Amy A500-clone in miniITX

[Faerytale]

Again Fryguy sticks his nose up in the air, like he would know something
MRAndersson has kept it a private blog still not to be in the NEWS up in the alley!

Im sure MRAndersson will post here when he is ready

Originally Posted by Faerytale

Again Fryguy sticks his nose up in the air, like he would know something
MRAndersson has kept it a private blog still not to be in the NEWS up in the alley!

Im sure MRAndersson will post here when he is ready

Yes I will do that!

[fryguy]

Originally Posted by Faerytale

Again Fryguy sticks his nose up in the air, like he would know something
MRAndersson has kept it a private blog still not to be in the NEWS up in the alley!

Im sure MRAndersson will post here when he is ready

Yes i made a mistake, but what's your problem?

[adonay]

I think it looks great and is a good ide.

Clearly his goals with this project is not a high-end amiga with a advanced "over complicated" design but more of a amiga 500 compatible clone.

Would i buy one? probably not but there are quite a bunch who would.

[mfilos]

This is really awesome both as an idea and implementation.

A500 is easier to salvage due to many parts being in sockets in comparison with A1200 or A600 which everything but the kickstarts is solder mounted.
A dream would be an 4-layer redesigned A1200 board based on micro or mini itx.

[jbenam]

Lovely! Actually an even better idea would be making replacement motherboards with some cool improvements (like faster onboard memory, faster CPU, integrated flickerfixer, etc) for the original cases of the A500/A1200

[Lobotomika]

Originally Posted by freon

SCART!

Who uses scart anymore? It should be VGA or even HDMI. Does it even have flicker fixer/Scan doubler? With Scart you can't connect it to monitor without unnnessessary adapter.

There should also be option for PSX controllers and USB mouse. Not PS/2 anymore. IDE etc. for hard drive.

Clearly you don't share my CRT TV fetish

[yssing]

I havent heard of this before I read Trevor's blog.

I would buy this and put it in a fitting case.

How ever, I would personally go for more Zorro slots and an Atx sized board. I have some zorro boards I could use in such a setup.

I guess that indivision ECS and every a500 acellerator can be used.

[b0lt-thrower]

That is very, very cool. And yet I look at it and immediately think: hmm...68k socket accelerator, gotta have a clockport splitter with an RTC and USB on it...needs a Zorro extender to give 3 slots so you'd be able to put a network card, HD controller and video card over there...probably wanna get a 2mb agnus installed...yeah...

Anyone know how much RAM is on board?

[pandy71]

Seems there is only one hope for decent clone hardware - Clone-A but this is up to Jens "Help us Jens, you're our only hope"

[ Show youtube player ]

[mfilos]

FPGA Arcade is already in our doorstep (some people already have it from the 1st batch) with AGA support, PS2/USB Mouse/Keyboard, SD card, DVI out, Composite out, not to mention mini-itx design with really small footprint (140x100mm).
http://www.fpgaarcade.com/common/replay_production.jpg

With the future daughterboard by Yaqube we'd also have a real 68060, RTC, 128MB RAM, USB with drivers compatible with Poseidon, Ethernet NIC etc.
http://www.minimig.net/yaqube/images/RPX060PCB4.JPG

Check also the video demostrating the daughterboard: [ Show youtube player ]

[pandy71]

mfilos if you want to have Amiga then only Jens implementation will be close to original one - if in some miracle way, documentation that cover internal IC aspects will be openly available then Jens will lose monopoly for Amiga chip implementation.

For me Amiga mean i can replace any specialized chip on A500 board by FPGA and remain part work exactly the same as with original chip.

Of course there is alternative - just rent some Russian or Chinese specialized company, perform full reverse engineering, with masks for each layout and gate scheme (transistor/logic level) then you can think about ASIC, improvements, anything you wish.

With some patience, reverse engineering at transistor/ gate level is possible in home.

http://uvicrec.blogspot.nl/

[Jope]

Stuff has happened behind the scenes.

No, we still can't have one, but maybe later.

http://www.amy-itx.com/

[Mick]

I love it but once again it probably won't be available to buy (at least in an assembled form).

I've said it before but with all of the talent in the community I'm surprised nobody has transferred the Amiga motherboard over to ATX/MATX/ITX form factor sooner, there's so much more choice to be had when it comes to customising your system and you only have to look at the PC community to see that having something unique and different than everyone else is appealing to many. I wish Jens should do something like this as an option for Amiga Reloaded, I'd love to stick a board like this in an old beige case for that retro big box Amiga feeling.

Assuming they release design documents if someone in the community is going to build some that are for sale (with or without the custom chips) then put me down as definitely interested.

[Rango]

If someone can produce this board i would be able to source the components and assemble myself.

I wish they at least would make the board available just like Terrible Fire does or make it open source since they say it's hobby for them not revenue source.

I can do all the work myself but i'm not good enough with making the boards from scratch.

Maybe Terrible Fire @plasmab would be interested in making clones of this with permission from those guys, open source way.

