What Amiga product do *YOU* would want. Please read.

[takemehomegrandma]

JoannaK wrote:
Takemehomegrandma:

Unfortunately Xilinx Virtex chips costs a way more than existing GFX chips do.. So making Gfx using Virtex woudl be not only technically a lot to ask, but also economical suiside..

I figured that. I know that you have looked into it (and I haven't). :-)

I have no idea how these things works, but shouldn't it be possible to use these FPGA's as a small scale prototype, and then move ahead and go to a real "silicon producer" in the far east and place an order? Yes/No? AFAIK, even this IBM PPC core is available for licence for custom projects (like in the case of this Xilinx product). That would of course require a large scale production run (which in turn might require a lot of different products based on this component, and/or external partners/OEM customers), and budget far beyond a "garage company", but even a garage company can secure some VC funds if they manage to present their ideas in the right way to the right people. After all, both Microsoft and Apple started out this way (more or less in a garage)!

I don't know, IF it would be possible to use on of those as a replacement to whole machine.. afterall.. it has more CPU power than any Classix Turbo... :-D

That's a cool idea! :-)

The CPU part won't be *that* powerful, but what are custom chips for? ;-)

[takemehomegrandma]

Turambar wrote:
How about an RTG amiga (like draco) on a mini-itx or smaller board with on board graphics and sound.

techiebk wrote:
I do not know if it would be possible oraffordable, but a new mobo would be nice. Something with an 060 and 4 or 5 PCI slots. I would think that this would eliminate a lot of the bottlenecks that you get with a1200 - 060 accelerator combos.

My price point would be approx. $300USD. For that price I would like to see a mobo with an 060, four PCI  slots, three DIMM slots, and basic connectors (serial, parallel, IDE).  I do not know if it would be necessaru to have all the classic vid & sound chips, perhaps a custom boot disk would allow you to go straight to a vid card.

Aren't you guys really thinking slightly in terms of a Pegasos with a 68060 instead of a PPC? So a 060 card for the pegasos would be the product you want? That would of course limit you to the old Amiga3.x OS's forever (with heavy patches), it's performance would be inferiour, and you would not be able to use the improved MorphOS/OS4 ...

[Herewegoagain]

Well, there have been a number of things mentioned, but the one's that stand out to me are:

- 1 - A cheaper PPC solution for my A3000 desktop

- 2 - A PCI expansion for the A3000 desktop that doesn't require a $300 custom tower (that is way oversized anyway)

[takemehomegrandma]

takemehomegrandma wrote:

downix wrote:

Forget about advanced 3D, there is no way (and no reason) to compete with the 3D chips developers.

Au Contraire.

3D chip vendors have stopped innovating, and the quality of products is starting to show.  My now 4-year old Kyro II renders scenes that look better than my brand-new Radeon.

The 3D chip developers are aiming primarly for the gaming industry now, and they are in die hard competition. It's a space race (and their budgets are closing in to the budgets used by the former Soviet Union and USA in that race ;-)).

Surely they (both, there are only two now) have a roadmap for a couple of years ahead. But innovation is not only about technology. You have to make it profitable too, to sustain in the cut throat competition and secure future funds for development. It's a race. Business innovation has been the key here for a while IMO.

An addition: It's not only about 3D hardware, it's also about software. Today, Microsoft is a key here. They are setting the standards, and actually, the functionality of the current top of the line gaming hardware is ahead of the software support. The software side needs to catch up. In the mean time, the chipset manufacturers focus their efforts of gaining high scores in various performance benchmark tests. That's what it's all about for now (until the software actually starts using the new functions in the hardware), big numbers from tests for marketing purposes.

