Replicated motherboards, any interest?

[freqmax]

With basis in the Amiga 550 thread. Is there any interest in replacement motherboards for Amiga computers, and how should they be designed?

There are three main ways of doing this:

 * Exact replication of the original, requires a supply of original chips like Agnus, Paula, Denise. And what board revision to model after?
 * Same external board connectors as the original, but using FPGA:s to run it.
 * Accelerated with high performance Motorola or PowerPC processors. Software compatibility may be an issue.

And what Amiga model and board revision models should be used?

The main idea is to be able to open the chassi, and replace a possible battery acid compromised or physically broken board with a newly made one. It should be mentioned that PCB area is at a premium

[B00tDisk]

It wouldn't break my heart to see an FPGA agnus replacement that could address more than 2mb chip to do more in DPaint (the only painting/drawing app I ever, ever "mastered"), so that I'd never get those dreaded "Derp you're out of Chip RAM!" messages (or when playing large MOD files, or for moving bigger textures around in FPS's on the Amiga - yes I like them there too)...

I wonder if it would be fun to pin some electronics on my degree work, give it a stab...hmm...

Ahem, anyway.  A soft 68k core running at some insane clock-speed would be a must.  PowerPC based Amigas do zip for me.

[runequester]

I think FPGAs is the only long term option.

I guess in the end, you are just trying to fit something like a minimig unto a board.

[Marcb]

Realistically, FPGA is the only way to go unless you are using the new board to replace an existing non working one that has working donor chips...

For me, as someone with no soldering/de-soldering skills, I'd be more likely to invest on a board I can simply install in a case...

[Cosmos Amiga]

I think we must turn the page of OCS/ECS with AGA only now...

[freqmax]

A cost reduction move would be to produce a single layer base board that provides external ports etc, and then a socket inside where a small board can be fitted.
The original chips can be replicated with FPGA:s on chip-per-chip basis, at a large cost.

Both ideas would use up considerable space. Meaning original add-on hardware may be impossible to fit.

@Cosmos, There's lot's of bit-banging software which is OCS/ECS only, I suspect.

[desiv]

@Cosmos, There's lot's of bit-banging software which is OCS/ECS only, I suspect.

I'm not sure there is that much...
We always use to think so, but once we got the degrader software, there wasn't much that we couldn't run on our A1200's as long as we re-kicked 1.3 first.

I'm sure there's some (Dragon's Lair hasn't worked for me..), but I'm thinking it might be more of a kickstart issue in general.

If this is an expensive project tho, it won't float.
Oh, there will be some takers, like there were for the GBA1000, but in general, if it's much less expensive to buy another 500 or 1200, then a lot of us hobbiests will do that...

I've spent a fair amount on my 1200, but that was over time.  Piece by piece.  If 4 years ago, someone had offered me a system like I have now for anywhere near what I've paid in one payment???  No way I would have done it..

desiv

[Cosmos Amiga]

I'm not sure there is that much...
We always use to think so, but once we got the degrader software, there wasn't much that we couldn't run on our A1200's as long as we re-kicked 1.3 first

We have the great WHDLoad team for some banging-OCS/ECS-games...

And, we must turn the page of older Kickstart than 3.1 (or 3.9) too !

Why ? Because with my Blog, I'm talking with users every days, they think AmigaOS is becoming over the years too much complicated... So, only one Kick now, not more !

[amigadave]

With basis in the Amiga 550 thread. Is there any interest in replacement motherboards for Amiga computers, and how should they be designed?

There are three main ways of doing this:

 * Exact replication of the original, requires a supply of original chips like Agnus, Paula, Denise. And what board revision to model after?
 * Same external board connectors as the original, but using FPGA:s to run it.
 * Accelerated with high performance Motorola or PowerPC processors. Software compatibility may be an issue.

And what Amiga model and board revision models should be used?

The main idea is to be able to open the chassi, and replace a possible battery acid compromised or physically broken board with a newly made one. It should be mentioned that PCB area is at a premium

I think this is a good idea for replacing dying, or dead Classic A500, A600 & A1200 motherboards with new FPGA designs that are better than the originals.  Something like the FPGA Arcade Replay Board with or without the proposed 68060 daughter-card, extra memory, Ethernet & USB ports, but in a form factor to better fit into the original cases and also able to use the original keyboards.

I could see such a trio of designs (or better, one design that would work in all three cases) becoming quite popular in the future as original hardware starts to fail, or for people that just want to upgrade to the new features.

[SACC-guy]

I seem to be the only one that wants exact replacement.

I have a ton of hardware and software I want to continue using.
(ie toaster, flyer, etc)

Also, we need new accelerators (060)!!!

[freqmax]

in the future as original hardware starts to fail

Any educated guess when the price point will make the situation of a world without any realistic hardware offers anywhere to occur ?

[michel3105]

I think that nothing can beat FPGAs... They are faster, cheaper, programmable and, most of all, available...

Look at the Replay: it already is what most other projects aim to be.

[whiteb]

I think that nothing can beat FPGAs... They are faster, cheaper, programmable and, most of all, available...

Look at the Replay: it already is what most other projects aim to be.

What if there was a plug in option for Agnus, has an FPGA to "Replace" the motherboard one (as long as it is SOCKETED), and associated RAM on the add on board to bring CHIP ram up to 8MB ?

Plug it in to an A500, and have it use the extra Ram, and an A500 will have 8MB of ram.. Food for thought.

Now if I only knew VHDL, and had Kick ass PCB development skills.  Winnah !!!!!!!!!!.

[freqmax]

Why not 16 MB RAM?, the 68000 can handle that.

[Britelite]

moving bigger textures around in FPS's on the Amiga

Can you name one FPS that actually stores the textures in Chip RAM?