Droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

I hope we see the production model soon.

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redfox

Quote:

I hope we see the production model soon.

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AmigaOS, the last hope...

@peggus

Damn I knew I should have kept hold of that A600!!

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Folding@Home Team AmigaWorld no: 33424

If all you care so much about cost, what I can understand, Why don't you adopt an Apple eMac as platform. It is much cheaper than this prototype, features a Radeon 7500 (not that old crap in the proto that it isn't a single Radeon) a wonderful integrated screen (for the bedroom coder) and lots of compatible apple peripherials.

I know this is not an Amiga purist's idea but it is more financially viable than that.

Which support would you have with that custom board? Apple is not likely to dissapear or stop support.

Even though I owned an Amiga 500 during 6 moths I can't claim to be called Amiga fan, but I can see and understand your excitement about developing for such a platform. But asimilating that Apple hardware could be quite interesting, If you always stick to the cheapest Apple HW you will go on getting what you want.

I guess I am wrong about many of these ideas, but that also could attract some apple users or some users that may be interested in buying a new Amiga HW but also would be able to use it as an Apple Mac.

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If all you care so much about cost, what I can understand, Why don't you adopt an Apple eMac as platform. It is much cheaper than this prototype, features a Radeon 7500 (not that old crap in the proto that it isn't a single Radeon) a wonderful integrated screen (for the bedroom coder) and lots of compatible apple peripherials.

But one VERY important component would be missing ... AmigaOS. I've already got a Mac running OS-X, so that doesn't really interest me. Not to mention the fact that you are not going to easily get another OS to run on the Apple hardware. That's why Be gave up and went over to Intel... which led to their demise.

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Which support would you have with that custom board? Apple is not likely to dissapear or stop support.

I wouldn't bet my paycheck on that one. Look at other companies in the past like 3DFX... Who would have ever thought that they would have gone under???

By the way, where did you get your prices for this unit to know how "overpriced" it would be?

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(not that old crap in the proto that it isn't a single Radeon)

???? I don't know what you are trying to say here... And how can you tell which Radeon chip it is? Please tell us since nobody else has elaborated. Oh yeah, I guess you missed the part that said this was just a prototype....

Bah... why do I even type this?

Quote:

but that also could attract some apple users or some users that may be interested in buying a new Amiga HW but also would be able to use it as an Apple Mac.

Ummm... we can already run Mac on Linux... so why go Apple???

Comments on the design:

1) Why a PC gameport? Dump that old legacy POS. Use a 3-high stacked audio column instead (which you can see on modern PC motherboards). That will give you room on the back panel for another dual USB column but with a Firewire connector at the top instead of ethernet. Optical SPDIF output would be nice as well.

2) Please have headers on the board for serial, Infra-Red, etc.

3) This might not be popular, but replace the Parallel output with DVI output, so that the small system can be used with a decent TFT display. Stick the parallel on the board as a set of headers.

4) PS/2 is useful to retain still.

I can see the 3com networking chip, but no other chip. What is the point of the southbridge if you are going to use a different USB2 controller, a different IDE controller (how about a SATA controller, these are small and the connectors are small), etc? Just for audio and PS/2? Dump the chip and use something else. ALi might have a suitable southbridge that won't have VIA problems.

If possible, try and design in a full-sized DIMM slot, or fit two SO-DIMM slots on the board.

With the above, the board would be pretty damn hot, at under £200 with an 800MHz G3...

1) If you are developing a OS for a custom board you would also be able to developt it for a well documented platform as an Apple eMac.

2) If Apple fails do you think this new Amiga platform could succeed?

3) Seems that the default graphics board for the highest Amiga model would be a wonderful Sapphire Ati Rage 128 Pro

Check :
http://www.soft3.net/pages/listino-hardware_e.php

Nothing less than 1135 ? (or $, plus screen or TV ), against the 799$ of a low-end apple eMac that still beat this top of class new Amiga. With included wonderful screen and a Radeon 7500.

And if you can add a new and better 3D card, what about the drivers for the new Amiga OS? Which periperials would you buy instead? At what price would they be supplied?

Please understand that I am not a troll, I am just wondering about the commercial vaibility of this hardware project. The companies that assemble these boards would want to make profit, isn't it? But you need high volumes for that ... with Amiga nowadays?

I still can understand that you are attracted by having something special but that is hardly viable.

My ideas about the eMac are just that, some ideas, I know you will not use them. Of course ... and ... ok, forget, you must hate me for what I am saying. I come here and disturb your forum with my crazy ideas. Sorry and good luck to all, I will be showing up over here.

:D

Very nice looking

I would prefer a notebook/laptop, but it would be nice with this case

http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/3688/
http://www.morex.com.tw/3688.htm

I am looking forward to see the final product

Also interesting

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hnl_dk - Henning Nielsen Lund [Denmark]

Please send no PM to me, email me if you want to contact me. See you somewhere else.

I imagine that the volume will come from sales to stb and embedded controller manufacturors. I could easily see one of these boards sitting inside a (proper) printing machine or cad-cam lathe for example.

Very high quality 3d video and sound aren't exactly top priority for these sort of applications.

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Happiness is mandatory.
MindSpace: MindMaps and UML diagrams for OS4

We ran 5 Recursion Computer Fairs before hitting the exit condition

Now I've been looking at the photos.
And this mini board rocks :

Is that a USB header (10 PINS) just above the PCI Slot ? This would be perfect for a games console as you could be used for joypads at the front of the case. Its got to be able to play DVD's out the box so means Amiga officially licensing the codec and region protecting it. With a hidden option to turn it off

Curious about the DIN connector. S-VHS is good. But who doesn't use a games console without a RGB scart lead ? RGB out at 15Khz (PAL & NTSC) is a must, unless it ships with a VGA to TV convertor for the VGA socket.

What would be a neat feature is RETRO mode using broadband. As this baby will be shipped with an OEM OS4. A transparent UAE app launcher could be included. In the config screen select broadband, select fetch classic game, choose classic game. It could then go off and fetch an ADF file(s) on to a CF on the IDE Header as well as the required Kickstart image / UAE config for the game.

Just need an offical repository and one bod to maintain and test games for compatibilty. It could also be used for updating the console if need be.

Now this would a major selling point especially for people my age who grew up with amiga's and love mens gadgets and toys.

While it could compete or better PS2 / XBOX for spefically compiled 3D games.

Alan has mentioned several times a replacement for the CD32.

This is all well and good but we all know the story of RMS CD32 and HMS CDTV. and how they sank without trace.

I'd love to see a new amiga console. But is there room for another, especially when the new PS2 is just around the corner and current PS2 ship for £150 with eye-toy joypad and mem-card.

XBOX, PS2, Gamecube, PS1 (still shipping) Is the market at saturation point already ?

Multimedia boxes like Eyetech sells... yes
Mini ITX U1 servers.... yes
Geek Amiga you can mod to to hearts content..... yes
Game console unsure ?

Thoughts peeps ?

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A1200T 603e 330Mhz - Mediator TX OS4.1 F.E.
CDTV 8MB Fast, OS3.1, SCSI, MicroSD SCSI & CD32 FMV
X5000, X1000, A1XE with OS4.1F.E.

Quote:

1) Why a PC gameport? Dump that old legacy POS.

I thought the same thing... but aren't the gameports actually MIDI ports? In which case this could be useful.

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2) Please have headers on the board for serial, Infra-Red, etc.

Infrared is a must. In fact, it would be lunacy to not have an infrared header, given that the board would be ideal for set-top box and other remote-controllable applications.

Chris

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"Miracles we do at once, the impossible takes a little longer" - AJS on Hyperion
Avatar is Tabitha by Eric W Schwartz

3) Seems that the default graphics board for the highest Amiga model would be a wonderful Sapphire Ati Rage 128 Pro

Tho the pics aren't very detailed, it does look like it says it's an ATI Radeon..

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

Quote:

Nothing less than 1135 ? (or $, plus screen or TV ), against the 799$ of a low-end apple eMac that still beat this top of class new Amiga. With included wonderful screen and a Radeon 7500.

Oh dear, you seem to have a currency problem. The Euro price for the low end eMac is ?1003.09 (price from Apple store Ireland). Personally I can't see why anyone other than schools would want a system that you can save to external media on. Most people would go for the midrange ?1,208.79 model with DVD/CD-RW (in fact orignally the CD-ROM version was eduaction only)

As for wonderful screen, you have obviously never heard of the Raster Shift problem that affects an amazing proportion of the original eMacs.

I'm an eMac user and I love my machine, but this new board is something different, exciting and fun. Yes it costs a lot, but then so do Macs compared to PCs (the £799 I paid for my eMac could have bought a much more powerful PC and still had change to buy other things). If everyone was to dwell on price/performance the computer scene would be very boring indeed

JurassicCamper:
In case you didn't know, any PC graphics card can generate RGB 15kHz interlaced. The only problem is that they only have H+V sync outputs, while the SCART input requires C sync. But you could just make a custom cable that uses RGB from the VGA lead and either sync-combines to C sync or uses the Y output on the Y/C connector as C sync.

So it's just a matter of cabling, not of electronics

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This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

@GC-G3-PPC750:

Interesting how you:
1: fail to see that there is no price on that page for the miniITX AmigaOne
2: Fail to read the letters RADEON just below the letters ATI on the graphics chip.

Nice trolling, though. How do you feel about using PCI instead of Zorro? Feel any bus arch arguments surfacing?

(my god, I'm evil today )

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This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

Quote:

As for wonderful screen, you have obviously never heard of the Raster Shift problem that affects an amazing proportion of the original eMacs.

Tell me about it. In work we ordered 30 odd - and the delivery was delayed cos they found this problem. Eventually we received our delivery - to find that these emacs had the problem.. rather than sending 30 emacs back, , they are sending some enginneers out...

Quote:

1) If you are developing a OS for a custom board you would also be able to developt it for a well documented platform as an Apple eMac.

I simply don't agree. Others have tried and failed due to lack of documentation, and lack of Apple's willingness to share such detailed info.

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2) If Apple fails do you think this new Amiga platform could succeed?

Yes. For one, Apple has kept their hardware closed. Only Apple can make Mac hardware, period. The new Amiga platform allows for any manufacturer to build Amiga clones with the proper licensing. That can make a big difference in how big a platform expands.

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3) Seems that the default graphics board for the highest Amiga model would be a wonderful Sapphire Ati Rage 128 Pro

Look up at the top corner of this website and check out the "Dealers Links". I think you will find that most of them will be offering Radeon's only in their configurations. Some will allow the Rage 128 in the lowest cost system. But others give you the options of going all the way up to Radeon 9800 Pro. So, as you see, we will be doing fine with our chipsets.

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Nothing less than 1135 ? (or $, plus screen or TV ), against the 799$ of a low-end apple eMac that still beat this top of class new Amiga. With included wonderful screen and a Radeon 7500.

That is a negative point for me... I don't like "built in" screens. I want to choose my own and be able to change it when I want. To me, that is the biggest downside to the iMac and eMac.

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And if you can add a new and better 3D card, what about the drivers for the new Amiga OS?

They will be provided by SciTech's SNAP drivers. See the announcement at Hyperion's home page.


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Please understand that I am not a troll, I am just wondering about the commercial vaibility of this hardware project.

At first that's exactly what I thought, but now I don't think so. You are just uninformed. There is plenty of information availble to fill in the questions you are asking.

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My ideas about the eMac are just that, some ideas, I know you will not use them. Of course ... and ... ok, forget, you must hate me for what I am saying. I come here and disturb your forum with my crazy ideas. Sorry and good luck to all, I will be showing up over here.

Please do come back again. Everyone has opinions and thoughts. I'm sure you will find others in the forums that would like to run OS4 on the Mac hardware too. It's your opinion and your right. And to be honest, it would be kinda cool. But I don't think that the current new projects (AmigaOne and AmigaOne Lite) are bad or misguided.

Oh yeah, Welcome to Amigaworld.

Ok, I may have been wrong. The most important point for me is the drivers support, that's good.

I must say that I am as excited as all you about this new Amiga board/HW. This little design (and the new G3 Amiga) just remembers me the Gamecube, which I am trying to develop for (homebrew, hobby). Gamecube is a slightly modified G3 PPC with an ArtX video card (ArtX has been purchased by ATI).

I will keep and eye on these forums. Good luck for this interesting Amiga project and all you.

Adapting the Amiga OS4 for an Apple computer would be cool too.

Hey Uncharted visit this page:

http://store.apple.com/Apple/
WebObjects/spainstore.woa/984/
wo/4nMcM111agnAwYsB2q/0.0.7.1.0.
5.21.1.2.1.0.0.0.1.0

The price in Spain for the low-end eMac is 961,64?. No currency problem has happened.