New Amiga Accelerators

[Boot_WB]

Given the price of second-hand hardware (Ebay), then I believe that the $300 for a new 040 or 060 accelerator would be very competitive, assuming it is stable.

As to numbers... who knows? I think 50 is a given, but more than 100 ...?
Some people would buy it partly to support the effort, partly out of curiosity, whereas others would buy it out of a genuine desire/need for an 040/060 accelerator.

If you do manage to get a working prototype and - eventually - a production run, then A1200 accelerator would definitely be the way to go to get the numbers. Personally, I'd like to see an A4000 version aswell though.

Regards



Rich

[swoslover]

This sounds very ambitious.

I for one would snap up a new ppc card if it were available, even an 040 or 060 would be nice.

There is so much negativity around this, why can't people be positive?  Some encouragement wouldn't be a bad thing.

Good luck, I suspect you will need it though!

[bd1308]

I'm in talks with several overseas people about this.

As long as I get between 50-60 people who will buy an accelerator **FOR THE A1200**, I can begin talking to my people.

No doubt there **WILL*** be a A4000 accelerator--I just figured we would need to start with something readily available--the A1200.

Stay Tuned...this should be real intresting.


I'm in the market for a **working** 060 accelerator and/or a PPC accelerator (i'm indeed starting with the A1200). pm me.

[alexh]

Very unlikely that people would want anything less than a fast 060 board (faster than any available today) that would involve creating or licensing (from Rodolphe of Czuba tech) a 68000 SDRAM controller.

With a 100MHz 060 board you would increase your market by a large amount as owners of current 060 boards would consider upgrading.

Unfortunately you'll never source enough 060 chips to do even one production  run though, I've been asking around they just dont exist as NOS. Maybe if you could find a good recycling center who recycled a batch of telecoms equipment or something?

The next thing is that a lot of users are used to having an accelerator with a DMA capable SCSI controller. Unfortunately you'll never get these chips ever again. Your only hope is to make your own DMA capable IDE controller... many months work and increased cost as your CPLD/FPGA has to be much bigger. To leave out a "high speed" disk interface would alienate all potential 060 upgraders and most potential new buyers.

The development of any four layer board and a prototype run will cost in excess of $20k+

You will never make a profit. I very much doubt you will break even.

Have you even considered where you will get the edge connectors from? They havent been made for 10's of years. Tooling costs alone will be huge and the MOQ will run into the 1000's!

[KThunder]

swoslover wrote:
This sounds very ambitious.

I for one would snap up a new ppc card if it were available, even an 040 or 060 would be nice.

There is so much negativity around this, why can't people be positive?  Some encouragement wouldn't be a bad thing.

Good luck, I suspect you will need it though!

there is negativity because many have heard dozens of times people coming up with some stupid idea that has zeeerrrooo chance and tries to drum up enthusiasm for it and then it disapears. hang on a sec ill try...

 :-D  :-D  :-D great this is soooo cool i want like five ill take pics of all my amiga stuff and my dog and you can clone that too!!! :-o  :-)  when is your release date? can i send some money now? :-o
wait, not done yet :banana:  :banana:  :banana: there.

good luck though :roll:

sorry that was over the top... there are sites were you can get lots of info on 060 cpu stuff including one for the atari that could presumably be reengineered for the miggy.
over the topp ma haaaahahahaha

here have your experts scan this website for real info.   try the tech link towards the bottom there are schematics and stuff there

[Bandis]

I applaud your initiative but I would recommend that you rather looked into the 68020/30 project over at the EAB website.

68020/30  - RAM - Project

The reason 68060 accelerators go for 300 on ebay is because they are not taken off an assembly line. Flood the market and you will hardly make 300/board. Unless you plan to sell one every month for years to come.

The only "market" in my view is for the casual gamers who just want to play some games and tinker around a bit. the 32bit extra ram and a faster 020 or 030 is more than enough to do this while keeping it all at a reasonable price level. Perhaps around 100 euro.

[alexh]

But the "casual gamer" doesn't need any accelerator!?

Just an A1200 and a RAM board.

[Piru]

@bd1308

Let me guess, you want preorders?

Anyway 50+ orders would be enough? That'd be $15000, hardly enough to cover the labour costs for single person for couple of months. You gotta be kidding me...

[SamuraiCrow]

@bd1308

The Natami should be available in a year and your accelerator cards will be obsolete.  They are going to try to put a 680x0 series core on the same chip as an enhanced reengineered version of the AGA chipset called SuperAGA.  Their 100 MHz 68060-based developer boards should be available within a few months.

You are getting behind already.  Maybe you should join up with the Natami team instead.  By building the graphics chips into the same die as the main processor they will be able to take shortcuts and integrate in ways never before possible on any Amiga.

[DoogUK]

If its SO impossible and out of reach......how did PHASE5 accomplish this impossible task?

What you mean is it's not financialy viable.

Upgrading a 15 year old computer so much to the point that it still doesn't perform the everyday tasks of the hardware around today isn't financialy viable either but we all still jump at the chance of an 030/040/060/PPC for our ageing hardware.

Its not about wether or not the numbers stack up, It's about the feeling and the passion of the hobby...give the guy a chance to accomplish what we all want ffs.

If it pulled off i would be in the market as much as the rest of you would.

[Bandis]

You could argue all the casual gamer need is AmigaForever 2008.

and wait, if you need 68k speed why not just go for UAE-JIT instead?

[Tron2k2]

It seems like an 040/060 board would be  the best, easiest option.  probably better to go with a new design however, thus getting modern RAM and IDE.  new 68060s can still be had from Freescale in various packages and speeds, or you could sell the boards sans CPU.  I've got the 060 already lying around here as a spare, waiting for a home :-)

I don't see why this is so unfeasible, I mean, the FPGA hackers around here can make a whole Amiga chipset on one, why couldn't the firmware be made to do an accelerator for those that want it?  I'd love to pimp out my 3000 with an 060, heck, I'd even pay to do it for my 500.  040 accelerators were made back in the day that plugged into a 500, and those ran way hotter than an 060.

Come up with a working prototype and the required convincing Youtube videos, and I'm sure you'd have 300 preorders with a quickness.

Get the working proto, BOM and production schedule set up though, before the video comes out.  Then you won't run the risk of burning anyone ala' AntiGravity and others.

FIRST product, THEN announcement ;-)  Go ahead, buck the trend in Amiga land!

Good luck, my money's waiting!

[Piru]

how did PHASE5 accomplish this impossible task?

By actually having a market of thousands rather than 50. By actually having competent developers and designers.

Oh, and they did go under eventually.

[DoogUK]

Still...... :-)

[skurk]

I say, if they feel confident doing it, then go for it and walk the Minmig path - open source everything and let people do the dirt work themselves.

I can always get my hands on a 060 and solder everything up myself.  Just have someone make me a blank PCB, like the Minimig I'm working on.

[A6000]

There is no magic involved here, all you need is money, money you are prepared to lose as it will be a big gamble.

You might be able to license Natami's 060 circuitry to put on your accelerator card.

Instead of three accelerator cards for different amiga models you could have one card with three connectors to fit 1200/2000/3000/4000 to maximise your potential sales with one design.

Another possibility is a whole new replacement mainboard, leaking batteries and capacitors are accelerating the demise of old boards and a new board could incorporate superAGA graphics compatible with new SVGA monitors.

The continued high demand for amiga's on ebay suggests that the potential market is much larger than the membership here would have you believe.