• Flex-ATX form factor motherboard based on the Freescale MPC8349E SoC. (400MHz to 667MHz depending on requirements and price target)
  
• 1 (one) DDR2 DIMM slot expandable to 1GB using unregistered DIMMs.
  
• 1 (one) 66MHz PCI slot for use with readily available graphics cards.
  
• 2 (two) 33MHz  PCI slots for additional expansion.
  
• 2 (two) 10/100/1Gb Ethernet Ports.
  
• 4 (four) Hi Speed USB ports.
  
• 2 (two) serial ports.
  
• 4 (four) SATA ports provided by a Silicon Image Sil3114 controller.
  
• Onboard sound provided by a C-Media CMI8738.
  
• Socketed EEPROM for U-Boot firmware.
  
• Atmel ATC2408A serial EEPROM (1kb of non-volatile storage)
  
• Dallas DS1339 RTC with battery holder.
  
• Standard ATX power supply connector.

Do any of you have any idea what it can cost to run a batch of say 1000-2000 motherboards.
come on. We the amiga community have no luxury of economies of scale. 3 years ago people were complaining its too expensive to buy eyetech amiga one. today they say the machines are underpowered and priced so so. I think i see a trend - all amigans love complaining.
Have you ever wondered why macs are more expensive than pcs - well again lack of economies of scale. I will buy this piece of hardware if it lets me do linux/os4/mac os through mol, and os4 mess is sorted out by amiga inc. Hyperion shouldnt be screwed for it, some mutual agreement should be worked out satisfactory to all parties. Lets have ACK, Hyperion supporting OS4 and Amiga Inc getting their small pie share. If this market is again divided and conquered well sorry again no economies of scale. We all lose, amiga businesses too.

@ackctrls
Quote:

People should realize this is the entry level product.

yes, and that it will run AmigaOS4 which does not require a 4GHz CPU and 4Gb of RAM to be usable...

Good work Adam!! I really mean it!!

_________________
www.EtherealWorld.com

@Adam

Do you believe that, "Amiga, Inc. is the world’s premier provider of multimedia enabling technologies. " ?

Yes or No?

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A3000D (16mhz, 2MB Chip, 4MB Fast, SCSI (300+MB), SuperGen Genlock, Kick 3.1)
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Back in my day, we didn't have water. We only had Oxygen & Hydrogen, & we'd just shove 'em together

Yes it might be fine for now but when you come to run a game on it you'll soon wish you had that 1.7GHz cpu...and I know everyone will want to run a modern game on it...

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

@ackcontrols

Specs are fine, i didn't get if the price is comprensive of components and case.

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ikir

I'm still happy with the XE and never complained. The new HW is welcommed, why complain now. Roll on new "entry-level" and I might buy the high spec then.

@TheDaddy
At the moment you are damn lucky if you can even run OS4 at all! Whining about it being slightly underpowered is plain stupid IMHO, especially when higher specified models could appear later.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@AmigaHeretic

Quote:

Do you believe that, "Amiga, Inc. is the world's premier provider of multimedia enabling technologies. " ?

If you have not already I invite everyone to have a look at the current coverage of the Lois Vuitton Cup Challenger series (for Americas Cup). Here in NZ I watch it from about midnight every night. There is a facility called virtual eye which provides a quick animation of the race progress. As we watch the actual events we see the actual numbers - so-and-so ahead by 6 metres or 400 metres separation, lay lines superimposed and lines across the bows indicating who has the lead, long shots by vitual eye indicating the current strategic situation, at close quarters the wind shadow the trailing boat is trying to cast on the oponent. Close up video and sound of the action on board each yacht, from above and every other angle of interest plus interpretive commentary, representations of wind speed and direction all over the course.
That is one example of current cutting edge multimedia technology in action. If you want to be among the world leaders here you better have tens of billions of US dollars to just get into the action, or better still given current values, Euros.

Of course dreams and creations take on their own life and run away with those who are trying to realise them, and their resources, even their lives. Some manage to actually create something that is of value. Others just change the fantasy should any touch of reality come frighteningly near. It's called spin!

Noel

Im glad that things look like they are moving along. I will keep an open mind on this as im sure we have all seen this before

AS

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A500, A500+, A1200 CF ACA1221

Quote:

Do you believe that, "Amiga, Inc. is the world’s premier provider of multimedia enabling technologies. " ?

Do you believe that Microsoft Windows is the best (technically speaking) operating system? do you believe that Windows was the first multitasking operating system? Because that and other lies or exaggerations are what Microsoft are/was/will saying and lying and i don´t see you complaining about that
That is a common practice in business, exaggerate a little.That is how Microsoft and others become big.Or how do you attract investors and developers saying:" i´m a poor company trying to be big, doing the best".

_________________
No PowerPC, No Fun
Make Amiga Great Again

Quote:

Poster: ackcontrls Date: 1-May-2007 1:20:01 Quote: But better than nothing I suppose. Just barely. People should realize this is the entry level product. Adam

I think they do realize that Adam, but people are looking for something to complain about right now. The important thing is it fits the low end price point perfectly for a complete system. And if it performs good, should be a nice way for many to get back into a "modern Amiga".

Can you give any additional details of the hard drive size, amount of ram, and type of video card? And will these be in Amiga branded cases or just generic PC boxes with a badge?

Nibunnoichi wrote:

Quote:

Forgive me if i stay in topic but can someone knowledgeable tell me what are these for, please: - Atmel ATC2408A serial EEPROM (1kb of non-volatile storage) - Dallas DS1339 RTC with battery holder.

The 24cxx series of EEproms are frequently used on networking cards to store the MAC address and they are also often used on USB cards to hold vendor information (including a few strings). Note that this type of EEprom is not meant to be re-written a lot of times. I'd much rather spend a little more money and buy a 4MBit SPI flash memory (would cost maybe 60 cents more and consume the same amount of board space).

RTC is a short for "real time clock" - the dallas chips are small-package serial interface RTC chips, fairly low-cost. Not a bad choice, as this is a high-volume standard component (as opposed to the OKI RTC chips used on classic Amigas).

Jens Schönfeld

@ackcontrls

Quote:

People should realize this is the entry level product.

You can't turn a terminally underpowered product into something attractive simply by calling it 'entry level'. This is 2007, not 1997. Those specs are really, really bad. I can see it being useful as a basic development platform for those few coders who still have some faith in OS4's future, but that's about it.

(this isn't a slap at your design in particular, btw. I have the same contempt for the Efika and other similarly specced PPC machines. Such hardware has no place in today's market, unless it's amost disposably cheap - say £100 or less for the board + OS )

And it's all very well to point at the high-end model, but how many people are prepared to spend that kind of money (£1000+ when it gets to these shores, I expect) on a machine running an OS that has virtually no applications, not even a decent browser, and who's future development status is cloudy to say the least. 10? 20 perhaps? I'd be pleasantly shocked if you can sell more than 50 of the high-end model.

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Who do you serve, and who do you trust? - Galen

Quote:

Do you believe that Microsoft Windows is the best (technically speaking) operating system?

Define best.

Quote:

do you believe that Windows was the first multitasking operating system?

Define multitasking e.g. co-operative or preemptive.

_________________
Ryzen 9 7900X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB
Amiga 1200 (Rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32lite/RPi 4B 4GB/Emu68)
Amiga 500 (Rev 6A, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 3a/Emu68)

Quote:

yes, and that it will run AmigaOS4 which does not require a 4GHz CPU and 4Gb of RAM to be usable...

Typing this post didn’t spike my laptop’s clock speed beyond 800Mhz** i.e. barely 10 percent of the CPU usage.

**Using Vista Ultimate (with Aero Glass), 1GB RAM and RMClock 2.25 (to manage and monitor CPU’s clockspeed).

Last edited by Hammer on 01-May-2007 at 12:10 PM.

