Excitement about NatAmi

[Hattig]

Other people, **cough**the_leander**cough**, just aren't too bright.

No need to reduce yourself to making insults too.

[Karlos]

including 'chum', which actually doesn't mean 'friend', 'buddy', 'mate', but is used to make a phrase more unfriendly and aggressive.

Well, that's news to a lot of us: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chum

chum: n. An intimate friend or companion.

You better contact them quick and tell them "No, wait... the other thing!"

[Hattig]

Well, that's news to a lot of us: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chum

You better contact them quick and tell them "No, wait... the other thing!"

It's how it is used that changes the meaning, and it certainly isn't commonly used as 'friend' (unlike 'mate', etc) when stuck on the end of a sentence such as what it was used in. I've had enough of this bickering - I've asked the NatAmi forum if they've got any solid information to back up the 100x to 200x claim, and if they do I'll post it here. Best to get it from the horse's mouth, eh? "NatAmi want crunchy apple!"

[Karlos]

Look, words like "chum" and "muppet" just aren't terms to get unduly upset over. If we start moderating posts on the basis of how an otherwise innocent word appears to have been used then things really have gotten very silly indeed. Any word can be put in a negative context with enough effort.

Outright name-calling, foul and/or abusive language are moderation fodder. A few posts here are getting a bit too close to personal for my liking but there's not really anything that has been said yet that's a clear breach.

[jj]

What if I were to say cock socket ?

[Karlos]

What if I were to say cock socket ?

You keep your pink-velvet-sausage-wallet expressionism to yourself, son!

Anyway, I know it's a big ask, but maybe we could, you know, just for once, return to the subject at hand?

[jj]

Sorry. Just had to say Bacon purse,
 
But back to the thread topic.
 
In answer to the topic , no not really that excited to be honest.
 
Moved on from classic

[commodorejohn]

In answer to the topic, totally excited about the potential and cautiously optimistic about the actual product. Never moved on from classic

[AJCopland]

I thought I'd chip in and say something since, despite my lack of time to really chip in very much, I am still on the Natami team.

Everyone seems to think that the 68050/070 or 3DCore development has delayed the release somehow. They're completely separate.

The 3DCore has a lot of research and going back to the books because, especially for me, it was the first time we'd tried to really plan out something like a GPU. Gunnar has an existing rasteriser with texture mapping but we wanted something more powerful. In effect we have a version 1.0 of the 3DCore, and most of our research and planning is for a version 2.0.

NEITHER of those 3DCore's are likely to be in the first release because it could delay launching the Natami and no-one wants that.

The 68050 however is a very advanced project that Gunnar, Jens and AndinG have all been working on. That doesn't mean it will be ready for launch but again that doesn't mean it won't be used later on just like the 3DCore.

Gunnar has also written a couple of games whilst all this has happened!

All of this has happened in parallel and without interrupting Thomas who has worked on nothing but the board designs and SAGA implementation. If you looked at the sites hardware page:
http://www.natami.net/hardware.htm
You can see that he has used a real 68060 for testing and development of the LX board. If you've read the forums you'd also know that the MX board will be able to use one as well but that it will be optional so that the Natami can be made cheaper when the 68050 is good enough (which it nearly is now).

If the 3DCore(s), 68050/070 etc didn't exist then Thomas would still be at this stage now with the board development because he has a life and job outside of this and is doing the hardware design and SAGA development alone.

Everyone else is the community/team support for other things, such as acquiring and testing coldfire dev boards, setting up the site, and for those who live locally like Gunnar just being a helpful friend who keeps things going and keeps all of the flame wars off his back.

All of the boards right from the first one have been about advancing the idea to find it's flaws and refine it. Thomas doesn't want to release a broken and half-arsed implementation he wants to do it properly so the Natami30, LX and the two CPU cards have all been about figuring out what that really means. That doesn't include a lot of the stuff that doesn't get shown or talked about outside of IRC and the team pages.

I've had doubts about my own ability to contribute but I do NOT doubt Thomas's desire to finish and release Natami with SAGA at all. Or Gunnar's dedication to the project, nor Jens desire to get the N68050 running in the final machine.

Andy

[Franko]

@ AJCopland

That's the best bit of news I've heard in a long time...

Good luck and keep up the excellent work...

Don't care what it cost's I want's one...

[commodorejohn]

Good to hear! Send our thanks to the other team members (and yourself ) for their work!

[Mr_DBUG]

I am very much excited and geared up for NatAmi, and hope it happens sometime not too far off ! Atleast Im waiting for it, classic for me, AROS for NG.. Unless a cheapish OS4 solution happens .. My day to day computing is done on Windows/Mac or Linux ..

[amigadave]

Thanks for the update and info Andy.

I have not been keeping up with the Natami's progress and did not even know that Jens was working on it (is this the same Jens of Individual Computers that I am thinking of, or another Jens?).

I can see why Jens of Individual Computers would be interested in the 68050/070 to combine with work already completed on Clone-A, and/or to create future accelerators for Classic Amiga models using the 68050/070 instead of actual 680x0 silicon.

I still like the idea behind the Natami and hope that it succeeds in getting manufactured as the fastest 68k based Amiga-Like computer that is fully backward compatible with the Classic Amiga hardware.  Too bad it did not get created 15 years ago though.

[SamuraiCrow]

I have not been keeping up with the Natami's progress and did not even know that Jens was working on it (is this the same Jens of Individual Computers that I am thinking of, or another Jens?).

It is a different Jens.  See a picture of Jens Künzer on our contact page.

[DCAmiga]

@ Natami Team Members
 
I for one am greatfull that you all have taken on such a project, takes hard work and dedication. Dunno about the rest of you but I have hope you will succeed and will be able to rid yourself of that Vaporware label. But I have a question if I may if i understand this correctly, now the softcore CPU will be using a ALTERA Cyclone IV which by your estimates clocks around 100-133mhz Correct ?
My question is :
Futher down the track when FPGA prices drop will there be a chance to use a ARRIA II or Stratix V as the softcore or would a total redesign be necessary? and what estimated clock speeds could the N050 or N070 be running at ?
 
BTW those starwars 3d Pic's look great for a 1st version of the 3d core
 
Cheers
 
DC
 
PS: Great to see you all attempting to revive and advance the amiga

[SamuraiCrow]

My question is :
Futher down the track when FPGA prices drop will there be a chance to use a ARRIA II or Stratix V as the softcore or would a total redesign be necessary? and what estimated clock speeds could the N050 or N070 be running at ?

Gunnar has already tested some of the functionality on higher-end FPGAs.  The VHDL doesn't require changing and will run faster right out of the box.

I wouldn't be surprised if in two years or so you'll see a new NatAmi 2 design that clocks two to three times as fast and has more room to spare on the FPGA for new functionality.

Also, the 133 MHz figure is for the N68050 on the Cyclone IV.  The actual clock speed of the FPGA will be somewhat faster to allow better performance for the graphics cores.