Who currently owns the rights

[minator]

the technology can't even be FAB'ed any more

Any modern fab should easily be able to manufacture the Amiga chipset, they would need modified for the different silicon process but that's nothing spectacular.

The problem with Amiga custom chip tech is that you can't simply miniturise it and put it all on one chip, the chip designs simply won't work anymore.

You wouldn't "just shrink" them (doesn't work over more than a few generations), they would need to be re-synthesized but they are simple chips by todays standards so that'd hardly be a problem.

The most difficult bit is probably getting the original CAD models and finding something which can handle them today.

If the gate level designs still exist in a CAD package there's plenty of companies who can produce a semi-custom "Amiga on a chip" for the right price (with optional 24bit Gfx and 16 bit sound).


I actually think it's a good business proposition.

[bloodline]

minator wrote:

the technology can't even be FAB'ed any more

Any modern fab should easily be able to manufacture the Amiga chipset, they would need modified for the different silicon process but that's nothing spectacular.

The problem with Amiga custom chip tech is that you can't simply miniturise it and put it all on one chip, the chip designs simply won't work anymore.

You wouldn't "just shrink" them (doesn't work over more than a few generations), they would need to be re-synthesized but they are simple chips by todays standards so that'd hardly be a problem.

The most difficult bit is probably getting the original CAD models and finding something which can handle them today.

If the gate level designs still exist in a CAD package there's plenty of companies who can produce a semi-custom "Amiga on a chip" for the right price (with optional 24bit Gfx and 16 bit sound).


I actually think it's a good business proposition.

I recall that the actual chips designs were lost during the Commodore break up... only the patents still exist.

I don't think it would be worth it to rehash the old tech anymore anyway. Too expensive just to do what Emulation would give you.

[itix]

Collect some money and buy rights for Amiga HW from Gateway. Easy peacy ;-)

But one problem still exists. You would need Kickstart ROMs too. Not that easy I think.

[bloodline]

itix wrote:
Collect some money and buy rights for Amiga HW from Gateway. Easy peacy ;-)

But one problem still exists. You would need Kickstart ROMs too. Not that easy I think.

what are you talking about?

Just compile AROS for the 68k :-D

[weirdami]

@itix

The much exalted Plug-and-Play could come to be only after Microsoft bought the Amiga AutoConfig technology patents.

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that that's false.

[weirdami]

I recall that the actual chips designs were lost during the Commodore break up...

I think Haynie said that someone didn't pay the storage fees to the cooling box thing that the design tapes were stored in. Is was apparently pretty cheap to keep them stored, just whoever it was that was in charge of that sort of thing stopped doing it. I don't know, maybe some weird computer stuff collector has them hanging on a wall like some kind of weird art he bought at an auction.

[CatHerder]

weirdami wrote:

I recall that the actual chips designs were lost during the Commodore break up...

I think Haynie said that someone didn't pay the storage fees to the cooling box thing that the design tapes were stored in. Is was apparently pretty cheap to keep them stored, just whoever it was that was in charge of that sort of thing stopped doing it. I don't know, maybe some weird computer stuff collector has them hanging on a wall like some kind of weird art he bought at an auction.

I can't believe this would be the case for the CD32 chipset though. Perhaps the OCS and ECS info is lost, but everything was squashed into LISA and ALICE, and VLSI probably has the AKIKO and LISA filed away somewhere in their old toolset. I'm not sure who made the ALICE chip, but surely VLSI would still be able to produce the other two chips, or at least have copies of the design.

An Amiga "Retro Gamer" based on the CD32 motherboard would be great - the A2200 was just that...

[ilgulamc]

Just build a boXer. Dave hayne believed that it wou7ld have been easy to put the old amiga tech into newchips. We see where his project ended up...

[CatHerder]

The BoXer was a computer, with PCI slots, usb, etc. I'm talking stand-alone retro gaming, not a new computer. The one thing the boXer showed was that you could indeed shove  the Amiga chipset into one small chip...

[that_punk_guy]

bloodline wrote:
what are you talking about?

Just compile AROS for the 68k :-D

Haha, it's been a while! :-D

[itix]

Perhaps the OCS and ECS info is lost, but everything was squashed into LISA and ALICE, and VLSI probably has the AKIKO and LISA filed away somewhere in their old toolset.

HP manufactured bunch of Lisas in 90s. Cant remember why and when but I recall it was when Amiga Technologies and ESCOM was around...?

