"Have no fear, Hermans is here!" (Stitch Jones from Heart Break Ridge)

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REALLY?!? Any other interesting things which hasn't happened today?

Kay

The plot thickens !

Kay

Who said that it would be cancelled anyways?

Ben Hermans it was all a silly missunderstanding apparently.

Hmm. AGP 4x and DDR? I smell Articia Sa...
They were supposed to have samples this quarter, wish I had heard anything more about that.

Edit:
The reason I'm eager about that is that it has the damn interrupt controller on-chip, so you don't need to mess with the VIA interrupt controller like we've been doing on the previous boards

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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.

So what is an interupt controller?

I managed to google my way to this explanation

Quote:

A special-purpose integrated circuit that functions as an overall manager in an interrupt driven system. It accepts requests from the peripheral equipment, determines which of the incoming requests is of the highest priority, ascertains whether the incoming request has a higher priority value than the level currently being serviced, and issues an interrupt to the CPU based on this determination. PICs typically have eight interrupt lines, and two PICs are often cascaded to provide 15 available interrupt lines.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that with the interrupt controller integrated in the northbrdge,
you can ditch the VIA southbridge alltogether and just use separate controllerchips (for USB, S-ATA and whatnot) instead.
Or am I completely out of line?

Quote:

So what is an interupt controller?

My low-level computer hardware knowledge is pretty limited but here goes:

Interrupts are a way of interrupting the CPU to get it to do something else .. they can come from various sources including hardware and come in different types (basically those that can be ignored for a short period and those that must be serviced there and then).

The interrupt controller basically takes interrupts from various bits of hardware and decides what to do with them e.g. interrupt the CPU, put it in a queue etc

interrupts are quite important .. thus a buggy interrupt controller (to be expected in something produced by VIA) isn't a good thing(TM)

hmm confusing...very confusing..

so now what? ...no onboard sound?..

price will be skyhigh?

i am confused, this board was the only thing i really ever wanted and now it seems to go up in thin air ;(

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See my blog and collection website! . https://www.blog.amigaguru.com

@ Toaks

I believe you are talking about the mini-ITX AmigaOne board (aka MicroA1). Those plans haven't changed.

The Mirco-ATX AmigaOne is an additional option which should become available in the future.

Quote:

I believe you are talking about the mini-ITX AmigaOne board (aka MicroA1). Those plans haven't changed.

Well I see why everyone is getting so confused. Awhile back Alan mentioned a Micro-ATX format AmigaOne board. Then the AmigaOne Lite comes along in Mini-ITX format. Ben says the MicroATX is not happening (I know, this has already been addressed, and he said "my mistake" basically)...

Then Eyetech turns around and renames the Mini-ITX board "Micro A1" (which goes against it's design), and then claims from someone that they thought the Micro board was cancelled (in reference to the Mircro A1).... and just in time, Ben chimes in to say he made a mistake. Ben still seems to be talking about a true Micro-ATX board, but everyone else doesn't. Is anyone else this confused? I sound like I'm babbling.

@Herewegoagain

LOL! I'm confused too, but then again Hermans did state at AmiWest of newer revisions to the A1 (which Eric_Z has provided a link too). So perhaps we will be seeing a whole family of A1s.

Roll on the good times

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ikir

Quote:

The Micro ATX A1, not to be cofused with the MicroA1( A1 lite), has been stated by Ben Hermans, in his panel speach, to be the successor to the current A1 and sport such features as DDR-Memory, AGPx4 and S-ATA.

Doh! Has that been there all the time? I must have missed it. Now those specs sound more like what I've been expecting to see.

@Herewegoagain

Yep, I specifically put it there so that there would be no cunfusion.

@olegil

Does the Articia Sa also work around whatever issue in the Artica S limited the AmigaOne to only 4 PCI slots? I believe the issue has something to do with interrupts and concurrent PCI transfers.

Although I'm very happy to see a family of AmigaOne motherboards appearing (whatever the specs might be...) I don't expect many home users to opt for a Mini/Micro board when a similarly-feartured, full size board is available. Dammit, I want 6 PCI slots!

Todd