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Author Topic: Has Clone-A died?  (Read 13847 times)

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Offline mfletcher

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2011, 08:45:00 PM »
Maybe the idea is to run AROS 68k on Clone-A ? That way Jens could release it with a good degree of Amiga compatibility, without having to obtain a license.
 

Offline digiflipTopic starter

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2011, 08:45:47 PM »
so spec wise if by some miracle clone-a got released how it specs wise compare to like fpga arcade and Natami MX boards?
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Offline freqmax

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2011, 09:04:05 PM »
I was talking pure HW ;)
 

Offline Iggy

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2011, 09:14:13 PM »
Quote from: freqmax;638453
Can't he talk directly to Gateway, Inc ?

Besides if ACube can deliver complete clones. Then Jens ought to be able to deliver chip clones?

Gateway sold its trademarks and then subsequently licensed its patents to Amino.

The question is, did Gateway have a proper license for this technology?

The last valid IP holders appear to be Commodore-Amiga.
The oly rights

 What Commodore agreed to sell were  trade marks.


And as a side light, Acube machines are NOT clones. They don't run legacy software (easily) and represent a new direction for the OS and the hardware.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 09:17:21 PM by Iggy »
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Offline HenryCase

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2011, 10:24:39 PM »
Quote from: SamuraiCrow;638403
I heard he used his FPGA designs to make the Indivision AGA and ECS model scan doublers.


AFAIR, you're right that the recent Indivision ECS flickerfixer/scandoubler has CloneA HDL code in it, but the AGA version of Indivision does not. Can't remember the exact reason, think the code was included in the ECS version to get around some of the limitations of the original ECS chipset.
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Offline freqmax

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #19 on: May 17, 2011, 10:51:49 PM »
A legal "hack" could be to setup a liability limited company that violates the copyright on the AmigaOS 2.x on record. Then see who will sue and challenge in court to have them prove their legal ownership. If no one sues, then statute of limitations should make the case expire and subsequent cases void.

Another approch is to write to the Copyright office and ask for any information regarding the chain of title.
 

Offline takemehomegrandma

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #20 on: May 17, 2011, 11:11:13 PM »
Quote from: digiflip;638465
so spec wise if by some miracle clone-a got released how it specs wise compare to like fpga arcade and Natami MX boards?


AFAIK the focus with Clone-A is to *clone* an Amiga 500; meaning aiming for absolute perfect reverse engineered chipset for *100%* SW compatibility. The focus with Natami OTOH is to reimplement and *improve* the chipset, which inevitably will mean breaking a certain amount of compatibility. So spec-wise the Clone-A *will be* an Amiga 500 (no ethernet, usb, pci, 256MB chipmem or whatever), while Natami will be something else. Different purposes, different goals.
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Offline freqmax

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #21 on: May 17, 2011, 11:47:46 PM »
In particular Clone-A shoud provide a path to repair broken A500:s with pre-programmed CPLD/FPGAs.
 

Offline NovaCoder

Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #22 on: May 18, 2011, 12:49:04 AM »
Last time he mentioned it (a few months back) he said he was still planning on releasing in 'one day'.   I'm not sure if he'll bother though because it looks like the FPGA Arcade will be released soon and that will do much the same as what the CloneA was supposed to do.
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Offline billt

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #23 on: May 18, 2011, 01:14:23 AM »
Quote from: NovaCoder;638522
Last time he mentioned it (a few months back) he said he was still planning on releasing in 'one day'.   I'm not sure if he'll bother though because it looks like the FPGA Arcade will be released soon and that will do much the same as what the CloneA was supposed to do.

That depends on what else he might consider for CloneA. I like some features of Natami board, the PCI slot for example, that FPGA Arcade lacks. But I don't think we expect to be able to put anything else in the FPGA other than what Natami team puts there, so we can't play around like we could with FPGA Arcade. (I'm nto saying Natami team shoudl open-source the inside-the-FPGA HDL stuff, but I'd love to know what things hook to what FPGA pins so I could put somethign completely different inside there and play around) Really, the only reason we care about FPGA Arcade is because we can put Minimig inside the FPGA there. If not for that, there probably wouldn't be nearly as much interest around here. Some perhaps, but not as much.

If CloneA made more of a computer motherboard shaped thing, that could be very interesting compared to FPGA Arcade, like I think Natami's board is more interesting than FPGA Arcade board. But then openness/closedness considerations come into the mix too. I wouldn't ask Jens to open-source CloneA HDL, btu to consider allowing people to put other things inside the FPGA and have some fun, and document the board for that. (I'd love to see Natami do the same someday)
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Offline freqmax

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #24 on: May 18, 2011, 01:58:15 AM »
"but I'd love to know what things hook to what FPGA pins" easily fixed with a core that toggles them on command from a serial line (rs232//usb) and a oscilloscope ;)
« Last Edit: May 18, 2011, 02:02:33 AM by freqmax »
 

Offline pwermonger

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #25 on: May 18, 2011, 02:04:27 AM »
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;638503
AFAIK the focus with Clone-A is to *clone* an Amiga 500; meaning aiming for absolute perfect reverse engineered chipset for *100%* SW compatibility. The focus with Natami OTOH is to reimplement and *improve* the chipset, which inevitably will mean breaking a certain amount of compatibility. So spec-wise the Clone-A *will be* an Amiga 500 (no ethernet, usb, pci, 256MB chipmem or whatever), while Natami will be something else. Different purposes, different goals.


I think thats correct. Didn't they show the CloneA chip replacements actually plugged into an A500 motherboard at some show where they had a contest to see if anyone could bring something that would run on the Amiga but not with the cloned chips?
 

Offline persia

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #26 on: May 18, 2011, 03:39:18 AM »
This is where 68K AROS would come in handy....
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Offline Jope

Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #27 on: May 18, 2011, 06:03:09 AM »
Quote from: pwermonger;638533
I think thats correct. Didn't they show the CloneA chip replacements actually plugged into an A500 motherboard at some show where they had a contest to see if anyone could bring something that would run on the Amiga but not with the cloned chips?


What you replied to was actually an incorrect assumption.

They showed CloneA chips plugged into an A500 motherboard just because they implemented each individual chip separately and that was the best way to test that they indeed worked identically to the originals.

Jens later said that the final CloneA was not going to be like this, but everything would be munged into a custom motherboard / perhaps larger fpga.. Unfortunately I don't have any links to back my claim right now and am in too much of a hurry to dig them up..
 

Offline takemehomegrandma

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #28 on: May 18, 2011, 06:54:32 AM »
Quote from: pwermonger;638533
I think thats correct. Didn't they show the CloneA chip replacements actually plugged into an A500 motherboard at some show where they had a contest to see if anyone could bring something that would run on the Amiga but not with the cloned chips?


Yes they have done that, but AFAIK this was only in a development phase. AFAIK the real "end-user" product was supposed to be a single chip solution, and in an extension not even FPGA based but real silicon. Then it could be used in a dirt-cheap, mass produced "Amiga in a joystick" kind of product.
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Offline digiflipTopic starter

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Re: Has Clone-A died?
« Reply #29 from previous page: May 18, 2011, 07:13:55 AM »
so if clone_A was to be released it more or less like Minimig but more precise/compatible. So It wouldn't include AGA like Natami and FPGA Arcade. If this Is so, why didn't Jen release before Minimig. Seems like it might be too late for this.
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