New Hyperion Entertainment Website http://a-eon.com/ - The Mystery Continues

[Nlandas]

Is that a Xilinx FPGA near the slots? Probably glue logic, but perhaps it's for something else?

Ah, glue logic or old custom chip emulation? Now that would be cool - a modern board with some backwards compatibility with old software. Now that's something I've been hoping for since 1995.

-Nyle

[Nlandas]

@ Rogue:

Can I firstly say "Thank you" to you and the rest of the team...

...and then can I add "Where are the Atari-Style joystick ports?".    

LOL!!! We'll have to use a USB to Atari joystick adapter on one of the many available ports.  

[Nlandas]

Update today:

You must be a little curious.

We are too.

You see, is an unknown. Even we don't fully know what entails.

We know some of the things it means.

We know it means eceptional. Remember when Amiga hardware was eceptional, not just the OS? You won't need to remember much longer. Nemo brings Amiga back to the high-end.

It also means etra. This is where it gets hard to eplain. Let's start with custom chips. Amiga lead the way, everyone else followed. Got a graphics card? Custom chips are standard now. Amiga hardware used to be special, did things other computers couldn't.

That's why also stands for etraordinary, because that time is coming again. Nemo's 'custom chip' takes the idea a little further.

Even we don't know entirely what to epect of it. Which is the whole point. We're not going to tell you what it does, you're going to tell us. You see, the possibilities are endless.

Ecited yet?

[Nlandas]

eXactly, if you must use one of those horrid things at least do it in a modern way...

External USB HD Amiga compatible floppy?  ;^)  The modern way. 8^)

[Nlandas]

anyone notice the board has no sata ports only what appears to be single ide header? the new chip to me seems likely an opencl hander-accelerator for amiga os.

Uhm, it has 4 SATA ports and one IDE header. 10 USB ports, 1 gigabit ethernet port, 7.1 sound, compact flash, many PCIe, 2 PCI, Xorro slots and much more.....

Anyone see this?

Wikipedia--->

Power ISA v.2.04

The specification for Power ISA v.2.04[9] was finalized in June 2007. It is based on Power ISA v.2.03 and includes changes primarily to the Book III-S part regarding virtualization, hypervisor functionality, logical partitioning and virtual page handling.

Compliant cores

    * Cores that comply with the Power ISA v.2.03
    * The PA6T core from P.A. Semi
    * Titan from AMCC

Titan AMCC anybody? -
Suports up to 4 cores
Manufacturered on the cheaper 90nm CMOS process and other cost reductions
Design allows for dual cores at under 15watts power consumption

"The first implementations of the Titan core design. Two 1.5 GHz cores with FPU, 512 kB shared L2 cache, DDR2 controller, security engine, multi-channel DMA and I/O engine for gigabit Ethernet, PCIe, USB, RapidIO and/or SATA. It began sampling in October 2009"

Titan AMCC more specifications -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_%28microprocessor%29

I'd say that fits with what they say on the a-eon site - "The AmigaOne X generation will come with a variety of CPUs, conforming to the Power ISA 2.04 and newer standards. The X1000 processor currently has very limited availability, and you've probably never seen one in the wild, so don't worry too much about it. For now, please be content with knowing that it's a dual-core Power Architecture™ CPU, with a very low Thermal Design Point. For reference, our designers have been running the cores at 1.6GHz during thermal testing, but this isn't the exact nominal clock speed."

Since the Titan just started shipping limited quantities in October of 2009, is dual-core, has a very low thermal design point - the clock speed could be at 1.6Ghz but the cores are rated to 2Ghz currently. Sounds like a contender to me. ;^)

a-eon site - "Just as Commodore did with the A1000, we're aiming at the high-end first, with a powerful desktop computer aimed at the professional and serious hobbyist markets (although you won't have to wait until summer, and it should be a little cheaper!)"

Commodore Amiga 1000   Price:   US $1295 without monitor   (So under $1295 for those asking about price.)

[Nlandas]

Slim to none :-)

Someone will make an Amiga 4000 keyboard to USB adapter.

http://ezhid.sourceforge.net/amikbd.html

Use Keyrah to turn an A600/A1200 into a USB keyboard.

http://eabmobile.abime.net/showthread.php?p=335648

It wouldn't be that hard to have some Amiga keys molded to replace the Windows keys on a USB keyboard.

[Nlandas]

http://www.power.org/devcon/07/Session_Downloads/PADC07_Chang_AMCC_Titan_V0_2.pdf
    * Cores that comply with the Power ISA v.2.03
    * The PA6T core from P.A. Semi
    * Titan from AMCC

Titan AMCC anybody? -

I think that's a good guess. For one, it just started shipping at 1.5GHz last October...

