What would your ideal upgrade be right now for your Amiga(s)

[Amiduffer]

A way to towerize my A4000D
Any basic 060 accelerator with some RAM
USB

[Forcie]

The more I think of it, the thing that makes the most sense would be an adapter to fit the FPGA arcade or NatAmi into the classic Amiga case of your choice. ;-)

Who says they do not already fit? I know at least one that does

[Thorham]

Seriously, you're talking about duct taping a new built 68k/PPC card, graphics, SATA, networking, USB 2 board onto a 30 year old computer? When you're done you're only using the mouse & joysticks from the original Amiga....

If you're talking about my accelerator idea, then no, no graphics (and no PPC). That way you use the A1200 hardware, except the CPU and the IDE port. It would be a great board, and it would simply slide into the CPU slot, so no duct taping is needed at all.

As for 'a 30 year old computer', while true, the Amiga is quite a modern computer. Current peecees are basically the same idea (just much faster): Motherboard with stuff on it in a box; just connect it, turn the power on and go. Only tablets are more modern. Come on, Amigas aren't pre '80s machines. It's in the early '80s that computers were becoming modern, and essentially very little has changed (the big exception is performance, and performance isn't necessarily a factor when determining how modern something is).

[nicholas]

A professional-level 68040 overhaul to bring performance up closer to modern standards (maybe take the Pentium Pro approach and run the instruction set on a smaller, faster microarchitecture.) Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Back in the day I used to dream that AMD gave the Thunderbird treatment to the 060 ISA rather than x86.

[desiv]

Who says they do not already fit? I know at least one that does

Hmmm..
Images of replacing (delicately storing the original of course) my A1000 motherboard with something like this.
A backplate should be no problem, as the 1000 has that slide in backplate..
Just need some adapters (floppy drive (eject button positioning might be tricky if you use a standard PC floppy), LEDs, Power, Keyboard (A1000 original of course, unless there is a replacement that fits nicely under the A1000 and is the same color scheme), joystick ports)...
Hmmm..  Depending on the fit, would a laptop IDE optical drive fit so it ejects where the expansion slot without cutting anything???

Then, all I'd need is a monitor that fits inside a 1084s case...  

Hmmm....

desiv

[broken]

I like the idea of a Natami based cpu accelerator for the A1200 (and possibly 4000). Add on a high speed ide port and you are in business.

Since thats not very practical, a new run, or revision of the IDE-Fix Express. These really need to be available again. I would like to see the 40 pin connectors removed (or become removable) and just concentrate on the 44 pin. SATA would be nice for SSD drives but probably not practical either.

New Indivision AGA 1200 run (or the MKII). Why the hell aren't these available again yet? Its not like they didn't sell like hot cakes or anything. Would be nice to see a better mounting method as they can be finicky to keep secured. Perhaps DVI as well VGA?

External SD/FF. I know the image quality isn't going to be quite as sharp as an internal unit, but installation is brain dead easy and doesn't require modding to make it fit (or to keep it from moving around). While many of us have multiple Amiga's, how often do you have several hooked up at once? Would be nice to have a "portable" SD/FF to use.

A proper aftermarket desktop case for the A1200. Something similar in size to the A1000 or classic pizza box style Mac. I personally don't care for tower conversions, but I do like the fact they allow you to use some of the accelerators that just don't fit correctly (or get too hot) in the A1200. This is something I am actually thinking of working on. Slim optical drive up front (maybe...or perhaps slot in style?) and a place for a floppy drive (perhaps locate it on the side to clean up the front of the case?)

[JimS]

@ JimS

You've just given Barry an entire production plan for his next project...

Well..... there's a difference between slapping a generic pc mobo into an amiga-like box, and slapping a fan-built Amiga clone into a real or Amiga-like box.

[JimS]

Who says they do not already fit? I know at least one that does

Hmm.... Wonder which one that would be. ;-)

But my point was that when you look at all the stuff you'd want to add to a classic Amiga to bring an old Amiga up to date, it makes more sense to start from scratch with a new motherboard.... just like y'all are doing.

[Thorham]

But my point was that when you look at all the stuff you'd want to add to a classic Amiga to bring an old Amiga up to date, it makes more sense to start from scratch with a new motherboard.... just like y'all are doing.

Except when you're only interested in classic Amigas (680x0+OCS/ECS/AGA). I wish I was a billionaire. Then I could just buy Amiga, and start producing real Amigas again (at a loss, so what, it's a hobby .

[JimS]

If you're talking about my accelerator idea, then no, no graphics (and no PPC). That way you use the A1200 hardware, except the CPU and the IDE port. It would be a great board, and it would simply slide into the CPU slot, so no duct taping is needed at all.

