Working AmigaOne demonstrated

Korodny · 24 February 2002, 01:05

Today Alan Redhouse (Eyetech) demonstrated a working AmigaOne at the alt-WOA show in
Huddersfield (UK).

Specs:

- four PCI slots
- serial, parallel, USB, 2x IDE, Ethernet, Soundblaster128 on-board
- AGP2
- 133 MHz RAM interface

There will be a low-end version available with soldered CPU (G3/600 Mhz) for UKP 350
and a slightly more expensive version with socketed CPU.

Production will start in six weeks.

Now the part that may be interesting for the retro-bunch that is said to visit this board
from time to time:

The connector that accepts a A1200 motherboard (for backwards compatability) is no longer
a part of the motherboard, it will be shipped as an optional PCI card, which can be
purchased seperately and connects to the 1200 via a ribbon cable!

Ever wished that there would be a AGA PCI card for your PC ? Well, that's as close as you
will get!

Edit: Awful typo alert!!!: Of course, production will not start
in six *months*, but in six *weeks*

jmmijo · 24 February 2002, 01:10

Thanks for the info Korodny, I'll be waiting to see if this ever makes it to the states.

As for the AGA PCI card thing, you're correct, but you'd think that by now somebody would've come out with an Amiga on a PCI card for PC's a long time ago. Man with the VLSI technology now a days, this could have been achieved, IMO

Djay · 24 February 2002, 01:56

anyone remember the AmigaOne url?

any will you buy one?

i think i probably will

RetroMan · 24 February 2002, 02:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Djay
any will you buy one?

Hmmm, currently I think the Pegasos is the better choice, but we´ll see

//update : btw. you mean this URL ? http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/ ?

Korodny · 24 February 2002, 02:42

@jmmijo:

>> As for the AGA PCI card thing, you're correct, but you'd think that by now somebody would've
>> come out with an Amiga on a PCI card for PC's a long time ago. Man with the VLSI technology
>> now a days, this could have been achieved, IMO

I doubt that, as there's practically no AGA documentation anymore...

@Djay:

>> anyone remember the AmigaOne url?

http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone

>> any will you buy one?
>>
>> i think i probably will

This is just the "Eyetech AmigaOne". There are more two come (I know of at least *two* additional
designs, plus the Bplan "Pegasos" motherboard).

I'll buy one of course, I just don know which one yet ;-)

jmmijo · 24 February 2002, 02:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Korodny
I doubt that, as there's practically no AGA documentation anymore...

It's called reverse engineering. You just get a used 1200 or 4000 and away you go. But since you had mentioned that there will be an add-on for the Amiga One via a PCI card, this point will be mute once it is released

Akira · 25 February 2002, 00:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Korodny
The connector that accepts a A1200 motherboard (for backwards compatability) is no longer
a part of the motherboard, it will be shipped as an optional PCI card, which can be
purchased seperately and connects to the 1200 via a ribbon cable!

Ever wished that there would be a AGA PCI card for your PC ? Well, that's as close as you
will get!

Ok, I dont think I understood correctly. This is how I got it... the motherboard does not have a socket for connecting the A1200 mobo anymore, instead, you have to buy an optional PCI card, which serves as a connection between the A1 mobo and the A2100 mobo. This means I'll have, for example, a tower with the AmigaOne inside, and then a ribbon going nastily from my tower to an A1200 deck...

This is far away from the concept of Siamnese System's AmigaPCI card.... or did you mean that they will be building a whole Amiga setup in a PCI card? I think you did not say that...

This just makes the A1 pooey. I would have liked (if I was to buy it, which I was not and still am not) to have both mobos in one tower... all was suposed to fit in a Towerhawk, wasnt it?

I'm extremely happy with my A1200... I dont need this

Korodny · 25 February 2002, 14:52

@Akira:

> Ok, I dont think I understood correctly. This is how I got it... the
> motherboard does not have a socket for connecting the A1200 mobo anymore,
> instead, you have to buy an optional PCI card, which serves as a connection
> between the A1 mobo and the A2100 mobo.

That's correct.

> This means I'll have, for example, a tower with the AmigaOne inside, and then
> a ribbon going nastily from my tower to an A1200 deck...

No. That ribbon cable should be as short as possible, so you would still have to
put both motherboards into th same case...

> This just makes the A1 pooey. I would have liked (if I was to buy it, which I
> was not and still am not) to have both mobos in one tower...

