Has Clone-A died?

[takemehomegrandma]

and licensing issues

...and AFAIK, that was where it stopped.

Maybe he could try again now? Amiga Inc seems more willing to enter licensing agreements these days...

[takemehomegrandma]

Jens is vaporware.

Not Jens, but obviously Clone-A...

[takemehomegrandma]

@number6

I guess he tried to find other (and more willing) entities he could negotiate a license from...?

[takemehomegrandma]

so spec wise if by some miracle clone-a got released how it specs wise compare to like fpga arcade and Natami MX boards?

AFAIK the focus with Clone-A is to *clone* an Amiga 500; meaning aiming for absolute perfect reverse engineered chipset for *100%* SW compatibility. The focus with Natami OTOH is to reimplement and *improve* the chipset, which inevitably will mean breaking a certain amount of compatibility. So spec-wise the Clone-A *will be* an Amiga 500 (no ethernet, usb, pci, 256MB chipmem or whatever), while Natami will be something else. Different purposes, different goals.

[takemehomegrandma]

I think thats correct. Didn't they show the CloneA chip replacements actually plugged into an A500 motherboard at some show where they had a contest to see if anyone could bring something that would run on the Amiga but not with the cloned chips?

Yes they have done that, but AFAIK this was only in a development phase. AFAIK the real "end-user" product was supposed to be a single chip solution, and in an extension not even FPGA based but real silicon. Then it could be used in a dirt-cheap, mass produced "Amiga in a joystick" kind of product.

[takemehomegrandma]

so if clone_A was to be released it more or less like Minimig but more precise/compatible. So It wouldn't include AGA like Natami and FPGA Arcade. If this Is so, why didn't Jen release before Minimig. Seems like it might be too late for this.

The long term goals were different I think. Minimig is a hobby thing in extremely low volume from a guy(s) who like to tinker with FPGA's. The purpose with Clone-A was to clone an Amiga 500 (which has the biggest collection of games, the ones the broad masses would remember) for *100% SW compatibility*, into a silicon chip for use in mass produced devices. I don't think it's too late, but I don't think it will happen. This is probably *the one* product that would *really* need the Amiga brand (and kickstart, etc) in order to be realized, it couldn't be seriously marketed otherwise. So it would need a solid blessing from a solid IP owner, and I think this is where the project fell. I think there is too much money/risk involved to get started seriously without it.