@umisef

Quote:

What is this starnge fascination with loading your OS from flash? having in the past worked for one of those industrial/embedded companies that put computers where you really, really don't want moving parts, I have been there, done that.

I suspect silence is the main attraction of flash. Lots of people are looking to build small, very quiet systems now.

Personally I'd just fit a 2.5" hard drive and wrap it in sound damping pads. Cheaper, faster and more reliable than flash. Much greater capacity, too.

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@lovely

hello! I havent seen you post in such a long time. It's good to see old familiar users are still hanging around. :)

when was the last time you posted? I cant recall any from this year..

@lovely

Hi lovely, i hope you dont mind me asking this but who is the girl in your Avatar? I only ask because she looks alot like my ex... It's kinda freaking me out a alittle.

Last edited by Rit on 24-Oct-2006 at 01:25 AM.

@Rit

I was under the impression that lovely was the girl in the avatar. Had to be careful how I worded that one.

@NomadOfNorad

Quote:

NomadOfNorad wrote: Obviously, if they later ship Samantha mobos in these same cases, they'll stamp "Samantha" on them.

Why? Nobody in the world would know what "Samantha" is. I like that case alot, but why not just stamp "Amiga" on it? Isn't that what all Amiga's have always had? Of course something like AMIGA SAM-566 or something like that would be okay but it needs to have the brand name if they are paying for the license to use it.

@elwood

Quote:

Also, it is important to note that the Trio evaluated both the AMCC CPU and the MPC5200. The decided to choose the 440EP for several reasons. Of them is the roadmap of AMCC for their product. They should produce pin compatible CPUs at higher speed (800, 933 and 1000Mhz) for next year.

OK, that just made it a bit more interesting to me, anyways.

Thanks for the rundown/info, Elwood

Disk-on-chip, and DVI are both plusses, as well as the serial.

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@Herewegoagain

It would sound friendly though. If you think of Dell for example they have used name like Optiplex, Latitude and Infineon. What do they mean to the end user and do they sound friendly and welcoming.

But yeah probably right that it needs the Amiga brand on there.

@Rob

Quote:

Rob wrote: @Herewegoagain It would sound friendly though. If you think of Dell for example they have used name like Optiplex, Latitude and Infineon. What do they mean to the end user and do they sound friendly and welcoming. But yeah probably right that it needs the Amiga brand on there.

Well, personally, I have nothing against using Samantha or Moana or whatever as development names, but I don't want a computer sitting on my desk that sounds like it was named by a group of 14 year old horney boys. It's the siliest thing I've ever seen to name a computer by a human name.

Now, looking at the Optiplex cases you will notice one thing and one thing only. The fact is that all you see (or notice) when you look at them is the word "Dell" both on the side and on the front. Optiplex (the model) is secondary as a small moniker near the top of the case and hardly noticable at all. See here (click for larger view):

@jahc

Quote:

jahc wrote: @lovely hello! I havent seen you post in such a long time. It's good to see old familiar users are still hanging around. :) when was the last time you posted? I cant recall any from this year..

june or july , i still come here you see

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@Rit

Quote:

Rit wrote: @lovely Hi lovely, i hope you dont mind me asking this but who is the girl in your Avatar? I only ask because she looks alot like my ex... It's kinda freaking me out a alittle.

It looks like Donna. Part acted by Laura Prepon from a television show in the US called That 70's Show.

That 70's Show

@Herewegoagain

Agree 100%. In fact, looking at my A1200 I can see that the word "Amiga" embossed on the case is a lot bigger than the words "Commodore A1200" - and Commodore was the one who made the thing!

It would be awesome to have those little boxes with the word "Amiga" stamped on the metal, like those Dells on your photo.

About changing the logo, I'd say either go back to the tickmark or leave it alone. The rainbow tick is a very recognizable logo, so it's a good idea to go back to that. For heaven's sake don't hire a consultant that will charge you a fortune and give you something that looks completely inappropriate.

Last edited by CodeSmith on 24-Oct-2006 at 05:56 AM.

@elwood

Quote:

elwood wrote: The board has a socket ready to fit a disk-on-chip in. These flash disks are very expensive for now but they were asked by one of the customers of the Trio. As this customer is pretty important, they added this feature to their board. One could store the OS in this chip and boot the whole system in a few seconds.

May I ask what the pros/cons are compared to using a standard CompactFlash card for this, as many similar projects does?


Quote:

- DVI connector at the back - VGA connector onboard - TV Out connector There are 3 (!) video output connectors on the board. They could be used to display information on 3 monitors at the same time.

