Home grown A1200 accelerator project

[skurk]

Donar wrote:
Yeah a bicycle with a turbine can be really fun... but most people will be annoyed seeing it. Maybe take a less fast (and non intel) CPU for a "Classic" add on?  :-D

Sure, I know it's blasphemic, but Intel does offer the "most bang for the buck" at the moment.

Anyway, I know it might not even be plausible, but still - a crazy, but fun thought

[corto]

AmigaNow : Sorry but I think you doesn't know what you want. This is unrealistic ! You talk about Efika : maybe this is the accelerator you describe. Next you jump on the idea of AMD cpu ...

About Coldfire, it is partially compatible with 68k, they are cheap ... but they have no success and no particular power.

[vic20owner]

actually I like the idea.... a hardware based emulator... it would still be faster than anything else for the 1200!

Unfortunately, I dont think it would fit in the trap door.

[AmigaNow]

I was thinking of placing it in a tower case. Dimensions would then not be such a problem. Also, space needed for cooling...

As for what I want, I want a new accelerator that is extremely fast. I always hear that the Amiga is too slow for internet even if a newer browser were to become available. Newer accelerators would allow the regular Amiga user to move up to mainstream. Not having to wait for new AOS or Morphos boards that may or may not become reality.

If one of the newer PPC chips could be put on a board, such as the 5200 (efika), it would seem that it could be compatable with the previous Power Up boards.

The notion that an Intel type chip could be used to emulate the 68060 seems like a good alternative. The board could be produced sans micro, leaving the user to determine the exact one they desire. And with proper cooling and overclocking...  :-D

AmigaNow

[Damion]

I think we'd have to start some sort of "bounty" and acquire a bunch of money to cover r&d. ;-)

So, theoretically, an accelerator with PPC/JIT/MorphOS would run things like WHDLoad games due to the presence of the AGA chipset.

So we'd need:

Some sort of PPC
GFX chip ??
IDE controller
single SIMM slot (should be enough)
MorphOS port

Any takers on how much it would cost to design something like this?  :crazy:  My guess is there would be a market of *maybe* 200 units.

[corto]

Why an accelerator for 68k machines when you have PPC machines with OS that emulate 68k really fast. Where is the pleasure dreaming about something that won't exist and ignoring hardware that is/was available ??

[AmigaNow]

corto wrote:
Why an accelerator for 68k machines when you have PPC machines with OS that emulate 68k really fast. Where is the pleasure dreaming about something that won't exist and ignoring hardware that is/was available ??

Amiga 68k computers can still be obtained, whereas the other NG ones are still vapourware until they come out. I was originally excited when I saw specs had come out for the new entry level Amiga. It was faster than the original Blizzard 603e PPC. But when you really check the specs, it's not as powerful as the Efika. (Which right now hasn't yet been made Amiga compatible)

I would imagine if those wanting the Power Vixxen, those wanting the BlizzardPPC, etc. got together we might come up with more than 200 that wanted it...

AmigaNow

[alexh]

200 orders is not enough to pay for the development costs.

With re-creations of the classic chipset just around the corner any hardware developer would be mad to make an accelerator for classic Amiga's.

[zyphoid]

yea, I'd want one too! I think 200units would disappear in 2 days! Ive been waiting for someone to come out thinking outside the box! Towered great, how would you emulate comapatability for native programs?  Amiga programs are so tempermental.

[stopthegop]

Not impossible.  Nor is it unrealistic.  

[Damion]

alexh wrote:
200 orders is not enough to pay for the development costs.

Exactly, some of the money would have to be put forth ahead of time. If 200 people donated $50 each, there would be a 10k kitty for r&d. That's probably peanuts for this type of project, but then again I really have no idea. Naturally, you'd have to find someone willing and capable, and that's where this silly dream ends (in my head, anyway).

With re-creations of the classic chipset just around the corner any hardware developer would be mad to make an accelerator for classic Amiga's.

For the most part I agree, but the reality is no one is taking this too seriously. Just BS-ing. :-)

@stopthegop

BUT... the 68060 is rare and very expensive these days. A PPC based product would be the best option IMHO, but then the design complexity increases.

[amigakid]

Kinda a far reach i'd say, but hey who knows.  

Keep on Boinging! :devildance:  :devildance:

[alexh]

-D- wrote:
If 200 people donated $50 each, there would be a 10k kitty for r&d. That's probably peanuts for this type of project

That would barely pay the license for the PCB layout tools and the tooling costs for the A1200 connector. You can forget about the salary of the person doing the work.

BUT... the 68060 is rare and very expensive these days.

$100 isnt too bad

[AJCopland]

@alexh
$10k wouldn't cover wages but if it was someone, or some group, from the community doing it for the love it as the original poster probably mean't then wages wouldn't be such an issue.

You seem to know a little about this sort of thing, how complicated would reworking the CT60/63 for the A1200 be?

Andy

[stopthegop]

The CT-63 goes for ~340 Euros, just to give a rough idea what a hypothetical classic Amiga board might go for.  I think it safe to say there would need to be a minimum 150 orders, probably more like 250, with at least some of the money in advance, to spark anyone's interest in creating such a board.  I, for one, would love to be able to slap a 512M DIMM into my A4000T so sign me up if someone qualified decides to build it!  Question is, are there 149 others?  

[skurk]

alexh wrote:
That would barely pay the license for the PCB layout tools and the tooling costs for the A1200 connector. You can forget about the salary of the person doing the work.

How about royalties?  That could make a neat sum after if, say, 200 boards were sold.

Oh, and it should have two connectors (selectable with a jumper) - one for the A1200, the other for A4000

Double the action, triple the excitement!