Classic Amiga Hardware Projects for 2014

[hceline]

A proper tested and verified on as many as possible cards as possible: SCSI<->SATA bridge. What is out there today is scary and messy. If my motherboards were alive I'd really want an SSD... Or just a new scsi controller that really is a SATA controller.

A proper in-place programmable and externally reset-able 1M ROM ($F00000-$FFFFFF). Possibly as a Z2 programming device, or a clockport thing, or serial? Or something memory mapped. Needs many models as all Amigas are pretty different.

A SATA Zorro2/3 card would be good to use new hardrives and it is more reality then a 68060/FPGA accelerator or even an PPC accelerator.

Must add my support for these ideas to!

[Madshib]

I forgot the holy grail - an A5000

[pyrre]

This year we are looking to do the same.  What Classic Amiga hardware or software do you want to be developed?  If it is realistic and commercial, we will consider it.

I am a great fan of A500/+ computer.
I do however miss the ability to enjoy ide controller with my derringer...

something like the AdIDE 40, or the budda flash card...
Or a remake of the derringer with integrated ide controller.

just my two cents....

[Wolfe]

Classic hardware isn't getting any younger.  A new batch is needed.

[guest7146]

I am a great fan of A500/+ computer.
I do however miss the ability to enjoy ide controller with my derringer...

something like the AdIDE 40, or the budda flash card...
Or a remake of the derringer with integrated ide controller.

just my two cents....

I was thinking along the same lines as you but then I saw this.

I've placed a pre-order.  Unfortunately I think it sticks on the side of the A500, and I'd prefer it to be internal like the Derringer you mentioned.  But it satisfies your requirements by the sound of it.

[Acill]

Lots of good ideas in here. The common theme is more cards for USB, Video, RAM and acceleration.

I no longer have an Amiga Im willing to part out and hack up. The one I have left is a prototype A3000+ that works and is restored. Its sealed and on display in my office.

What I think the best solution for all of us would be a total rebuild of a classic system like the Minimeg or FPGA. PCI slots and all are great, but you need drivers and support for far to many cards when going this way. Id like to see a board with everything we need on it. RAM upgrades being the only thing I can think of to have open for adding things on. Not including it on the board saves money and allows those on a budget to add what they can, when they can.

It should include:
Fast Ethernet
Hi resolution video with at least 512MB dedicated to it. (Video slot would also be ok but not the only way to get video out)
USB 2.0 at a minimum
IDE and SATA
SD Card slots
Ports to add new additions as they are made.

Classic hardware s getting old, and very hard to replace. Modern stuff is cheap now and able to emulate to near perfection a classic system far more capable than we ever could do on the real thing.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I was thinking along the same lines as you but then I saw this.
 
I've placed a pre-order. Unfortunately I think it sticks on the side of the A500, and I'd prefer it to be internal like the Derringer you mentioned. But it satisfies your requirements by the sound of it.

That thing is a kludge, sticks out the side of the case where it could be damaged and needs you to make your own case for it.  A new internal A500 accelerator would hit the biggest market.  Closest thing to that requirement is currently Kipper2K's board now in production, but it doesn't include a faster processor (unless you stick a 68010 or something else on top of it, I suppose an AdSpeed might work...).

Here's a pic for people unfamiliar with this board:

[Nlandas]

I don't have one Amiga at this point that doesn't have some kind of hardware quirk. It is time for a FPGA board solution to offer:
A) full AGA and classic chipset emulation
B) 32 bit capability
C) Upgrade path-

 somekind of upgrade path so that we can move away from vintage hardware and offer a reasonable amount of compatibility.

Natami was a dream, Minimig is great...
FPGA arcade seems to be it but that project moves at the pace that it moves.

I don't think Amiga OS4 is it, way to expensive for hardware and software. Port it to X86 and arm, run it on everything lower the price and it will take off as a cool retro hobbyist platform. A Kickstarter to get OS4 ported to X86 and ARM commodity hardware makes the most sense to me.

Call me crazy and thanks for your work on supporting AMIGA!

   I second this. I'd love to buy an AGA compatible board that simply ran all my old Amiga software and Amiga OS. I was hopeful that NATAMI or something from Jens Schonfeld - Individual Computers would be AGA compatible and replace all my old failing classic Amiga hardware.

