I can't recall if this press release has been mentioned. My apologies if it has but it would be great if one day AmigaOS ran on a Teron I

www.mai.com/news&events/PressRelease122103.html

The future G5 hardware support is being laid at Eyetech/Hyperion's feet. They have to decide if it is worth it to provide such a high-end system - where would the demand come from? You can bet a G5 system won't be cheap.

Marvell picked up the license to the "Elastic Interface" back in September and now (finally) so has MAI. It looks like the 2H of 2004 is going to get quite interesting. I like the fact that there are two companies competing for PowerPC chipsets.

This means the G4 stuff will only get cheaper

I suppose the next logical question to Eyetech is when do they expect to start sampling the new Articia I chipsets....

Happy new year folks!

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The future G5 hardware support is being laid at Eyetech/Hyperion's feet. They have to decide if it is worth it to provide such a high-end system - where would the demand come from? You can bet a G5 system won't be cheap.

I would buy one

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PowerTower A1200, 060/80Mhz, Heatsink & Fan, 66MBRam, PowerFlyerGold, 50xCDRomdrive, 250Zip, 2.1

Same here.

Wouldn't be a lot of cop though. At least, not until Hyperion coded for it !! ( Os4-64)

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Sounds like quite a chipset though, I'm really looking forward to seeing the the motherboard it ends up in. Here's a paragraph from the PDF file:

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Mai Logic's feature-rich Articia I supports IBM® PowerPC? 970 microprocessor, DDR 2 memory interface and other advanced peripheral interfaces such as PCI Express and PCI-X. The combination of IBM® PowerPC? 970's performance speeds, the ultra high speed Elastic I/O technology and Mai Logic's AGP 8X compatible Articia I chipset represents a formidable solution in the embedded markets, particularly those requiring high resolution graphics such as multimedia, gaming, medical and aerospace industries. With built-in MPEG4 accelerator and TV decoder designed for developing integrated graphic and video subsystems, Articia I is well positioned to bridge the gap between the computer and the television as the worlds of entertainment and computing converge. Articia I is also equipped with self-repairing and self-testing functions to ensure performance stability.

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Alkemyst wrote: Quote: The future G5 hardware support is being laid at Eyetech/Hyperion's feet. They have to decide if it is worth it to provide such a high-end system - where would the demand come from? You can bet a G5 system won't be cheap. I would buy one

Hell yeah, me too! Well, Me, Paul and Alkemyst... that's three sales - surely enough interest to start producing it...

Back on topic, this chipset sounds very nice - any clue on how far into development it is?

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This means the G4 stuff will only get cheaper

So maybe we will also see dual G4 cards for current A1XEs during this year. This is getting more and more interesting.

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Samples of the Articia I chipsets, Teron I series systems, and PowerPC? 970 processor are expected to be available in early second quarter of 2004.

I really hope that that time estimate is true, and that Alan has a REALLY early Christmas present planned for us

@Gregthecanuck

G5 systems won't be cheap? Depends on how you compare it. A G4 Apple tower vs a G5 Apple tower is $500 savings. If you take out all the components to just cost a motherboard and processor there's probably $150-$250 more in costs to the end user. Current AmigaOne G4 800Mhz at Software Hut is $880 and this would make the G5 1.6Ghz, theortically, $1,150. If they could hit that price point the performance gain / $ ratio would be better for the G4 vs G5 then it is for the G3 vs G4.

However, yes the Amiga, overall, is an expensive system. $1,299 for a G4 Mac. With $880 for a G4 Amiga, that's slower 800Mhz vs 1.25Ghz, and you add all the items up it'll cost you pretty close but a bit higher then the G4 Mac of a faster speed. But, if they could hit a $1,150 price point then you add the hardware in you could probably get the overall price to be under the cost for a G5 Mac, $1,799 for a similar configuration and similar performance.

I'm all for a G5 Amiga. Even if they don't use the Altivec or 64bit extensions initially. This better sets up the Amiga Users for the future as G4's will eventually stop being made and G5's and their brothern will be the only option. On top of that I don't think anyone would complain about a doubling of Mhz for their processor or better.

Remember Jobs announced, last June, that in 12 months they expect to be at 3Ghz. So, we're talking about an Amiga that will be able to use newer processor speeds and can keep up with the Linuxes/Windows/Macs on the 99% of the world's desktops. That's not a bad thing.

