Would you support this project? -please read-

[Waccoon]

New Amiga could be like this:

What's the point if it runs Workbench just like any other hardware?  Or do you expect such software to be hard-coded, thus preventing any forwards mobility?

AAA+ custom chips

To do what?  Operate timers?  Control floppy drives and IDE?  Play sound? Today's PC chipsets are very much like what AGA used to be:  hardware and bus controllers with integrated GFX and audio.

The only really nice thing about the Amiga was Exec, so a real-mode CPU crash gave you debug output, much like a protected-mode crash.  Today's PC's still just lock up or explode randomly and you never know if it's bad software or an overclock problem.  :-)

3D customable chip

Today's 3D chips already do just about eveything.  A custom RAMDAC with a *proper* sprite engine would be nice, though.  That would get rid of flicker for good if objects don't quite sync with frame buffer swaps.  :-)

USB 2.0 as standard

Well, that's one thing the AmigaOne doesn't have.  :-)

New 92 keys Amiga keyboard

It amazes me how few computers have dedicated undo/redo buttons.  A method for overtyping would be nice, too, so you can use a keyboard like a typewriter.  For example, why bring up a character mapper to find the (é) symbol, when you can just type (e), backspace, and then overtype the (e) with the appropriate inflection?

Still, most of that can be done in software using custom keys and remapping.  You hardly need a custom keyboard so much as a "rebadged" keyboard.

Now its the time to think new.

PC's don't sell in the tens of thousands, anymore.  They sell in the hundreds of millions.  You have to believe that hardware standards evolved the way they did for a reason, even if Windows doesn't make much sense.

Of course, this is strictly in terms of hardware.  For software, I don't think it makes any sense to make a brand new OS and then make it work just like Windows, UNIX, or whatever.  If you're going through that much trouble, you might as well try to fix all the bad points and keep the good stuff.

It's easy to do that with software.  Hardware is just a means to an end.

[Waccoon]

Frankly, I'd like to have a new line of Amiga style cases developed instead of a new motherboard.

Yeah, why is it the overclockers get all the different stuff, which basicly is neon and colored cases with LCD front panels?

What ever happened to the *real* inspiration behind the iMac:  reducing cable clutter, reducing noise, taking less desk space, going wireless, abolishing the bulky "tower" configuration...

[Waccoon]

Boy, for a thread about an architecture that has no chance for success, there sure are a lot of people jumping on board.  :-)

1. Getting financial support from Motorola

Why would they be interested?  Hey, Motorola!  Yeah, YOU!  Give us money!

2. Getting Shiftec to contribute with A4000T alike case

Why such a big case?  Do you plan on putting twelve hard drives in it?  Such a big box for such a puny CPU!  ;-)

Oh, I get it.  You want a massively parallel system!  Let's put 4... no, 8 CPUs in there.  It might actaully best a single, pathetic x86 CPU by then -- if your OS is properly designed, that is.

3. Talking with those hardware people with NuOS and Oliver

Who are probably the only people writing a unique OS for that processor.

4. Intergrate some sort of MediatorPCI technology into this, + adding SD-RAM and AGP

Why not go the whole hog and go PCI-X?  AGP is just an accerlerated PCI.

Oh, yeah... nobody makes video cards for PCI-X.  I guess that means we'd have to have a proprietary solution and manufacture it ourselves.

5. Getting OS support from Hyperion in the end

I'll refrain from commenting on this, since they haven't released their first OS yet.  Of course, please keep in mind how long it's taken to get OS4 on the market.  Or, did you think OS design is as easy, fast, and cheap as hardware design?

We need Amigas now,.. ! This could work, but then its up to people also. Dont be negative and its not that expensive.

"Now", meaning after this new wonder-chipset has been fully designed, tested, debugged, and goes gold... and by then, fab processes should have shrunken by 2-3 generations and everything would have to be redesigned all over again.

Why not take a Transmeta approach?

