Replicated motherboards, any interest?

[desiv]

@Cosmos, There's lot's of bit-banging software which is OCS/ECS only, I suspect.

I'm not sure there is that much...
We always use to think so, but once we got the degrader software, there wasn't much that we couldn't run on our A1200's as long as we re-kicked 1.3 first.

I'm sure there's some (Dragon's Lair hasn't worked for me..), but I'm thinking it might be more of a kickstart issue in general.

If this is an expensive project tho, it won't float.
Oh, there will be some takers, like there were for the GBA1000, but in general, if it's much less expensive to buy another 500 or 1200, then a lot of us hobbiests will do that...

I've spent a fair amount on my 1200, but that was over time.  Piece by piece.  If 4 years ago, someone had offered me a system like I have now for anywhere near what I've paid in one payment???  No way I would have done it..

desiv

[desiv]

The obvious idea is to have a single FPGA board with RAM, large enough to hold the full AGA/OCS/ECS/RTG/CPU cores, and have a I/O connector.

Exactly.  And it's not just a great idea because I mentioned something similar in another thread...  

The more I think about it, if you could design such a board with different daughterboards for the various systems (1000/500/2000/3000/4000/standard PC case?), not only would it be the same main board for all of them, but it makes future upgrades easier..

With FPGAs, the minimig is maxed and you can't just upgrade the FPGA, you need to design a new board.
Same thing with the FPGA Arcade.  It's just about maxed, so any "major" speed increases will need a new board with a newer FPGA.
(Not counting expensive daughterboards with actual 060 chips on them.. ;-)

Fine, if you have the same basic connector, when a larger FPGA is affordable, a new run of main boards for those who want them...

Next year, I buy the model with AGA and 50Mhz 68020 version and a 1200 daughterboard for my 1200.  
But in a few years, there's a new model, AGA++ with 68060 at 200Mhz, so I upgrade the main board for my 1200.
But I also get a 1000 daughterboard so I can put my older one in the 1000...  etc...

And, like the FPGA Arcade, there's no reason to limit it to the Amiga.

Hmmm.....

That might be worth paying more for....

desiv

[desiv]

Although I disagree with desiv about the FPGA Arcade Replay Board and think it is more capable than he might think..

I must have misstated then..
I think it's very capable, and a great project!!!

It's just that, it will hit a point of no return (as all FPGAs do) and you can't upgrade the FPGA to a faster/larger model, you need a board redesign that uses a newer model...

That's all I was trying to say (badly)..

desiv

[desiv]

Unless we like our original cases, which we do.

desiv