Hi all,

With all the current discussion about the new AmigaOne X1000 system unveiled by Hyperion and A-Eon this week, it's clear we all have a lot of questions.

I thought it might be good to have a dedicate thread for collating all of our questions into a single place, where Hyperion / A-Eon people can find them, and if we get any information, we can also place the answers in with the questions.

If you have a question, please feel free to post it here. If you know of an answer already given, tell us the link and I'll put that in as an answer. I'll update this post to make it easy for eveyone to find the info they want. If you know of some FAQs which have already been answered (here or on other sites), it might be worth reposting in this thread as a single repository.

WARNING: I may re-word your question a little. And I will only be including questions about the system itelf, or questions (about other systems) which relate to the X1000. Pricing, availability etc won't be included in this top post. Feel free to ask anyway, you may get an answer, although it may not be the one you're after

I will reserve a few replies at the top to make enough space for possible lengthy q & a details.

Mods if you want to sticky this, or remove my 'Official' designation from the thread title, by all means, I'm happy to comply.

Cheers,

tiffers
(Some attributes (size, color) are not working for me )

Hardware

1. Motherboard




• General
  1. How many layers does the system board have? (Relates to cost)
  
  
  2. Caveman - Which partners were involved with the production of the X1000? (And is Lazarus from AK's riddles related?)
  
  
  3. Why was red chosen for the system board colour? (Because red goes faster? )
  
  
  4. kedar - Is the X1000 designed to allow Dual GPU (SLi / CrossFire) features?
  
  
  5. Kimmok - What is used as the south bridge (is it the AMD/ATI)?
  
  
  6. Kimmok - What function does the Xilinx FPGA play on the X1000?
  
  


• RAM
  1. How much RAM will the X1000 support (Maximum)?
  
  
  2. asymetrix - What type of RAM can be used with the X1000? What speed?
  
  
  3. asymetrix - Can we get a hi-res image of the board?/li>
     


• CF Slot
  1. mike - Is the CF slot going to be available to the AmigaOS, or it included for use with Xena only?
  
  
  2. Does Xena have access to the CF Slot?
  
  
  3. mike - Can the CF slot be used to host or boot the Amiga OS (or parts thereof)?
  
  
  4. Was an ExpressCard slot considered instead of the CF Slot? ExpressCard could give greater expansion flexibility, with a similar foot print on the board. (I guess PCIe lanes available in the CPU would be the limiting factor here?)
  
  


• Expansion Slots
  1. Caveman - Which version of the PCIe standard does the X1000 conform to?
  
  
  2. Caveman - The inclusion of PCI legacy slots makes the system board full sized, is there a specifc reason these legacy slots were included? Could these slots be left off to allow for a smaller board to me produced? (smaller desktop case vs mid-tower system)
  
  




2. CPU
   1. Which CPU will be included in the X1000, and what are some of its features (32/64-bit instruction set, caches, memory controllers, etc)?
   
   
   2. Will the CPU be socketed (allowing for upgrades - this is probably a nonsense question )?
   
   
   3. What speed(s) does the CPU run at and which speed will be on the initial relase board?
   
   
   4. Are there any surprise features included (eg Altivec) as this is a hi-end system?
   
   
   5. KaneCitizen - Is the X1000's cpu likely to be shown at CES this year?
   
   
   6. Kimmok - Does the selected PPC give a new way to enable memory protection without breaking old apps?
   
   


3. Xena / Xorro
   1. Is Xena connected directly to the CPU/RAM/[Local/PCIe] Data Bus or do we need a (PCIe 1x + Xorro) 'bridge' card to access Xena via the Xorro slot? Will the bridge card be included with all systems? ErikBauer - How is the Xcore chip interfaced with the rest of the system?
   
   
   2. Is the PCIe x1 slot in front of the Xorro slot avilable for normal system expansion, if the user does not want to use the Xorro slot?
   
   
   3. Nuder_Try - How many times can Xena be re-customized? How long does it take to recustomize? Is a reboot required to access the new settings?
   
   
   4. Nuder_Try - What security mechanisms will be (are already) in place with Xena to stop malicious code ebing run on it (ie. without user knowledge)?
   
   
   5. Nuder_Try - Can the Xena be "shared" so that multiple apps that might want to use it can do so with out it needing to be re-customized? (I.e. running two apps that use it at the same time?)
   
   


4. System
1. While the X1000 is going to be sold as a complete system, is there anything stopping system modders from putting the system in their own cases? Will this void warranty?