[BigBenAussie]

Dudes, I'm pretty sure I saw a Megadrive TV all in one console. Wasn't the Megadrive 68k like the A500s? It was a tiny thing that looked like the original Megadrive but fit in the palm of my hand. It was pretty cool. The games I played were definetely 16-bit era, so I know I haven't mixed this up. I've done a google and can't find it.

[Lando]

Yes there was a portable Megadrive with built-in LCD screen called the Nomad

[JetFireDX]

There actually is a Genesis 3(Megadrive for the guys from Europe) that we still have for sale here that I have seen at KB Toys in the mall. It is a very tiny little machine and plays the original Genesis carts but doesn't support the SegaCD (aka MegaCD) or 32x expansions if I remember right. It is similar in shape to the Genesis 2. Check it out here: http://www.vidgame.net/SEGA/GEN3.html

Then there was also the Nomad, but it was horrible because of the battery life just like the GameGear. Sega jumped the gun on technology too often and it has bit them hard...hmmm sounds kinda familiar.

As far as the drawing power a tiny all in one Amiga would have , I would have to say it would be pretty small. Lots and lots of people remember the Atari and Intelivision systems because they were literally the first consoles you could buy to play games on at home. Even if you didn't own one you knew somebody who did...at least that is how it was with my family and friends when I was very young. I don't know that the nostalgia would be there for an Amiga the same way. (Or the C64 for that matter) I am sure all of the Amiga's custom chips could be fit into a single chip along with a 68k, but really there is a lot more to it than just getting the designs, reworking them to fit in one chip, and producing the thing with a couple games in a ROM. Maybe most importantly, every all-in-one system mentioned before is a cartridge based system where all of the games were meant to be played out of a static memory. Our Amiga's had no such tech in them and thus you would have to rework the software to behave in a ROM not to mention make the new Amiga-chip think it was talking to a floppy when it was really accessing the ROM. A little more than just telling the CPU to start program execution from a different address in the ROM like what I would imagine is done with the Atari or Intellivision systems. But who knows.

At any rate, though I am sure many of us on here would buy one for $20 that I see the similar systems in the stores selling for, I don't think a lot of others would because unless you had owned an amiga and a particular game you used to love was on the new all-in-one, what would be the point? Everybody knows Pac Man, Pong, and Asteroids...not too many are going to know Amiga games because they didn't see them in arcades of the 80's.

[BigBenAussie]

No, I saw one even smaller than that with the games built in. I wish I could find it on the web. I think I saw it at a Toys'R'Us in the US.

[CatHerder]

As far as the drawing power a tiny all in one Amiga would have , I would have to say it would be pretty small.

... I don't know that the nostalgia would be there for an Amiga the same way. (Or the C64 for that matter)

You have to be kidding.  :-o

A C64 RetroGamer would sell literally millions and millions (you know how many C64's Commodre sold right? The C64 has one large issue -- TULIP: they have wacky plans of producing a pile of actual C64s for sale in 3rd world countries in Africa etc... (wacky, wacky, wacky! These guys shoulda been in the Amiga history books, they'd fit right in...)  But I still think TULIP would lisence C64 RetroGamers because the market potential is huge.

[color=ff0000]C64 Units sold: 22,000,000[/color] (some sources say 17,000,000)
[color=0000ff]Intellivision units sold: 3,100.000[/color]
[color=008000]Atari units sold: 3,000,000 [/color]

That's 7 times as many as either of the other game systems we're talking about, and over 3 times as many combined! The C64 RetroGamer would sell like doughnuts at a police convention. And if there is nobody already working on one, I'd be flat out amazed. TULIP has the tech, TULIP is trying to produce a new cost reduced version, and I'm sure they'd love the cash flow...

And an Amiga RetroGamer would sell millions as well.

Amiga sales by 1993: 4,850,000

The Amiga games are just that good and STILL look that good on a TV. I was goofing around with some CD32 games (original CDs I should add) on the ol XBox tonight (Lil' Divil and Pinball Fantasies -- both of which play right from the CD) and they look spectacular and play just as great as they always did. If the technology (the chipset etc) is available out there, I sure want to find out who to talk to. I already know I can get the angel funding, it's just a matter of getting the chipsets and rights to reproduce the tech for game units.

These little suckers on demo in Wal*Marts across the world would sell millions. And that's not even taking into account any of the other large chains! (of course it would have to wait until next year... but they'd still sell as many, and the cost to produce would be lower and the chips would be even smaller so any way you look at it, it's a win win).

This is just too good of an idea.