SOLD- Cyberstorm PPC 68060/PPC & Cybervision PPC

[Iggy]

Ouch! Does anyone know if the circuit schematics for these are available? If people are willing to pay this much for them, then there is a possibility of making even a small run profitable.

[Iggy]

Schematics and diagrams for all Phase 5 products, including the Cyberstorm PPC and the Cybervision PPC are property of DCE (www.dce.de).
This questions was asked several times to them, and the answer was that some key components to build those boards were no longer available, and that they wanted someone to pull out all the cash for the production batch before manufacturing them, and that will require a minimum of 40 units by product.
So, it is not viable.

  While I'm aware that DCE purchased the rights to these designs about ten years ago, that was not really the question. It's unlikely that DCE would allow someone else to use what they would consider their intellectual property.
That being said, does anyone know of a source for that design's schematics (or that of a similar design), so that something similar (but hopefully not infringing on DCE's property rights) could be built?

[Iggy]

Not gonna happen. The engineering work required and limited demand will blow away any semblance of profit from the endeavor. Pay attention to what the FPGA guys are working on though, they're paving the way.

So several hundred dollars (if we're not into four figures already) for FPGA hardware makes more sense than a few hundred dollars for simpler hardware (that already has drivers for it)?
With WarpOS, the design of an accelerator shouldn't have to be exactly the same as the design licensed by DCE (and I think it's important to point out that they licensed the design - they don't appear to own it).
Personally, if you're going all the way to an FPGA design, why not scrap the rest (except for maybe the keyboard and mouse). The idea makes retaining your old Amiga hardware kind of pointless.

[Iggy]

these days with a soldering iron than playing cool games and running demos.

I can understand that. I just spent a little time a couple nights ago moving a resistor on the back of a Sapphire Radeon 9250 256MB video card (after flashing it with a modified Mac BIOS) so I could install it in a Powermac (with the hope of eventually running MorphOS on it).

And I can understand that the allure of older software is waning as software on other platforms outshines it.

But, I think you've underestimated what the cost of a higher performing system (than the minimig). I don't think the Natami's only going to be a few hundred dollars. Considering the board that they built the first prototype on costs almost a thousand, I'd be surprised if they can produce it for less than $800.

[Iggy]

It's an expensive game to play. I'm surprised that some of the kit out there is as cheap as it is given the low volume runs. 2 years ago I had a bunch of boards made and stuffed based on a design using an 8051 deritive that ended up costing 400 dollars a piece, took 6 months to develop and it wasn't anywhere near as complicated as an accel. 90% of the work I did was pure software.

Yes, I'm familiar with how expensive even simple things can get. An 8051 would be relatively simple, since you might not need to involve surface mounted components and could probably get buy with a board based on a single layer double sided copper clad (and etched) epoxy board.
I spent a few months working on a Freescale MPC8641D based motherboard, only to find that the level of complication and the number of layers required (not to mention the expense) made the prospect of financing a production run almost impossible.

Considering that there are new '60 accelerators available, its probably reasonable to state that the demand for an '060/PPC accelerator would likely be limited. If you want to use a PPC, a SAM440 or a Mac (depending on what OS you wanted to use) would be more practical.
I was just thinking of my own interests, but you're right, the idea is impractical.