minimig 4000

[amigadave]

A6000 wrote:

downix wrote:
How about we get an A2000 replacement going first, then let's work on the next step?

The responses to this thread have been so negative that nothing will be done.

Oh, that's a great, positive attitude!

Look at other threads, work is being done by more than one member and the MiniMig is going to lead to several different, enhanced projects.

It will take some time, but look at what has already been done, alone by Dennis in just one year, where no company, or group of developers has been before.  It has inspired others to take action and build on top of what Dennis has started.

Even Dennis is adding to what he completed by working on multiple adf support.

The future of Amiga development has never looked so good!

[amigadave]

@HenryCase,

Well said!

[amigadave]

downix wrote:
....  The 68060 used such a system to it's proto-coldfire core, so much so that my college professor put that the coldfire was just the 060 w/ that translator removed.

I am trying to wrap my limited CPU knowledge mind around that statement.  68060 proto-coldfire core???  hmmmm ....  I thought that the coldfire came out after the 68060 and it was a stripped down design with less instructions that met the embedded market demands of the time?

The term 68060 proto-coldfire core sounds to me (the average layman) like a part of the 68060 designed to copy a pre-existing coldfire CPU?  Is this an Egg or the Chicken question, which came first, the 060 or the coldfire?  I guess the coldfire could have as the 68000 series was on its way out and Macs were already moving to the PPC, which is why no Macs ever came from Apple with the 060 inside.

Sorry, just rambling to myself.

[amigadave]

@downix,

Great explanation! (even for us laymen) :lol:

I guess I was mostly right in that the coldfire was a stripped down 060 for the embedded market.

[amigadave]

Hmmm, thinking out loud.  Since the Coldfire had that hardware translator removed and since many have wanted to develop a Coldfire accel for the Amiga because of the Coldfire's low cost and availability, as well as its increased speed, maybe we could get Dennis to sit down for another year and develop the missing 68060 part of the Coldfire in an FPGA and we would end up with a real A3000/A4000 Coldfire accelerator that works and runs at 3 to 10 times faster than our old Phase5 060 boards?

If it were that simple, I guess someone would have done it already. :-?

[amigadave]

@HenryCase,

I was not thinking of just speeding up the MiniMig a little so games would run faster, or at the correct speed.  I am thinking of future projects where people will be working on advanced Amiga compatible designs by using the work Dennis has started and forwarding it up to and beyond anything we currently have in hardware on Classic Amigas.  This could include using 68060 CPUs, but it would be better if a Coldfire solution could be designed, as it is faster, cheaper and more available, and it is an extension of the 68000 series CPU.  Another group will probably go in the direction of PPC CPUs to obtain compatibility with AmigaOS4.x and yet another group will move toward integration with x86 architectures to use AROS and take advantage of all the cheap hardware.

I think one of the next steps will be to have ECS and AGA recreation in hardware and then go beyond to what AAA would have been.