Now to just get Eyetech to pick up the interface Apple uses for the G5's so if vendors make a 3Ghz G5 upgrade card and someone discards their 2Ghz G5 when they upgrade the processor we could pick them up cheaply on Ebay that would be cool.
Or alternatively just buy the upgrade card and use it ourselves.

@emeck040270

I'd rather see Eyetech make a G5 Amiga and put energies there then worry about G4 upgrade cards. I want to see the Amiga better set up for the future. According to Jobs a 3Ghz G5 should be out this June. Wouldn't that rock to see a 3Ghz AmigaTwoG5 Available?

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BrianK wrote: @emeck040270 I'd rather see Eyetech make a G5 Amiga and put energies there then worry about G4 upgrade cards. I want to see the Amiga better set up for the future. According to Jobs a 3Ghz G5 should be out this June. Wouldn't that rock to see a 3Ghz AmigaTwoG5 Available?

Yes, it would. That would be a dream come true again (like the AmigaOne is now) to see a 3GHz Amiga with AGP 8X, PCI Express, PCI-X, MPEG4 acceleration, DDR2 support.... Well, that machine running AmigaOS 4.X would be something that could run circles around todays Windows based PC's. And to be honest, then there would be no reason (other than market share) to not be able to have apps that match anything in the PC world, including even the very best, and most demanding games.

It should prove to be an interesting year, if these do actually become part of the Amiga line.

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gregthecanuck wrote: I like the fact that there are two companies competing for PowerPC chipsets. This means the G4 stuff will only get cheaper

Unless of course the demand outstrips supply, making the processors even more expensive and pushing up prices. Apple has been in the PPC market for years, they are many times larger than the Amiga Market, and their kit does not get cheaper, don't expect Amiga's to do so.

Demand for a G5 Amiga depends on marketing. To whom would such a system be of value, excluding Amiga nuts, of course.
How bout marketing to the high-end graphic users that bought Amigas to begin with? NASA? Walt Disney?
It surely makes more sense to upgrade a present system than to ditch it all for a new one and re-train.

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Wouldn't that rock to see a 3Ghz AmigaTwoG5 Available?

Eh eh. It is very cool

This new G5 for MAI news is very interesting, and can have only positive effects on the comunity! I hope only to see also the Dual G4 Module

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ikir

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This new G5 for MAI news is very interesting, and can have only positive effects on the comunity! I hope only to see also the Dual G4 Module

That's all well and good, but wouldn't a dual G4 AmigaOne wind up costing about what an Apple G5 system does? The dual processors sound nice, but how practical would they be for everyday users? I would rather see advances in newer motherboards like the 'Teron I' (dare we speculate the 'AmigaOne I', . And no Cyclops jokes!) At least then we could get the next major advance in hardware with the latest offering in industry standard components (AGP8X, DDR, PCI-X, etc). That would also instantly take our hardware on equivilant levels with the Mac hardware.

But to address the cost of hardware not coming down for Apple, you have to look at the fact that they control the hardware so tightly that you cannot buy the components and build your own Mac. That is the one area that AmigaOne and even Pegasos have an advantage.

I think in the long run they have a chance of outselling proprietary Mac hardware. Not at first, mind you, but eventually. Where someone may not be willing to go out and buy two Macs, they may actually buy a couple of A1's or Peg's or one of each and build them into existing cases with some left over PC parts. That factor could lead to alot more sales from "our" half of the PPC market. Let's not forget that the consumer level "build your own PPC machine" market is very new still.

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Herewegoagain wrote: Quote: This new G5 for MAI news is very interesting, and can have only positive effects on the comunity! I hope only to see also the Dual G4 Module That's all well and good, but wouldn't a dual G4 AmigaOne wind up costing about what an Apple G5 system does? The dual processors sound nice, but how practical would they be for everyday users? I would rather see advances in newer motherboards like the 'Teron I' (dare we speculate the 'AmigaOne I',

Well let me just play the what the hell would you do with it card here.

What good is a dual G4 unless AmigaOS supports it? The G4 doesn't give that much more speed increase over G3's unless you start using altivitec, so that would have to be in OS4. Then you need programs that are written to support the OS functionality.
The same applys to G5's what are you going to do with that power?

Forget looking into the future and salivating, how about looking at today and working out a way to make it to that future.

