A500 ++ Prototype

[mongo]

030 accelerators for A500 are not so common and manage to sell at silly prices due to that.
Apart from that, making a new mobo (if it works) make's sure you got new hardware (with less possibilities of failing), embedded accelerator (plus RAM, or even IDE header etc), Zorro adapter inside etc. Try finding an Viper 530 first... in a decent price second

As you say it might be cheaper to find an 030 for A500 plus an A500 also... but DAMN that mobo is l33t and hurray for new Classic Amiga hardware @ 2010!!!

You've missed the point.

Instead of designing a whole new motherboard, it would be better to just design a 030 accelerator for the A500. That way they could sell it for a much more reasonable cost and far more people would be willing to buy it.

No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

[Karlos]

No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

How about improved reliability over an old A500 motherboard/accelerator card combo?

[Buzzfuzz]

You've missed the point.
 
Instead of designing a whole new motherboard, it would be better to just design a 030 accelerator for the A500. That way they could sell it for a much more reasonable cost and far more people would be willing to buy it.
 
No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

That's not the goal here, it will also contain 2 kickstart sockets, more ram, and maybe later on 16MB like the A4000.
 
Yeah you could do a 030 or 060 turbo card, but that is quite an effort all by itself.
Something that can be done later as well, this already on it's way to becoming a good A500 replacement.
And the fact is that most of it will be new, so it will go on a few more years.

[x303]

Instead of designing a whole new motherboard, it would be better to just design a 030 accelerator for the A500. That way they could sell it for a much more reasonable cost and far more people would be willing to buy it.

No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

Maybe the motherboard is made because the 68000 is 16 bit and a 68030 is 32 bit ?!

[Karlos]

Maybe the motherboard is made because the 68000 is 16 bit and a 68030 is 32 bit ?!

If it's using the original (O|E)CS chips then presumably only the local 030 fast RAM will be 32-bit and the path into the chipset 16-bit. In that respect, no different to an accelerator.

However, that's an assumption. I don't know that they aren't going to use some FPGA solution or other, but there sure are a lot of sockets on the board.

[Darrin]

You've missed the point.

Instead of designing a whole new motherboard, it would be better to just design a 030 accelerator for the A500. That way they could sell it for a much more reasonable cost and far more people would be willing to buy it.

No reason to do a whole new motherboard if the new motherboard doesn't offer you any benefit over the old motherboard + an accelerator.

It does offer a benefit when you own an A500 with a dead motherboard.

There would probably be a market for new replacement A4000D mobos too.  I know I wouldn't mind one.

Why purchase a brand new 68030 accelerator to put into a 25 year old computer that could fail at any minute?

Plus, you're also missing the ZII slot (although getting anything to fit in that and be able to close the case should prove to ve interesting unless there is some sort of right angle adapter).

[Buzzfuzz]

It does offer a benefit when you own an A500  (although getting anything to fit in that and be able to close the case should prove to ve interesting unless there is some sort of right angle adapter).

There is @ amigakit.com http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=51&products_id=572

[mongo]

It does offer a benefit when you own an A500 with a dead motherboard.

There would probably be a market for new replacement A4000D mobos too.  I know I wouldn't mind one.

Why purchase a brand new 68030 accelerator to put into a 25 year old computer that could fail at any minute?

Plus, you're also missing the ZII slot (although getting anything to fit in that and be able to close the case should prove to ve interesting unless there is some sort of right angle adapter).

There's not much that can go wrong with an A500 motherboard besides the chips (which you're going to need for the new motherboard) or the sockets (which are easy to replace).

Why buy a whole new motherboard to populate it with 25 year old chips that could fail at any minute?

The side expansion connector on an A500 is pretty much ZII. If you want to use a ZII card on a A500, only a simple adapter is required. You're not going to fit any standard ZII card inside an A500 and still be able to close the case.

[Buzzfuzz]

If it's using the original (O|E)CS chips then presumably only the local 030 fast RAM will be 32-bit and the path into the chipset 16-bit. In that respect, no different to an accelerator.
 
However, that's an assumption. I don't know that they aren't going to use some FPGA solution or other, but there sure are a lot of sockets on the board.

Yeah, look on the far right of the board, there is the 68030 socket and 68882 socket.

It will be a 030 @ 32/40Mhz at the beginning an later on maybe a 50Mhz.
But it's all too soon too tell, first we need a working board, then we can start on improvements and more speed.

[orange]

Why do a whole new motherboard when an 030 accelerator for an existing A500 would serve the same purpose for a much lower cost?

I agree, esp. cause they want us to rip custom chips from old a500.
it would be much cooler to preserve A500 as much as possible than make this 'frankenstein'

if they want speed so much, go straight to winuae.
this will not be another Amiga as far as I'm concerned.

[Darrin]

There is @ amigakit.com http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=51&products_id=572

Ah, perfect!

[Darrin]

There's not much that can go wrong with an A500 motherboard besides the chips (which you're going to need for the new motherboard) or the sockets (which are easy to replace).

Why buy a whole new motherboard to populate it with 25 year old chips that could fail at any minute?

The side expansion connector on an A500 is pretty much ZII. If you want to use a ZII card on a A500, only a simple adapter is required. You're not going to fit any standard ZII card inside an A500 and still be able to close the case.

True, but it is yet another option.  Options are good and this is a neat all-in-one solution.

[B00tDisk]

There's not much that can go wrong with an A500 motherboard besides the chips (which you're going to need for the new motherboard) or the sockets (which are easy to replace).

Why buy a whole new motherboard to populate it with 25 year old chips that could fail at any minute?

Maybe because it's a cool thing to do with the hobby.  Why not WinUAE.  Why not throw you into a sausage grinder?  Both provide the same entertainment value.

The side expansion connector on an A500 is pretty much ZII. If you want to use a ZII card on a A500, only a simple adapter is required. You're not going to fit any standard ZII card inside an A500 and still be able to close the case.

There's a right-angle Z2 adapter shown up the thread you flipper armed mong.

[Darrin]

I agree, esp. cause they want us to rip custom chips from old a500.
it would be much cooler to preserve A500 as much as possible than make this 'frankenstein'

if they want speed so much, go straight to winuae.
this will not be another Amiga as far as I'm concerned.

I fail to see what is so cool about preserving a dead A500.  You can always hang on to teh old motherboard if you wish.

Personally, I'll stick to my Minimig-ARM solution, but I can certainly see people wanting this.

[Metalguy66]

This is a kewl project.. It was already done for the A1000 (twice- go look up the pheonix board).

I have several comments.. First, I think its an awesome Idea.. Theres tons of A500s out there just consuming closet space and collecting dust.. And the A500 is one of the kewlest looking and most memorable AMIGA case styles ever..

If I was to do this, I would use an 060 CPU to begin with.. The 030 is too dated and lacks the fire-power to do anything seriously competitive with modern upgraded 68k AMIGAs.

I would also include in the design whatever glue-logic is necessary to allow it to use modern dram. Higher desnsity 72pin SIMMs at the very least..  16megs is nothing by today's standards.

I would also shit-can the A500 side-car bus, and put a full-blown Z-III slot out the side.. Noone is seriously gonna cram a Zorro card, laying flat, over the motherboard inside an A500..

Last, I would include integrated ethernet. It costs next to nothing to do nowadayze, with easily available embedded solutions..

[cpfuture]

Nice development! Looking forward to seeing it progress.  :cool:

Don't mind the negative reactions. Seems for every endeavour in the Amiga community lately there's enough people ready to tell you why it's a bad idea or why you shouldn't do it....