New project for the benefit of all classic computing!

[AmigaClassicRule]

Amiga history.
Like I have said to others, your skepticism is 100% understandable. I hope you won't take offence when I say I look forward to proving you wrong. Although, I will probably be offering products through my own online store and not Amigakit;). No, just kidding, of course I will offer products to resellers!

I want you to prove me wrong. Please, make a fool out of me! What we reallly seriously need right now as a mass production for the Amiga are the following:
 
1) An WiFi card for the Amiga 1200/4000 that does support WPA/WPA 2 security and works 100% without any hacking and difficulties.
 
2) An expansion card that support if possible 100 Mhz+ with more than 512 MB of RAM.
 
What would be nice is give A500 in original case ability to access internet, but that is for fun.

[trekiej]

@ The Rogue
Thanks for the bio.
I sent a PM and again look forward to seeing how this goes.

[TheRogue]

Sorry I haven't dropped by in a short while. I have been working on a  project on the Apple II front. I decided to 'put up or shut up' as some  might say, and produce something of high complexity so that everyone  will know I'm serious. I determined that this project is what I can get  out fast enough (looking at shipping in late January-early February), so  I decided to focus on this and get it done so people can see I'm  serious. So for all the Apple IIGS users out there, I am proud to bring  you a reverse engineered clone of the TransWarp IIGS Accelerator! The  card will ship around the time I quoted or possibly sooner. It will come  stock clocked at 12MHz with 32k of cache. Price is targeted roughly at  CAD$150-CAD$175 although there may be a small shift in either direction  depending on certain factors. Yes I know its not Amiga, but I have had  so many people tell me to produce something of high complexity that does  not have schematics or Gerber files available for it to prove that I'm  not a troll and do actually know what I'm doing. This is what I  determined that I can make available in the shortest time, so this is  the first project.

On the Amiga front the Thylacine redesign continues incorporating a 4  port hub and ethernet (the hub chip contains built in ethernet). A wifi board is in the works already, with every feature you mentioned planned. An accelerator is still a ways off yet, but as soon as I'm able to do so, I plan to produce one. I would like to produce some sort of FPGA-on-Zorro-Card development platform, like Carte Blanche for the Apple II. I will look into it for sure! So stay  tuned! Any AIIGS fans out there feel free to PM me with preorders for the TransWarpGS!

[AmigaClassicRule]

I own an apple iigs. Can you make an FPGA card where I can watch video on it or run up to system 9?

[TheRogue]

I have a box that will let you do that in front of me. Its called a beige G4 mac. I'm just joking and not trying to make fun of you at all, just making a joke. Seriously though although the IIGS shares some superficial characteristics with the early Macs, it it a completely different architecture. The Macintosh line was based on the 68k processor, the same as the Classic Amiga, but for system 8.5 and beyond they switched to the PowerPC processor, same as used in the CSPPC and the new AmigaOS4 based machines. The IIGS on the other hand is based on the 65816 processor, a 16-bit extension of the 6502, the processor used in the Commodore 64, and the Apple II/II+/IIe/IIc/IIc+. The IIGS was fully compatible with the other machines in the Apple II line thanks to the 65C02 compatibility mode of the 65816, but was also a significant extension to it with a full color GUI (the first available from Apple) and full 16-bit software, it was also the first machine to feature ADB. Despite these superficial similarities however, it is a totally different machine and will never run MacOS or Mac software. Furthermore, an FPGA would not be fast or large or complex enough to run a full PowerPC Mac core, which is what would be required to run OS9 on a IIGS. Sorry, its not a request I can grant.

[gertsy]

That is an interesting subject.

Take a 'virgin' A1200, ok it's a nice retro computer but you can't really do much with it so you and some FASTRAM then a faster CPU, CF hard drive and an Indivision AGA with a chunky graphcis mode etc etc.

How far do you take it before it's no longer a retro classic Amiga?

Mediators fall in this category for me, stick a 1200 into a tower and add PCI video/sound cards and it becomes a slow PC that can't run PC software.

Personally, I'm happy that my 1200 is a classic as long as it is still in the original case, uses a 68k CPU (even if it's FPGA based) and can natively run classic software.

PPC cards for classics are also a waste of time because (apart from the lack of software) that much power is pointless when tied to the original chipset.

+2

[AmigaClassicRule]

I have a box that will let you do that in front of me. Its called a beige G4 mac. I'm just joking and not trying to make fun of you at all, just making a joke. Seriously though although the IIGS shares some superficial characteristics with the early Macs, it it a completely different architecture. The Macintosh line was based on the 68k processor, the same as the Classic Amiga, but for system 8.5 and beyond they switched to the PowerPC processor, same as used in the CSPPC and the new AmigaOS4 based machines. The IIGS on the other hand is based on the 65816 processor, a 16-bit extension of the 6502, the processor used in the Commodore 64, and the Apple II/II+/IIe/IIc/IIc+. The IIGS was fully compatible with the other machines in the Apple II line thanks to the 65C02 compatibility mode of the 65816, but was also a significant extension to it with a full color GUI (the first available from Apple) and full 16-bit software, it was also the first machine to feature ADB. Despite these superficial similarities however, it is a totally different machine and will never run MacOS or Mac software. Furthermore, an FPGA would not be fast or large or complex enough to run a full PowerPC Mac core, which is what would be required to run OS9 on a IIGS. Sorry, its not a request I can grant.

