My first questions is...

If the PA Semi CPUs will only be available for a limited time; what is the long term strategy for A-EON regarding Amiga and its use of Power CPUs going forward?

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Also check out the new multi-core CPUs being developed by Freescale, in particular the 64-bit dual core, 2.2 GHz P5020 and the 8-core, 1.5GHz P4080

That one probably?

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@Phantom,

I saw that, but what does that mean for A-EON. Will Freescale be their future? Since they're working with Varisys on the logic board design, etc... who has the say so on regarding the CPU choice going forward?

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Looks like an interesting future for AOS

Last edited by Hondo on 23-Dec-2010 at 06:55 PM.

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On Planet Boing Trevor is God

Good choice!

@AmigaMac Quote:

If the PA Semi CPUs will only be available for a limited time

"limited time" could still mean 5 years (for example), so I doubt it is a concern, or they wouldn't have used it in the first place.

Quote:

what is the long term strategy for A-EON regarding Amiga and its use of Power CPUs going forward?

I doubt they will reveal much before it is nearly ready, but they do say "check out the new multi-core CPUs being developed by Freescale, in particular the 64-bit dual core, 2.2 GHz P5020 and the 8-core, 1.5GHz P4080." Could be a hint...

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Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

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AmigaOS 4.1 FEu2 on Sam440ep-flex 800MHz 1GB RAM
C128, A500+, A1200, A1200/40, AmigaForever 2008+09+16, 5 x86/x64 boxes
Still waiting (or dreaming) for the Amiga revolution...
m4rko.com/AMIGA

One for each core...

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ExecSG Team Lead

PPC serie is world produced CPU serie, so there will be future options.

I just wonder, when we can see that in price. Some ppc based "not for desktop use" mobos could be easily modified to desktopuse, some of them just requiring solderin of connectors for vga connector etc. like some seagate network harddrives, they have even possibility to add more ram to mobo of course only with right equipments. (soldering)

Best exsample are some digiboxes, they have PPC cpu, harddrive, vga connector, usb, lan etc everything like real computer have and "hidden" linux as a operating system and price less than 300¤

Last edited by utri007 on 23-Dec-2010 at 08:50 PM.

Nice to hear but: (there is allways a but;) We all wanted military spec Amigas. Cool.
The concern is about Continuation about these processors, sorry just the first thing that popped up in my mind.

Never be Pleased if the 16-core does not do the thing;)

@AmigaMac

Quite literally...
"AMIGAONEs", not bombs!

@ssolie

Hibernating cores?

Last edited by Thematic on 23-Dec-2010 at 10:00 PM.

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: AmigaOneXE (unmod.) 750FX/512 MB +stuff & AmigaOS 4.(0|1)
: A1200/68060&96MB/SCSI/EM1200-Voodoo3 & OS 3.5
: A500/1MB
: Pegasos (ff) 512 MB & MorphOS
Praise seitan.

ssolie, good idea...

@Trevor

I'll take 2 in my X1000, if you don't mind.

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Hate tends to make you look stupid...

Wiiiiiiiiiiii 8)

Ok, put it another way, this thing has TCPIP and Crypto offload, can teh Crypto handle HDTV, DCCS, BD+, and other usually CPU based forms of encryption, that is, programmable, or is it a dedicated collection of hardware for SHA, AES256 etc only?

Is it possible to bounce a data stream through the TCPIP Offload and the Crypto core via a DMA style method, so the CPU merely has to deal with teh Text of teh HTML contents, passing tehvideo part of Flash and media to the GPU, sound chip et without needing to intervene as such itself?

What about the cross application of using one core as the watchdog for the entire computer, literally running two instances of AOs at the same time on this truely split eprsonality machine?

Ill get back to you on teh thinking Ive been doign on the home made ten billion photos a second camera using the XENA by the way, just like Lawrence Livermoore Lab stuff. 8)

Hope theyre strawberry flavour. 8)

Apple?... Who are they? 8)

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The older and more respected a scientist is, the longer it takes to prove him wrong.

Begging your pardon, but why would we want to start on a chip that has a limited
production life? Unless we can secure 3-4 years of supplies of the chip....or if newer chips being designed can run programs designed for PA6T...then I am prone
to wonder.

My measly 2 cents...otherwise, I like the idea......

@Thematic
Quote:

Hibernating cores?

Do those bananas look like they are hibernating to you?

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ExecSG Team Lead

i want a x1000 :)

@Grayghost

Quote:

Begging your pardon, but why would we want to start on a chip that has a limited production life? Unless we can secure 3-4 years of supplies of the chip....or if newer chips being designed can run programs designed for PA6T...then I am prone to wonder. My measly 2 cents...otherwise, I like the idea......

Software is not written to run on the CPU its written to run on AmigaOS. A Sam440 for instance has a different PPC CPU to my Pegasos G4 yet software runs on both systems.

Just like software that takes advantage of multicore processors in the x86 market with different CPU's made by AMD or Intel for instance.

@Thread

The article also stated Apple has shut down the PA Semi production.

The X1000 project is a limited run, Trevor stated Aeon would see how sales of the X1000 and interest in the X1000 is received before considering further hardware releases and to what end.

However the encouraging part at the end of the article to look at what Freescale are offering sounds pretty awesome

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Fortunately Varisys, our AmigaOne X1000 hardware partner, had a long-standing relationship with PA Semi and we were able to secure a supply of PA6T CPUs for the AmigaOne X1000 project, making it the first and most probably the only desktop computer based on the unique PA Semi CPU technology as Apple have now closed down the PA Semi product line.

So does this mean that once those cpus are installed in the X1000, there will be NO more
X1000s ? If the plant is closed, where will the next batch come from ?

@alanwall

Quote:

So does this mean that once those cpus are installed in the X1000, there will be NO more X1000s ? If the plant is closed, where will the next batch come from ?

I'd assume that A-EON are assured enough CPUs to turn a profit on the X1000. Once A-EON break even they'll start development on a successor.

My advice would be to get an X1000 as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Think of all those people that sat on the fence while the original AmigaONE was on sale, and how gutted they were once they learnt the window of opportunity had closed.

The sad thing about this excellent chip, is that PA-Semi, were a Fabless company.. that is, the chip has always only ever existed on paper, or at least in digital representation, until fed into a Fabrication line, such as IBM or TMSC (?)

What you really should be complaining about, is the capability of a company to hold back on pieces of paper and claim theyre worth something, then refuse to allow anyone to actually make anythign with them, and so bring in income.

Oh, wait.. thats AInc isnt it? 8(

Pity the data for the PA6T cant be purchased,r eleased etc.. It was made on a 65 nm process.. wonder how efficint it would be on HiKCu22nm process with ondie cooling, IBM fab plant.. Intel got the 22nm from MIT.

EDIT

Oh, and apparently, looking on Google PA6T through reviews etc, back in 2007, when the chip was first available, Engineering Samples could be got.. at $700 each. Bit tricky to make a $400 machine using it.

Last edited by RodTerl on 24-Dec-2010 at 01:46 AM.

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The older and more respected a scientist is, the longer it takes to prove him wrong.