why are sams so expensive?

[bloodline]

The thing is that there isn't an Amiga Market anymore, it's dead and gone. Acube are selling a product that will never be comercially viable from a developer point of view. Due to piracy alone, one needs to be sure that you can pay the bills even if only 10% of all users of your software actually pay for it... In the Amiga world 10% of all users is only about 10 to 50 people... That's not going to pay the rent []

[tone007]

I'm glad someone did this so I didn't have to.

[tone007]

I'm glad someone did this so I didn't have to.



This guy's got Amiga written all over him.

[takemehomegrandma]

Nonsense - look, you cannot just look at the CPU alone to quantify "power".

Of course you can, if your applications needs power, you will only get that from the CPU alone. For example, any G3 CPU will be better than the Sam/Efika class "G2" CPU's with no L2 cache, especially when running older, 68k emulated Amiga applications.

To me the efika is and always was useless

Well, the Efika isn't for anyone, *it is* rather limited in its specifications. But OTOH this is also its strength, the low price is perhaps its most prominent specification. And it was only supposed to be an evaluation/development platform for the next step in the plan, the 5121b based LimePC/"Cherrypal" devices (that unfortunately never happened).

But what do we see if we look at the Sam? We see a motherboard that costs about as much as a PowerStation (another relatively low volume machine, one can suppose), with *four* G5 cores, 4MB L2 cache, 4 Altivec units, 8 FPU units, etc, etc. This is powerful hardware. The Sam costs about as much, but is outperformed by *PDA's*! I'm sorry, but this is as useless than an old Trabant sold at the price tag of a Ferrari; only the few die hard Trabant brand followers will even consider it, effectively making this a *none option* as a future platform. It's not an option. It's utterly useless from a future-building perspective.

[kolla]

Of course you can, if your applications needs power, you will only get that from the CPU alone.

First... what application would that be?!

Secondly - I assume your answer to the above is "media playback", but what's the point of a fast CPU when the IO is so crap you cant feed the CPU fast enough, and the ammount of RAM is so low that there's harly anything left to use for buffering?

For example, any G3 CPU will be better than the Sam/Efika class "G2" CPU's with no L2 cache, especially when running older, 68k emulated Amiga applications.

Did I say otherwise? Sheesh, you're jumping to a completely different discussion here - my comment was on how _efika_ and _sam440_ compare - NOT anything else.

Well, the Efika isn't for anyone, *it is* rather limited in its specifications.

No shit!

But OTOH this is also its strength, the low price is perhaps its most prominent specification.

No it isnt, the Efika with all its glorious specs is _overprised_ - I never bought one, exactly because it's just way too crappy, even for the pricetag it has. I have ARM systems that I consider much more worthwhile, simply because IO is just so much better on them, oh and they come _with_ casing, PSU etc as well. For MorphOS fantasts it is nice though, but still just a toy - more show off than actual daily use.

How many MorphOS/efika users have the efika as "primary computer"?
How many OS4.1/SAM440 users have the SAM440 as "primary computer"?

And it was only supposed to be an evaluation/development platform for the next step in the plan, the 5121b based LimePC/"Cherrypal" devices (that unfortunately never happened).

What do you mean "unfortunatly"? Good riddance is more like it :-)

But what do we see if we look at the Sam? We see a motherboard that costs about as much as a PowerStation (another relatively low volume machine, one can suppose), with *four* G5 cores, 4MB L2 cache, 4 Altivec units, 8 FPU units, etc, etc.

ZOMFG WHY HAVENT I BOUGHT ONE ALREADY??!!!11

Hohum, it's a fully assembled SAM440 with preinstalled OS4.1 that costs as much as the equally fully assembled PowerStation with YDL (USD 1125,-)

Can one buy PowerStation mobo separate?

One of the nice features of the PowerStation is that it is buildt into an IBM case that also is rackable. Definetly a most wanted feature of OS4 and MorphOS users.

But yes, since you pull it in - why the heck is _neither_ OS4 nor MorphOS ported to this beast? Duh...

The Sam costs about as much, but is outperformed by *PDA's*!

I need to remember this thread when I argue against people who claim PDAs are dead :lol:

But again, you assume that CPU power is everything, which isnt the case. For what it's worth, I've had PDAs running as network servers for close to a decade now, so this is really, really old news.

I'm sorry, but this is as useless than an old Trabant sold at the price tag of a Ferrari; only the few die hard Trabant brand followers will even consider it, effectively making this a *none option* as a future platform. It's not an option. It's utterly useless from a future-building perspective.

Anything Amiga is the opposite of "future building" in the first place, so... moot point.

[Trev]

The real reason, the one they don't want you to know about, is that each new SAM440ep is infused with the cord blood of a newborn (some of which don't survive the harvesting process) from the APAC country of manufacture. That's why the PCB is red.