I would buy the board. I'm sure many would as well. I could even start making them for some of you guys if interested.

What happened with Minimig? That board is no longer available for sale. How is that board different then proposed Amy?

BTW if Amy-itx is to materialized on larger scale i think author needs to open source the board and firmware, otherwise it will die like Minimig.

[Mick]

I think Minimig got replaced by MIST FPGA, as for what it makes it different this is from their website:

Q: How is Amy any different from the likes of FPGA Arcade, MiST, Minimig and a standalone Vampire V4?

A: Amy is based around the original custom chips from Commodore(tm). Thus no Amiga chips or functions are emulated or reconstructed using re-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The result is a very compatible system.

What I like about it on top of the compatibility and the fact that in general use it will 100% replicate an old Amiga is the mainstream form factor and potential for expansion.

[gururise]

Amy ITX is a brilliant idea. But not really sustainable, as you need to scavange an Amiga 500 for its custom chips for each Amy ITX that is built.

If Classic Amiga is to have a resurgence and catch on with a larger population, it needs to be sustainable. Something like the Amy ITX with a in an ITX form-factor is heading in the right direction! However, the custom chips (ECS or AGA) need to be replaced by an FPGA, as there is no sustainable source for custom chips. I'm thinking something along these lines:

* ITX Form Factor Motherboard
* Modern Ports (HDMI, USB, ethernet, etc)
* 50-75Mhz 68060 based
* 2 Zorro III + 1 PCI slots
* AGA Chipset emulated in FPGA
* OS 3.9 based
* Up to 4GB RAM with two DDR2 or DDR3 slots

By having a FPGA on board, not only can you emulate the AGA Chipset, you can take care of the HDMI/flicker fixer as well. Lets face reality, analog VGA is dying.. We need some type of digital video output. Existing FPGA minimig code (used in the MISTer Project) for AGA chipset and HDMI can be used with the 68k emulation stripped out and routed to a real 68060.

This type of setup is much more sustainable (only requiring the sourcing of a Motorola processor) and allows new users to enter the Amiga World. Something like the above could be marketed as the ultimate RETRO game machine + computer, similar to the success of the NESMini, as long as price could be kept under control ($250 or less).


In reality, something like the above would probably never happen due to the infighting and legal bickering amongst the remaining Amiga rights holders. So if a company were to ship such a product, the OS3.9 would have to be replaced by AROS for 68k.

[spudje]

You are aware of the Vampire (V4) I hope, this meets your specs to quite some extend....

[talybont]

Originally Posted by gururise

In reality, something like the above would probably never happen due to

... it being completely unrealistic? 68060 (hard/impossible to source in large quantities (or sustainable as you say)) and an FPGA on the same board? For $250 I would totally be into it.

The Vampire standalone is as good as it is going to get IMO. And it's going to get pretty good.

[Rango]

Originally Posted by gururise

Amy ITX is a brilliant idea. But not really sustainable, as you need to scavange an Amiga 500 for its custom chips for each Amy ITX that is built.

If Classic Amiga is to have a resurgence and catch on with a larger population, it needs to be sustainable. Something like the Amy ITX with a in an ITX form-factor is heading in the right direction! However, the custom chips (ECS or AGA) need to be replaced by an FPGA, as there is no sustainable source for custom chips. I'm thinking something along these lines:

* ITX Form Factor Motherboard
* Modern Ports (HDMI, USB, ethernet, etc)
* 50-75Mhz 68060 based
* 2 Zorro III + 1 PCI slots
* AGA Chipset emulated in FPGA
* OS 3.9 based
* Up to 4GB RAM with two DDR2 or DDR3 slots

By having a FPGA on board, not only can you emulate the AGA Chipset, you can take care of the HDMI/flicker fixer as well. Lets face reality, analog VGA is dying.. We need some type of digital video output. Existing FPGA minimig code (used in the MISTer Project) for AGA chipset and HDMI can be used with the 68k emulation stripped out and routed to a real 68060.

This type of setup is much more sustainable (only requiring the sourcing of a Motorola processor) and allows new users to enter the Amiga World. Something like the above could be marketed as the ultimate RETRO game machine + computer, similar to the success of the NESMini, as long as price could be kept under control ($250 or less).


In reality, something like the above would probably never happen due to the infighting and legal bickering amongst the remaining Amiga rights holders. So if a company were to ship such a product, the OS3.9 would have to be replaced by AROS for 68k.

Didn't you just describe Vamipre 4 standalone product minus the itx form factor? I'm new to the scene so i'm not fully grasping all those clones yet.

I also think $500 for vampire 4 is way overpriced. Ideally it should cost <$250. Thoughts? Why is there such a distaste among "classic amiga fans" for FPGA chipsets?

What is a fair price to pay for Amiga 500 on ebay these days? Is that even worth venturing into now with Pi3 ($35) or vampire (too overpriced) being available. Let me know what you guys think?