Pipe Dreams are nice, but you have to understand that reality is where we actually exist and many of the things we dream are limited to exist only in the ethereal realms of our imagination. That said don't let me stop you from buying those upgrades.

I personally don't see any reason to upgrade my A1 until OS4.1 when a lot more fancy stuff will be being included, and as OS4 isn't out yet, I'm not expecting to see OS4.1 for at least a year later than OS4, and probably longer.

Of course I will be buying whole slews of microA1's. Not so much an upgrade as a parrallel expansion.

x86 wins the performance crown , especially if you start including price into that equation, making the PPC market mirror that would be pointless and doom it to failure.

As for the "AmigaOne I" I'd prefer to make pirate jokes about that, I'd love some of that Booty. ARRRGGGGHHHH

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Well let me just play the what the hell would you do with it card here. What good is a dual G4 unless AmigaOS supports it? The G4 doesn't give that much more speed increase over G3's unless you start using altivitec, so that would have to be in OS4. Then you need programs that are written to support the OS functionality. The same applys to G5's what are you going to do with that power?

Well, that's basically what I'm getting at there as well. But don't forget that the AmigaOS4 features list has this to say about SMP:

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Planned and already partially implemented functionality: Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP): support for multiple CPU's.

But since we know that the Teron I systems will become available, it only seems natural that they too will become part of the Amiga heritage. That may not be the case, however. But I disagree more on the point about the "G5" (PPC 970).

It's a given that with some changes AmigaOS could run on that hardware, without it having to be re-written or made into a fully 64bit OS. The point is, that you would absolutely see performance gains for certain things, and those things would happen without having to be rewritten for the 970 chip. In the case of the dual G4, the OS and apps have to be written in a certain manner for it to even be useful. A much less likely senario than just running things on a newer and faster system. That's kinda like asking why someone would buy a Farrari when a Ford Escort would get them to the same place without all of that power. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that people wait on the PPC970 system as opposed to buying an A1... just noting that it is a nice (and most logical) next step option for our market place.

@Stilgar..
'G5's what are you going to do with that power' more work and/or more R&R. Point in case ImageFX on my AmigaForever machine is about 12x quicker then my A4000T 060/604e. Hence, I can get more work done in an hour this allows me to kick back and have more beer. Or if someone charges a 1 hour minimum and can get 3 projects done in the same hour they get 3x the income.

Let's say your significant other is 500KM away. Now you can get there with your feet, a bike, a bus, or a Ferrari Enzo. Once you get there you get to spend X time with your sweety. Then you have to make the trip back. I'd think you'd want the extra power in the Ferrari to get there ASAP so X is as large as possible.

'how about looking at today and working out a way to make it to that future.'
-- We are! The G4 will be dead at some point. Today the G5 has more years ahead of it then the G4 does. Thus, moving to the G5, asap, will allow us to make it better and farther into the future then the current G4 will allow us to be.



' PPC market mirror that would be pointless and doom it to failure.'
-- Not sure why you think a lower cost and higher performing PPC would doom it. I'd think it'd enhance it. It'd better compete against the AMD or Intel solution for hardware. Also, Linux fans want to get away from Microsoft. Intel and AMD are associated with Microsoft so some Linux fans even want to get away a step farther. So, the PPC would be a natural for those Linux people that want to dump x86. Performance is always part of the buying equation as is cost.

I'm glad you're happy with a 800Mhz AmigaOne. It's a good system. So, some day your system can be the lower cost system with the 2-3Ghz G5 as the high-end system.

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The same applys to G5's what are you going to do with that power?

I'm a speed freak that always needs more power. Think about how fast you can surf the web?
Nah, how about video encoding, HDTV recording/editing, HD-DVD authoring. You'll need all the processing power you can get.

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Forget looking into the future and salivating, how about looking at today and working out a way to make it to that future.

What can I say? I'm a dreamer! The way I see the future is OS4.0 being released around mid 2004 with a few more PPC native applications following.
From a hardware perspective, you might see faster G4 modules for the A1 (maybe up to 1.3GHz by end 2004 or sometime in 2005).
The ITX-A1 would also be released with the possibility of more sales from the embedded market and hardcore Amiga fans.

One would hope though that there's more to it than that. Maybe in 12 months time G5 CPUs won't be as expensive as they are now. Who knows what the future holds?

What's an "Elastic Interface"?

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