Good point. What about a card that can can switch to a different 8 bit system such as Commodore 64, MSX, and so on emulated by the FPGA hardware? The card also have ports to use the pepherials of that system such as disk drive, joystick etc. The video and audio output also comes from the card for better performance. This way we have ALL the 8 bit system in one and in the case of the AIIGS.

[mikej]

Good point. What about a card that can can switch to a different 8 bit system such as Commodore 64, MSX, and so on emulated by the FPGA hardware? The card also have ports to use the pepherials of that system such as disk drive, joystick etc. The video and audio output also comes from the card for better performance. This way we have ALL the 8 bit system in one and in the case of the AIIGS.

This is the ultimate aim of the Replay platform. C64, MSX, Spectrum, BBC B and various others are all more or less working and waiting for the system software to be stable.
The daughterboards concept allows for anybody to design a peripheral - I have some with just 0.1" patch available, and 3V3 protection buffers.

/Mike

[Erol]

In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming, and if anyone knows of any hardware for any system that has schematics/layouts and code available, I will add them to the list!

Hi TheRogue,

I have a few ideas and some very collectable hardware,  including c64  , amiga and atari ste as well as cd32.  

Can you drop me a private message wouldn't mind bouncing some ideas with you.

I have a few contacts for rare graphics boards for the Atari STE,  as well as some vintage Amiga hardware,  sound cards and graphics cards..  as well as FMV and developer boards for the cd32.    I'd be very interested in doing a partnership with you and even using my company to rekindle old rare Amiga games..    I know that indivision are doing a wonderful job in creating new accelerator cards and flickerfixers, but from my experience they suppliers are always sold out hard enough to get an X1000 let alone an accelerator card with a good speed.

Any support I think is a good one, so lets get this ball rolling!

[Erol]

Good point. What about a card that can can switch to a different 8 bit system such as Commodore 64, MSX, and so on emulated by the FPGA hardware? The card also have ports to use the pepherials of that system such as disk drive, joystick etc. The video and audio output also comes from the card for better performance. This way we have ALL the 8 bit system in one and in the case of the AIIGS.

FPGA open platform already been developed.

http://www.fpgaarcade.com/dev/drupal/

[mikej]

use
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

the drupal website is under development still
/Mike

[AmigaClassicRule]

WOW!! I LOVE THIS HARDWARE!! If I order this hardware would it come with a case? Can I use a HD and a real floppy disk?

How do I upgrade it in the future to support newer system and how do I switch between these systems?

IN the future I am considering buying this? It would reunite ALL THE SYSTEM in one motherboard WHICH WOULD KICK ANY EMULATOR in the butt.

[Erol]

use
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

the drupal website is under development still
/Mike

Thanks Mike!, nice to know

[wrath of khan]

WOW!! I LOVE THIS HARDWARE!! If I order this hardware would it come with a case? Can I use a HD and a real floppy disk?

How do I upgrade it in the future to support newer system and how do I switch between these systems?

IN the future I am considering buying this? It would reunite ALL THE SYSTEM in one motherboard WHICH WOULD KICK ANY EMULATOR in the butt.

Loriano' aka the daddy' has made an amiga style' case for the fpga arcade.
It looks sweet. send a mail to amigarulez

• hotmail.com.

Im getting mine with the fpga arcade already fitted inside the x500 case.
there will be a daughterboard add-on for the fpga arcade later too.
i think you just re-flash the relevant softcore to the fpga to change between different computer systems

[persia]

It IS an emulator....

WOW!! I LOVE THIS HARDWARE!! If I order this hardware would it come with a case? Can I use a HD and a real floppy disk?

How do I upgrade it in the future to support newer system and how do I switch between these systems?

IN the future I am considering buying this? It would reunite ALL THE SYSTEM in one motherboard WHICH WOULD KICK ANY EMULATOR in the butt.

[ChaosLord]

@TheRogue

New Project for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Amiga

I hereby request an 060 card with 32GB of RAM.

32GB is the Amiga's hard limit.  My brand new bgcpc came with 10GB in it.  Its just not right for my windoze box to have more ram than my Amiga box.

Any other limits are BS nonsense that can be worked around with some simple patches.  There are tons of Amiga programmers who can, and have, patched a zillion things in AmigaOS.  Making a few new patches to make use of the whole 32GB is no problem and the programmers will go crazy and jump for joy. :knuddel:

You will be the most loved person since Jay Miner.

I figure by the time you get around to actually making the card, you won't be able to buy less than 32GB at a time anyway :p

I wrote a msg here about how old ancient never to be updated software can make use of 32GB.  I know you don't have time to read the whole thread about 128MB Amigas so here is the 1 important message:
How to use more than 2GB of RAM with old Amiga software that wasn't designed for it