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Ryzen 9 7900X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB
Amiga 1200 (Rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32lite/RPi 4B 4GB/Emu68)
Amiga 500 (Rev 6A, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 3a/Emu68)

@ChrisH

Hey I am not stupid, now we can't even give an opinion?!

As an answer I'll just paste what DRBombCrater said, which I agree with.


"You can't turn a terminally underpowered product into something attractive simply by calling it 'entry level'. This is 2007, not 1997. Those specs are really, really bad. I can see it being useful as a basic development platform for those few coders who still have some faith in OS4's future, but that's about it.

(this isn't a slap at your design in particular, btw. I have the same contempt for the Efika and other similarly specced PPC machines. Such hardware has no place in today's market, unless it's amost disposably cheap - say £100 or less for the board + OS )

And it's all very well to point at the high-end model, but how many people are prepared to spend that kind of money (£1000+ when it gets to these shores, I expect) on a machine running an OS that has virtually no applications, not even a decent browser, and who's future development status is cloudy to say the least. 10? 20 perhaps? I'd be pleasantly shocked if you can sell more than 50 of the high-end model."

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

@Nibunnoichi


Dallas Chip?!?!? Ugh this was a mistake in my opinion!!!

I am surprised no one else had mentioned this chip.

I personally dont care for these chips for the following reasons..


The Dallas chip is a Real Time Clock (RTC), which means that is the clock crystal used for saving data, usually BIOS settings... the problem is that it is glued on top of the system battery.

The Dallas chip acts as the motherboard battery and BIOS settings (usually in designs where these are used).

The problem here is that when the battery dies you will lose your ability to keep your BIOS settings after every powerdown. You fix this by desoldering the battery (18 - 25) pins from the motherboard and replacing the chip. Some designs must have the Dallas chip to be preflashed so this can be real pain depending on design.

I have been working with the Dallas chip for years and I just groaned when I saw that it was being used in this design, to replace a simple 2032 button battery is just 2 dollars to replace a Dallas chip a special order $25 plus a lot of desoldering and soldering.

Here are my questions about the Dallas chip I would like to be answered before I buy:

1) Is the Dallas chip being used to store any critical systems settings (BIOS, etc)

2) Is the Dallas chip socketed? (it makes it a bit easier to replace)

3) Is the company going to stock these extra Dallas chip/battery packages for replacements in the future.. these are a monster to find in many local towns and quite often need to be special ordered cause motherboard designers do not use them anymore! The price on these chips is currently 25 or so dollars, but I expect that to climb eventually due to being used less and less..

4) Why didn't the design have just a standard modern battery implementation instead of this archaic painful design?

I have hacked Dallas chips to use a 2032 battery in the past but it is a real pain since you have to burn or drill into the battery part of the package, cut the battery leads and solder on a few wires to a button holder for a normal battery!

Last edited by CaptainN on 02-May-2007 at 06:12 AM.
Last edited by CaptainN on 01-May-2007 at 02:25 PM.
Last edited by CaptainN on 01-May-2007 at 02:21 PM.

@FransexyQuote:

That is a common practice in business, exaggerate a little.

I think "little" is the keyword here !

MS might get away with it cos most people don't even know there are other OSes than Windows, but AInc is clearly overstreching it, and becomes so obvious that the propraly turn of more buisness-partners then they could lure in.

_________________
- We don't need good ideas, we haven't run out on bad ones yet
- blame Canada

Quote:

I am surprised no one else had mentioned this horrible chip. This just might be the DEAL BREAKER for me on this design.. I hate these chips for the following reasons..

You know....that's like not buying a car because you don't like who supplied the battery. I know people have "preferences", but as a deal breaker, that's a bit harsh.

Adam

AmigaHeretic wrote:

Quote:

Do you believe that, "Amiga, Inc. is the world’s premier provider of multimedia enabling technologies. " ?

Oh come on now, obviously no one believes that. Every company spews marketing-speak about how great they are. Amiga Inc. is no different.

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