Scanning the original chips

[bloodline]

These guys have done a few chips already (6502, 6800, 68000, SID, etc...), they have decapped, scanned and then recorded the logic layout... so they would be the first place to call :

http://visual6502.org/

-edit- just noticed that these guys are working out the entire logic for the VCS 2600... So given how that machine is related the the Amiga1000 they might be keen to do the Amiga


If on the other hand, you happen to have a ton of money, Chipworks Inc will do a private scan of the chips for you and give you everything you need

[bloodline]

Looks like the visual6502 guys already have Agnus, Denise, Paula and Gary in their chip collection... I guess we just need to harass them into scanning them

[bloodline]

They are scheduled to be scanned.
I am far more interested in the continuing polygonization (is that a word?) of the 68K - which I am working on.
Getting the exact internal microcode (note, it is split into two tables to compress it) will be very interesting and reduce the size of the softcores considerably.
/MikeJ

No idea when they will do them though, I can't be much help to them so I haven't made contact with them.

I also am keen to see the "polygonisation" of these chips not for recreation purposes (since I think MiniMIG and CloneA are probably a better approach), simply so I can see the choices the original design team made all those years ago

On the other hand some FPGAs with the original net lists on them would be super awesome...

[bloodline]

@Digiman

I think the point is, if you were to make an "Amiga Classic" compatible machine now, due to the complexity of the Amiga (when compared with machines of a similar age), to fully take advantage of technical advances and keep costs down... You would go the MiniMIG/Replay route rather than try and clone the original machine "chip for chip" (so to speak).

[bloodline]

I expect an entire A1200 could be implemented in a single ASIC on a cheap, but still reasonably modern process (e.g., 180nm). You could probably add on digital video and audio outputs, SATA, USB, etc as well whilst you are at it (so implement a typical expanded A1200 of 2011).

But with mask costs in the hundreds of thousands, you would truly want to be making tens to hundreds of thousands of the chips to make it worthwhile. But after that you would just need a sneaky "amiga in a joystick" product that accidentally left exposed pads on the PCB for all expansions, and you could get Amigas into many many homes again.

And there is the issue of software... The floppy disk isn't a sensible distribution medium any more... And the whole thing just isn't practical