Joined: 4-Jan-2010 Posts: 580
From: London, UK (ex-pat; originally from Norway)
@-Sam-
Quote:
True - I would prefer Natami style custom hardware too - but not having it is not the end of the 'Amiganess' of a machine and any sensible strategy would realise the cost of doing custom hardware 'right' and so would only build that into the mid - long term of any range of new machines. Any come back would have to start with PC commodity parts in order to build up te cash to be able to even begin to contemplate custom hardware.
I love what the Natami team is doing, but I actually prefer the Minimig/Replay approach myself as a potential path towards revitalizing the classic range. While they're slower and more limited for now, it has the advantage that the cores are or will be open source, and the schematics as well. Short term the Natami team has the advantage of a very dedicated group.
Longer term, the Minimig/Replay approach has the advantage that more people can tinker with it (for example, since I've been whining about lack of a proper MMU for the Natami softcore, if I'd like one for the Replay board I could put up a bounty and try to get one, or pick up the skills and try to add one myself).
Both can keep surfing on dropping FPGA costs and improving performance.
I don't think either will ever reach the "mainstream", but they don't have to in order to be great fun and be viable niches
10 crawler(s) on-line.
104 guest(s) on-line.
0 member(s) on-line.
vidarh 
