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Author Topic: What would your ideal upgrade be right now for your Amiga(s)  (Read 15461 times)

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Offline Thorham

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For me, a new accelerator with the following:

1) Full 68030/68060 with FPU.
2) Level 2 cache (I've read that this is possible).
3) Fast DMA SATA.
4) Can hold up to four gigabytes with new sticks (you get 4 gigs-16 megs of free memory).
5) DMA USB2.
6) DMA ethernet, either wired or wireless (option).
7) Part of the memory has a second bus for the DMA devices.

So, that's it, unless I've forgotten anything ;)

Another idea would be some sort of system that allows you to connect multiple A1200 mobos through the CPU slots, so we can have dual view and multiple CPUs :)
 

Offline Thorham

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Re: What would your ideal upgrade be right now for your Amiga(s)
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2011, 05:12:48 PM »
Quote from: JimS;635988
Seriously, you're talking about duct taping a new built 68k/PPC card, graphics, SATA, networking, USB 2 board onto a 30 year old computer? When you're done you're only using the mouse & joysticks from the original Amiga....
If you're talking about my accelerator idea, then no, no graphics (and no PPC). That way you use the A1200 hardware, except the CPU and the IDE port. It would be a great board, and it would simply slide into the CPU slot, so no duct taping is needed at all.

As for 'a 30 year old computer', while true, the Amiga is quite a modern computer. Current peecees are basically the same idea (just much faster): Motherboard with stuff on it in a box; just connect it, turn the power on and go. Only tablets are more modern. Come on, Amigas aren't pre '80s machines. It's in the early '80s that computers were becoming modern, and essentially very little has changed (the big exception is performance, and performance isn't necessarily a factor when determining how modern something is).
 

Offline Thorham

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Re: What would your ideal upgrade be right now for your Amiga(s)
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2011, 08:19:51 PM »
Quote from: JimS;636054
But my point was that when you look at all the stuff you'd want to add to a classic Amiga to bring an old Amiga up to date, it makes more sense to start from scratch with a new motherboard.... just like y'all are doing.
Except when you're only interested in classic Amigas (680x0+OCS/ECS/AGA). I wish I was a billionaire. Then I could just buy Amiga, and start producing real Amigas again (at a loss, so what, it's a hobby :)).
 

Offline Thorham

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Re: What would your ideal upgrade be right now for your Amiga(s)
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2011, 08:46:00 PM »
Quote from: JimS;636057
I wasn't talking about your accellerator idea specifically, just the idea of things added on to old hardware. While I agree the Amiga is a fairly modern computer design wise, the actual hardware is between 15 and nearly 30 years old. It just seems to me that if you're going to go to the expense of designing, building and testing something, might as well start with a clean slate. I'm thinking about what I'd want to see to make me shift over to using the Amiga as a day-to-day computer again rather than some retro fun... (not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-) ) ... and when I look at all the stuff I'd want, a new motherboard would be saner.  
That's why I like the Replay, and Natami, although I'd prefer the latter to be open.
Okay, fair enough :)

What we really need, is new software for 680x0+chipset+KS3.0 (and no, not ports, especially not Fire Fox ports, yuk :(). What our classic Amigas are doing today isn't very impressive at all, and it can be vastly improved.

The OS is firmly stuck in the past, and there's no need for this if one got written from scratch (incompatible with AOS, start from scratch completely). It could be faster and more stable than AOS, and provide the perfect platform for modern applications that run well on '030s with chipset. There are plenty of applications that aren't heavy when they're well written, and there's certainly no need for a billion exa hertz CPU (I'm willing to bet that we'll see the same crappy bloatware as on teh peecee with Winblows/Linsux if our Amigas become up to date speed wise, and this is a big no no).

To me, it's about the software, not the hardware, hence my want for accelerators with standard 680x0 CPUs and some much needed connectivity features (and a shit load of ram for the novelty value ;)).
« Last Edit: May 06, 2011, 08:50:10 PM by Thorham »