Question for A1 dev board customers.

[redrumloa]

+facts
-fud
Please!

It's now been many months since I canceled my A1 order. I am curious to what the status of the A1 is now. No fud, no BS. From what I can see nothing has changed at all, if anything things look much bleaker. To listen to BBRV you'd think there are major problems with MAI's chips. Also as much respect as I have for Eyetech and Hyperion, I don't put much weight into their optimistic time estimates.

1Q 2004? Does that sound right for end user A1G4XE? 2Q 2004 for OS4? Is there anything more solid I missed?

[Kurt]

nothing against BBRV
But He has a vested interest in trying to scare you. Much of what you hear posted on this site by
" innocent " Amiga users are Morph guy's making " Casual asides " and the occasional troll whose only agenda is to spread hate and discontent. I have posted a few rant or two about that in the past.

NO I am not trying to flame just explaining why there is so much negative chatter.

Remember Genesi gets it's AtriciaS chips from the same people Eyetech does so they both have a similar problems in development and shipment.Both companies are currently trickling out boards at a slow rate.

I own an Amigaone G3 600 mhz all I can tell you I that it is real and it works. I know that there was a number available back in December. So if you had a order for a G3 back then it should have been filled. The other thing I can tell you that the activity level on OS 4 development is going on at a furious pace. Thought the bug reports and subsequent chatter has slowed down of late on the OS4 Dev list. I don't know if this is a good  or bad thing.

The few things you have to remember is Mai Logic has more than a  slight interest in getting these
chips and  boards to market.  They have invested allot of time and money developing these chips.  As BBRV and chums have pointed out the Linux boards are the same as the Amigaone boards minus the AOS extensions in the ROM. So there is a market for these boards outside of Amiga and Eyetech. The other thing is Chip set revisions are nothing new to motherboard and chipset manufacturers just look at VIA and SIS as boards are made using a chipset certain bugs are discovered so board manufacturers modify their motherboards to work around these bugs. Just like Eyetech with the jumpers and mach chip and the Pegasos April. Of course ASUS doesn't release a press statement. They just work around it till the next version of the chipset is released and make a motherboard around that sometimes keeping the same board number sometimes not. That's why board revision numbers can play a big part in BIOS upgrades and performance.

Things are moving a bit slow  because unlike the PC market where a motherboard manufacturer will churn out a half million cheap boards and if they turn out to have a bug in them that slows down
performance or makes them slightly unstable they don't care. The average  PC user won't know or will just toss it and buy a different one. Eyetech and Genesi don't have that luxury. Amiga/Peg boards are not cheap and the user expects to get years of bug free service out of them. So they are understandably cautious the don't want to turn on the faucet full bore until they know the boards work well neither company can afford a major recall.


Kurt

I wouldnt discount what BBRV said about the chipset bieng flawed though, April isnt there to look good and even if someone tells a fib they dont often invest time and money engineering a piece of hardware to back it up, so it's not a fib.

[DaveP]

@redrumloa

Point #1, there are XE boards out there in use
with G4s.

Point #2, I would expect beginning of 2Q 2003
for final delivery to end users.

Like you I cancelled my A1 order, and then thought
hey... what I am I being so petulant about ( not meaning you were being petulant ) - I waited two years for my preorder of a PhaseV accellerator card to come out before I finally cancelled the order ( and called Eyetech who said they had one in stock!  No the original order was not with Eyetech ) so
hey give this the same amount of time before toys
get ejected from pram.

EDIT: typed 2004 instead of 2003.

[tonyw]

Have you read this[/url/] from Alan Redhouse? Assuming he's telling the truth (and so far he has), the first of the Earlybird XE orders should be delivered the week after next.

Don't forget that the promised SEs (G3) were delivered as promised before Christmas.

tony

[DaveP]

Delivered where? To Eyetech for redistribution or to
the hands of waiting customers. I still expect
the first two weeks of April to be the time people get
them in their hands.

PS :

Anyone noticed how much cooler Amiga.org is at the
moment? I don't know what they changed but it seems
to "zing". Weird.

[ksk]

I'm not a A1 developer, but...

I expect A1XEs to be sold to end users, starting in 2Q/2003.

(I expect also AOS4 to be sold to end users during this year...)

[Kurt]

Look carefully at my post.
I said the AtriciaS chip has bugs.
thats why my new A1 board has jumpers all over the place and a new chip. The original did not have those.
I also said this is common in all chipsets
Thats why manufacturers make different revisions as bugs are discovered and fixed they come out with a newer refined version.

Alan has said that this is what is holding up the new boards. They are waiting for the new improved AtriciaS chip that fixes the known bugs.

Kurt

[Argo]

The inital version of the chipset had its bugs, but they don't seem to be show stopping like Bill Buck seem to make them out to be. We haven't seen A1 owner ranting left and right that their new A1 boards don't work or work as expected. "There is no MAI without April", to me me would imply show stopping faults in the chip. Where were the Pegasos users that should have been ranting about there broken boards?
I'm not saying the the Artica doesn't have it's problems. I just think that Bill Buck is a sensationalist, sort of like a P.T. Barnum.
There is also the fact that the chipset is being used on two differently designed motherboards, which may introduce its own problems on top of any chipset bugs.
Then again didn't Red ask about the A1. Lets get back on topic.

[ksk]

Argo wrote:
The inital version of the chipset had its bugs, but they don't seem to be show stopping like Bill Buck seem to make them out to be. We haven't seen A1 owner ranting left and right that their new A1 boards don't work or work as expected. "There is no MAI without April", to me me would imply show stopping faults in the chip.

I tend to believe that Genesi did not "underclock" the CPU/memory bus to 100Mhz just for fun. They clearly have had some real problems.

But yes, it's interesting that we have not yet seen the flaw to affect A1.

 Where were the Pegasos users that should have been ranting about there broken boards? ....

They all get their boards replaced twice for free.
(April1 to get rid of some DMA bugs and now to April2 to get the 133Mhz bus etc...)

Then again didn't Red ask about the A1. Lets get back on topic.

Oh, right!

[Wilse]

Hi Al,

I was on the brink of cancelling my order too, but with the pegasos not being readily available either, I decided to leave it for now.

I am curious to what the status of the A1 is now. No fud, no BS. From what I can see nothing has changed at all,

You could be right. The optimist in me thinks otherwise but I have nothing of substance to back this up.

To listen to BBRV you'd think there are major problems with MAI's chips.

Surely you won't be taken in by this hype.  :-D  I appreciate now that part of Bill's job is to generate interest for the pegasos, however this often involves implied digs at the competition. I now take these, usually ambiguous, announcements with a pinch of salt. Remember "No MAI without April"? :roll:

1Q 2004? Does that sound right for end user A1G4XE?

If that's the case, I'll be using a Mac by July.

2Q 2004 for OS4?

Likewise.

Is there anything more solid I missed?

Not much, so you could be right. You'll be one of the first to hear, if and when my order is fulfilled.
The funny thing is, even though more time has elapsed and nothing concrete has been announced, I feel more confident now than I did two months ago.

[Derfs]

redrumloa wrote:

1Q 2004? Does that sound right for end user A1G4XE? 2Q 2004 for OS4? Is there anything more solid I missed?

so you think it isnt april/03 but instead Q1/2004 ?

you must really think Alan Redhouse is telling porkies

[anarchic_teapot]

mips_proc wrote:

I wouldnt discount what BBRV said about the chipset bieng flawed though, April isnt there to look good and even if someone tells a fib they dont often invest time and money engineering a piece of hardware to back it up, so it's not a fib.

It is also not a fib to say that the Pegasos is still being built with the old chips, which is why the Peggie still requires the April kludge, whereas the A1 is already being sold with the revised chip.

End-user boards ? Think Q1 2003, you'll be much closer to the truth.

[Panthro]

I personaly think it will be 3Q this year for all
systems Go & the AmigaOne will clear for lift off :-D

[JurassicCamper]

Wilse wrote:
Hi Al,

I was on the brink of cancelling my order too, but with the pegasos not being readily available either, I decided to leave it for now.

Pegasos was never really an option for me. I beleive the Amiga Name / Legacy + being a Continuation from 3.9 etc is the best choice for me.

I was feeling the same a few weeks back. Just really can't wait anymore as its Holiday buying time and we could use a new PC or things for the house.

All the false dates and contradictions in what Alan has been saying has made me loose all confidence in it.

Eg: on 13/2 he said they were built. But in his post on the A1List the other day he said if the board testing went OK they would have been ordered.

Ordered or Built.... which is it ??

1Q 2004? Does that sound right for end user

If that's the case, I'll be using a Mac by July.

I would like to remain optimistic and beleive that they will turn up in 2 weeks. However I think i'll be joining the ranks of the many who have cancelled their order already. I've given my self until my birthday in a couple of weeks.

Message is Simple Alan if you want my £800 order 2 weeks. Otherwise I'm off down the travel agents.