That's still what you'll have to do. Eyetech sells towers that can take both mobos,
but with the "ribbon cable solution" you could use *any* tower that's big enough
and use some duct tape to fix the A1200 mobo in place

25 February 2002, 15:06

What will be the point of connecting the 1200? Will 1200 be able to benefit from a1 hardware? How?

Steve · 25 February 2002, 15:14

I was there on Saturday when it was being demonstrated at the Alt.WoA show. It was basically just a PC with one side that was transparent so you could see all the gory bits. I was quite impressed with it though and it does sound like a great new way forward for the Amiga. A lot better than all this PDE crap that Amiga inc keep going on about. I think this is one of the best things to happen to the Amiga in years. Interesting about the A1200 PCI card. I wonder how much that will cost. If the AmigaOne does see the light of day I will certainly buy one. The Amithlon was also demonstrated at the show. I watched it running the Amiga version of Descent: Freespace and it was extremely fast. I still think it's a little too expensive at £100 though. I'd probably buy it if it was more closer to £60.

Korodny · 25 February 2002, 16:13

@Burseg:

>> What will be the point of connecting the 1200? Will 1200 be able to
>> benefit from a1 hardware? How?

It's the other way round: The A1 will benefit from the A1200 motherboard
(remember the A1 is standard hardware, pretty much like a Mac). With an A1200
mobo attached...

* A1 has access to the custom chips (for games and old apps like Scala or Brilliance)
* A1 can read Amiga formatted floppy disks
* You can continue to use digital Amiga joysticks

Stuff like that (some people bought very expensive and high-quality A1200 soundcards,
some my want to use their 4player adaptor etc.)...

Personally, I don't need it, but there seems to be demand for such a solution.

@Steve

>> I was there on Saturday when it was being demonstrated at the Alt.WoA show.

Lucky you

>> Interesting about the A1200 PCI card. I wonder how much that will cost.

50 UKP were mentioned somewhere.

jmmijo · 25 February 2002, 20:28

I still say they would have been better off with a FULL size PCI A1200 card instead. They could've licensed the custom chips from Amiga Inc. and had one of the big Taiwanese manufacturers reverse engineer the design for them. I'm sure that TSMC or SMC would have done this as they are always looking for work to do, even a niche market like this they could've done a fairly cheap job.
Of course this is just my opinion

Miggy2TheMax · 26 February 2002, 07:03

Quote:

Originally posted by jmmijo
I still say they would have been better off with a FULL size PCI A1200 card instead. They could've licensed the custom chips from Amiga Inc. and had one of the big Taiwanese manufacturers reverse engineer the design for them. I'm sure that TSMC or SMC would have done this as they are always looking for work to do, even a niche market like this they could've done a fairly cheap job.
Of course this is just my opinion

I agree.. I would definitely be interested in a
"1200 on a PCI card". It is definetly possible with todays tech to reverse eng it.. Oh well for the time being I guess we have to be happy with some Amiga PDA stuff, cough.. cough..

Akira · 26 February 2002, 20:11

Yes I was looking forward to such a thing, I followed closely teh development of Siamese Systems's AmigaPCI card... damn shame it never took off, they were almost there!

02 March 2002, 20:36

Quote:

It's the other way round: The A1 will benefit from the A1200 motherboard
(remember the A1 is standard hardware, pretty much like a Mac). With an A1200
mobo attached...

Does it also mean that my favourite AGA game will benefit from the fast G3/G4 cpu on the AmigaOne? Maybe it depends but I wonder if it can.

Akira · 03 March 2002, 02:51

No. But you will be able to run PPC Aps (like Thornado3D)...

The normal AGA games are coded for 680x0 processors, not PPC ones.

03 March 2002, 03:08

But it is said to be compatible and they will run after all won't they? Then are they going to use on board 020, or the 030 on the expansion?

Akira · 03 March 2002, 08:36

Well, the PPC and the 680x0 series are NOT compatible... and I suppose that in the case of the AmigaOne, either the machine will use the A1200's 68EC020, or perhaps it will emulate the 680x0 core through the PPC (this might be faster, only accessing the 1200 mobo for the custom chips. Korodny will surely explain this better

If the case is the first one, forget about 030, you will be limited by the EC020. (you cant use your accelerator, the A1 board uses that slot for connection to the 1200)

I suppose it will handle it through PPC emulation of a 68060 (could be easily manageable methinks)

Korodny · 03 March 2002, 23:51

AmigaOS4 will be able to execute existing Amiga software written for existing 68k
processors. AmigaOS4's kernel ("ExecSG") will recognise 68k code and automatically
start the (pretty good) JIT-emulator that is part of OS4.

