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Author Topic: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A  (Read 3979 times)

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Offline hsv5000Topic starter

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Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« on: December 28, 2010, 10:31:37 AM »
I recall a few years ago Individual Computers were going to make (FPGA) replacement custom chips call Clone-A.

I haven't seen or heard any thing since... Anyone got some info on the progress?
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Offline Colin_Camper

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2010, 10:57:16 AM »
AFAIK some time ago, the project was quite mature and ready to go into production but they couldn't get past Amiga.Inc licensing.

I heard that Amiga.Inc wanted totally unreasonable terms. Most people just saw this as an excuse because (the general belief at the time) Amiga.Inc was a money laundering and tax evading operation and they didn't want ACTUAL business to disturb their cosy little scam.
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Offline Tahoe

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2010, 11:42:07 AM »
Quote from: hsv5000;602378
I recall a few years ago Individual Computers were going to make (FPGA) replacement custom chips call Clone-A.

I haven't seen or heard any thing since... Anyone got some info on the progress?


I can't recall Jens ever saying he was going to produce a new Amiga.
Clone-A has helped him develop other things though: think Indivision ECS. It has a Denise chip integrated.
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Offline alexh

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2010, 01:39:13 PM »
I believe they have their code there ready for FPGA technology to catch up and become cost effective.

The work on the Denise chip for Clone-A is used in the Indivision ECS.
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Offline bloodline

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2010, 01:41:47 PM »
Jens never promised to produce a commercial product from the Clone-A project... An the Indivison is an example of what he was able to develop from it.

Maybe now AROS is running rather well on 68k and we have a fairly mature 68k FPGA core he might think about a complete product :)
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Offline cv643d

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2010, 02:09:01 PM »
I never remembered that he promised to release Clone-A, I remember he wanted to sell it as a product though. I am confident we will see Clone-A sometimes in the future, let IC breath a bit after cristhmas rush with the ACA cards first though! :) Feels like they worked overtime during the holidays.
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Offline amigappc

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2010, 02:24:10 PM »
Hello @all.

I remember that Jens offered Clone-A to Genesi, as Efika addon, but they turned offer down.
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Offline freqmax

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2010, 03:07:44 PM »
Clone-A project would be excellent to fix Amigas with a single faulty chip with a swap.

And Amiga Inc seems dead at this point.. so no more problem from them?
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Offline Iggy

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2010, 03:16:16 PM »
Quote from: freqmax;602445
Clone-A project would be excellent to fix Amigas with a single faulty chip with a swap.

And Amiga Inc seems dead at this point.. so no more problem from them?


I've often wondered about the claim that Jens couldn't arrange licensing will Bill McEwen. I'm not sure that the hardware patents from the Amiga weren't retained by Gateway in their IP transfer to Bill's company. And they're so old anyway that they may have expired.

Frankly, I don't understand the FPGA Amiga concept anyway. Whether you merely emulated the legacy hasrdware ior attempt to enhance it, nothing you can produce with an FPGA is going to compare to the processing power in an NG system.
Its just a fact, dedicated silicon is much faster than prograsmmable arrays (and always wil be).
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Offline alexh

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2010, 04:34:06 PM »
Quote from: freqmax;602445
Clone-A project would be excellent to fix Amigas with a single faulty chip with a swap.
The availability of the original chips would make this an unlikely use. You can get almost any chip (bar a couple of A3000 chips) for almost nothing.

Quote from: Iggy;602452
Frankly, I don't understand the FPGA Amiga concept anyway.
Cost. No-one is ever going to have the money to make new dedicated chips for the Amiga ever again.

Quote from: Iggy;602452
Whether you merely emulated the legacy hasrdware ior attempt to enhance it, nothing you can produce with an FPGA is going to compare to the processing power in an NG system. Its just a fact, dedicated silicon is much faster than prograsmmable arrays (and always wil be).
Fecking cheaper though. $0 NRE for FPGA vs $Millions for ASIC silicon
« Last Edit: December 28, 2010, 04:37:02 PM by alexh »
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Offline HenryCase

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2010, 05:51:02 PM »
Progress is still being made on the Clone-A, the last post I read about it was only from November 2010:
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=712136&postcount=14

Seems like individual Computers are taking their time to get the user experience right, sounds promising.
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Offline alexh

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Re: Where is Individual Computers Clone-A
« Reply #11 on: December 28, 2010, 06:17:19 PM »
If they are smart they will do it in the form of a "library". All ROMs and disk images will be displayed with snapshots/covers and by selecting the game programs the FPGA with the right core (Amiga, Atari, C64, Spectrum etc) could be great.
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