2. kedar - (With suitable GPU(s)) Will the X1000 be capable of NextGen (HD) video?


3. Kimmok - Will the X1000 included branded keyboard/mouse (with customisation - like 'A' keys instead of crappy windows keys) like a real Amiga?




5. Other Models
   1. Caveman - Does A-Eon Tech. already have plans for other systems? If yes, what type of systems have been considered or planned?
   
   
   2. Will there be a portable/laptop/[net/note]book version produced?
   
   
   3. BigBentheAussie - How long will we have to wait for a budget / entry level system with Xena/Xorro included?
   
   
   4. Will these other systems have model names or designations based on previous Commodore model names/numbers (A500/600, A1500/2000/2500, A1200, A3000, A4000)?
   
   
   5. How should we shorten the AmigaOne X1000's name? AO1000? AX1000? AOX1000? AO1K? AX1K? AOX1K?
   
   
   6. Caveman - Will an X1000-style case be manufactured for SAM440ep and SAM440ep-Flex or Pegasos-II owners? (ie other AmigsOS 4.x compatible boards - not classics)
   
   
   7. Kimmok - Will a Xena addon PCI card be made for SAM440ep/Pegasos II/Classic PPC systems?
   
   

1. OS
   1. Is OS4.1 already running on the X1000?
   
   
   2. Have you got both cores running in OS4.1 already? If yes, elaborate please?
   
   
   3. Will OS4.x be available for the X1000 on the first day of system sales? Will it be 4.1u1 or a later version?
   
   
   4. Will Xena be available to the OS natively (via a library and device file(s))?
   
   
   5. Will OS4 have any default features included which make use of Xena out of the box? Anything that can be used for demoing the new X1000 to family, friends, former Amiga users, business prospects etc?
   
   
   6. Kimmok - Will AOS on the X1000 run from the onboard CF slot?
   
   
   7. Kimmok - Does/will AmigaOS include functionality to enable and use the PPCs built in Hypervisor features (according to Power ISA v.2.04 specs)?
   
   
   8. Kimmok - Have you managed to include memory protection in OS4?
   
   
   9. Will you be releasing new AmigaOS user manuals? (eg AmigaOS 3.x Workbench, DOS, HardDisk, Install and Arexx manuals)
   
   


2. Development tools
   1. Are ther any plans to make AmigaOS native development tools for working with Xena/Xorro? Kimmok - Will they be included for free with the SDK?
   
   
   2. BinoX - Will there be a simple AmigaOS API / library for accessing the xena chip (e.g. IXena->DoSomething(); )
   
   
   3. Will you be releasing updated development documentation (ie the old Commodore Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manuals)?
   
   


3. Other
   1. bitman - Are there any agreements between the developers and third parties to bring new/commercial S/W to the platform?
   
   

1. Customer Relations
   1. BinoX - What are the plans for the X1000 outside of the Amiga market (if any)?
   
   
   2. BinoX - What kind of customer support will we receive with this new system?
   
   
   3. BinoX - Will there be a warranty with these systems or will it be sold as a "pre-production"/"evaluation" board?
   
   
   4. Will you be donating an X1000 to Hans to help in his endeavour to bring up to date ATi drivers to the AmigOS?
   
   
   5. Any plans to setup a developer support service similar to the old Commodore CATS?
   
   

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(reserved in case of long post limits)

(reserved)

(i claim this space for Vespuci Land!)

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

@tiffers

PCIe - What version?
PCI-33 - Why?

Is there any other partners involved besides the obvious(A-eon and Acube)?
Do you got other customers for this hardware,except us Amigans?
Will there be a X500 later on? Or maybe a Casedesign for the Sam?
Will the Xena has direct access to main ram?
What part of OS4 do you plan to improve next?
Got any sleep lately?

(Occupied by Norway)
(Declaring war on Vespuci Land)

Last edited by Caveman on 07-Jan-2010 at 06:07 AM.
Last edited by Caveman on 07-Jan-2010 at 04:39 AM.
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_________________

@AmigaHeretic

(I am coming to conquer Vespuci Land.)
Edit: Oh... you meant America.....And don't you mean Vespucci?
(Edit: I claim this for Earth. I would claim it for Australia but I might get AW blacklisted.)

How long do we wait for X500?
X500 with same mobo as X1000 for larger production run but with single core PPC at lower GHz.
If cheaper, lower spec RAM and lower GFX card spec.
These are complete systems after all.

