Dear Amigans,

Back in 2007 at TroikaNG, we changed our product development goals. The system codenamed Prometheus/Amy05 had taken us into one direction, grown and as time progressed became costly, and slightly dated with regard to the technology used.

A new project, codename Athena, was commenced. This was a lower cost system which provided a more effective price point for the current markets. The initial hardware was developed and tested towards during 2007.

We are very pleased at this point in time to present a sneak preview of the updated design of this new motherboard designed for Amiga OS4x. The focus is a low cost entry level system designed to kick around Os4, and maybe do some developer work. Our new series will be known as the Amy Developer.

Clarified
In addition we have an active development roadmap around a higher higher performance core, with a 1 GHz processor and numerous enabling technologies. The part we have designed in for this next model after this first Athena adds some additional costs. It provides a good price/performance/power ratio.

Since this is a sneak peak we won’t reveal all the specifications only that she can compete with other motherboards running at speed of 500-700 mhz. The feature set includes USB 2.0 high speed, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA and support for DDR RAM (DIMMS).

Graphics are provided by an off the shelf PCI card as this provides the most cost effective solution, to you, the end user.



Link to full size pic

Customer feedback is important to us. We realize that in the past, our announcements have not always been universally well received. It is because of this that we have spent the best part of the last two years developing and testing our system before announcing the product.

We look forward to hearing your opinions.
(Mod's note: Resized to keep in line with TOS)

Last edited by Troika on 09-Feb-2009 at 07:38 PM.
Last edited by Troika on 05-Feb-2009 at 10:32 PM.
Last edited by Yo on 05-Feb-2009 at 08:29 PM.

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Troika NG progress reports & news releases will be released as such, from my office.
ttp://www.troikang.com/ Amy, A NEW HOPE
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Opinions I might express are mine alone,and do not represent those of Troika

@Troika

Competition is good, your price point looks attractive. Timing will be key. But the Sam has the low end of the market wrapped up now, and they are coming out with the Flex version with 3 PCI slots very very soon. Many wait for that because of the 3 PCI slots.

You may have better luck starting off in the high-end - there is currently nothing "new" available there. I already own a MicroA1 so I am not in the market for a Sam or your new Developer board, but I would be interested in something in the 1+GHz range. Something faster than even Pegasos 2, perhaps.

I would also point out that I am leery of buying a "developer board" as an end user. The AmigaOne's have issues that have taken a long, long time to work around, and even then it is not perfect.

Getting it "right" from a hardware perspective, with no dma issues, or other weird bugs will also be very important for the success of the board.

Last edited by HammerD on 05-Feb-2009 at 12:51 AM.
Last edited by HammerD on 05-Feb-2009 at 12:48 AM.

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AmigaOS 4.x Beta Tester - Classic Amiga enthusiast - http://www.hd-zone.com is my Amiga Blog, check it out!

@Troika

the low end marked is allready taken by the sam...

so instead go for the 2GHZ, USB 2.0 high speed, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA and support for DDR RAM (DIMMS). at the price $300-350 US /227 Euro and you will have a winner...

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@d0c

Not really sure. We need as many systems as we can. Sam is low end system but for many outside the community it's a way owerpriced system. If Troika can sell a board cheaper it will attract new people or people who are not into the Amiga fan trip.
At the end, Acube will maybe drop the price of the SAM.

So go with all you got ! Good luck

@Troika

An entry level board is important, but we already have the Sam. Many (most?) people are waiting for a high end board. However, this could be a Sam beater if the CPU used has L2 cache.

The low end market is covered well by the sam as d0c said, we need more power, 2 ghz would suffice.
But is it legally licensed to run os4? By a flick of a hand hyperion can break compatibility for this board if its not legal...
And what about linux?

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(Oo)
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Couldn't care less what other people think, seeing that there's concrete evidence they don't.

@Troika

I would consider price one criteria for Low-end h/w. Definately room for competition there.

Tell us more.

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Amiga Land is my favorite soap opera.

Pancakes...
I would need to see more! I think it's to cheap to be a true success, even if unit costs are low. Its is my opinion and that's all it is.

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MiniMig FPGA, Sam440 Flex 733Mhz PPC, Amiga OS 4.1 Update 2, MorphOS 2.4, Other - AmiKit + Cloanto Amiga Forever 2008 + E-UAE, AmigaSYS

oh dear...

@Troika

At least this picture is better than the MS Paint block diagram we've seen so many comments about from last time around. Looks like at least 4 layer board, probably more since it doesn't seem to display power/ground planes. More convincing this way, wish I knew enough to recognize some footprints. :)

Make me a laptop!

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All glory to the Hypnotoad!

@Troika

If you are going to create a developers system, atleast give the developers something to play with.