They's using some weird NMOS with mult-phase clock (6502, anyone?) and dynamic logic, like CPUs from back in the 80s and early 1990s, to cut down on speed demands. Certainly better than the stuff that's been out in the Amiga market, but a shame they couldn't go to a real [at least formerly] destop-class CPU like the PPC970.  The AMCC has an FPU, but no vector unit. So, multimedia performance is even worst than it might have been with a modern applications processor.

......... Of course, it's the FPU and Vector instructions that come to play on the heavy duty multimedia stuff once associated with the Amiga.

According to the article I saw, it's actually the 1.5GHz version that's shipping. They need a shrink to 65nm to support 2.0GHz+.. at least according to the article.

Yes, This is absolutely not going to be considered a high end modern computer but it certainly is an high end Amiga, as you mention. It has some potential to actually give us a platform that could make and Amiga usable for more tasks. If they keep developing the OS and if it's enough to draw back or in a few developers. I'm not sure about that but I'm excited for something different and this looks like fun at least.

I'd love to have an AmigaOS equipped computer with modern browser, office suite and email package. I know, I know, why not just use a cheap $500 Windows PC. I guess I still like something about the way AmigaOS functions. It's sort of like crusiin' on a tricked out custom Schwinn, it might not have the racing chops or modern gearing of Cannondale or Mongoose but something just feels right about it. ;^)

I don't claim to be an Electrical Engineer but from what I was reading on the Titan they think it'll go to 2Ghz at 90nm.

From EETimes article on the Titan - "SAN JOSE, Calif. — Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) debuts today a new PowerPC core it hopes can drive the company into high-end embedded markets. The 90nm Titan is a dual-core processor that hits 2 GHz in bulk CMOS to deliver 8,000 Dhrystone MIPS.
..........................
AMCC hopes its device offers higher performance than the competing 90nm Freescale e500 which tops out at 1.5 GHz. Titan potentially could offer lower cost than the PA Semi device which also hits 2 GHz but requires a 65nm process technology."

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199501275

So at least from what I've been reading the expect to reach 2Ghz at 90nm whereas the PA Semi chip apparently needs to go to 65nm to reach that goal.

A professional doing ... what? Does anyone make a living doing AmigaOS development? That's about the only profession I can see happy here.

I have no idea, that's from a quote from the marketing on the X1000 page. However, I know the Titan is geared at the Telecommunications/Embedded markets, so you tell me does having an Xena chip with custom I/O socket on board give anyone the opportunity to develop/test Telecom/Embedded systems using this board before moving them onto a physical board or is it pointless with today's virtual circuit design and automatic PCB milling system?

Yup... back then, Macs and PCs were averaging around $3,000. In 2009, the average desktop computer bought for home use was just over $500 in the USA, and came with monitor and printer.

   Too true, a $1000 Amiga today with a design that's roughly 3 generations behind as you point out isn't exactly compelling to a mainstream mass market. I think they are correct on hobbyists being interested.

    The question would be, as you point out well, is there any use today for AmigaOS 4 running on what for the OS is a fast system with a Zena processor that would move this to other markets. I don't have a good answer but I for one would love to see AmigaOS get even a small foothold in the market so that it can continue to be developed.

     I guess I'm still a dreamer.  8^)  Those crazy Commodore engineers made me into one. 8^) Starting with the VIC20, progressing to the C64 onto the Amiga - they always had a way of pushing the envelope and creating something revolutionary not evolutionary.

    Maybe I'm just clinging onto the past but maybe someday someone will find that special spark that triggers another revolution. Not claiming that the X1000 is it but I'm happy to see any new Amiga hardware.

-Nyle

P.S. It was enough to get Dave to follow the thread so maybe it's at least a little intriguing. 8^) Good talking with you again after all these years. Last time would have been on a newsgroup in the early days of the Internet on my A4000D/030 over modem. 8^)

[Nlandas]

To be honset I want to know WHY the old amigas are so expensive. Every one of it's peers is £10-30 on ebay or the like, yet we pay around £100 for one somebody kept the box for. madness. Though I guess the 1200 and 4000 staying current all the way up to 2004? though I guess a with late 90s early 2000s amiga setup, "1200" is more of a vague description than a model number.

Simple, few people want an 8088/286 or a 68000 based Mac. ;^) Ok, ok - not trying to start a flame war.

It's supply and demand - people are looking for old Amigas all the time so the market for old equipment is still there.

