Are you buying an FPGA Amiga?

[Darrin]

What advantage do FPGA Amigas have over UAE Amigas?

Simplicity, and you don't have to cart around a PC for starters.

I use Amiga Forever and a Minimig.  The Minimig "feels" like my real Amigas with regards to booting, responses and that lovely ability to attach "Atari" joysticks to the ports.  One look at UAE's configuation menu is enough to put you off.  

[ChuckT]

I ordered an FPGA based Gameduino.  It doesn't have processing power for a computer yet but I wish to learn how it works to expand on it.  It has 256 Sprites.  I wish the Amiga had that!

•video output is 400x300 pixels in 512 colors
•all color processed internally at 15-bit precision
•compatible with any standard VGA monitor (800x600 @ 72Hz)
•background graphics
◦512x512 pixel character background
◦256 characters, each with independent 4 color palette
◦pixel-smooth X-Y wraparound scroll
•foreground graphics
◦each sprite is 16x16 pixels with per-pixel transparency
◦each sprite can use 256, 16 or 4 colors
◦four-way rotate and flip
◦96 sprites per scan-line, 1536 texels per line
◦pixel-perfect sprite collision detection
•audio output is a stereo 12-bit frequency synthesizer
•64 independent voices 10-8000 Hz
•per-voice sine wave or white noise
•sample playback channel

Watch the video at:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2084212109/gameduino-an-arduino-game-adapter

If you want one, you only have until Wednesday Mar 30, 9:05am EDT.

You could expand the computer platforms by being involved.

[roc]

Since a few months I am back to the scene.

So far I have got a Minimig (waiting for its ARM controller) and pre-ordered a FPGArcade

On top of them I will keep using my A1200+ACA1230 and wish to buy one Indivision AGA of the second batch, when they areready.

Regarding the Natami, depending on the performance of the Replay card I would evaluate whether to buy it.

[Dwyloc]

I liked my Basic 2MB Minimig that much I had to purchase a second 4MB Minimig and an ARM addon board to go with it :-)

[mikej]

I ordered an FPGA based Gameduino.  It doesn't have processing power for a computer yet but I wish to learn how it works to expand on it.  It has 256 Sprites.  I wish the Amiga had that!
.

It's a really nice little design that actually, I compiled it for the Replay board. I need to modify the memory,audio and video interfaces to make it actually work however.

The FPGA itself doesn't do that much, all the clever stuff needs to be done in the external CPU - the ARM in my case.

I'll mail the guy and see if he is happy for me to release a port.
Best,
MikeJ

[ognix]

I think 200/250 EUR for the Natami is completely unrealistic. That's the range that's been indicated for the FPGA Arcade. I'd be surprised (pleasantly so...) if the Natami ends up at or below 600-800 EUR.

Maybe you're right... I didn't check precisely what's hardware it's "inside" NatAmi (it was just a thought about a very attractive price for being successfull).
Anyway if you are right about 700/800 EUR, I'm sorry but I won't buy it!

_I_ think the maximum target price NatAmi may be "good selling" (in Amiga terms, of course) could be something around 450 EUR (anyway less than 500 EUR), if supported by convincing performance/features/enthusiasm.
...even just the plain board (if it's a matter of adding case, drive, keyboard, mouse and so on).

This is my personal opinion, of course...
...but I think I'm that far from reality (see how many Sam boards have been sold, since their price - even if it's a bit different).

BY!

[vidarh]

_I_ think the maximum target price NatAmi may be "good selling" (in Amiga terms, of course) could be something around 450 EUR (anyway less than 500 EUR), if supported by convincing performance/features/enthusiasm.
...even just the plain board (if it's a matter of adding case, drive, keyboard, mouse and so on).

Who knows, maybe it's possible. And time is in their favor - FPGA prices is one of their major cost issues, but FPGA prices are steadily dropping, so maybe they'll get below the 500 mark eventually.

But I think it'll sell in ok numbers (for the Amiga market anyway) - the cost if you want to fully kit out a classic to get even within striking distance of a Natami is pretty steep, and there must be a decent number of crumbling heavily expanded classics out there still aching for replacement.

Pricing out an A1200 mobo only + Indivision AGA mk2 + Subway USB controller +  ACA1230/42 gets you to about 470 EUR at Vesalia, and those items aren't even all available, and the 1230/42 will crawl in comparison, and the Natami has SuperAGA, ethernet etc.

You'd be hard pressed to even kit out a classic to similar(ish) specs without resorting to used hardware, and even then you'd likely end up with a big box Amiga with tons of aging and potentially unstable and expensive expansion cards.

If they can beat the fastest expanded classics, I believe there'll be a reasonable number of takers even if they end up at a 700+ EUR price point.

Of course "reasonable" in this case is pretty small. I'm sure the Replay board will be outselling them with a very high factor (not least because it's open and will come with a bunch of cores for other classic computers as well), for example. The Natami is catering for a very specific niche.

[Hattig]

Indeed, an FPGAArcade at around £200 + case + PSU is well worth it for what it provides.

A Natami, if the 68050 performs as well as it is hoped to perform, will also be worth it for people that need higher performance out of their Amiga. A smaller market for sure, but the more powerful FPGA will cost more, and then there's the second FPGA on board as well.

Btw, case makers - make sure you leave space for a 2.5" hard drive in the Natami case designs!

[Dwyloc]

Of course "reasonable" in this case is pretty small. I'm sure the Replay board will be outselling them with a very high factor (not least because it's open and will come with a bunch of cores for other classic computers as well), for example. The Natami is catering for a very specific niche.

Yes as the owner of a BlizzzardPPC/060 equipped A1200 Tower with a mediator, subway and a hole lot of other addons, I can say that I now use my Sam440 and Minimig more mainly because they are both more stable solutions probably down to the ageing of my A1200 hardware.

But nether completely replaces my A1200 setup which I still use from time to time but in combination they come very close do doing just that for me.

And if and when my ageing 060 card fails I will probably look at replacing the A1200Tower with FPGA solution that gives me good AGA, CGX support network support and 040 or better levels of 68k performance, but I am not looking for a new hardware solution this year.

I do have to say though that my minimig feels like a real A500 for playing games on in a way that WinUAE and UAE on my sam440 just cant beat, thats not to say that I dont like and use WinUAE as well, it just feels different.

[Colani1200]

A bit off topic: Those of you who are into FPGA Amigas will probably enjoy this approach where somebody built a Minimig out of parts mostly taken from a butchered Cisco switch:

http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26187

EDIT: be warned, this is not for people who suffer from cable phobia.