New Amiga motherboards from Jens

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Tpod

My thoughts:
If it fits an A600 case the board will serve as an attractive upgrade for A600 & A500 owners & its great that Jens is producing it. As an A1200 board replacement it’s a frustrating mixture of downgrade & upgrade, only worth getting if the original is dead!

Disappointing as an improved A1200 board but that’s not the idea. Hopefully a nice new ATX board with USB, PCI, HDMI, AGA/RTG & 060+ performance will appear one day at a reasonable price… its nice to dream

Your dream might happen (partially anyway) If we are lucky enought to get a Vampire 1200 that will work with the Amiga reloaded, then I think it will be a nice platform, but I hear ya.. It loses some stuff compared to a much cheaper original A1200 mobo.

But we'll also need new cases for this, right. So don't forget to support Philippe Lang's Kickstarter for new cases.
Jens, AmigaKit, Vesalia etc... should want a bunch of those too.

[amiwolf]

Originally Posted by Tpod

My thoughts:
If it fits an A600 case the board will serve as an attractive upgrade for A600 & A500 owners & its great that Jens is producing it. As an A1200 board replacement it’s a frustrating mixture of downgrade & upgrade, only worth getting if the original is dead!

Don't most A600 ports line up exactly with the A1200 ports? Apart from mouse and joystick of course, where simple, short, internal extenders should work perfectly.

So why would Jens disenfranchise those with the most to gain? I'd upgrade my A600 to an AGA motherboard in a heartbeat even though I just bought his A604!

I don't tend to get my hopes up for any new Amiga hardware until it actually appears (Jens usually produces the goods, so I'm more confident with his stuff), but yes an FPGA based system like the Vampire sounds very appealing.

I don't actually own an A600 but I'm pretty sure your right about the lay out of the ports.

Jens seems to have his head screwed on when it comes to the business side of things. I too would think he would realise a significant part of his potential market for this board is A600 owners. But sadly he cant promise that it will fit at this stage

[Amiga1992]

I would love an AGA motherboard on A600 form factor, now that's something I would really really really save my pennies for.

[delshay]

not sure if this is a good idea, but what about the motherboard using Laptop style power supply.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by delshay

not sure if this is a good idea, but what about the motherboard using Laptop style power supply.

That appears to be the plan - the voltages needed for the various parts will be generated on the board by DC-DC converters, and it should take almost any laptop-style PSU.

[Marmes]

Everything is wrong, Jens should be making A600 boards with aga, and there should be a kickstart movement for new A600 cases. Most of them have broken clips. A600 has a nice format , small and beautiful. Making it with a 68020 with 32 or 64 mb of ram. All other things like rapidroad, scandoubler, rtc, 030 could be added later as expansions. I know he can do it. everything should be cheaper, since we are talking about a smaller motherboard.

[jbenam]

I really really want to use an A600 as my main machine, but I need AGA for some games and also all the expansions I have are in the A1200 connector stlye

So, an A1200 motherboard that fits the 600 case would be the ultimate Amiga

(Yes, I'm really trying to rally support for this cause )

I would also favour an A600-option.

Think of this: There is no Commodore machine that fits nicely in a backpack except the A600. With the ACA020 and A604n the A600 is the ultimate mobile machine for WHDload and such (except missing the keypad but you can't have it all at the same time I guess).
Even the C64 is a bit too 'long', and the CD32 has no keyboard (and the A4000 keyboards are too long for backpacks, too).

IMHO the A600 *was* the worst Amiga when introduced back then, but now, given the fact that good retro games which are still 'playable' are mainly adventures and classic action games, the A600 is a very nice and space-saving retro device with a keyboard(!). Just IMHO.

[duga]

Originally Posted by sky76

IMHO the A600 *was* the worst Amiga when introduced back then, but now, given the fact that good retro games which are still 'playable' are mainly adventures and classic action games, the A600 is a very nice and space-saving retro device with a keyboard(!). Just IMHO.

Agree, it should never have been released. They should've milked the A500 Plus another 6-12 months until the A1200 release.

But today it's a nice machine due to the "small" size and PCMCIA which makes it easy to connect to a LAN.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by duga

Agree, it should never have been released. They should've milked the A500 Plus another 6-12 months until the A1200 release.

The a500 Plus should have never been released.
The A600 form factor is -perfect-.

But let's not turn this thread into another one of those stupid "let's hate the A600 for no good reason" tirades.

There's a problem in making a motherboard in A600 form factor, a lot of the A1200 expansion port peripherals will just not fit in the A600 case.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Akira

There's a problem in making a motherboard in A600 form factor, a lot of the A1200 expansion port peripherals will just not fit in the A600 case.

Most of the space on the A1200 is "wasted" by the traces. Having a multilayered PCB should help with that.

Also, many other components have been reduced in size and/or can be replaced by a single component while other things aren't needed at all (FPU socket, TV Modulator).

If there's someone that can do it, that's Jens!

[Mrs Beanbag]

The part of the A1200 motherboard that doesn't fit in an A600 case only contains the joystick and mouse ports, and one or two resistors. I honestly have no idea why they didn't make it compatible with an A600 case in the first place, it could have saved them some money as well.

Started new thread about what is good or bad about A600 here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=79391

[clebin]

Originally Posted by Akira

The a500 Plus should have never been released.
The A600 form factor is -perfect-.

True, but if we're being honest neither of them should've been released. Replacing the A500+ with the A600 is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic as they say.

If Commodore had taken R&D seriously from the beginning, the A1200 could've been released two years early. Then an 030 or 040 version to follow alongside, neatly plugging the price gap between the A1200 and A4000 and ushering the Amiga into the 3D era... Of course, none of that happened.

I can see the appeal of a small machine like the A600 now, especially where partners don't want 25 year old computers taking up valuable space. I do love the overall look of the A500/+ much better than either the A600 or A1200 though and if I get one of these, it will be to put in an A500+ case.

Chris

Originally Posted by clebin

I can see the appeal of a small machine like the A600 now, especially where partners don't want 25 year old computers taking up valuable space. I do love the overall look of the A500/+ much better than either the A600 or A1200 though and if I get one of these, it will be to put in an A500+ case.

Exactly! The most 'sensible' machine for just retro gaming could be an 'AGA-capable A600'. Compact form factor, with external CF or WiFi over PCMCIA, and no hassle finding the right connector when in the need for swapping Joysticks.

Still, the A500 is IMHO the most beautiful machine, regarding board layout and casing! I just love it.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by clebin

True, but if we're being honest neither of them should've been released. Replacing the A500+ with the A600 is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic as they say.

All true words my friend.

[xraynorm]

Thanks for doing this Jens. I will definitely buying one (or two) of the new motherboards!

I currently use indivision aga with a LCD DVI monitor for workbench, and amiga rbg output via scart on an old CRT monitor for games. This gives me the best of both worlds - a nice clean looking workbench on the dvi monitor and smooth scrolling and unsharp output for demos and games on the CRT.

Will this two monitor setup be possible on the amiga reload, or will it be indivison only OR amiga 50 Hz output not both?

[Schoenfeld]

I got lots or criticism for the "colour monitor options", but since this concept is taking care of space constraints (read: space for connectors!), I can't promise that both connectors will fit with all cases. Electrically, it's definitely possible.

Jens

[Bastich]

Looking forward to seeing how this all comes together