New standard A1 model

[Holley]

There are a handful of XE's going to be produced again with G4s on 'em.  The new MiniATX (3x PCI, 1x AGP) boards arn't scheduled in yet.  Nobody has mentionned Gigibit ethernet either way on it.

The MiniITX ones are released at the start of October, hopefully coinciding with the release of OS4. They include most things needed by home users, what do you need PCI slots for exactly? (What you want might not be supported by OS4!)

[Holley]

Most PC motherboards are MiniATX anyway, if you needed even more I'm sure there is way to sort a riser card in there or something.

As for the AGP speed, it seems it's more difficult than you'd thing to rig a fast AGP port (the Pegasos2 also features simple AGP).  When I typed 1xAgp I meant there would be one socket as well as the PCI ones :-D

[Holley]

As for the uA1, it's compact because one of it's main markets needs that size - bear in mind part of this is to replace use of CD32s with SX32 modules ;-)

As for IRQs, thats a given, even on MiniATX you can whack on a riser, they're not the devil's spawn, but a standard PCI compliant item.

Personally I find the idea of having an untra-compact base unit very appealing - I'm tired of hulking great (oversized) PC towers at work!

[Holley]

Eyetech are saying a max of 2 PCI +1 for an AGP port (one presumes it would be possible to have a 3rd PCI instead).  The controller is the same as the XE motherboard, so I'd guess it has the same available IRQs as that - as to weather they're implemented is another matter (it's made from the TAO reference board, which is made to be compact rather than a powerhouse - so thats a maybe :-D).

I don't think they have a market for the well stuffed big boxes of old (how many filled to capacity A2000s did there used to be?), these small boards should be able to fill the old A500 market (especially if the 'Project Reality' bunch comes together).  Remember the OS isn't even finished yet - it's early days