Questions regarding Apollo cards

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Olafs3 made this post on Amiga One X1000 Xena/Xorro thread;

I think the new accellerators by apollo team with LAN and modern output are already available in near future, I also read from a new extension for classics that make it possible to use USB mouse and joysticks at classics (the card converts signals automatically). Additionally the Apollo team is also planning for a standalone system in future and there is also FPGA Arcade. So I think the 68k community will be quiet well supported :-), even without XORRO

Not wanting to derail that thread, I made a new thread here asking about information regarding the development of these cards.
I know I could just google and piece it together myself over a few hours, but sounds like users here got the info readily available

[Niding]

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67561&page=2

they are testing it right now

Cyclone 5?

For A500/ A1000/ A2000 / CDTV.

Card specs are:

* very fast 68K CPU
* 128 MB DDR3 Fast-memory
* SD-card usable/bootable as IDE-device
* Network interface
* RTG Graphics Card (chunky/Hicolor/truecolor) with HDMI out

The physial card design is done.
Testing / Driver development needs to be done.

Is this the correct card im copy pasting info about? If so, not any use to me since I got A1200.

[Niding]

Thanks for the link wawrzon

Too bad Gunnar got shot down by a Moderator with an attitude.

From what I read TCD posted passive agressive, with Gunnar making one comment in the same vein resulting in a temp ban.

But the specs was quite impressive and Im defintly going to follow the progress.
Gunnar is correct in the assumption that some (many?) old amigans enjoy having actual hardware over emulator. That holds true for me atleast and I dont mind paying a few quid for it.

Been upgrading my A1200, and something that would speed it up to the extent possible with this card would be bought instantly if priced somewhat reasonably (in amiga terms )

[Niding]

no.
the development should be communicated. because the journey is the reward. but not in form of promises, blogs, teasers, announcements and such but hard development facts for the community to observe, criticize and discuss, and where possible to support and help with.

ideally the progress can be observed in an open source environment, where one may follow discussion and every single commit to repository, download nightlies and test them on his own or even build and patch the software at home.

since this seems to be a closed source project, i dont particularly know how to involve the audience. but staying in a closed is definitely not the way, since people will anyway hope there is something going on "behind the scenes" even if the project was dead like it was in many cases. therefore i respect such a choice, but dont think its the best one.

I wholeheartly agree wawrzon.

I do understand amigadaves concerns with regards to releasing information before the product is done.
But lets face it, a developer on any of the "amiga" platforms have to have a thick skin and the ability to filter out the useful feedback from the noise that always comes from forumposters.

As wawrzon said, getting feedback, tips and help during the process could be a motivator and help accelerate the prosess. On Amigans.net for example software development is discussed as it goes along and it seems to be quite helpful for the developer(s).

Not that I actually know much about it since im code illiterate.