Would you support this project? -please read-

[Gav]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........Yeah i think you`re away with the mixer mate,keep dreaming......Amiga one,pegasos and the classics are all fine to me and i dont see your point at all as its actually stupid.....

[Melaure]

You're right we need new Amiga computers but with a modern motherboard (AGP 8x, DDR, Radeon 9800, etc ...) and a case which doesn't looks like a PC case. Apple is able to make very nice looking case, why not the Amiga. It would distinguish the platform from other computers.

[Gav]

Its not that ppl are being negative its just you wont listen to the truth they tell you...

[AmiDelf]

by Melaure on 2004/1/27 14:46:54

Yes! Thats what I am talking about.

Amiga should be something different. Not just a PC motherboard with PPC on it.  

Regards,
Michal, www.amigaworld.org

[PMC]

1. Getting financial support from Motorola

...who have discussed offloading their semi-conductor operation in the past, and who are preferential to Apple who have a much larger market...

Don't mean to whizz on anyone's parade, but it's a topic up for discussion and that was my opinion.

2. Getting Shiftec to contribute with A4000T alike case

Now that's a great idea...  I like the sound of a range of bespoke, official Amiga cases to fit new and existing hardware.  Plus a proper Amiga keyboard too.

3. Talking with those hardware people with NuOS and Oliver

I liked the look of that OS, plus Oliver's Coldfire project deserves success.  It's just that it simply doesn't make sense as a flagship CPU when there's the much more powerful and supported PPC around.  However, if a Coldfire based Accelerator card was available for my A1200 I'd buy one tomorrow :-D

Hardware people?  How about ATI?  A supported chipset which is already having Amiga native 3d drivers written would give a head start, plus ATI are very 3rd party friendly and open with their documentation.

4. Intergrate some sort of MediatorPCI technology into this, + adding SD-RAM and AGP

If there's AGP then there's no need for an onboard chipset except for a lead-in base model with limited expansion capabilities.

5. Getting OS support from Hyperion in the end

Which would be far easier with a PPC based solution...

[u_jakobsen]

True, the PC is boring. But it is darned fast and dirt cheap! The common user dont care about the actual hardware, they care about the actual software, how the beast looks and the very important price.

What the Amiga needs is cool software not found on other platforms and cool software found on other platforms. An idea could be to port OpenOffice 1.1 or 2.0 to OS4, since it would provide a whole host of features to the platform it so sorely needs.


A new set of expensive custom hardware? I don't think it is worth the investment. A custom design of the casing? Definitly
A custom keyboard? Oh, yes. (it is darn easy)
ColdFire? Oh, no! Use Intel-architecture (it is dirt cheap, mass produced and darn fast (yeah, I know this one aint popular))

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Give me a totally new miggy with a custom 3d graphics chipset alike the PS2 (but then faster than anything else atm) and some razor sharp, smooth and colourfull 2d graphics built-in and a revision of the copper and a super-slick and extremely easy, fast and yet incredibly versatile OS, and some great versatile software, like a new version of WordPerfect office and so. And of course great games like Thief (IV?), and a game that combines the gameplay of Stunts (with a track-editor of course) and the top-down and competitive gameplay of Supercars. And with that a 3D-version of Action Supercross.

my dream...

[AmiDelf]

a nice dream and some of it could be reality if people wanted to.

Its a shorter way to a new Amiga, than landing a person on Mars.

Regards,
Michal, www.amigaworld.org

[Kronos]

AmiDelf wrote:
Thats so wrong of you ....

Amiga 500, Amiga 600, Amiga 1200 was all custom based Amigas and they didnt cost too much at all.

OCS sold in millions, ECS was just a minor update, AGA was a medicore updated
the sold in 100.000s ..... how many new Amigas are you planning to sell to recoup
dev-costs ?

And don't forget that developing cutting-edge stuff was much much cheaper in the
1980s (budgets in a few millions) as it is today (100 million or more budgets).

The only halfway realistic approach would be doing it with programmable chips,
like the C=One, but that also means you will be atleast 4 years behind when compared
to "real" chips.

And it would still costs lots of money&time (how long has the C=One-project been going ?),
and would result in a system that is underpowerde by factor 10-20 both in GFX and CPU,
costing atleast 3 times as much (only mobo) as "normal" PCs.

