New type of accelerator design?

[blanning]

Some time in 2010, Jens will release the Chameleon for the c64.  If you're of the attitude that the upgrade makes the main machine pointless, then the chameleon is ridiculous.  It's basically a computer by itself and, iirc, can even run as standalone c64 emulator without even having a c64 attached.  It has ps/2 and vga ports.  And it can run the c64 in various accelerated modes, or not at all.

I'd like to see something like this for the 500/2000 and the 1200.  You plug it into either the 68000 socket, cpu socket, or the 1200 expansion port (ideally the same board doing all three with adapters if that's even possible).  The board would have an FPGA (I think, i'm not a hardware person) that emulates any 68k chip or even a powerpc.  Ideally, it could emulate the AGA chipsets for the 500 and 2000.  It would include ide and scsi ports.  A CF hard drive could be supported through those adapters.  It would include two clock ports and maybe ethernet.  USB could be supported through the clock port with a subway, or more ideally, just built in for 2.0 support.

Of course, 128mb or 256mb of ram.

If you really wanted to get crazy, instead of including ide or usb on the board, just include a zorro 3 slot.  I bet you could squeeze a deneb into a 1200 that way, or a buddha board for a 500, parallel to the motherboard.

RTG, vga, ps/2 mouse and keyboard, and catweasel-style support for 1.44mb floppy drives could even be included.  Although some of this could be handled through indivision and lyra type upgrades.

The board could support all kinds of options through the boot menu.  Choose a CPU, chipset, and whatever other options.

In the end, it would be a ridiculous upgrade, just like the chameleon.  But the user could choose any configuration they want, yes, just like WinUAE.  But WinUAE still wouldn't be an amiga.  To me, the ultimate hardware upgrade would be more fun than WinUAE.
   
brian

[blanning]

I think the only "legitimate" upgrades would be those  that provides a super-speed 68K cpu ,additional ram to the  limits of Amiga OS 3.x(perhaps 4.0 classic?),scandoubler/flickerfixer,and peripheral devices through usb and ethernet.

Once we no longer use the custom chipsets and their special features I believe it is no long an "Amiga",but rather "Amiga-like".

If the upgraded system can't use the software originally sold for Amiga then it must of necessity be considered something else,perhaps AmigaNG(new generation).

Still a 300 MHz 68030  might be fun!

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.  Even a super speed 68000.  Choose the chip and clock speed.  The idea is that you could dial in the machine to whatever you want at the time.  If you want to play classic games, run the machine in super-speed 68000 mode for the UI, then hotkey to a menu to slow down the clock to 8mhz.  Choose 1.3 roms.  Later you can switch to a 68060 with 3.1 roms to do other things.

I'd still want to emulate the powerPC so I could run that software, or a newer version of the OS.  But not at the expense of actual 68k goodness.  You could even emulate some of the intel upgrades, like the golden gate 486 board, or that at-once 286 thing.

You could choose to use the amiga chipset sound hardware, or emulate various zorro 2 add-in sound cards.  I know there was a soundcard, can't remember which, that added 2 more channels with each one you put it.  Maybe the upgrade could provide virtual zorro slots for things like that, emulate 4 of those sound cards for 8 channels, but unify the output into a pair of RCAs.

What if instead of a 128mb or 256mb simm, you could plug in a 1gb simm.  Then you could partition the memory into multiple "machines".  Freeze one, then switch to another, sort of rebooting the 1200 when switching between them.

Basically, it's WinUAE and its hardware emulation on a 1200 accelerator upgrade board, or something to go in the 2000 CPU slot, with all the hardware interfaces.

brian