Remake Amiga chips?

[Fats]

Crusher wrote:
Hmm.. (please don´t misunderstand me)
The only thing your attitude is doing ("move on..." and "Forget the old ones...") is just resulting in the opposite. People who tell me that is not possible and so on, just convinces me more that it can be done. Yes, you are right I don´t know much of this but I know that if it has been built, if I can imagine it then it can be built(again). I´m just going to look further, so thank you for giving me inspiration too bad you couldn´t help me.  :-)

Here are the facts, please let me know when you have found a solution
- The availability of the shematics is very uncertain. If these can't be located it will be very difficult to make pin/signal compatible replacement chips. Even if they can be found it will be very difficult to remake them with todays technology.
- Startup costs are at least a few 10000USD, engineering costs not included. You can do the math about how many chips you want to sell and how much you have to ask to break even and then decide the chance you will sell any set at all. These startup costs is only in the assumption all the chips are not too big so they can be produced in the same run. If not, then you have to multiply the startup costs with the number of runs needed.

For me I think the only viable solution is either:
- Recycle the working parts of broken A1200/A2000/A3000/A4000 motherboards
- A full replacement of the motherboard. Something like the C-1. A full motherboard replacement with the connectors the same but internally with programmed FPGA(s) that try to mimic the Amiga internals. Also this will only be viable when the source of old 'new' A1200 motherboards has dried up because I think it will still cost a multiple of the 50EUR they ask for a A1200 motherboard.

Conclusion: for now it is best to just buy a replacement A1200 motherboard if your computer breaks down.

greets,
Staf.

[Fats]

The other thing almost everyone is talking about is the cost, I´m not interrested in the cost right now. I know it will cost alot, I´m only interrested in how to make these chips.

If you have all the money you have I think your quest will look something like the following step:
1 Locate and license the schematics.
2 Find a foundry (microelectronics production plant) like TSMC and select a process to fabricate the chips on.
3 Reengineer the schematics so the chips can be produced with your selected technology
4 Do a production run of your chips.
5 Redo step 3 and 4 until you have a fully compatible chip.

If you want to involve reverse engineering and FPGAs you can start from the UAE sources I think. You then have to convert this into a hardware description language (VHDL or Verilog) and test it on the FPGA. You can also try to make interfaces to place the FPGAs in the place of the original chips. More information about FPGAs can also be found on FPGA4Fun.
Then a lot of engineering needs to be done to get the FPGA chip compatible with the real chip, probably comparing signal output with an oscilloscope from your programmed device and a real amiga chip.
Now I think of it there are also companies like ChipX that allow to convert FPGA design into chips much cheaper then the full custom layout. Google for 'structured ASICs' if you want more information.

Hope this is already enough information to start your quest

greets,
Staf.

PS: People wondering how I know all this should read about my employer and you will understand it better.