Reproduction of PPC cards possible??

[kd7ota]

I was just wondering.

If the blueprints of how the PPC cards were released to the public, would it be possible for a company to remanufacture the cards? Like if a certain amount of people would pitch in some moneys to get a PPC card, do you think the factories would reproduce the card?  :-D

Sorry for the ignorant question, but I thought it would be cool to get the design of the PPC cards and just have someone to reproduce them....  :-)

[B00tDisk]

Heck, if you're going to do that, why not scrape up the plans for the AmiJoe or the 2603 card and get PPC on A2000's?

[jeffimix]

They are owned by DCE.

DCE has no interest in making them anymore, but I bet they'd still charge a lot to buy the rights.

The problem is that the PowerPC accelerator boards would cost too much, no reason not to get a full-on AmigaOne for that kinda price. (or Pegasos if you can find it, amigaones are still in stock in the US atleast it seems) Something like a real AmiJoe would be much more cost effective, or something using atleast a 600MHZ G3. Haage + Partner's PPC software (came with OS3.5 and above) is technically retargetable, just never had any other boards to port it to.

PS: Creepy thought, wouldn't it be possible for H+P to write new drivers and relase WarpOS or whatever for AmigaOne/Os4 machines? Technically possible I imagine, wow.

[JoannaK]

For avaiilability of Pegasos 2 ..  Ultraspec announced couple days ago that they have Pegasos 2 on stock and they are shipping them.

See http://www.ultraspec.us/pegasos.htm for pricing etc..  

Note: No, I have not verified this myself beoynd seen it on net and on their own website.

---

About making PPC boards for classix.. Unfortunately. Without any market (hey .. 5 or 50 users ain't market) or parts available (those are at least 5 year old designs) there ain't no hope on making them.

[kd7ota]

Yea,

It is hard to say if remaking the PPC card for the amiga is really worth it. With boards such as the AmigaONE and the PegasOS boards, then it might be better off to pick up one of them since it has at least pci ports and faster ram to it already...

Hmmmm, AmigaOS is really awsome, just need the right hardware to make it a dream come true.  :-)

[KimmoK]

I would like to see AmiJoeG3 in production instead of BPPC or CSPPC.

IMO: there is no sense in reproducing those G2 PPC+68k cards and try to sell them @ $1000 (CSPPC would still cost that much, most likely)

AmiJoe cards would have chance to generate less financial loss...

[Piru]

I would imagine it's almost impossible to find parts for the old BPPC/CSPPC cards, the boards are so tight designs (esp BPPC), there wasn't room for alternative component configurations.

Not to mention the price of the new cards would be unbearable, and performance poor.

@kd7ota
Pegasos is a motherboard, not an OS. So just "Pegasos" not "PegasOS".

[kd7ota]

@Piru

Sorry man, I keep making that mistake of saying PegasOS  :-P  Ill overtime get it right to pegasos

[Warface]

PS: Creepy thought, wouldn't it be possible for H+P to write new drivers and relase WarpOS or whatever for AmigaOne/Os4 machines? Technically possible I imagine, wow.

It's absolutely possible, but absolutely pointless - WarpOS is not a standalone OS, it requires AmigaOS (like) environment as well.

There is an excellent WarpOS wrapper for MorphOS though, enabling use of WarpOS programs seamlessly and transparently for the user. For AmigaOS4 some sort of an "application launcher" for WarpOS programs is planned (or was planned).

[Schoenfeld]

I would not recommend to produce the old designs of P5 PPC cards. The 060 socket on those is surface-mounted, and can't stand the mechanical stress of heat generated by the processor  and the surrounding parts. Result is that many cards fail when they're power-cycled very often. Best bet is to leave the Amiga on all the time to keep the temperature stable and mechanical stress as low as possible.

Jens Schoenfeld

[Bodie_CI5]

I would love if a company re-produced the 060 boards! Look at my sig ;-)

[Framiga]

Hi Piru

>90% of the CSPPC components, are still in production.

The problematic ones are:

Mach programmed chips (the ICs are anyway available)

and the 604e

The other parts, are ALL available on the market (just got some spare parts myself)

Don't know about Blizzards

Bye

[Framiga]

Hi Jens

i agree, although there is a company that sells those sockets, with a better self adjusting SMD contacs

PRECI-DIP

http://www.precidip.com/catalog_10/pdf/p90.pdf

the 3rd in the 3rd row "18x18" (xxx-xx-223-18-091)

The PRECI-DIP Company, uses a technology

"with"floating SMD contacts wich are self-adjusting with the solder pad, even with slightly distorted PCB" (from PRECI-DIP site)

http://www.precidip.com/connect/connect_10.html#2

Obviously, then they MUST be soldered at the "state of the art" (unknown definition at DCE)

Bye

[Kronos]

jeffimix wrote:
 Something like a real AmiJoe would be much more cost effective, or something using atleast a 600MHZ G3. Haage + Partner's PPC software (came with OS3.5 and above) is technically retargetable, just never had any other boards to port it to.

Sorry, but that is total #### ....

WarpUP needs an 68k, and an 68k-OS running on it.
Something that is impossible when you have no 68k (when you you look at an A4000), or just an 68ec20 (A1200).

So you would atleast need a new (PPC)-kernel with 68k-emu, somthing like MorphOS-0.x for example.

Emulating/recreating the PuP-API on such a beast should be much easier than doing it it for WuP.

-cleanly seperated 68k and PPC binaries instead of chaotic ext-hunks
-limited API instead of a PPC trying to do what it couldn't do (calling 68k-funcs that is)

So anybody still claiming that WuP was a 1st step into the direction of an PPC-native OS is in serious need for a clue.

[Holley]

I think you missed the point there, he was saying it would be possible to make Wup aware of a new card.  The AmiJoe was meant to be working, but shelved as it was uneconomical to produce, it'd certainly be a more realistic to make that than re-create the original PPC designs.

Of course none of this is going to happen as there just isn't a market for a classic accellerator any more - not with 2 new PPC platforms already in existance.  Perhaps making a hardware AGA emulator on a PCI card would be a more realistic taget? (could be built into the Catweasel Mk36 :-D).