I'd love to have a well working A4000 but I've already bought 3 of them and had them all die on me within a few months. I don't have the soldering chops to repair them and I can't afford a foreign repair service. ;^(

[Nlandas]

Yeah, maybe you're right... though I think that's after some process tweaking.

I thought it was cool that they thought they could get it to 2Ghz at 90nm though. Still love to see it on a mainstream desktop processor as you point out but the OS isn't there yet. 8^)

Of course it is... that's "code" for "PowerPC" these days. At least some years back, Cisco was putting PowerPC in most every router and switch they made. Thus, PowerPCs grew all sorts of router and switch friendly hardware, like modern memory buses and RapidIO links.

Absolutely, Like back in the day when printers were using a lot of 68K series processors.

Of course, every CPU that's not an "applications processor" (eg, desktop PC, PDA/phone, etc) is an embedded CPU... they're used in a box or board, hidden away somewhere. For example, I built an R/C controller system. which had two 32-bit ARM CPUs on the main controller, one 16-bit RI MSP430 CPU on the remote, even a tiny Zilog Z8 on an optional tachometer sensor. That's "embedded".

Zilog, Sweet - I haven't seen that name since college. I think the heath kits we had used a Zilog at their core. I had a machine code manual for one of that generation somewhere around here. I remember designing a primitive A/D on the kit but my sample rate was too slow to really capture the waveform.

I don't believe anyone building embedded telecommunications gear would bother with something like this.

Yeah, I figured it was a totally stab in the dark. Hopefully, someone comes up with some unique use for it and sells a several thousand extra computers because of it.

That's the question. I'm not sure just what you'd do with that XMOS chip on its own. It's interesting, but I reject their example of MP3 player... that's well served by $3.00 DSPs these days, probably with a bunch of on-chip peripherals specifically designed for making............

Maybe there is some benefit to be had for an FPGA connected to the Xorro slot being able to gain access to the XMOS chip and the I/O logic there. Would that possibly offload some of the work the FPGA would have to do to interface with all I/O systems and let the XMOS take care of it? I better stop now, I'm just hoping there is something neat that comes of it.

The fact I didn't really "get" the XMOS chip... ok, I wasn't motivated by "this is work", but you know, I do this for a living. I shouldn't have to guess :-)

LOL!!! Too true. Maybe they'll have some seed ideas closer to release time. I bet they'd let you in on the project. Have any fun ideas that you've been keeping to yourself? Love to see some of them. 8^)

None of those guys are working on this, far as I know. And it's a very different world. When we were doing this, personal computing was still very, very young. Right now, not so much.. it has matured. And yeah, it's a little sad, because who gets excited about a new computer release? Ok, maybe a few silly Macheads, but really, the PC you see this year is just a little better than last year. There are occasionally new CPU microarchitectures, but most of the time, it's just small improvements. Same with GPUs.

The reason isn't that no one's trying.. but rather, that many tried, and most ultimately failed. Those who are left are spending billions to incremental improvements, funded by the billions of chips they sell. Mature market.

Doesn't mean there can't be fun, or cool new things. I've been far more interested in the cool computing devices I can put in my pocket, or even my livingroom, than on my desktop. There's just more action in those places.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that any of the innovative old guard were on this project. Being there in the early days while each of you broke new ground in the brave new world of personal computers spoiled me. I sometimes feel like they deliberately hold back the full ramifications of new technological developments in order to incrementally improve things. That way they can sell more product as the new slightly better model comes out.  I know that it's not true but someday I just hope there is a unique team of hardware and software developers that get together to release something truly groundbreaking again.

I too have found most of my enjoyment in the smaller portable device market - MP3, Smart phone, GPS, digital cameras and other gadgets. Now that those markets are maturing everything is converging into a single device. That's interesting to watch - someday to have one device that's just as good as a separate video/digital camera, GPS, MP3, video player, phone, etc. Still keeps my interest peaked.

On the desktop side, I have to admit that PeeCees have become little more than a communications tool for me. I do a little video editing for my wife's school musicals and concerts as well as family outings but nothing like the enjoyment I got back in the day. I must be getting old - You guys sure did make it interesting though. It was a fun ride. Thanks.

Ok, I'm hooked in via satellite modem... it's a little faster than dial-up. And many, many times more expensive. But all those dishes on the roof is great for my tech-cred :-)

LOL!!!! Did you really need help in the tech-cred department. *Chuckle* Somehow I don't think so. We are lucky to have broadband and DSL available here. I hear that while it's expensive FIOS is really, really fast and the HD quality on it is good. Maybe someday that'll be here as well. Good talking with you Dave.

So long and thanks for all the Fred Fish...

-Nyle