I'm posting this in an effort to find out what happened with the Minimig, which I had previously thought was one of the most promising Amiga projects.

I've been out of the loop with Amiga stuff for a long time, so I don't really know what I've missed in recent years. I can see from searching around that a Minimig AGA core was produced a few years ago. Is this still in development? Are there any plans for updated hardware that can host the latest Minimig core?

I guess in some ways there's some crossover with Vampire, but they feel like they have different goals to me. One is open source and aims to recreating Amiga hardware (or at least, that's what it has been so far AFAIK), the other is closed source and aims to push Amiga hardware forward. Both have their place. For example, Minimig could be a good platform for a handheld games machine. Any thoughts on what you'd like Minimig to become?

Last edited by HenryCase on 08-Oct-2018 at 08:28 PM.

@HenryCase

Here's a better alternative: http://www.fpgaarcade.com

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@spotUP
Good to see the FPGA Arcade is still in development. As far as I was aware the FPGA Arcade used the Minimig core as the starting point for its own Amiga support, so I'm assuming it's following the same open source licence? Also, good to see that an Amiga RTG core now exists, that was an unexpected surprise.

Do you know if there are any new cores planned for the Replay2?

@HenryCase

New cores are always in the making.. =)

The amiga 060 daughter board will soon be shipped to the masses as well.
It has a floppy connector, usb, ethernet, a real 060 cpu, midi, more ram, audio in etc... it rocks!

Last edited by spotUP on 08-Oct-2018 at 09:38 PM.

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@spotUP

In theory it has all those.

Last I checked the main board wasn't really available, it was just a never ending email waiting list that you had to hope you were actually still on.

Has that changed?

Quote:

HenryCase wrote: I'm posting this in an effort to find out what happened with the Minimig, which I had previously thought was one of the most promising Amiga projects.

I thought the Natami, Clone-A and Boxer were the most promising Amiga projects.

Quote:

I've been out of the loop with Amiga stuff for a long time, so I don't really know what I've missed in recent years. I can see from searching around that a Minimig AGA core was produced a few years ago. Is this still in development? Are there any plans for updated hardware that can host the latest Minimig core?

Actually, there are several AGA MiniMig cores (FPGA Arcade and MiST at least).

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=77679

The Amiga is blessed with many talented FPGA programmers although much of their efforts are squandered with duplication and poor cooperation (lack of leadership).

Quote:

I guess in some ways there's some crossover with Vampire, but they feel like they have different goals to me. One is open source and aims to recreating Amiga hardware (or at least, that's what it has been so far AFAIK), the other is closed source and aims to push Amiga hardware forward. Both have their place. For example, Minimig could be a good platform for a handheld games machine. Any thoughts on what you'd like Minimig to become?

The first Vampire used a MiniMig TG68K CPU core. The Apollo core can only push the Amiga hardware as far forward as affordable FPGAs and the limited ISA will allow (not much further). I tried to get the Apollo core into embedded markets, found ways to lower the cost of an ASIC and was talking to investors but Gunnar wanted to play with his toy instead.

I recall that the FPGA Arcade was designed to allow an LCD and thumb controller board in front of the main board for a handheld. There was a mock up pic which I can't find anymore. It would make the cost quite high with an LCD and battery. Larger FPGAs are not cheap and the FPGA Arcade is not produced in high enough quantity to bring the price down. I think a device closer to the Raspberry Pi with an FPGA for custom chips would be easier and cheaper. The FPGA Arcade is planned to get ARM 68k emulation in the future although it doesn't interest me (UAE is faster and set to make Amiga hardware extinct without more investment and cooperation). There is also the 68060 daughter board which is cool but it brings the total cost up and there are a limited supply of 68060s.

@Wumpus

MIST is available though.

https://amigastore.eu/en/358-mist-13-plus-midi-fpga-computer.html

https://www.amedia-computer.com/en/accueil/275-mist-midi-13-board-black-metal-case.html

@Rob

It may not have the same features, but it does have the bonus of being available.

@matthey

Original Minimig came with real 68SEC000, TG68 was as far as I know, not initially Minimig related. Minimig and TG68 met on various Terasic boards (DE1, DE2) as well as Chameleon cards, and the MiST (and clones) came around with Minimig AGA, which then had been ported to other systems, like MiSTer (Terasic DE10 nano) and more.

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I'm very glad I got MiST V1.2 and not v1.3 - on v1.2 the serial lines (tx, rx) are exposed as pin-outs and the MIDI ports are on their own little daughter board. On v1.3 MIDI ports are built onto motherboard and the serial lines are not easily exposed. Great if you are Atari musician that only use MiST for that, not so great if you are Amiga user who want to go online or do BBSing.

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@HenryCase

Quote:

HenryCase wrote: I'm posting this in an effort to find out what happened with the Minimig, ...

The Minimig Core, the most important part of the Minimig project, got further development until it became AGA compatible with an integrated CPU Softcore (performance equal to a 68030/30 MHz CPU).

The last and version available for a FPGA development board (Terasic DE10-Nano) is called MiSTer and provides a HDMI connector as video output.

MiSTer can be loaded with a lot of Softcore simulating dozens of older home computers

Acorn Archimedes
Amiga
Amstrad CPC 6128
Apple II+
Apple Macintosh Plus
Atari 800XL, Atari 5200
Atari 2600
BBC Micro B,Master
Commodore 64, Ultimax
Commodore 16, Plus/4
Commodore PET
Commodore VIC-20
Gameboy
Jupiter Ace
MSX
Sega Genesis/Megadrive
Sega Master System
Sinclair QL
Vectrex
ZX Spectrum
ZX81
...

More information:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki