MiniMig with AGA

[tasmanian guy]

I want one NOW!!!!  Please tell me when these boards go on sale they'll be under $300 Australian pretty please! (less than 280US?)

[tasmanian guy]

Just call us backward, but I'd like a board, that I can put into a case, that would allow:
 
68000 processor that is speed selectable.
2 meg chip ram (user selectable) 8 meg fast ram
hard drive support
usb keyboard mouse support
usb joystick support
AGA chipset with VGA 60hz output with scan doubler, flicker fixer, etc
that is 99% compatible with Amiga software and is under $300 Australian for the board.
 
If it was available now for that price, I'd buy one.

[tasmanian guy]

Seriously this is what Amiga needs.  Legacy hardware that is relatively cheap, but powerful options to bring it up to speed.
 
I'd love a box that can give me what you've demonstrated there!

[tasmanian guy]

Sign me up for one as well as long as it was under $300AUD (around $280US), if possible.

[tasmanian guy]

Ah, so Yaqube has let his secret out
This explains why my mailbox is now full./QUOTE]
 
Well an Amiga with AGA, that comes in a nice case, with AGA support, 2 meg chip (expandable) and 8 meg fast over 95% compatibility, a couple of times faster than a standard Amiga 1200 (for Elite Frontier) and under $300AUS would be on my wish list.
 
The minimig here in Australia seems overpriced for an OCS Amiga as no one here sells locally and even with our strong dollar at the moment I can't justify forking this out for. However I can justify an AGA Amiga
 
I know people say you can run Amiga Forever etc which I already do, but I don't like the idea of running an Amiga on a Windows System.
 
I look forward to developments and hopefully you'll have the boards ready for sale for the Christmas rush. Good luck with your venture I hope you do well, remember only "Nixon could go to China" and now only the "Amiga can make a come back from China"
 
** if I look on ebay I get around $270 for a minimig in a case from the USA, postage though is quoted as $137.00 there abouts which over half the cost of the item, pity someone doesn't import them and sell them locally in Australia.

[tasmanian guy]

@MikeJ
 
Its now 16:00(ish) in China... Did the boards make it to manufacture?
 
Did you make those last 4 connections?
 
I'm excited. I can't help it!
 

Let's hope so, this is almost the perfect Amiga ever!

[tasmanian guy]

The video ouput block can do anything upto 1080/60P, although this is pushing the timing a bit. 1280x720p and 24/50/60 works well as do various computer standards such as 1280x1024 etc.
 
Not all cores will support these outputs without extra hardware support such as a video re-sizer or frame rate converter. I would like to see native hi-res support for the Amiga core and I don't think this is particularly difficult. My Atari ST code supports non-standard hi-res modes currently.
 
/Mike

Am looking forward to a review of the board, once it all up and running so I can place an order :-)

[tasmanian guy]

Again, I can't wait. I've played with WinUAE (and it is damn good) off and on for years now, but deep down inside I'm a tinker-with-hardware kind of guy and this excites me.
 
I could say some things about post C= "Amiga" but it would be neither kind nor constructive so I'll keep shtum.

After failng to get an Amiga CD32, I am tempted to get an Amiga 1200 now but after seeing this I may put my money towards this.  I wonder what the level of compatability will be.

[tasmanian guy]

My other half will probably kill me but please put me one down for me as well, as long as it under $300AUS :-)

[tasmanian guy]

Wasn't there an old AGA driver for P96 or CGX? Even if it seemed silly back then, it may start making more sense now with this new AGA and potential addons in Minimig. OK, so maybe new modes aren't useful without drivers. So write a driver... I don't see that as a reason not to create new modes.

I believe in baby steps, minimig then came the arm processor add on.
 
If we can get minimig + AGA + more processing speed (along with being able to use a normal mouse and keyboard, with vga output that acts as a scan doubler) I am happy.
 
Leave all the other stuff for version 2, lets just get the hardware out there!

[tasmanian guy]

I just tried one of the RevA boards in a ATX case to check the hole alignement and the holes are in the right place, and the IO lines up.
 
So, should be good for mini-ITX box.
/Mike

Excellent news Mike!

[tasmanian guy]

Even though my Amiga 1200 with 68030 (with 64 meg ram) in a rack is going great, just wondering what speed this system is going to be running at?
 
eg would it be as fast as a 68030 50mhz or even faster?

[tasmanian guy]

So what sort of speed are we looking for this fpgaarcade Amiga, is it going to be as fast or faster than a 68030 at 50mhz or not? :-)

[tasmanian guy]

Okay so it probably wont be as fast as a 68030 at 50mhz, but how much ram can you expand it up to?  I saw the 50 meg chip ram demonstration, which could be very handy, as you can never have too much chip ram :-)
 
It is a pity we can't make an Amiga clone with a 68060 and PowerPC for those that have yet to cross to Amiga OS 4 cheaper than the Amiga X1000 or a Sam.
 
I suppose WINUAE will suffice for cpu power hungry apps.  Off topic but I've just discovered Dark Basic Professional, what a great program!  Reminds me of AMOS in terms of being easy to get quick results.