[aardvark]

A zorro2/3 board that did 100baseT with an RJ45 connector combined with DDR memory slots (1 gig memory, anyone?) would be a killer card, and if you could combine it with an IDE or serial ATA controller, that would be even better.
Someone's idea of a replacement motherboard, where you could take your custom chips off your A2000/3000/500/(1000?)and mount them on the new motherboard would be cool.  The new motherboard could have USB, Firewire, sound, ethernet, PS/2 ports, serial, parallel, modem as per PC boards, but have a processor connector that could use 040/060/PPC etc. processor daughterboards.  A 2000 case has room for lots of slots; could be some zorro3, some PCI and an AGP slot. Yowza! :ranting:

[voytech]

Ahem..
Maybe a MC68k based PCI CPU Card?? For pissee..
 :-D  :-D

Ok, I don't know what would I do with such card (think, that Amithlon or UAE is cheaper, and you don't need to rewrite the OS or special drivers)..
  8-)

[kgrach]

@trev
My company is swamped with bussiness right now which is holding back the web site developement. Can't seem to hire anyone competent to do it. But we do have some twenty diferent Tower cases for the A1200. Very nice tower cases not cheap.

look here for new developements the Cases and pictures should be going online in the next few day's www.revanchellc.com">"www.revanchellc.com"

[Wolfe]

Seems to be different types of Amiga user wants here.  

Those who want the ability to towerize an amiga with all the trimmings.  Most who want this have already done so.  Those who have/haven't just want it cheaper.

Those who want to keep it in the original case A1200 etc. or in another case, but not a tower setup.  Not as much developed for this yet, because 1 cpu and 1 clock port not enough for Vid, Snd and other expansions.

Those who want a new mobo for a tower unit.

Those who want a new mobo more compact.

Then the obvious CPU - 060, coldfire or PPC ?

This thread started about classic Amiga stuff.

If you want a system to play all the modern games on then buy a modern machine.  Those who want OS 4 and/or G3/G4 etc already have choices - ie. AmigaOne, MicroA1, Pegasos, Shark and Blizzard PPC etc.  

The weakest availability for upgrades is those who don't want to towerize.  Example - no way to upgrade video, audio, usb, ide and enet at the same time.

A1200 060 cpu with a video upgrade ability and a couple of extra clock ports or something might be a start !

I have read the ColdFusion plans for the A1200 but it does not include any kind of video upgrade ability so going to a tower is the only option.  Unless one is developed of course !

To me, a new mobo with Coldfire? would be the thing.  My Amigas are starting to die off little at a time.  Good thing I got a NOS A1200 a year back as a back-up.

A lot to think about.   :-o

[Waccoon]

takemehometograndma:  An addition: It's not only about 3D hardware, it's also about software.

Indeed.  Game consoles are sold with hype, but untimately, it's about the games, not the true power of the hardware.

But please, there are limits.  Putting a PSOne next to a GameCube is a no-brainer.  :-)

OT:  Does anybody know about S3's new GFX chip for notebooks?  Does it look hopeful?  My last S3 card was the ill-fated VergeDX, so it would be interesting to see them come back after so many years.

[HopperJF]

Wolfe wrote:
Seems to be different types of Amiga user wants here.  
 

Yes i think a poll and lots of options would be a good idea, and you can add another option if its not too vague

[Quixote]

Redrumloa rallied:

And now YOU. What would YOU like to see?

:-? How about a replacement daughter board for the desktop A4000 that puts the video slot at the top, instead of the bottom?  This way, the toaster card would block only one Zorro slot instead of two.

[angrybrit]

Coldfire add-on board for the Amiga 1200.  Must have at least 10/100 Ethernet. :-D

[CodeSmith]

The one thing I'd like to see is an A500 on a PCI card.  With modern FPGA technology, the OCS or ECS chipset should not be "too" hard to do, and I bet you'll have loads of emulation fans beating a path to your door.  With the right drivers, you should be able to plug that bad boy into anything from a Mac to a Sun workstation, including Peecees and Mediator-equipped A1200s.  Now there's a twisted idea :-)

[carls]

A working ColdFire turbo that can take SDRAM (PC133). At a decent price.

[redrumloa]

A lot of good suggestions in here. TBH a new Amiga motherboard is highly unlikely, at least for now. We're going to start a little smaller,.

Keep the ideas coming, there is some good stuff out there. I guarantee we are reading them all and taking it all in:-)

[Ferry]

carls wrote:
A working ColdFire turbo that can take SDRAM (PC133). At a decent price.

Given the current possibilities available to make small boards, it would be nice to help  the ColdFusion Accelerator Project people to make ColdFire accelerators for current Amiga models, but including  also onboard graphics and IDE interface, not only sound, USB, etc. This would be a REAL all-in-one upgrade!!  :-o  :-o

Saluditos,

Ferrán.