[Waccoon]

I'm still reading this because it's fun to harass idealists.  :-D

The main reason for this project, is to get the Amiga feeling back. Maybe even Eyetech is interested in the end.

I think the only Amiga "feel" was because of how people programmed it.  You put a disk in, and the program took over.  That's unlike a lot of PC's these days, but not really unlike any game console.  The only thing that could get that "feel" back is to be able to run software without installing it.  Only game developers would really go for that.  (Hmm... games... didn't the Amiga have something to do with that?)

Ah, but Kickstart early options, Guru Meditation, Workbench... these are the things that made the Amiga special.

Oh, and why ColdFire?  Does that CPU magically offer more Amiga "feel" than any other processor?

I see a splitted community as I've got lots of mails supporting me, and here and also people wich dosent believe in such project and talks about dreaming. Yes, it is a dream, and it is a big dream for most of Amigans, to get the thing we all had before back.

Well, it's good to have a solid goal, but theorizing alone doesn't get you anywhere.  Why do you think Apple gave up on their own core OS and adopted BSD Unix?

PS2 is a good example on how Amiga could envolve yes.

Do you know how much money it cost to develop the PS2 chips?  Are you aware that console manufacturers lose money on hardware and require licensing fees on each game to stay in business?  Did you know the core of the Emotion Engine is an embedded MIPS chip?  Did you know the PS2 divides GFX processing between two different chips, which is one of the reasons it's difficult to program?

Come up with ideas and I write them down,.. I also understand those wich thinks this idea is totally waste of time.

My advice is to focus less on the hardware and more on the form factor, and the software interface.

A 3D-AGA chip like in PS2 in the new Amiga would boost it. It would give programers time and resources they never get anywhere else. I mean,.. all this new AGP gfx cards allways comes in new shapes. They give programers new standards and this results in more bugs in programs.

You'd have to have a good set of development tools to go with it.  One of the big reasons Direct3D and OpenGL caught on wasn't to boost performance or make software work with all video cards.  These kinds of APIs make programming easier, so programmers don't HAVE to do everything themselves.  It's like comparing assembly to C.  Assembly is faster and more reliable, but why go through all that trouble?  The 3DFX Glide and S3 MeTaL API's didn't catch on because they were too hardware specific (Glide was, however, a stipped-down OpenGL, I've heard).

Abstraction and metadata is really making software bloat these days.  If you just program intelligently, compatibility and performance falls into place without using highly proprietary hardware.

I dont say that a GeForce 4 TI 4200 card is bad or something, is just that programers should have the hardware to program for, and be good/better.

You *CAN* hard-code a GeForce 4 if you want to.  If you think it's possible to make a new GFX architecture that puts nVidia to shame, and throw away programming tools to get that extra "edge"...  feel free to try.  :-)

I'll give this going to Monday 09.00cet. Then starts working on this project for real. Getting companies interested. It wont be a easy task/job, but I love my Amiga 4000 and I would love to see a new Amiga. I will offcourse support AmigaOne, but its not the "real thing". It misses something... and Amiga Inc' dosent have any Amiga spirit left.

I don't think anyone has ever defined the "spirit" of Amiga, and I don't think anyone ever will.

Instead, why not define, in detail, EXACTLY what disappoints you about each PC component that's already off-the-shelf?  Like, what is it about the memory management capabilities of the GeForce 4 you don't like?  Why do you like the PS2 Graphics Synthesizer, instead?

There is no advertising, the OS release is just never going to happend, and if it happends, only Amiga people will know of it.

No OS?  Who will make software for it?  If you make hardware without a specific software in mind, chances are it will just end up being a Linux box.  :-)

Its better to try, than just do nothing at all!

Good for you.  Start trying by writing an essay on what's wrong with the industry, how you intend to fix each problem, and try to collect as much talent as you can.  Politics and human nature tend to be much more difficult problems to resolve than technical issues.