However, this JIT emulator *only* emulates the CPU. Therefore, a standalone AmigaOne
will not be able to execute games or anything that requires Custom Chips
(DPaint, Scala, Brilliance). If you want to execute stuff that requires the Custom
Chips, you'll have to attach the A1200 to your AmigaOne.

The Amiga1200 CPU will be disabled - "your favourite AGA game" will be executed by
a JIT 68k emulator running on a G3/G4 CPU.

However, OS4 comes with several enhancements (Virtual Memory, Memory Protection),
that might brake old software that patches a lot of stuff (especially games - Amiga
games programmers didn't care very much about "clean" programming). So I wouldn't
expect many games to run without modifications. But the OS4 developers are in touch
with Bert Jahn (WHDLoad) to ensure that games patched for WHDLoad will run on an
AmigaOne with an A1200 attached.

Twistin'Ghost · 04 March 2002, 00:46

Ideally, playing WHD versions of games would/should be the proper solution to 68k Amiga gaming on AmigaOS4, since it fixes a lot of that dodgy programming.

24 February 2002, 01:05	#1
Korodny Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 455	Working AmigaOne demonstrated Today Alan Redhouse (Eyetech) demonstrated a working AmigaOne at the alt-WOA show in Huddersfield (UK). Specs: - four PCI slots - serial, parallel, USB, 2x IDE, Ethernet, Soundblaster128 on-board - AGP2 - 133 MHz RAM interface There will be a low-end version available with soldered CPU (G3/600 Mhz) for UKP 350 and a slightly more expensive version with socketed CPU. Production will start in six weeks. Now the part that may be interesting for the retro-bunch that is said to visit this board from time to time: The connector that accepts a A1200 motherboard (for backwards compatability) is no longer a part of the motherboard, it will be shipped as an optional PCI card, which can be purchased seperately and connects to the 1200 via a ribbon cable! Ever wished that there would be a AGA PCI card for your PC ? Well, that's as close as you will get! Edit: Awful typo alert!!!: Of course, production will not start in six months, but in six weeks Last edited by Korodny; 24 February 2002 at 02:35.

25 February 2002, 15:14	#10
Steve Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lynx Age: 34 Posts: 1,695	AmigaOne is cool I was there on Saturday when it was being demonstrated at the Alt.WoA show. It was basically just a PC with one side that was transparent so you could see all the gory bits. I was quite impressed with it though and it does sound like a great new way forward for the Amiga. A lot better than all this PDE crap that Amiga inc keep going on about. I think this is one of the best things to happen to the Amiga in years. Interesting about the A1200 PCI card. I wonder how much that will cost. If the AmigaOne does see the light of day I will certainly buy one. The Amithlon was also demonstrated at the show. I watched it running the Amiga version of Descent: Freespace and it was extremely fast. I still think it's a little too expensive at £100 though. I'd probably buy it if it was more closer to £60.

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24 February 2002, 01:10	#2
jmmijo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: PDX Age: 51 Posts: 2,339	Thanks for the info Korodny, I'll be waiting to see if this ever makes it to the states. As for the AGA PCI card thing, you're correct, but you'd think that by now somebody would've come out with an Amiga on a PCI card for PC's a long time ago. Man with the VLSI technology now a days, this could have been achieved, IMO

24 February 2002, 01:56	#3
Djay breakpointUK.com Join Date: May 2001 Location: Brighton, UK Age: 37 Posts: 3,076	anyone remember the AmigaOne url? any will you buy one? i think i probably will

24 February 2002, 02:42	#5
Korodny Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 455	@jmmijo: >> As for the AGA PCI card thing, you're correct, but you'd think that by now somebody would've >> come out with an Amiga on a PCI card for PC's a long time ago. Man with the VLSI technology >> now a days, this could have been achieved, IMO I doubt that, as there's practically no AGA documentation anymore... @Djay: >> anyone remember the AmigaOne url? http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone >> any will you buy one? >> >> i think i probably will This is just the "Eyetech AmigaOne". There are more two come (I know of at least two additional designs, plus the Bplan "Pegasos" motherboard). I'll buy one of course, I just don know which one yet ;-)

