Clone-A demonstration successful, new Catweasel drivers, Breakpoint sponsoring

[Schoenfeld]

On saturday, march 31st, Clone-A was successfully presented at Schloss Rahe Business center in Aachen, Germany. Project leader Oliver Achten and owner Jens Schönfeld faced up to the visitor's questions and presented an Amiga where the complete custom chipset was replaced by Clone-A development boards. In addition to demo programs that we have prepared, lots of programs were shown that visitors have brought. All these programs were executed without any flaws, just one program made the computer crash, where it wasn't clear if it was caused by a read error from the disk or by an incompatibility of the chipset. The visitor was given a voucher for 100,- EUR. In further tests after the demonstration, we could not reproduce the error, so there's no known incompatibility between Clone-A and a "real" Amiga at this time.

A new version of the Catweasel MK4 driver is available from our support site. Version 2.3.0.0 is a public beta version that corrects many known issues and adds new features. The most important change is that the joysticks can now be used as input devices for any Windows program (for example emulators), without the need for adapting these programs first. A new configuration program eases the use of the imagetool, and a few files for developers have been added to the archive, so direct access to disks is possible for other programs. Certain computer configurations now allow the "suspend to disk" function. This lets you put the computer into hibernation mode without having to shut it down completely. Since this function does not work properly on all computers yet, we decided to release this driver version as a beta-version with known issues and continue to work on this part of the driver in the coming weeks.

Like every year at easter time, the Breakpoint party takes place in Bingen, Germany, where more than 1000 visitors are expected. Of course we are sponsoring the event with cash and hardware prizes. The presentation of Clone-A will be repeated during a seminar. Unfortunately, project leader Oliver Achten does not have the time to take part in the Breakpoint party.

[XDelusion]

That is WONDERFUL! Now let's hope that these chips don't just end up in some stupid Amiga in a joystick thing!

Were they working on the AAA chipset as well, or am I wrong here?

[ChaosLord]

Hooray!!! :banana:

Now I just hope the Clone-AGA chips are ready for testing next year!  :idea:

[Amiduffer]

Just call him Jens "McGyver" Schönfeld.  :-P

The wizard who can take plastic, metal, and silicon and whip up magic!  :bow:

[Oli_hd]

Heres a link to some photo's of the event.
http://www.a1k.org/

[System]

I'm sorry, I'd very, very much like to see a "stupid Amiga in a joystick thing".  I'd buy one immediately as long as they had some way to import new games to the device (memory stick?)

Wayne

[Framiga]

some more pics over here as well. (thanks to Ratte)

Great job, Jens :-)

[Ral-Clan]

I'd like to see and Amiga-in-a-joystick too.  Not because I'd use it as such....but I'd hack it back to a real, usable Amiga like with the C64DTV.  

There's nothing wrong with a joystick type device.  It means mass production, mass distribution and cheap prices.  It would essentially mean a re-production run of an A500 (like the 64DTV was practically a re-production run of the Commodore 64).

It would also mean the developer (Jens, etc.) could actually make a profit on his/her efforts....profit means the ability to do further development on future products.

Also, an Amiga on a joystick doesn't automatically mean that there would not a be a "larger" mini A500 system released, that would be more computer-like.  In fact, the success of a joystick type device would only increase the likelihood of such product being made.

[drewz21]

If they make it I will buy.

[redrumloa]

As stated elsewhere, this project is too cool. Most important Amiga development in nearly 20 years.

[Floid]

For some reason I'm imagining you could bung a PCI-Express link somewhere in there...  An A500 driving an R600, anyone?

[itix]

I'd very, very much like to see a "stupid Amiga in a joystick thing".

Not sure how many game is usable without a keyboard. But more or less, I agree.

[XDelusion]

Let me clarify.

I hope they don't stop at the Amiga in a Joystick thing if it should come to that. Aside of having a cheap portable 040 Amiga type device, I'm sure this could also be used as a PCI card for Amiga and MorphOS machines to somehow enhance backwards compatability so that old software is not mere handled by software emulation.


 As for an Amiga in a Joystick giving hope for the future of an Amiga clone...

...well the C64 went pretty much the same route and we didn't see a C64 clone follow up to that unfortunatly. :/

 I had also heard a rumour that these chips "might" be opened sourced instead of commercialized, which I think could be the best move for the community as a whole, though I would not blame or hold it against anyone if the chips were instead put into commercial efforts, so long as those efforts did not result in like I said a mere Joystick for your 6 year old, or even a mere 500 clone. I'd like to see a clone with at least a 50Mhz 030 at worst!
 I don't see why that would be so expensive, shouldn't the 030 technology have about the worth of a 486 CPU anymore!?!? You'd think a piece of hardware like that would be worth pocket change.

040's are on Ebay for $10 so you'd figure....


http://cgi.ebay.com/Motorola-68040-Processor-XC68LC040RC25B_W0QQitemZ230096390151QQcategoryZ164QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Or even imagine this chip set merged into an Efika type board or something...

[Donar]

Were they working on the AAA chipset as well, or am I wrong here?

Nope they are not working on AAA (and it wouldn't be AGA compatible). But AGA is a target. Maybe targets will improve with time... :-D (<-only my 2 cents)

I'd buy one immediately as long as they had some way to import new games to the device.

According to a report from someone who attended the show something like SD- or FlashCard's should be incorporated.

I'm sorry, I'd very, very much like to see a "stupid Amiga in a joystick thing". I'd buy one immediately as long as they had some way to import new games to the device (memory stick?)

individual computers will try to produce "developer style" boards with an FPGA on it so you can see Clone-A growing. This Board could be in itx formfactor, and should be open enough to hack the hell out of it. Unfortunately 68k Accellerators will not fit on a standard Clone-A. (Maybe someone can "hack" it on...)

The "stupid Amiga-Joystick thingie" could follow if an investor is interested to help developing the FPGA version to an ASIC. So if you know someone with deep pockets let Jens know...

Please take my information with a grain of salt as targets are moving, and i only wrote up information from a german forum....

Bye

[Zac67]

Just add two USB ports somewhere so we can
- attach a keyboard
- access a USB stick as harddrive
 :-D