you can hook up on your TV easily.