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Author Topic: AmiWest 2017 clarifications  (Read 10950 times)

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Offline Hans_

Re: AmiWest 2017 clarifications
« on: October 25, 2017, 11:40:04 PM »
Quote from: ferrellsl;832182
Was it a true laptop or just a luggable?  If it's thicker than 1.5 inches then people shouldn't refer to it as a laptop but as a something else entirely.


The plan is to make a kit that takes a full sized Mini-ITX board, so it's going to be fat (the rear connectors aperture alone is >1.5"). You're welcome to call it a luggable if you want.

I haven't designed the case yet, but do have a fully battery powered proof-of-concept (NOTE: I had a slightly more elegant setup at the show than in the video).

My goal right now is to get a full prototype designed.

Hans
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work
 

Offline Hans_

Re: AmiWest 2017 clarifications
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2017, 06:38:58 AM »
I'll say more later, but just a few quick comments...

Firstly, yes, I have a 90 degree PCIe riser. It's not featured in the video because I don't have a computer case where the riser can be used. Plus, it was an electronics test, so physical layout wasn't important.

Quote from: ferrellsl;832399

...

People outside the NG Amiga community who might be interested in an Amiga laptop are only going to be annoyed when they search for an Amiga "laptop" only to find a Tabor crammed in a small box with no WiFi and battery life measured in minutes instead of hours and it's as thick as a pizza box.


It's always interesting to see what people decide is the "definition" of something. Perhaps I should run a survey to see just how big a box I can get away with. ;-)

I'm calling it a laptop because I'm following the typical laptop design: motherboard, batteries & keyboard in the base, and a flip-up screen. That differs quite substantially from what you get when you search for luggable on Google.

Regarding battery life, I have a 93 WH battery pack, and measured 28W power usage with the CPU & GPU maxed out as much as possible. So it's good for a few hours at least, and that's without any dynamic power management. I could increase the battery capacity, but then it would exceed the max allowed on a plane.

For wifi I'm currently going to use a tiny wifi router that works in client mode. There are nicer options out there, but the wifi-router eliminates the need to write drivers, which makes getting the first prototype done easier.

Obviously, this "laptop" kit won't be for everyone. If you're someone who likes this kind of stuff, then I encourage you to sign up to the mailing list (here). If not, then perhaps A.L.I.C.E. would be more to your taste (it looked pretty neat at AmiWest).

Hans
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work
 

Offline Hans_

Re: AmiWest 2017 clarifications
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2017, 12:27:43 AM »
Quote from: Spectre660;832429
That is quite unfortunate .


From what I heard, some CMI8738 sound cards have a serious bug on their PCI-to-PCIe bridge chip. It generally isn't a problem on true PCI systems, but causes trouble when there's a PCIe to PCI bridge in-between (e.g., like on the X5000).

There are CMI8738 cards with a fixed bridge chip, but it's impossible to know ahead of time which one you'll get. So, basically a lottery.

I don't think that trying to work around this issue is worth it. It would be far better to find a genuine PCIe sound card and write drivers for that.

Hans
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work
 

Offline Hans_

Re: AmiWest 2017 clarifications
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2017, 06:12:42 AM »
Quote from: Spectre660;832449
If you saw my first post on the subject  in this thread you will see that there are quite a few results with different models of cards that are not consistent.
the buggy bridge chip works perfectly with a different PCIEx1 sound card (Envyht24) and its driver and also some PCI CMI878 cards (no bridge chip) work perfectly while other PCI versions of the the CMI8738 (no bridge chip) do not .
The CMI8738 versions exist currently in good quantity so it may be worth having thorough look at the driver .

Well, I'm just repeating what I've heard. That PCIe bridge chip's IRQ bug is described as "fatal" with "no useful OS workarounds possible." Perhaps your Envyht24 is using a newer revision of that bridge chip, or maybe you're just very lucky.

I can't comment on any other issues.

Quote from: Spectre660;832449
This is one area that may be diminishing the X5000 experience among new users as some are receiving their systems with problem versions of the CMI8738 cards.


Now that everyone is aware of the issue, vendors can choose a different card that's known to work.

Hans
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work
 

Offline Hans_

Re: AmiWest 2017 clarifications
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2017, 12:00:54 AM »
Quote from: Spectre660;832461
It actually does uses the version 1. See the Ranger Screen grabs from the post below.
http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=3625&start=40#p41538

Assuming that they correctly updated the revision register between chip revisions... (stuff like this is so easy to forget).

Hans
Join the Kea Campus - upgrade your skills; support my work; enjoy the Amiga corner.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - see more of my work