Don't email Jens - Clone-A limited beta production run.

[Nlandas]

    I just found out when I contacted Jens for a beta test offer on the Clone-A that he'll be doing the following. Please DO NOT swamp him with emails. He'll be making an official announcement when the board is ready for sale.

    I'm saving my money for one.

-Nyle

His full email -

"The test will be small and expensive: Less than 100 boards, and each board with the Clone-A expander will be 350,- EUR. At the current exchange rate, this is about 550,- US Dollars. Given the fact that the board requires lots of ATX-type hardware (case, power supply, keyboard, monitor), this will be a *very* expensive Amiga. Well, actually two Amigas and a C64, as we will also do Minimig and a C64 core for the thing.

I have no problem with you publishing this, but please include the full text of this eMail: I really don't want to answer eMails like "when is it done?" and "can I pre-register?" - If there's no news on my website, the status of that board combo is "not available". Also, this will only represent the status of the Clone-A chipset implementation. It is nothing like the final product we're developing, and there will be no refund when the final Clone-A product is out and the C-One/Clone-A combo is obsolete. Given the fact that lots of my hardware has reached collector's item status, this should be no problem (did you see that insane auction for an external flickerfixer of mine?).

ciao,
--
Jens Schönfeld "

[TheMagicM]

Will it run Opera that was just released?  cant wait!!!!

[AJCopland]

Cool

[keropi]

excellent!

[Crom00]

Considering the absolutley bonkers prices of items on ebay this is a bargain. I imagine this will have a flicker fixer built in? It's already worth  it.

[weirdami]

i heard it's going to have circuitry that mimics the bridgeboard, only with a pentium 4.

[alexh]

Did he send you this email before 12pm today?

[DoogUK]

Thats a very good point Alex. :lol:

[Nlandas]

alexh wrote:
Did he send you this email before 12pm today?

You're the only April fool here, Alex.  :-D Just kidding.

Here's the full message header. I obscured the email addresses.

Delivery-date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:24:15 -0700

    So, I guess it's all in how you look at it's deliver time. Technically, 3-31-08 but I pulled it down this morning. He could be joking but it sounds legit. Only Jens knows for sure. ;-)

-Nyle

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Date:  Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:23:03 +0200
To:  Nyle F. Landas
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[Nlandas]

...and actually his first message to my request was on 3-30-2008. Then I asked for permission to make it public. I didn't want to step on Jens hard-working toes.

He's an asset to our community.

-Nyle

"At 17:55 30.03.2008 +0000, you wrote:

> If you need any beta testers for Clone-A when it gets closer to being produced let me know. I\'d be happy to beta test for you. I\'d pay shipping for the product here and return when done as well.

We will do betatesting on C-One boards with added components. These boards will be for sale in a few months.

ciao,
--
Jens Schönfeld "

[Belial6]

I wonder if those of us that already own C-One boards will be first in line to be accepted as beta testers?

[Schoenfeld]

I have just published a few pictures of the C-One extender card. More info can be found on the C-One cores mailinglist.

Production of the extender cards will be made this coming week. You can either buy an extender card alone (proof of purchase for the C-One board is required!) for 99,- EUR, or you can buy the combo of "board with extender" for 333,- EUR. Prices do not include shipment.

Needless to say that these prices are heavily subsidised. The C-One project caused huge losses, therefore they are not available from resellers any more. No exceptions - anything C-One related must be shipped directly, with all the inconvenience that ordering from Germany may cause.

Check the website: http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one

and the mailinglist:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cone_cores/

Clone-A testing on C-One will be done internally first. No schedule available - it might take half a year until we release the first Clone-A core for this extender board. As always with the C-One: Don't buy it if it doesn't already do what you expect from it. Buy it for what it is right now, not for what it might become in the future. Our plans are "implement a Z2 memory expansion" and "make one IDE port available to the emulated Amiga". Both has not been done yet.

Another goal is to speed up the CPU. I'm expecting about twice the speed of an A600, plus anything we might gain from 2nd level caches (the FPGA on the extender is HUGE). Since there's no comparison platform, I won't risk any forecast on the actual performance.

Jens

[weirdami]

The C-One project caused huge losses

I hope Jeri didn't have to go back to eating ramen and sleeping in the back of a store because of it. :-(

[bloodline]

I'm thinking about getting a Clone-A... :-)

[Darrin]

Hi Jens,

Personally, I think that 333 EUR + S&H isn't a bad price for an modernised C64 and a Minimig combo.  As I haven't kept up with the C-One development (and I'm sure I'm not alone), can you give us a quick summary of what the existing C-One cores offer today and what the existing expanded C-One hardware provides for C64 and Minimig users.

Thanks.

PS.  Any more news on that SVGA expander for a real C64?