New Amiga Accelerators

[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.

[alexh]

Tron2k2 wrote:
new 68060s can still be had from Freescale in various packages and speeds

That (as I have found out) is not true. Whilst "on the books" they havent been made for many years and they are only selling off back stock... in limited numbers.

[kolla]

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.

This is actually something I have been expecting somehow, a replacement motherboard that fits the A1200 case - I suspect we all have them lying around? :-)

Earlier we needed tower boxes, but today the "everything in a keyboard" is actually quite OK. A motherboard with SATA, USB, SO-DIMM RAM, minipci, ethernet etc, and a way to hook the old A1200 keyboard (keyrah?) and tada...

The open question is what CPU-solution is the best. PPC ofcourse for MorphOS and OS4, but some of us would actually love a more modern m68k board. I've sometimes pondered on how feasable it would be to create a m68k replacement using a x86-variant and m68k emulation "on board" somehow, more or less hidden for any OS running on top of it ("Amithlon" on FLASH?).

Oh well, one can dream and ponder...

I'm typing this from a "everything in the keyboard" mac btw, an old G4 iBook I got cheap, with torn off display (yeah, really - torn off, by force!) :-)

[countzero]

I say forget about 040s 060s. A soft 68k core would be much more easier to develop (there is already one developed by tobias günther, albeit 68000 only), dead cheap compared to real 68ks, possible to interface to SD-DDR ram...

[NovaCoder]

I'd have thought the logical thing to do was bring out a cheap 1200/4000 based card for the classic users who want to keep their original cases, something like the Dragon but without the busboard (basically an updated Blizzard 030 which supported more modern memory).  This would need to be 100% compatiable with OS3.9 and the older software.

For PPC users, something  like the proposed Shark but with a modern PCI-E interface.  Instead of mating it with a busboard there would be a new motherboard and case (based on PC tech).  This board would be for running OS4.0 with 68k emulation for older tiles.

:-P

[bd1308]

LOL.

This is great stuff, very entertaining.

I'll keep ya posted

[Atheist]

Hi bd1308,

This is what I would buy. I have an Amiga 2000.
(Note: I'm going to buy a NatAmi60. I would buy this as well, though.)

So, I would want an accelerator of these ideal specifications.

It would be:
1 Gig of DDR2 ram [1]
68060 @100 MHz [2]
Have a 68000 @20 Mhz on there for 100% compatibility [3]
Hard drive controller, if it's there or not, I'm not concerned.

However, if you could make some SCSI 1 to compact flash card readers so I could boot off of a CF from my controller on my Zorro II bus, that would be very handy..... Are those available new anywhere? I've looked on the internet and couldn't find any at all.

What would be cool is if you could have a "development board".

Put on circuitry and 2 empty sockets, one for a second 68000 and a second 68060 of the same speeds as the first 2. (you could probably put the 68000 onto the board, as it isn't too expensive). Also a 1 Gig DDR slot for them. Then, people can try to make AOS SMP capable. Interesting experiment!!!!

I have no idea how much it would cost, but even $600 US is not too much, I think, for taking AOS's prowess out for a test spin. :-D

Now we get crazy, but if it ALSO had a socket for an FPGA, then we could really experiment. People could try things similar to DSP, Altivec etc. designs....

Amiga's potentials are unlimited!


[1] sell board unpopulated
[2] that's the fastest available ever, from what I understand
[3] what's the fastest a 68000 can go? Ever had a 33MHz model?

[Atheist]

Oh, and, an ethernet and USB 2.0 port would be VERY useful, but I'd still get it if it didn't have one.

Would it be difficult to include a telephone jack and 56K modem on there? "Plug and play" baby!!!!

[rkauer]

Bandis wrote:
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.

 I am one of the 3 responsibles for the project.

 For information to everyone:

 - It is designed to simpler Amigas (those with 68000 CPU), not to interface with more complex ones (020 and up)!

 - The most economical version will cost less than 50 Pounds (main goal), using static RAM (no CPLD to interface memory);

 - There is a SDRAM controller ready for PPC CPUs, it uses a simple CPLD for this;

 - The initial version is for A600, second for A500/2000/similars;

 I don't announce it here because I want to do it only after the first working prototype.

 BTW:
 [color=ff0000]I don't accept preorders![/color][/b] And no one of my companions will.

[billt]

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

Phase 5 created a new engineering feat. This guy wants to reinvent someone else's photograph. Duplicating someone else's design, particularly the FPGA/CPLD magic, is a huge effort. Going by a photograph is laughable. Ha ha.

My main point is not that this is impossible. It's doable, but very difficult. My point is that, considering the time and effort required to actually duplicate the Phase5 PPC boards, that this time and effort would be better spent on giving us something more modern, better, faster, more modern features, etc. than in recreating something now so "old". It's easier to decide how to do something new and do it that way than it is to figure out how someone else did something and then redo it that way. The DCE boards aren't known for their reliability, design us something newer, simpler (no 040/060 chip), more powerful and more reliable instead.

Given the high cost of developing such a board, and the need for specific skills, I think it would make more sense to develop a product at first that's specific to the amiga market  but which give you a lower cost of entry than an accelerator card. There seems to be a large enough market for the inexpensive gadgets out there [perhaps start with an A1200 scsi controller like the data flyer 1200, or something else that is not easy to come by but increases the flexibility of the system?]. If you started small you could not only offset the need for pre-orders by actually having a cash flow first, but you would also improve your credibility with potential customers and firm up your ability to estimate just how much of a market there really is, before you go and drop 20 grand on development.

[taunusand]

This is actually something I have been expecting somehow, a replacement motherboard that fits the A1200 case - I suspect we all have them lying around? :-)

Yes, I have a few  :roll:

[Atheist]

Here's an easy project.... And one that will be sellable.

Make a PCI card for the NatAmi60 that can hold 16 Gigs of ram.

A person could put in 1 gig at a time, upto 16.

This is a ram: "hard drive". It would be accessed only through  device calls, i.e.
copy dh0:Bladerunner.mpg2 RHD0: clone
run dvplayer rhd0:Bladerunner

When you turn off the computer, it erases everything from RHD0:, because it's only usable when the computer is on.

That way, MAYBE a mere 100 MHz Amiga could play MPEG2 DVDs?

Let's show 'em what we're made of! I'm your customer for that one!

[DoogUK]

Personaly i'd like to see new accelerators have a mini PCI slot.

[Colani1200]

Welcome to this weeks wishful thinking thread.

[alexh]

countzero wrote:
A soft 68k core would be dead cheap compared to real 68ks

Yeah right... NOT. An FPGA large enough and fast enough to have a 50MHz 060 would cost $$$