Excellent news
This partnership will accelerate things for the Amiga worldwide.
Cheers

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AmigaClyde

µA1-C 750GX@800 using OS4.1

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Poster: Skyraker Date: 25-Mar-2007 22:59:21 heh, i've just looked at the SAM specs... 533Mhz... woah , don't get carried away ladies.

Where did you see that on the ACube systems site?

On the technical specs page it just say:-

Quote:

CPU SoC AMCC 440ep

Which is a link to AMCC's page which has conflicting CPU speeds.

At the top of the page it says:-
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PowerPC 440EP - CPU Performance 333-667MHz

...but in the first paragraph it goes on to say:-

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With speeds of up to 533MHz

I hope to God it's not 333MHz for the sake of certain peoples pride.

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@nicholas

I see you haven't followed the discussion about SAM440 earlier, maybe you shouldn't follow this one either?

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The FPGA thingy-ma-jiggy looks interesting.

Minmig/Clone-A support would be cool!

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Poster: zerohero Date: 25-Mar-2007 23:33:49 @nicholas I see you haven't followed the discussion about SAM440 earlier, maybe you shouldn't follow this one either?

You are right, I haven't.

I wasn't interested unitil today. The announcement has made me curious.

If they do sell the SAM440 with OS4 bundled and functioning, I will buy one.


edit:
Seeing as I haven't followed any "new hardware" threads since I got fed up with the Troika saga, could someone please tell me what the guesstimate price will be not including sales tax?

Last edited by nicholas on 25-Mar-2007 at 10:38 PM.

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@nicholas

Quote:

You are right, I haven't. I wasn't interested unitil today. The announcement has made me curious. If they do sell the SAM440 with OS4 bundled and functioning, I will buy one.

Why the constant baiting then? and not just in this thread?

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Quote:

Why the constant baiting then? and not just in this thread?

I'm not baiting (As someone has already pointed out).

You mustn't be on the same wavelength as me.

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@zerohero
Quote:

Why the constant baiting then? and not just in this thread?

I don't think he's baiting either. And I've read enough of Nicholas' posts to know when he's baiting

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Poster: smithy Date: 25-Mar-2007 23:43:54 I don't think he's baiting either. And I've read enough of Nicholas' posts to know when he's baiting

Thanks Smithy.

I've been on my best behaviour since I came back.

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@nicholas

Quote:

could someone please tell me what the guesstimate price will be not including sales tax?

M3x quote from October, 2006:
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Target price for the 667 Mhz, 256Mb ram including OS4 is Euro 450 + local taxes.

I'm sure we'll get an update on this.

#6

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@nicholas

Most likely not, problem is I'm not the only one... Maybe you should fine tune your communication skills? Seriously though, there are better ways to show interest than to post like this and other posts in that thread. Some of those were posted before this news item, but really, nothing has changed in regard to OS4 yet.

Regards,
Joachim Birging

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@nicholas

Quote:

I hope to God it's not 333MHz for the sake of certain peoples pride.

I think the only reason to down clock it would be for embedded applications with power dissipation limits. Remember ACube is primarily intending this system to be a low-power system for embedded use. (An Efika competitor, if you will.)

-edit-

Here's the SAM440 product web-page.

Last edited by Samurai_Crow on 25-Mar-2007 at 10:57 PM.

This was a little unexpected, but what does it mean in practice?

Well, not much really (not yet at least). Hyperion does not have the right to issue OEM licenses themselves for new hardware, so contrary to what some people here seems to hope for does this announcement alone *not* mean a SAM license. Not wanting to "belittle" this partnership in any way, but in practice this can "only" mean that Acube will be a reseller of the OS, right? Which still is a good thing I guess.

OS4 is available as OEM only for the A1, which has been out of production for many years (and no new will ever be made unless someone managed to dig up a NOS of Articia's in some forgotten storage somewhere, and Eyetech (the one with OEM contract for the A1) has left the building since long even if that would have been true). This somewhat takes the edge of it all (from what we currently know), since no money can be made from there. Selling OS4 for the A1 is pointless since the hardware isn't manufactured anymore and all A1's sold was bundled with the OS anyway. I don't really understand why they even bother mentioning the A1 in the announcement, since this obviously is a dead-end since years?

Well, Max said at another place that there will be *more than one* announcement before March ends. Which is good, since this announcement alone is nothing more than a sign of a heartbeat (or something). Good to see some life where you thought it had left, but that's about it currently. The only thing that can make this announcement interesting is a follow-up announcement with some *real* news. Question is what the next announcement(s) will be?

1) A similar announcement like this one, but from Amiga Inc this time, announcing a partnership similar to the one they had with Eyetech (meaning an OEM license for SAM)? That would be nice, but unless the four year old conflict between Amiga Inc and Hyperion has ended in a way where everyone got friends again (and Amiga Inc's owners actually sees this as something they want to do (which I doubt)), then I don't see much chance of that will happen. Based on what currently is publicly known, I rule this out as more than a little unrealistic, but who knows?

2) However, Hyperion *does* have the right to make and sell a standalone version of OS4 for the "Classic" line of Amigas (meaning: not exclusively bundled with particular hardware (since that's what OEM is for) but sold stand-alone in a shrink wrapped box or whatever), and maybe *this* will be the interesting part in this story? But on the other hand, everyone could be a reseller of OS4 for classic hardware, including any and all of the current dealers. A "strategic partnership" (following from a two-day meeting) with Acube isn't needed for that, right? That's something that can be handled by phone or e-mail before the first cup of coffee in the morning.

But maybe...

2b) Acube has some new PPC accellerator in the pipeline for the Classic Amiga's, and maybe the "strategic partnership" is about drivers, support, etc and not only about reselling the OS? However, I wonder if that will really be possible to do under the contract Hyperion has with Amiga Inc? If this is a way for them to go around Amiga Inc without their approval it would also be like walking on a minefield. If there is still hostility between the two, and Amiga Inc chooses to consider a move like this as a way for Hyperion to sidestep them and granting OEM licenses themselves while taking the benefits from the stand-alone option, then it could become dangerous.

Well, only speculations here of course. I bet the real answer to what the next announcement will be about, will be something completely different; like a third option no-one even considered or something. Well, it's only a few days until March ends!

@number6
Quote:

Target price for the 667 Mhz, 256Mb ram including OS4 is Euro 450 + local taxes.

That £304.821 GBP according to xe.com. Not bad at all, especially at 667MHz.

I take it off the shelf DDR RAM can be added at will, and we can dual boot Linux on it?

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@zerohero
Quote:

Most likely not, problem is I'm not the only one... Maybe you should fine tune your communication skills? Seriously though, there are better ways to show interest than to post like this and other posts in that thread.

Hmmm.. I don't see what your problem is. This isn't the 2003 incarnation of Amigaworld.net anymore, the iron fists are gone... I thought free thinking and dissent were allowed (rightly so too). Obviously as long as it's not insulting or against the TOS of course, but I don't think the posts you pointed out are in breach.

@Samurai_Crow
Quote:

I think the only reason to down clock it would be for embedded applications with power dissipation limits. Remember ACube is primarily intending this system to be a low-power system for embedded use. (An Efika competitor, if you will.)

I see, I thought maybe they'd be offering a few different models at differing clock speeds ala-AmigONE for those on a tighter budget.

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@smithy

I'm PM'ing you to not go more off topic in this thread...

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@Samurai_Crow 

Quote:

(An Efika competitor, if you will.)

But also scalable, at least as described again in October, 2006 by M3x:
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Sam440EP is more a plattform then a single motherboard, it will be available in various versions. Right now it's possible to choose: - 3 different cpu frequency (more when AMCC will release higher frequency models), - 2 gfx chips (M6 and M9), - 2 ram configurations (256Mb and 512Mb), - 4 different sized FPGAs, - various optional peripherials (CCTalk, Disk On Chip, etc...)

Quote:

More, it's possible to license a sub set of Sam440EP, for example, a customer doesn't need gfx and sound, we can design a smaller, and thus a cheaper motherboard.

#6

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Quote:

Or is this really some sabre rattling from Hyperion in an attempt to cajole Amiga Inc into making a move....

pops more popcorn

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@Manu

Quote:

Or can SAM be re-named Amiga One, and sold as there exists a license for the A1 ??

I like the way Manu here thinks. This one hadn't crossed my mind until he said it.

On the other hand, it wasn't Hyperion that owned the AmigaOne brand name and the OS license that went with it, so the idea of Hyperion simply rebadging the SAM as an AmigaOne likely isn't an option unless Hyperion or ACube go and buy out the company and assets of the company that had the AmigaOne brand so that they "inherit" the license...

But I guess ACube being in direct partnership with Hyperion, and ACube being the official distributor of Amiga OS4, allows the two companies to loophole their way around the licensing issues... making the above point sorta moot.

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