What would be really nifty would be if this Clone-A Amiga-on-a-chip thing leads to a plug-into-the-TV gaming device. You know, one of those games-in-a-joystick things, with a bunch of Amiga games in a ROM.

There have been a number of Atari2600 clones like that. There was one that looked like a miniature Atari 5200, and another that looked like a miniature Atari 2600. I forget which one of these it was (maybe it was both?), but one of them came with Atari-style joysticks that plugged into standard Atari-style joystick ports on it, and that looked like the original Atari joysticks. It would even take the original Atari 2600 joysticks if you had them on hand. And it also reportedly had circuit traces on the main board where an Atari cartridge port could be wired in. They had originally planned to include a cartridge port on it, but pulled it at the last minute, but left support for it in place on the circuit board so that hardware hackers could add the cartridge port if they wanted to.

I'd love to see a plug-it-into-the-TV Amiga games unit like that, perhaps one designed to resemble a miniature Amiga500, and having the same sort of joystick ports on the back, and even a floppy port. Or perhaps provide a purchased-separately break-out box providing the floppy, serial, and parallel ports, among other things. Indeed, it would be cool if this games unit could then be easily converted (by hardware hack?) into a full blown Amiga desktop machine equivalent to the Amiga 500.

Imagine something like that in a blister-pack hanging at the checkout lines at Walgreens! For the same price as, and sitting next to, one of those Miss Pacman joystick-game things!

_________________
"I love peacenicks, they're so easy to conquer." --Ivan J Ironfist, the Dictator

Can Clone-A switch between PAL and NTSC video on the RGB port just like a real Amiga while using only 1 crystal?

I have no desire to switch the Mhz. I have never needed that. I have ran every game and demo I ever came across without switchng Mhz.

_________________
Wanna try a wonderfull magical Amiga strategy game?
Total Chaos AGA

Hi Jens,

Congratulations on the progress on the Clone-A! I just read up on it in this interview with you in Total Amiga issue 25. Exciting stuff.

Anyway, according to the interview, you intend to continue support for your older projects, such as the Catweasel. Does this mean you plan to eventually make the Catweasel suitable for software preservation purposes? I ask because apparently it currently isn't.

I have a number of games on floppies (both 3.5" and 5.25") that I'd like to save from bit rot and I'm afraid that time is running out.

Glorfindel:
The Catweasel is under contunious development - the reason why the last update is now almost three months old is that the driver is undergoing a major re-organisation. The next beta is on the way with added IO features, better format recognition, drive alignment tool and all that neat stuff that the programmer is working on. Remember that I have hired him specifically for Catweasel support. It seems like the current internal version even has stable power-saving functions, so the "suspend" function of most PCs should work again.

The site that you're quoting states [insert B-word here]. I have always asked for the IPF format documentation and they would not share it with me, so we have a chicken-and-egg problem: The hardware can do it since 1996, but the guys who have made the IPF format are too stubborn to give me the documentation. The precision of the Catweasel has always been more than good enough to write any bitrate. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about : I have invented several copy-protection schemes that have been used in commercial games like Apidya and Turrican. Those games were the ones that took the longest to reach the "cracked games boards" back in the days when 0-1 day warez were hip. It took more than four weeks until a working crack of Apidya reached the AmiEx boards (not that I want to tap myself on the shoulder...). The cracker had to write a whole new loader and he had to spread the data from a 1-disk-game over two disks (that was Turrican)!

Jens Schönfeld

Last edited by Wiesel on 09-Mar-2007 at 10:59 PM.

@Jens

I love reading your messages! Jens 4 ever!!!

_________________
Wanna try a wonderfull magical Amiga strategy game?
Total Chaos AGA

Hello Jens

I'm really pleased to se some progress on this project..

I was wondering about clock speeds.. whould it be possible to have 7mhz when running Demos/Games and 50-100mhz (or more) when in Workbench mode?

Like in the old PC days then there was a Turbo switch/button to press!

RWO

Last edited by RWO on 10-Mar-2007 at 07:11 AM.

_________________
Debugging is a state of mind

@RWO

Not with a real 68000 they don't go that fast. You'd have go for an 030/040/060 and lose some compatability, or have the 68000 cloned on an FPGA. The CPU would also need a seperate clock to the chipset. Anyone ever upped the timings of a real Amiga to see what happens?

So *that*'s the mysterious project that Jens was working on! Congratulations, it seems like a really cool idea and I hope it makes you a ton of money. You certainly deserve it, after all the work you've put into making stuff for us retro freaks

Regarding the Clone-A, I don't remember if it's been mentioned before but the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA has a PowerPC 405 CPU built right into it. It may be possible to put a Clone-A into one of those and have a PPC amiga in a chip.

