An email from elbox.

[kd7ota]

I know this is not necessarily a hardware problem or anything, but since its related to future hardware, thought this would be in the right spot to put it in.

i emailed them and asked a few simple questions, but im not here to cause flame wars or anything, but by the sound of the email, it may sound promising. What are your guy's personal opinions?

kd7ota

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Subject: Re: The DRAGON project.  


Radolfo Fernandez napisa³(a):
> Hello,


Hello,


> I have read at Amiga.org that there will be a Dragon Coldfire accelerator.
> It also mentions to be due at the end of January ...
...snip...
>... for the Amiga
> community, but if it goes past it, it will yet put another black mark on
> your company for release dates.  


We plan to start the DRAGON sales in the end of January. We do not see
any problem with it.


> The SharkPPC still isn't out. How far long
> is the project?


SharkPPC depends of the availibility of the final, commercial version
of AmigaOS4. We cannot start its production before it is available.


In case of DRAGON there are not such limitation. DRAGON works with
AmigaOS3.x.


> Any pictures of the DRAGON would be appreciated. Thanks.


We plan to publish the DRAGON photo gallery simultaneously with the
public presentation of DRAGON, which will have place in January.


Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further assistance.


Best regards,


Support Department of ELBOX COMPUTER
Web site: http://www.elbox.com
Online Store: http://buy.elbox.com

> Radolfo Fernandez

[nex4060]

whoa! sounds gooooooood to me :-) there were plans for a A4K version, right?

[Castellen]

I asked them just before Christmas if there were plans for an A4000(T) version, and they replied:

If the A1200 version of DRAGON sells well we will offer an ColdFire
upgrade for users of Mediators for A3000(T) and A4000(T) computers.
This upgrade will consist of the new Core Logic board to be fitted
to these PCI busboards. New Core Logic will include ColdFire MCF5475
with bridge for PCI 66, Flash memory, sockets for DDR SDRAM and
bridge to Zorro III, and many more... It will replace the current
Mediator PCI 4000 Core Logic card.

[Englyst]

Nice! I hope they'll make such a beast. I would buy it.

[ikir]

I'm really exited by the idea of having a Dragon or a Shark in my 1200. right now i've disconnected my 1200, i don't use it anymore since i got an AmigaOne.

I don't have too much money now :-/ Anyway i'm not going to buy a Dragon soon. Maybe i'll wait for a Shark so i can run OS4 on two computers at home.

[PMC]

My A1200 is currently DOA thanks to a fried '040 (CPU fan detached itself in situ!), so I'm left with WinUAE on my Athlon, which although it seems to be the most effective option for running older software that my "real" Amiga has problems with, it still is far from satisfactory when I'd rather be using a "real" Amiga.

The Dragon seems like a great solution for people like me.  I'd like to see it become a success, but Elbox's customer care needs dramatic improvement before I'd seriously consider parting with my cash for it.

Although Elbox are very helpful with technical support, I find them to be less than satisfactory when fielding general product questions and for their over-protective attitude to third party software.  The USB driver debacle seriously damaged their PR as far as I'm concerned and I have issues with trusting their products as a result.

The jury remains out AFAIC, but I'd like to see the Dragon emulate the sales success of the Mediator range.

[Kronos]

 
This upgrade will consist of the new Core Logic board to be fitted
to these PCI busboards. New Core Logic will include ColdFire MCF5475  

A CPU-Upgrade sitting in a Zorro3-Slot

Well, there is quite a good reason why C= gave the A3000/4000 a dedicated CPU-slot instead of just an extra Z3.

Elbox just managed to make me even more skeptical about their Dragon.

They can really achieve miracles  :-P

[kindergip]

Kronos questioned:

A CPU-Upgrade sitting in a Zorro3-Slot
Well, there is quite a good reason why C=
gave the A3000/4000 a dedicated CPU-slot
instead of just an extra Z3.

Elbox just managed to make me even more
skeptical about their Dragon

But then again we have in another corner:

Adam Kowalczyk of
ACK Software Controls, Inc.
and LiveWiresystems.ca announcing;

New Products:
Amiga 1200.

The first product is a Freescale 8245
based CPU card clocked at 400 MHz.
The card will have a SODIMM slot for memory
expansion and also includes a Silicon Images
680 IDE controller and a Radeon Mobility
graphics chip.

The second product is a modular busboard and
CPU combination for use with towered A1200
machines. The bus board features an AGP 1X
slot and three PCI slots. Additional features
of the busboard include two DDR DIMM slots for
memory expansion, a Silicon Images 680 IDE
controller, onboard USB and ethernet.

So;

OS4 is poised to make the leap into a release
version and it appears people
are responding with some new hardware which
accomplishes several things, faster classic
base hardware to preserve the base community
and OS4 ready ppc options to open the door for
upgrades at a mid range cost.