ETA for Elbox Dragon?

[motorollin]

Come on, you know what I mean: function as a processor upgrade.

--
moto

[Piru]

No.

PowerUP: no support
WarpUP: no support
MorphOS: no support
OS4: no support

Yet Elbox claims that OS4 would run on this card unaltered.

Go figure...

[motorollin]

So what is the point of saying that the Shark is a re-badged Crescendo card? Sure, if it would actually be possible to buy the Crescendo card and use it in a Mediator 4000 then I could see your point. But we still have to wait for the Shark package to use the card with an Amiga. So I just don't see your point.

--
moto

[Piru]

So what is the point of saying that the Shark is a re-badged Crescendo card?

Because it is.

SharkPPC has never been seen run anything "Amiga". There is a reason for this: It is the Crescendo card with modified heatsink (which says SharkPPC & elbox).

Sure, if it would actually be possible to buy the Crescendo card and use it in a Mediator 4000 then I could see your point.

Ah you mean as possible as to buy regular NEC USB 2.0 card and use it instead of SpiderUSB 2.0 card?

But we still have to wait for the Shark package to use the card with an Amiga.

SharkPPC is this Crescendo card. But I am sure Elbox would do anything in their power to stop people from bying the card from Crescendo or Ebay (probably the same tricks as used with SpiderUSB).

(That assuming this Shark thing would be real in the first place)

[djbase]

AFAIK the SharkPPC can't work in any current Mediator boards because of missing power lines.

[Comi]

 Maybe someone from Poland have some fresh news about Dragon?
 

 Artur where are you!?

[Tomas]

The only question is if the "final update" (released Xmas 2006) counts as as "OS4 final version"?
Of course, also licensing does not matter to Elbox.

Should it theoretically matter? PPC addons for the classic a1200 should not need a license from AmigaINC afaik according to the orginal licensing terms.

[derringer3]

In the elbox site there is a complet photoshot "album" and some movie about the amizudski (I love polish, but I'm not speak polish) Show. As you see in the picture dragon demoed. I think if it is really runing os3.9 and other amiga stuffs (spaceball demo as seen in one of the pics) some amiga mag already write it. (Amiga future etc.)  Or am i missed something?

[Donar]

derringer3 wrote:
Dragon is a dead end technology. It has codfire cpu which had been a good solution in the mid/late '90, when the os is not ported to ppc. (AFAIK coldfire is not ppc it's similar to 68k) But now when os4 is out(?), it is for nothing.

Most apps still are 68k, OS 3.9 is too and i haven't seen AMIGA OS 4.0 on shelves yet. If the Dragon runs 68k software good (even if it's run under the CF68k lib) it's ok for me... if you need improvements for 3.9 look for AfA OS.

[alexh]

You are not missing anything... but they also released benchmarks which put it below a 50MHz 68060 when running code which has lots of emulated instructions.

[derringer3]

@donar: I still using os3.9, and i love it, but in my amiga there  is a powerful cpu wich most of the time is sleeping or if it used it has got some "content switching orgy with 68k cpu".

So other aspect: Mac OS goes powerpc in the mid '90, amiga planned do the same about '97. (Afaik commodore want the same maybe hp, dec alpha or powerpc but want the same)It delayed and delayed and now os4 is out but now the time is 2007 not 1997 or something similar. So there is a good os4 only one little step from my amiga. (Someone just relase it please)  So why on earth buy a coldfire which is unusable with os 4?

[Donar]

alexh wrote:
You are not missing anything... but they also released benchmarks which put it below a 50MHz 68060 when running code which has lots of emulated instructions.

Could you please point me to the Benchmarks,  as i couldn't find them anywhere? The Atari guys have their TOS running on a Coldfire developer Board Klick Me in the lower half you see that "Raw Power" is something equivalent to a CT60@100 MHz if i don't get it wrong... The Coldfire is a 25€ Part the 68060 a 300€ and has to be overclocked 100% to get at 100MHz. Sounds not too bad for me. Unfortunately i don't know how likely it is in real world terms that the Coldfire has: "To do lot's of emulated instructions".

derringer3 wrote:
@donar: I still using os3.9, and i love it, but in my amiga there  is a powerful cpu wich most of the time is sleeping or if it used it has got some "content switching orgy with 68k cpu".?

Ok, so using only a "fast" coldfire gets rid of both problems easily. It will be used all the time, and by all Code, no context switches back and forth. Speed improvements through native software possible.

derringer3 wrote:
So there is a good os4 only one little step from my amiga. (Someone just relase it please)  So why on earth buy a coldfire which is unusable with os 4?

Sorry i _somehow_ have a bad feeling that the step is not so little (Bad gut feeeling only, sorry no evidence). Old apps will stay 68k, so they have to be emulated. New Apps could be compiled for Coldfire like they could for PPC.

I really don't know about AInc, they (kind of) left the market (only selling Mobile games), stating that "some other company" uses their name to write an OS (AOS4.0) now coming back talking about OS5.0. :-?

Maybe it's better to take 3.9 improve it through AROS/AfA OS and maybe replace it at some time with it? Maybe this next morning AOS 4.0 gets released with fast inexpensive hardware and i'm totally wrong... I really don't know.

Bye

 

[Piru]

elbox claims that most of the unmodified 68k software runs at speed between 040 and 060

Dragon, lack of performance

[bubba]

I've had a very hard time trying to buy an 060 card.  It's shocking to have to pay $400 for a 10 year old piece of hardware that could die at any moment.

I'm rooting for the dragon as it should future proof the 68k Amiga, especially if the Clone-A is viable. I'd happily spend the cash for a dragon with 040-060 performancem AGP, PCI, USB, etc. in one package versus buying an old 1260, mediator, Subway, etc.

I also expect the Elbox team will be able to optimize the emulation code.  They must be having some serious issues.  I hope it's related to writing drivers, not with the coldfire implementation.

Anyway, I'm probably going to buy a d-box and a mediator and cross my finger's that they give a good upgrade price when the Dragon is released.

-bubba

[Donar]

bubba wrote:
I've had a very hard time trying to buy an 060 card.  It's shocking to have to pay $400 for a 10 year old piece of hardware that could die at any moment.

Try to find a complete AMIGA, rip out the 060 card, sell the rest. Also look in ebay for the complete text, not only the head line when doing a search. Sometimes people forget to mention the most precious parts in the head line. Bad for them, good for you.  :-D

Bye

[humppa]

@Tomas

PPC addons for the classic a1200 should not need a license from AmigaINC afaik according to the orginal licensing terms.

Debatable. Might be interesting to hear the reasons why ACK Software Controls did not come through with the Powervixxen LT (for A1200) then. Licensing or simply technical difficulties? Adam also explicitly mentioned licensing on Moobunny and that it was not easy.

Further, the AmigOS-page of Amiga.com states:

AmigaOne Partners have the right to distribute AmigaOS 4.0 into the AmigaOne desktop computer market and into Cyberstorm PPC enabled devices.  Distribution into any other market or device requires a licensing and distribution agreement with Amiga, Inc.