Last edited by CodeSmith on 11-Mar-2007 at 03:02 AM.

Previous statements from Mr Bill McEwen:
"It is too difficult and too expensive to create new batch of Amiga custom chipsets. It's better to create new hardware design"

> KGD - 250 thousands units.

Does Individual computers have the official license for Clone A from Amiga Inc?
Will the 3rd party vendor have to pay for Amiga Kickstart ROM and AmigaOS 3.9 to Amiga Inc? Can the 3rd party vendor sell the products using AMIGA brand?

I had asked Freescale about 68K CPU and they said that this CPU is already obsolete. All new hardware design should use Coldfire or PowerPC. Is there any guarantee about the supply of 68K CPU from Freescale in the future?

@Rob

Done that way back, everything above 32MHz (8MHz on the CPU) just didn't work.

And even below that you can forget about useing 1084-style monitors or any kind of floppy

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

asian:
I do not need a license from Amiga Inc. for producing the hardware. It's my intellectual property, and if someone wants it, I'm the one who can license it out.

If we're talking about software like the kickstart and the workbench, that's when Ainc. comes in. Like I said earlier, I will provide a package that lets you use Clone-A fully legal - no need to get software or rom files out of "dark sources".

Jens Schönfeld

> owner of IP.

On PC world, there are several lawsuits about chipsets IP:

1. Intel vs Chips and Technology in the 1980s and 1990s.

2. Chips and Technology vs Opti in 1990s.

http://www.answers.com/topic/chips-and-technologies

3. Intel vs Via (slot 1, Pentium 4 chipset).

http://news.com.com/Intel,+Via+bury+most+of+hatchet+in+chipset+lawsuit/2100-1001_3-242800.html

Is it possible that Amiga Inc or Gateway will start a lawsuit against Individual Computers?

I will be at CeBit on the 16th of March, I will drop by the Viprinet and Commodore stands.

Several years ago, Escena plan to create Northbridge chipset for AmigaOne PowerPC board, but failed. Plan to create POP (Open PowerPC motherboard) also failed because of chipset problems. Will this new project face similar problems?

Other ideas for the new 68K chipset:

>Connection to PC / old Amiga machines.

Use dual ported ram for interface into PC. The product can be connected to PC using UWB wireless USB (480 Mpbs), Infiniband, Firewire, PCI, External/Internal PCI express, E-Sata (3 Gbps), Wifi (54 Mbps), Ethernet, PC Card, PCMCIA (1 Mbps) or other methods. For old Amiga machines, perhaps they can use other interfaces. (ie custom made Zorro cards etc). This will enable user to use the PC keyboard and display.

Other idea is scaling up the chipset to GHz (Gigahertz) speed with Coldfire CPU IP, Amiga HW emulator, floating point accelerator, multi cores etc. This will enable multiple users to play Amiga games at the same time (wireless / network based game server).

@Wiesel

What I like to see is a PCI version that enables 680x0 programs to work better on AmigaOne computers, it is possible make interrupt handlers for special memory regions on AmigaOS4, to reorganizing memory so chips on PCI card is used should not be that complicated.

_________________
http://lifeofliveforit.blogspot.no/
Facebook::LiveForIt Software for AmigaOS

costs cialis once use cialis always need cialis to get an erection order viagra medication lwest price viagra fast cash advances quick cash loan company gary coleman need instant money fast and easy way to get money need instant cash how much money will i need to retire i need a 10000 dollar loan outlookmoney bad credit online personal loans cheap payday loans legal way to buy priligy buy neurontin with mastercard cheap nexium legal place to purchase celebrex i need instant money payday simplepaydayloan com credit fast loan unsecured fake money looks new payday loans check payday loans in legal place to buy keflex best online store cialis brethine injury claim cymbalta fibromyalgia cheap cialis united kingdon as advertised on the howard stern show buy cialis discount lexapro buy nolvadex legit small businness loan faxless no credit check payday loan no fax payday loan company fast cash in hard times legal online cialis rx buy cialis on-line fast cash money fast loan no credit check price for lexapro 10mg cheap cialis foods and coumadin ranges what does bactrim treat fast cash now us personal loans online price of clomid where to buy nolvadex forum How to purchase keflex? safest place to get paxil Where to get generic tadalis? fedex lasix delivery money so big i dont even need a wallet lyrics paydayloans in