As for 'a 30 year old computer', while true, the Amiga is quite a modern computer. Current peecees are basically the same idea (just much faster): Motherboard with stuff on it in a box; just connect it, turn the power on and go. Only tablets are more modern. Come on, Amigas aren't pre '80s machines. It's in the early '80s that computers were becoming modern, and essentially very little has changed (the big exception is performance, and performance isn't necessarily a factor when determining how modern something is).

I wasn't talking about your accellerator idea specifically, just the idea of things added on to old hardware. While I agree the Amiga is a fairly modern computer design wise, the actual hardware is between 15 and nearly 30 years old. It just seems to me that if you're going to go to the expense of designing, building and testing something, might as well start with a clean slate. I'm thinking about what I'd want to see to make me shift over to using the Amiga as a day-to-day computer again rather than some retro fun... (not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-) ) ... and when I look at all the stuff I'd want, a new motherboard would be saner.  
That's why I like the Replay, and Natami, although I'd prefer the latter to be open.

[Roj]

I'd just want the option of installing AmigaOS natively onto my x86 hardware and do away with everything else. The mild panic I go through when my A4000 doesn't start up right away is something I can do without.

That's not so much to ask is it?

[Thorham]

I wasn't talking about your accellerator idea specifically, just the idea of things added on to old hardware. While I agree the Amiga is a fairly modern computer design wise, the actual hardware is between 15 and nearly 30 years old. It just seems to me that if you're going to go to the expense of designing, building and testing something, might as well start with a clean slate. I'm thinking about what I'd want to see to make me shift over to using the Amiga as a day-to-day computer again rather than some retro fun... (not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-) ) ... and when I look at all the stuff I'd want, a new motherboard would be saner.  
That's why I like the Replay, and Natami, although I'd prefer the latter to be open.

Okay, fair enough

What we really need, is new software for 680x0+chipset+KS3.0 (and no, not ports, especially not Fire Fox ports, yuk ). What our classic Amigas are doing today isn't very impressive at all, and it can be vastly improved.

The OS is firmly stuck in the past, and there's no need for this if one got written from scratch (incompatible with AOS, start from scratch completely). It could be faster and more stable than AOS, and provide the perfect platform for modern applications that run well on '030s with chipset. There are plenty of applications that aren't heavy when they're well written, and there's certainly no need for a billion exa hertz CPU (I'm willing to bet that we'll see the same crappy bloatware as on teh peecee with Winblows/Linsux if our Amigas become up to date speed wise, and this is a big no no).

To me, it's about the software, not the hardware, hence my want for accelerators with standard 680x0 CPUs and some much needed connectivity features (and a shit load of ram for the novelty value ).

[X-ray]

Custom desktop case and keyboard for my A4000T.
Yes, I want a compact desktop case in brushed aluminium and a matching keyboard and silver mouse for my A4000T mobo. Think late 90s Technics amplifier, that's the kind of deal I want.
Probably on the hardware side all it is missing is a Deneb, I have everything else I want for it: a PPC, PIV with Concierto and also 3 x DKB3128.

[JimS]

Okay, fair enough

To me, it's about the software, not the hardware, hence my want for accelerators with standard 680x0 CPUs and some much needed connectivity features (and a shit load of ram for the novelty value ).

I'm kinda with you on the software... Those old productivity aps like the Deluxe series, Pagestream, Videoscape and so on were pretty good. Especially for folks who weren't experts in those fields. I think sometimes I'd rather use Deluxe Paint than Photoshop. An upgraded Amiga with better graphics, networking, sound, and speed would be killer.

[nicholas]

I'd just want the option of installing AmigaOS natively onto my x86 hardware and do away with everything else. The mild panic I go through when my A4000 doesn't start up right away is something I can do without.

That's not so much to ask is it?

AROS + Emumiga should fit that bill nicely.

[Zac67]

Well, I'd like a CPU card ('060 + PPC, maybe a nice G4) with integrated PCIe bus, connecting to a PCIe daughterboard. Of course the CPU card has fast local memory (256 MB to 2 GB), a NIC, a few SATA and USB ports and a somewhat decent audio chip.

Dropping Zorro altogether (sorry, Dave) has the advantage of not having to care about DMA and addressing, so you could put more than 128 MB on the card.

The only thing missing would be a sweet little PEG graphics card of your choice and you'd have a completely new machine without missing anything you love.

Impossible you say? Well, not really... The hardest parts would be sourcing the CPUs and writing drivers for this Erlkönig.