Last edited by BigBentheAussie on 07-Jan-2010 at 04:45 AM.
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_________________
Leo Nigro, CTO Commodore USA, LLC
Opinions expressed are my own and not those of C= USA.
Commodore/AMIGA "Beautiful, High-Performance, Home Computers for Creativity and Entertainment."

@tiffers

Post stickified. For now

BTW, maybe some of the points here can be used.

Last edited by Seer on 07-Jan-2010 at 06:55 AM.

_________________
~
Everything you say will be misquoted and used against you..
~

@Rogue

Is possible that in X1000 will be also... SoC with dual core cpu and dual gpu with HW support for FullHD stream, 3DHDTV, OpenGL/OpenVS/FSAA in HD... designed for low price, low power... presented on CES2010 ?? ;)

@kedar

Good Point ?

Is there anything that is coming out @ CES2010 CPU wise that
might be a contender, since the X1000 (CPU)

Quote:

http://a-eon.com/6.html "the X1000 processor currently has very limited availability, and you've probably never seen one in the wild"

As the A-Eon website was dropping hints just before CES 2010 ?


D.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motherboard

General
What is the LatestEstimate for releasing more HW information (CPU, Case, etc.)?
Is there a big (Blue?) partner? (right, butterfly )
What is used as the south bridge (is it the AMD/ATI)?
The price estiomation seem to vary from 1200¤ to 2500¤ (A1000 price + inflation effect ++), any chance to get more exact estimate?
Will we have Amiga keyboards?
Will we have Amiga mice?

RAM
Does x1000 use 32biot or 64 bit RAM bus(es)?
Does the CPU/SoC use two RAM bus?
DDR2 or DDR3?
800Mhz?

CF Slot
Is AOS for Nemo going to be released on CF card?

Expansion Slots

CPU
When?

Xena / Xorro
Is Xena connected via Xilinx to PCI (or to PCIx or to RapidI/O / HT / ?) ?
Is x1000 going to include some I/O module on the Xorro slot?

Other Models
Does A-Eon Tech. already have plans for Xena add-on to SAM users? (x500?)


Software

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS
What is the latest estimate of the release date of the AOS4.1.1 (final) for SAM & others?
Will x1000 use the PPC ability to run separate OS per core (if so, is AOS4mp+AOS4 planned to be run in parallel)?
Does the selected PPC give a new way to enable memory protection without breaking old apps?

Development tools
Will AOS4 SDK include Xcore/Xena development tools in the future? Is it free?

Last edited by KimmoK on 07-Jan-2010 at 07:15 AM.

_________________
- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
//
// Thing that I should find more time for: CC64 - 64bit Community Computer?

Xena/Xorro
How is the Xcore chip interfaced with the rest of the system?
I mean: will i t be interfaced like any other expansion bus or will it be fully integrated into the system with full access to any part like the OCS was? This will make huge difference in what we will able to do with it.

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@all

Is this a photoshopped picture of the X1000?


http://www.amigascene.nl/modules/news/article.php?storyid=503


Thanks Steve

@Skidos

Yes, how would you fit PCI/PCIe cards in such an A500-like system??

_________________
Audio Evolution
http://www.audio-evolution.com

@DaveAE

Excuse me,but one of my Asus motherboards got almost the same layout,except for the Ram socket's and CPU. Same spacing between the PCIe * 16,and PCIe *1.so how you can say this is photoshoped,beats me.

_________________

@Caveman

I assumed he meant the first picture on that website, which is a picture of an A500/A600/A1200, but labeled with 'X1000'.

_________________
Audio Evolution
http://www.audio-evolution.com

@DaveAE

Ah :) Sorry :)

_________________

I have some questions... (as does everyone else :p)

What are the plans for the X1000 outside of the Amiga market (if any)?

What kind of customer support will we receive with this new system? (phone support, web based support, email support, just a forum section, etc)

Will there be a warranty with these systems or will it be sold as a "pre-production"/"evaluation" board with no warranty if hardware problems appear?

_________________
Back to action!

Any chance of an X-questions session between AW-staff and Hyperion/A-Eon?

@KaneCitizen

STi7108 from STMicroelectronics look very nice :)

look at press info from 5.1. :)
http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/cms/press/news/year2010/p2460.htm

@RinceWynd

Not at this point in time, I'd say, since it seems A-Eon can't answer many of the questions yet.

_________________
Common sense - So rare it's almost like a super power