I like the on-board graphics and connectors. But "used to display information on 3 monitors at the same time" - do you mean that there are 3 separate ramdacs here, displaying 3 completely different images? Or are all connectors wired to the same image?


Quote:

- Serial connector The good old RS232 is still here as it is still in use nowadays.

That's good! Takes up space, but I think it may be worth it.

Quote:

- FPGA chip and bus

This is cool.

Quote:

These two offer endless expansion possibilities. As an example, the FPGA could be used to create a CPU expansion.

Really?

Quote:

This is something I didn’t think of. As CPUs of the same are pin compatible with the one used in these prototypes, customers can choose to buy a board with a different CPU. The board will then be produced at no additional cost. For example, industrial customers could prefer to buy a board with a less powerful CPU, thus reducing the overall cost of the board.

However, making too many options available may result in *higher* overall costs ...

Quote:

Also, it is important to note that the Trio evaluated both the AMCC CPU and the MPC5200. The decided to choose the 440EP for several reasons. Of them is the roadmap of AMCC for their product. They should produce pin compatible CPUs at higher speed (800, 933 and 1000Mhz) for next year. This choice seems to be clearly a clever move.

Depends on your focus I guess. If your focus is performance, then the ability to use higher clock frequencies may be appealing (not that the 440 can be considered a "powerhorse" anyway). However, if your focus is adequate performance at low cost and (and thus low price), then the 5200 is clearly a better choice IMHO.

And this leads to my conclusion - while this motherboard is interesting from a technological point of view, it will not be cheap, and it will not offer a great deal of performance for its high price. I would like to know how the developers has reasoned when they set out the specifications, since I feel that the board may be quite poorly positioned, for any market.

@takemehomegrandma

Its price would be at maximum 500 ¤, less if more and more boards are sold. As far as I understood everything, the whole machine (Samantha + Case and peripherals without display) could be sold in the 900¤ range at maximum.

Nonetheless, evarything can change from now to the hypthetical release

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@K-L

Quote:

K-L wrote: @takemehomegrandma Its price would be at maximum 500 ¤, less if more and more boards are sold. As far as I understood everything, the whole machine (Samantha + Case and peripherals without display) could be sold in the 900¤ range at maximum. Nonetheless, evarything can change from now to the hypthetical release

Sorry to say, but these prices are just rediculous! The board itself should be not more than 300 EUR for small qnatities, in mass production you could easily reach 200 EUR incl. VAT.

Some weeks ago they sold *complete* linux boxes (some amd chip inside) at REAL (German Metro superstore) for 199 EUR/piece (incl. VAT). Not that these were anything like dream maschines, but these are the prices of the real world.

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@elwood

Quote:

elwood wrote: - LCD connector I don’t remember the name of this connector but it allows to connect a LCD (touchscreen included) monitor to Sam.

That's probably a LVDS connector, but this is a bit less than a LCD connector, it LVDS descibes an *electrical* interface.

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MorphOS user since V0.4 (2001)

> Picture

What is the type of AMD/other IC below the AMCC 440EP IC and beside Silicon Image IC?

What is the name of "P" or "Malaysia" IC on the left side of AMCC 440EP IC and near the Cirrus Logic audio IC?

What is the actual size, weight and maximum power consumption of Samantha board?

Perhaps it's possible to use Samantha for automotive/embedded applications.

@elwood

I'd like to see it working, at least booting Linux. If the board actually booted Linux I guess they probably would have shown it, so ATM I think that samantha isn't really in a functional state :-/

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@Herewegoagain

Ummm, I actually quite like those Dell cases , especially the small (itx?) one on the end, perfect Amiga cases stamped with AMiGA logo on the grey side/top, change Dell on badge to AMiGA too and would be perfect, especially if that badge can be turned round aka PS2 for desktop or tower positioning. Cool, and it actually looks quite a bit like the old Amiga MCC case design that was flashed about by Amiga in the Gateway era .

Last edited by dan.hutch on 24-Oct-2006 at 10:29 AM.

@asian


Quote:

What is the actual size, weight and maximum power consumption of Samantha board?

mini-ITX form factor (17 x 17cm), maximum power consumption about 22/24 Watt


Quote:

Perhaps it's possible to use Samantha for automotive/embedded applications.

Sure is perfect for automotive/embedded applications the MB and designed also in order to become part in this type of market.

Bye

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Libero Moschella aka "Amiga-One"
Alternative Holding Group Srl.

@Zylesea

Don't forget that they used high quality components for the board.

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retired