Replicated motherboards, any interest?

[amigadave]

With basis in the Amiga 550 thread. Is there any interest in replacement motherboards for Amiga computers, and how should they be designed?

There are three main ways of doing this:

 * Exact replication of the original, requires a supply of original chips like Agnus, Paula, Denise. And what board revision to model after?
 * Same external board connectors as the original, but using FPGA:s to run it.
 * Accelerated with high performance Motorola or PowerPC processors. Software compatibility may be an issue.

And what Amiga model and board revision models should be used?

The main idea is to be able to open the chassi, and replace a possible battery acid compromised or physically broken board with a newly made one. It should be mentioned that PCB area is at a premium

I think this is a good idea for replacing dying, or dead Classic A500, A600 & A1200 motherboards with new FPGA designs that are better than the originals.  Something like the FPGA Arcade Replay Board with or without the proposed 68060 daughter-card, extra memory, Ethernet & USB ports, but in a form factor to better fit into the original cases and also able to use the original keyboards.

I could see such a trio of designs (or better, one design that would work in all three cases) becoming quite popular in the future as original hardware starts to fail, or for people that just want to upgrade to the new features.

[amigadave]

I seem to be the only one that wants exact replacement.

I have a ton of hardware and software I want to continue using.
(ie toaster, flyer, etc)

Also, we need new accelerators (060)!!!

I don't think you are the only one, I also have several "Big Box" Classic Amigas that I would like to keep using for a long time.  A natural progression from using FPGA designs to replace existing 68k mobos in A500, A600 & A1200 cases might be to later make FPGA mobos with slots that can accept A3000/A4000 daughter cards w/Zorro slots for those people that still want to use their old Zorro cards.

IIRC, Zorro slots are impossible to find new these days, so the only way to get them would be to use old Amiga hardware to steal them from.

[amigadave]

Exactly.  And it's not just a great idea because I mentioned something similar in another thread...  

The more I think about it, if you could design such a board with different daughterboards for the various systems (1000/500/2000/3000/4000/standard PC case?), not only would it be the same main board for all of them, but it makes future upgrades easier..

With FPGAs, the minimig is maxed and you can't just upgrade the FPGA, you need to design a new board.
Same thing with the FPGA Arcade.  It's just about maxed, so any "major" speed increases will need a new board with a newer FPGA.
(Not counting expensive daughterboards with actual 060 chips on them.. ;-)

Fine, if you have the same basic connector, when a larger FPGA is affordable, a new run of main boards for those who want them...

Next year, I buy the model with AGA and 50Mhz 68020 version and a 1200 daughterboard for my 1200.  
But in a few years, there's a new model, AGA++ with 68060 at 200Mhz, so I upgrade the main board for my 1200.
But I also get a 1000 daughterboard so I can put my older one in the 1000...  etc...

And, like the FPGA Arcade, there's no reason to limit it to the Amiga.

Hmmm.....

That might be worth paying more for....

desiv

If anyone has already thought of this idea that Bloodline, desiv, myself and others are in support of and you are working on making it a reality, please let me know via PMail, or email.  I would be interested in working on such a project and even investing what I could afford into making it a reality if I could be reimbursed through sales of the project boards.  Although I disagree with desiv about the FPGA Arcade Replay Board and think it is more capable than he might think.  This would be a great follow up project for MikeJ to look into doing.

[amigadave]

I thought someone had redone the Mini-Mig as an Itx standard layout?

Someone did do a v2 Minimig in ITX format and the FPGA Arcade Replay Board is also in ITX format.

Wouldn't this be a much better option?

A new case, a new PSU, a new motherboard with usb, rj45, ps2 ports, scan-doubled vga!

The prototype daughter card for the Replay board has 3 USB ports & Ethernet RJ45 with the base Replay board having PS2 and scan doubled VGA already.

Why polute a new motherboard with old hardware like zorro or cpu boards? Seems crazy to buy a new Motherboard to install old unreliable hardware!

If the FPGA Arcade Replay Board's expansion connector has enough lines to support it, or FPGA motherboard like the Natami MX, or another newer design comes out, that would allow some users that want to use some of their old ZorroII/III cards, Video Slot cards, and possibly even Accelerator Slot cards, why not allow those users to attach a secondary board with those slots so they can build a fully backward compatible Amiga Clone, and the people that have no interest in those slots can ignore buying this secondary slot connector board.  Zorro cards, Video Slot cards and Amiga Accelerators are getting old and may fail some day, but many Amiga users (like me) have a large investment in such cards and may wish to continue using them in a newer, faster, more expandable FPGA based motherboard system.

What we really need is a proper production run of Amiga keyboards that plug into USB or ps2. This is of greater value for users of mini-mig or the proposed newer FPGA motherboards. I have a few A2000 keyboards with broken cpu's sitting in my cupboard! Its annoying.

Without some new standards how can we bring prices lower for interface hardware like wi-fi, usb or rj45? Amiga network cards and usb cards are getting harder and harder to source

I don't see why you need a new production run of Amiga keyboards when the MiniMig and FPGA Arcade Replay Board (and soon Natami) already support using any off the shelf PS2, or USB keyboard and AmigaKit already sells Amiga branded keyboards?  As for Amiga network & USB cards being hard to source, hopefully new drivers will be written to allow use of standard PC USB network dongles.  Either that, or like what MikeJ is doing with his Replay Board daughter card that includes an Ethernet RJ45 port, and Natami that will have its own RJ45 Ethernet port on the mobo.

Don't get me wrong I love my Amiga's but I would really love a new Amiga in a small tower with associated new keyboard and high precision mouse!

Wish list for me would be :-

A new FPGA based motherboard with PC standard layout (ipx mini-mig?)
4meg chip ram (much better than 2meg as a standard)
8meg fast ram on the mobo
A high clocked 68000 fpga implimentation
Kickstart 3.1

With this type of system I could get back into Amiga graphics and programming.

Az

I hope that you will get back into Amiga graphics and (specially) programming with what is already available now and not wait for some new system.  There are many different options for people that are interested in the Amiga.