Don't get me wrong, I would like such a system, but only as a toy, and there is a limit
to money I'm prepared to spend on such a toy.

Getting big companies into such a project is offcourse nothing other than an insane
daydream, so why don't YOU just start doing it in your past-time ?

Or are you just another one of those that rant&rave with lunatic ideas, but can't do
sh## themselves ?

[Cymric]

AmiDelf wrote:
This Amiga with go on like this

1. Getting financial support from Motorola

2. Getting Shiftec to contribute with A4000T alike case

3. Talking with those hardware people with NuOS and Oliver

4. Intergrate some sort of MediatorPCI technology into this, + adding SD-RAM and AGP

5. Getting OS support from Hyperion in the end

We need Amigas now,.. ! This could work, but then its up to people also. Dont be negative and its not that expensive.

Methinks you should get your dose of 'real life'-medicine...

Seriously, the idea is unworkable. Not because of a single factor, like for example money, or enthusiasm, but because of the combination of everything you can think of. For example: 'getting financial support from Motorola'. Why Motorola? What's in it for them? How much money do you think you need? How much money do you think you are going to make?

Another example: 'integrating some Mediator PCI-technology in this plus adding SD-RAM and AGP'. How much time do you envisage this is going to take? Why would you need AGP if that bus is solely used for graphics cards your system won't need anyway? (You already have AAA+++ or whatever, right?) Come to think of it, why have PCI? A lot of stuff in your system was customised, so what would you need PCI for?

Final example: 'Getting OS support from Hyperion in the end.' Great. Hyperion has been working full-time on AmigaOS 4 for... three years now? And that was with the original Kickstart-source code at hand. How do you plan on convincing them they should support your system? How long do you think it will take them? How much money do you think it will cost? Don't you think it is a bit of wasted effort to use an operating system with a hardware abstraction layer for your custom Amiga? (In other words, what is the difference from the end-user's PoV between an AmigaOne with your AAA+++ on a card and your 'Amiga' with AAA+++ built-in?)

Then I miss: applications, applications and more applications. People will want browsers, email-clients, various graphics tools, developer tools, play music and much more. Do you plan on writing them yourself? Please do not answer with 'We will use OpenSource!' because that is a sure sign you are not familiar with the vast problems of porting Unix-programs to a non-Unix environment.

My $0.02.

[lempkee]

if a 200mhz coldfire is faster than a 060/50 in dooing amigaos 3.x then i am the tooth ferry (lol not the boat) ..

do some research before you state that the 200mhz is faster, and btw u would need a helluva lot faster cpu if you want to do m68k emulation.

but then again i guess u want to ask hyperion or whom ever to do an port of the os for it, but then remeber thats where you are at the rock bottom again, as you need coldfire software!!! or else you will have to emulate m68k and the 200mhz is NOT! i repeat NOT! faster than an 060/50 under emulating.

[downix]

@Speelgoedmannetje

Why "like" the PS2's chipset?  Sony sells the chipset independently ya know.

[PMC]

Why "like" the PS2's chipset? Sony sells the chipset independently ya know.

That PS2 was an example I was going to use....  So they sell it independently?  Hmmmmmm....

:-)

[Cass]

All this time spend on starting something from 0, is counter-productive. The solutions mentioned, as the custom case/KB, is a nice idea that could be applied on the new Amiga mobos, and reestablish the lost trademark (we all remember our beloved modells with their distinctive cases).

It took too much time to be where we are at the present, and I think that all these resources (time/money/work) should be invested on the present Amiga solutions, in order to enhance and improve what we already have.

Hyperion should dedicate its time on games and Amiga OS develpoment, and the ColdFire guys just do what they do (there are plenty of amiga users that are looking forward to upgrading their old 68K hardware).

The last years we have been behind in h/w and s/w, and it's hard to keep up with the hardware advancement. Now is the oportunity to get even!

And last but not least, the software: this is what a platform really needs! It's useless even if it has the best OS on the world, if you can't do anything with it... (applications, drivers, games).
________
Lesbian movies

[downix]

@PMC

Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

[PMC]

Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

As in wouldn't it be great to license the PS2 chipset so we have a ready made competitive GFX / Audio solution that can cope with being connected to both VGA and standard SCART TVs??

My God man!  You're telepathic!