First Contact : AmigaOne X1000 Limited Edition

[Duce]

The onboard NIC and sound not having drivers, or otherwise having to be circumvented due to them not working with add on cards whatever the cause is irrelevant.  What happens when something else doesn't "work" under certain conditions?  Sit around with your thumb up your ass waiting for a fix?

Smoke and mirrors - ship stuff when it is a full featured product, don't half ass it just to make deadlines.

This is a market where we all saw the A1, another thing that was promised as the Holy Grail for us.

Would you purchase a car that came from the factory with a sticker saying "additional heater taped down in trunk, despite the fact your car already has a heater you paid for but it seemingly is not being used or may not work".

No, lol.  If the drivers aren't ready, don't ship the thing, don't even consider taking preorders.

[spirantho]

Speaking for myself, I'd MUCH rather have an X1000 that needed an ethernet card, than have no X1000 for a few months while they finish the drivers.

So you need to use a plug-in card for a bit instead of the on-board? Would it stop me enjoying it? Nope.

Work on the critical drivers, THEN work on the optional ones.

[koaftder]

that's what the beta program is for

Nah, the whole point of the beta test "program" was to lock in sales before the hype caved in and interest dissipated. It was a hedge against failure.

[efrenmgp]

As someone else has probably already suggested, the drivers for the on-board sound and Ethernet are just not finished yet.

I suppose it could be a botched motherboard design and they don't work, but I think that is unlikely.  Drivers take time and effort to write and manpower is limited, so I would not panic yet.

On Amiga Future #91, page 16, an article by Trevor D. says: "Several changes in the Nemo 2 design meant that certain features no longer worked (e.g. onboard networking, etc.)"

So something changed and as I understand it, some drivers need to be reworked. Hopefully it won't be too long before the proper drivers are ready (for those who can afford it, that is)

[Vlabguy1]

Ok where are the pics of this machine???

Rich
ny

[Dragster]

...meanwhile if you buy it... and want to have networking and sound... you need to spend some more cash... Just like if it wasn't enough expense already..

[Duce]

Speaking for myself, I'd MUCH rather have an X1000 that needed an ethernet card, than have no X1000 for a few months while they finish the drivers.

So you need to use a plug-in card for a bit instead of the on-board? Would it stop me enjoying it? Nope.

Work on the critical drivers, THEN work on the optional ones.

Are you high, lol?  You would seriously pay that kind of money to fix what is inoperable at ship date on the mainboard that you have already paid for?  What if it turns out the MB stuff just doesn't work at a HW level, EVER?  What if the board is chock full of bad traces?  

I suppose we should wait for a reply out of them as to why the tacked on cards are needed, but seems to me if I'm shelling out nearly 3 grand for a computer I shouldn't have to buy twice for the functionality of one system.

I'm a SAM user.  I'm fine with overpaying for underpowered HW.  But the thought that people aren't questioning the reasons behind this, or worse yet - justifying it...  Wow.

Explain to me sanely why this thing has tacked on ethernet and sound cards when it has them onboard.  Wait!  I'll answer that!

1 - the drivers aren't done.  Sorry, don't release it then.  All due respect, if the drivers are not there for the baseboard, you dropped the ball already bringing this to market.  Would you buy a PC from a store if it had a sticker saying "MB NIC will work  in 2-4 months, buy a PCIe card if you want to use the Internet!".  Fair enough if the drivers are not there, don't put a band aid on a bullet wound and sell a kludge of a product.  If you are not ready, you aren't ready.

2 - the HW is hosed and they are circumventing it with add on cards.

I wish Hyperion would just quit dicking around with this cobbled together newfangled/embedded HW lock in crap and just roll out OS 4 for the PPC Mac's.  Pains me to see them try and maintain some silly exclusivity nonsense with "built for OS 4" hardware that sees its' way into the hands of hundreds at best, not thousands.

[Duce]

Why the criticism regarding the RAM?  Would a next gen Amiga use anywhere near 1GB?

Yes, Blender can chew thru RAM quite quickly.  Seeing as my SAM 440ep can't be upgraded from 512 MB, I bought a SATA SSD to make it more bearable for virtual ram usage.

[amiga1084]

Hello All,

What can the X1000 offer me that my $400 G5 Powermac Quad Core can't? It looks like I would be sticking to my G4 Amiga One for a while yet!

Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent

[billt]

Are you high, lol?  You would seriously pay that kind of money to fix what is inoperable at ship date on the mainboard that you have already paid for?  What if it turns out the MB stuff just doesn't work at a HW level, EVER?  What if the board is chock full of bad traces?  

That's what beta program is for, and they're already on rev 2.1 no? Yes, some people will point to Eyetech's boards as a bad example of such program. One potential bad example does not mean that everyone out there will also fail us. What is the established reputation of Varisys products?

As for why would any sane person buy a board that he has to buy duplicate functionality plugin cards for until the board itself has drivers completed, it's his choice to do so. We know the situation. We can either wait and buy when drivers are finished, or we can buy now and wait. You obviously would wait and buy later, and that's the correct choice for you. He obviously wants it ASAP, and buying it now, with additional expense of duplicated stuff, is correct choice for him. Let each of us make our own informed choices on this. I myself am willing to buy now and wait for drivers to finish, and that also is correct answer for me if I so choose it.

I wish Hyperion would just quit dicking around with this cobbled together newfangled/embedded HW lock in crap and just roll out OS 4 for the PPC Mac's.  Pains me to see them try and maintain some silly exclusivity nonsense with "built for OS 4" hardware that sees its' way into the hands of hundreds at best, not thousands.

I'd love to see it on my iBook G4. I'd prefer that to an X1000 or any other desktop. If it's this hard and takes this long to get out a custom Amiga-only desktop, I fear I'll never see an OS4 laptop available that suits me. I'm excited about MorphOS on powerBook, but I'd prefer it on the iBook I already have of course. I just wish they had two or three "mouse" buttons. I really hate only having one, even when running OSX. It's caused me problems before not having a second real button, the faked ctrl-click is a right-click (or left, I forget which way it goes now) doesn't always work properly for what I'm doing.

[jorkany]

That's what beta program is for, and they're already on rev 2.1 no? Yes, some people will point to Eyetech's boards as a bad example of such program. One potential bad example does not mean that everyone out there will also fail us. What is the established reputation of Varisys products?

Maybe Varisys has a great reputation, but this is an A-eon product and A-eon's reputation is at the very best unproven.

Somebody brought this up on moobunny already, but let's just put it out here - the X1000 is ostensibly "designed for OS4", right? So why pick a bunch of onboard components that you don't already have, or can't easily write, drivers for? Can't blame that on Varisys, and these boards have been around supposedly in the hands of OS4 dev for well over a year.

I'm looking forward to Amiwest this year!

[billt]

I didn't know they still made 1 GB DDR2 sticks anymore, most of what I've been putting in desktops are 4 GB DDR3.  It's actually surprising that they boast about power consumption and then don't do DDR3.  Also surprising is the hard drive at only 500 GB.  Whilst I realise that there really aren't any modern apps and that memory is fine for the old software that's available, you are up in the champaign and caviar price range and it would look nicer in the specs to see a 3TB hard drive and at least 4 GB of ram, even if it isn't really used.

The Radeon graphics card introduced 3 years ago may be a little long in the tooth as well....

Newegg still sells PC100 sticks, PC133, DDR1, DDR2, as well as DDR3. They have 40 products meeting 1GB DDR2 desktop memory search.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600006060&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&SrchInDesc=ddr2&Page=1&PageSize=20

Do we know if this is a single stick or a pair of 512MB sticks for this kit? If it's 512MB sticks, then Newegg only shows one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146521

They cannot do DDR3. The 1682M has a built-in DDR2 controller. There's nothing to connect DDR3 memory to. They cannot do what is not possible. I can't find max memory capacity information for 1682M, I'll have to find and dust off my datasheet at home. But lets assume that any DDR2 slot can take any capacity DDR2 stick, and believe the X1000 spec on wikipedia saying there are 4 DDR2 1066 slots working correctly.

Newegg's largest DDR2-1066 stick is 2GB. 4 of them are 8GB max potential for X1000 in this example, if above assumptions are correct.

If you're willing to slow down to DDR2-800, then you can have a 4GB stick, for potential max of 16GB memory.

Anyone know what the actual capacity max is for 1682M and also X1000 in particular?

Though after all this babbling, I do think that 1GB for AmigaOS is a decent start today. I have 256MB in my XE, and plan to up it to 1GB if I can. (Already have some buffered 1GB sticks of a recommended model to try, just need time...)

As for Graphics card, is it not the newest we will have drivers for? Give Hans time to get to yet newer Radeons. I'd rather have a useful oldish Radeon than a newest of the new Radeon that has no driver and thus gives me a black screen only. To get a driver working well takes time, and for Hans to keep up with every new Radeon that comes out is a very big thing to ask of him.

[commodorejohn]

I'm excited about MorphOS on powerBook, but I'd prefer it on the iBook I already have of course.

Are you sure it won't work? Looks like all of the iBook G4 line have Radeon chipsets, and I thought that was the primary barrier with the 12" Powerbooks.

[HammerD]

Are you sure it won't work? Looks like all of the iBook G4 line have Radeon chipsets, and I thought that was the primary barrier with the 12" Powerbooks.

MorphOS won't work on any macbook/powerbook/ibook.  They have said a future release will work on some powerbooks but it's not out yet.

[HammerD]

Hello All,

What can the X1000 offer me that my $400 G5 Powermac Quad Core can't? It looks like I would be sticking to my G4 Amiga One for a while yet!

Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent

Isn't it quite obvious? The AmigaONE X1000 is designed to run AmigaOS 4.1 as fast as possible.  

The G5 Powermac is designed to run MacOS X.  That's it. OK, maybe it can run linux too, but it wasn't designed for that.

[HammerD]

Are you high, lol?  You would seriously pay that kind of money to fix what is inoperable at ship date on the mainboard that you have already paid for?  What if it turns out the MB stuff just doesn't work at a HW level, EVER?  What if the board is chock full of bad traces?  

I suppose we should wait for a reply out of them as to why the tacked on cards are needed, but seems to me if I'm shelling out nearly 3 grand for a computer I shouldn't have to buy twice for the functionality of one system.

I'm a SAM user.  I'm fine with overpaying for underpowered HW.  But the thought that people aren't questioning the reasons behind this, or worse yet - justifying it...  Wow.

Explain to me sanely why this thing has tacked on ethernet and sound cards when it has them onboard.  Wait!  I'll answer that!

1 - the drivers aren't done.  Sorry, don't release it then.  All due respect, if the drivers are not there for the baseboard, you dropped the ball already bringing this to market.  Would you buy a PC from a store if it had a sticker saying "MB NIC will work  in 2-4 months, buy a PCIe card if you want to use the Internet!".  Fair enough if the drivers are not there, don't put a band aid on a bullet wound and sell a kludge of a product.  If you are not ready, you aren't ready.

2 - the HW is hosed and they are circumventing it with add on cards.

I wish Hyperion would just quit dicking around with this cobbled together newfangled/embedded HW lock in crap and just roll out OS 4 for the PPC Mac's.  Pains me to see them try and maintain some silly exclusivity nonsense with "built for OS 4" hardware that sees its' way into the hands of hundreds at best, not thousands.

The drivers are in development and will come shortly.   It's common industry practice to release hardware with beta or unfinished software and/or drivers.

There are many examples out there just to name a couple: MorphOS, no WIFI driver.  ACube SAM, no audio driver initially.  Apple Siri AI software - beta, Blackberry Playbook, basically unfinished OS, missing key functionality (email/pim).  

The list goes on and on and on, and it's quite normal in the tech world.  I'm not saying this is the "right" thing to do, but don't harp on A-EON more than you would harp on any other company that does the same thing.