25 February 2002, 14:52	#8
Korodny Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 455	@Akira: > Ok, I dont think I understood correctly. This is how I got it... the > motherboard does not have a socket for connecting the A1200 mobo anymore, > instead, you have to buy an optional PCI card, which serves as a connection > between the A1 mobo and the A2100 mobo. That's correct. > This means I'll have, for example, a tower with the AmigaOne inside, and then > a ribbon going nastily from my tower to an A1200 deck... No. That ribbon cable should be as short as possible, so you would still have to put both motherboards into th same case... > This just makes the A1 pooey. I would have liked (if I was to buy it, which I > was not and still am not) to have both mobos in one tower... That's still what you'll have to do. Eyetech sells towers that can take both mobos, but with the "ribbon cable solution" you could use any tower that's big enough and use some duct tape to fix the A1200 mobo in place

25 February 2002, 15:06	#9
oldpx Posts: n/a	What will be the point of connecting the 1200? Will 1200 be able to benefit from a1 hardware? How?

25 February 2002, 16:13	#11
Korodny Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 455	@Burseg: >> What will be the point of connecting the 1200? Will 1200 be able to >> benefit from a1 hardware? How? It's the other way round: The A1 will benefit from the A1200 motherboard (remember the A1 is standard hardware, pretty much like a Mac). With an A1200 mobo attached... * A1 has access to the custom chips (for games and old apps like Scala or Brilliance) * A1 can read Amiga formatted floppy disks * You can continue to use digital Amiga joysticks Stuff like that (some people bought very expensive and high-quality A1200 soundcards, some my want to use their 4player adaptor etc.)... Personally, I don't need it, but there seems to be demand for such a solution. @Steve >> I was there on Saturday when it was being demonstrated at the Alt.WoA show. Lucky you >> Interesting about the A1200 PCI card. I wonder how much that will cost. 50 UKP were mentioned somewhere.

25 February 2002, 20:28	#12
jmmijo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: PDX Age: 51 Posts: 2,339	I still say they would have been better off with a FULL size PCI A1200 card instead. They could've licensed the custom chips from Amiga Inc. and had one of the big Taiwanese manufacturers reverse engineer the design for them. I'm sure that TSMC or SMC would have done this as they are always looking for work to do, even a niche market like this they could've done a fairly cheap job. Of course this is just my opinion

26 February 2002, 20:11	#14
Akira Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: # Posts: 12,593	Yes I was looking forward to such a thing, I followed closely teh development of Siamese Systems's AmigaPCI card... damn shame it never took off, they were almost there!

03 March 2002, 02:51	#16
Akira Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: # Posts: 12,593	No. But you will be able to run PPC Aps (like Thornado3D)... The normal AGA games are coded for 680x0 processors, not PPC ones.

03 March 2002, 03:08	#17
oldpx Posts: n/a	But it is said to be compatible and they will run after all won't they? Then are they going to use on board 020, or the 030 on the expansion?

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03 March 2002, 08:36	#18
Akira Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: # Posts: 12,593	Well, the PPC and the 680x0 series are NOT compatible... and I suppose that in the case of the AmigaOne, either the machine will use the A1200's 68EC020, or perhaps it will emulate the 680x0 core through the PPC (this might be faster, only accessing the 1200 mobo for the custom chips. Korodny will surely explain this better If the case is the first one, forget about 030, you will be limited by the EC020. (you cant use your accelerator, the A1 board uses that slot for connection to the 1200) I suppose it will handle it through PPC emulation of a 68060 (could be easily manageable methinks)

03 March 2002, 23:51	#19
Korodny Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 455	AmigaOS4 will be able to execute existing Amiga software written for existing 68k processors. AmigaOS4's kernel ("ExecSG") will recognise 68k code and automatically start the (pretty good) JIT-emulator that is part of OS4. However, this JIT emulator only emulates the CPU. Therefore, a standalone AmigaOne will not be able to execute games or anything that requires Custom Chips (DPaint, Scala, Brilliance). If you want to execute stuff that requires the Custom Chips, you'll have to attach the A1200 to your AmigaOne. The Amiga1200 CPU will be disabled - "your favourite AGA game" will be executed by a JIT 68k emulator running on a G3/G4 CPU. However, OS4 comes with several enhancements (Virtual Memory, Memory Protection), that might brake old software that patches a lot of stuff (especially games - Amiga games programmers didn't care very much about "clean" programming). So I wouldn't expect many games to run without modifications. But the OS4 developers are in touch with Bert Jahn (WHDLoad) to ensure that games patched for WHDLoad will run on an AmigaOne with an A1200 attached.

04 March 2002, 00:46	#20
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 22 Posts: 4,662	Ideally, playing WHD versions of games would/should be the proper solution to 68k Amiga gaming on AmigaOS4, since it fixes a lot of that dodgy programming.