1ghz simply wont cut it, when they are trying to push to the limits during ports of bigger gear out there.

1ghz wont cut it, when they are rendering, and the rendering is taking a whole day due to lack of power.

1ghz wont cut it, when they are trying to continue development, while things are rendering, or intro sequences are being compiled.

Put simply, although this would be a nice cost, and I would be willing to buy it, it just falls short, especially since I already have a SAM440EP, I will not need another that is practically under a 1ghz. Even if it is exactly 1Ghz, it is not over, and there are various boards already that are not over.

So, somewhere around 1.5 - 2.5 ghz would see some new users to the group, and would perhaps see some old developers come back.

Many devlopers would definately consider giving atleast one port of one of their products, or even creat one piece of software from scratch for the user base, to see via experimentation, if the user base has grown due to recent progression.

AND

I would love to see the new Alien Breed on such a system by team 17.


EDIT:
I will vote yes, as it may give people like my friend who wishes to try the Operating System a chance to do so. Provided it runs Linux, as this would be a double bonus.

I also choose to vote yes, so that your company can also grow bigger, alongside Acube Systems to also grow bigger, and maybe you will then be able to, in future, actually have a much, much larger Computing Processing Unit. CPU power does mean a lot to many users, as they would be able to show off the Amiga OS more efficiently, rather than being almost exactly the same level as a dual core CPU PC now.

Id rather be able to compete with a quad core from a 2.5 ghz CPU'ed Aimga OS system.

What ever you do, make sure you have a nice case handy, with a BOING BALL on it, for the new users, or existing users that would like one.
END EDIT.

Last edited by Gebrochen on 05-Feb-2009 at 05:49 AM.

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Flex is 800mhz
A1000 with Classic 520 Amiga OS3.2.1
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@Troika

I'm with the others here. I already have two A1-XEs (800 MHz G3 and 1000 MHz G4) and a Sam, and I don't need another low- or medium-level machine.

So I'm afraid the answer is "no, thanks". Ask me again when you have a design for a machine of at least 2 GHz.

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cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@Troika

When it was NOW available at that price it would be great, but it isn't.
When when it is avaible, the SAM could also be lowered in price.
And what are the selling points of this board, other then te price ?

I think people should develop an PowerPC card for the (vapor) Natami, then you have at least some Amiga-specific board.


It is easer to take existing hardware like Mac Mini's, Efika or this one which you can buy new:
http://lists.fixstars.com/pipermail/yellowdog-announce/2009-January/000199.html

Last edited by bennymee on 05-Feb-2009 at 07:13 AM.

@all

1Ghz PPC CPU is not bad at all, but to cover our "high end" market it should be the starter point.

@Troika
Good work on your project

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ikir

@Troika

Although I think it is good to see that Troika is still planning and developing with Amiga in mind, I, like most others here, fail to see the added value of the design presented for the community. Remember that the market is a rather small, nichy one and more of one kind can easily kill all contenders.

I would most certainly not buy one of this design as I own a µA1 already. Things might get interesting if a design goes well beyond the capacities of a µ.
Instead of persuing this road you might opt for a very different approach and find a (niche) market of your own. And id all depends whether you will be able to get OS4.x ported or not.

OldFart

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Time is a waste of life.
Get wasted all the time
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@Troika

The initial hardware was developed and tested towards during 2007.

So you try to fool us, that you have some working prototypes, then you just show some picture from a PCB design software? Given your long list of successes in digital electronics design business I vote "pancakes".

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Reggae · MorphOS Files · DigiBooster 3

@Troika

Another broken promise? Amy05? Panda? Athena?

Pancakes!

If it's true and it runs OS4 or MorphOS and it does it as good or better as the SAM does ... I'll buy it. At least we would have an entry board with according price.

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I wouldn't consider sam as low end product, at least price is high end product.

@Troika

I would buy it at that price if it ran OS4.1+ as good as or better than SAM board from Acube.
It would be nice to have a low-end board at a low-end price, unfortunately SAM is priced to high IMHO (and even the FLEX is).

Another thing is that if you create this board without having customers outside of the Amiga market I fail to see the idea and don't believe in your pricing. If the price ends up being more expensive and gets close to the SAM board you shouldn't go further with the project.

Competition is healthy, but not always for a small market.

I think you should contact Acube and talk about your plans and their plans, then try to make something that differs from their roadmap.
How about using your experience in creating a small really low power laptop (eee inspired). If it holds battery long enough it could even appeal to gadgets freaks outside the Amiga world.

Or how about a stripped down version of the YDL powerstation, even if OS4 only used one core it would be a step forward.

Those are my thoughts.
But you got an 100% safe order from me if you release at the proposed price within a half year. And I wish you good luck.

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