   I'd also contribute to a Kickstarter to get AmigaOS ported to x64. I'd love to run AmigaOS on modern PC hardware without custom motherboards. I long for an alternative to Windows and Linux on my desktop and it'd be amazing if it was a rewrite of AmigaOS.

[asymetrix]

2014 we need more users and developers #1

$200 - $300 Classic 68k Amiga Licensed computer, AGA/Super AGA + 32 bit RTG graphics.

$30,000 kickstarter project to reverse engineer AGA chip.

virtual assembler language with GUI + OpenGL enhancments - write once run on any Amiga OS4/OS3/Morph/Aros system.

Online steam like Amiga shop portal for software and easy delivery system for developers who want to publish their software and earn a profit to sustain community.

Amiga theme creating software

Games developer environment and website

Most hardware projects wont mean much if the original Classic hardware fails and is no more.

[lionstorm]

I would like custom backplates for wedge Amigas (mainly A1200) for easier tower builds, pre-cut plates would rock, make a hole in the back of any ATX case then people can pick how they want to put it in place.

I would also want a flexible Riser for the expansion ports on wedge Amigas, so you can mount accelerators a lill more where you want it also it would rock to be able to flip the card around, some cards get's more space if you where able to turn it around!

Edit: I would also like a custom keyboard case for wedge Amiga keyboards, so you can use a Wedge keyboard for tower builds or for bigbox Amigas, it's quite easy to get hold of spare keyboards.

custom backplate would also come handy to my A1200 !

[rockersuke]

Some slightly less ambitious but no less practical suggestions:

-Both PCMCIA and IDE to SDHC adapters meant, and tested, to work reliably on A600 and A1200. CF cards are rarer to see everyday. Most recently released models are targetted to the professional photo market and are consequently ultra-fast (tending not to get along with PCMCIA miggy slots) and waaay too expensive. Finding a model that works nicely with your Amiga has always been a lottery, and finding certain brands known to do the job frequently requires searching in the second-hand world (meaning a shorter life-span). I'm aware such things do exist in the outside world, but for some reason I've hardly heard of amigans actually using them, so having models that should work safely in Amiga specialized stores would be nice!

-A service for reflashing old PCMCIA Wifi cards with a WPA encription compatible firmware. That's something many of us would like to do, but it's a tricky and dangerous proccess, and requires some uncommon hardware (PCMCIA equipped PCs, which are rare nowadays)

--

[Akiko]

With the ACA500 available now and other planned expansions coming in future it would be nice to have a cheapish option to get the A500 online. Amigakit should consider assembling plipbox network cards and bundling them with Easynet.

http://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/plipbox/

Try to get Deneb and subways cards back onto the market if at all possible.

Some sort of new RTG Zorro card or even a new A1200 RTG graphics card option would be nice.

If the UltimatePPC project has been cancelled maybe Amigakit / A-Eon might be interested taking over this project.

ultimateppc.nl/

Software to allow multibooting into different versions of the Amiga operating system. Wasn't this already planned?

[matt3k]

1. Zorro III Video Card:
- DVI/HDMI out.
- High performance
- Lots of fast video memory.
- Pass through so Amiga Video could be redirected to a DVI/HDMI output.

2. Bridge for SCSI to SATA devices.

3. Accelerator for big box amigas.
- Fits an A3000D without cutting the chassis.
- SATA controller.
- Option to bypass the bus, like the grex.  (Make it work it both the 3k and 4k).


Thank you for asking and for all you have done for the Amiga community.  Looking forward to the prism.

[psxphill]

That thing is a kludge, sticks out the side of the case where it could be damaged and needs you to make your own case for it. A new internal A500 accelerator would hit the biggest market.

Selling an external accelerator without a case is bad, but internal accelerators cause problems. I've been there and done that, I'm back to an external one.
Getting a bigger desk is a small price to pay.

[mfletcher]

@Amigakit,

Can I suggest the following projects:
1) A case for the ACA500
2) Build to order GBA1000 motherboards for A1000 owners, say $600 per board?
3) Expanded repair services - PSU replacement, Capacitor replacement for example?
4) PSU's similar to what Mechy was selling a while back? http://www.a4000t.com
5) Another run of USB interfaces for A1200 or A4000

Mark

[Wolfe]

** Build to order GBA1000 motherboards for A1000 owners, say $600 per board? **

Count me in . . . I'll take one . . . :-)