Next A1200 hardware project...

[Lord Aga]

Thanx Alexh for your reply
Of course it could (and should) be a smaller board with break out cables, no need to go for the full size PCB which would be scarcely populated. And it would also leave room inside for various mods.
But AGA chipset and FPGA are a real pile of a job...

Anyway, it IS possible ? There are no "no way, no how" problems that would prevent it from ever being made ? Like trying to fit an Intel CPU in MC68K socket and asking it to work

I agree that for the time being we may not need it. If my A1200 breaks down I can get a second hand one for the price much less then the new replacement mobo.
But their number is going down, not up. And this may be something to consider in the coming years.

[desiv]

On a technical level it's possible.
The FPGAArcade, which is almost shipping to first batch, is pretty close. It's not too large and does AGA (68000 currently, but I hear there are other cores in the works). There are demos of it running some AGA games..

And it's expansion connecter sounds like it could be made to work with an Amiga keyboard port and floppy (with some FPGA work I believe)..

I don't see PCMCIA happening tho...

And it's not too large..

But, it's market is Amiga, ST, and Arcade enthusiasts...

Redesigning it to fit nicely in a 1200 case is "possible", but is it worth it for anyone to actually do that??

We'll see..

desiv

[alexh]

Only problem I see is that at €250 it is almost 10x the price of a second hand A1200

[desiv]

Yes, as just an Amiga, it's not worth it.
I think if he were building it for Amiga fans, it wouldn't be feasible..

But the other markets (Have you seen the price for the Firebee ST FPGA?) are why, I think, he won't have any trouble.

I'm probably going to get one eventually, but I'm thinking about Amiga/ST/and my Arcade machine...

Mike has said that he expects his "biggest" audience to be the Arcade machine crowd..

desiv

p.s. Yes, maybe 10X the price, but how much would an Amiga 1200 with 40M of ChipRAM sell for? :-)

[alexh]

Probably less than one with an RTG gfx card

Plus I'm not sure he can do that yet.. but yeah.. infinite possibilities IF people learn HDL

[desiv]

Originally Posted by alexh

Plus I'm not sure he can do that yet.. but yeah.. infinite possibilities IF people learn HDL

He already has done that..
[ Show youtube player ]
1:30 time

It was 51M ChipRAM.
;-)

desiv
(Actually, I think yaqube has done that on Mike's board)

[cv643d]

Originally Posted by alexh

Only problem I see is that at €250 it is almost 10x the price of a second hand A1200

Someone should make a "Best-of-alexh" quote page, this guy is pure comedy... (sometimes )

[mfletcher]

Hrgh! I know the subject is "Next Amiga 1200 Hardware project" but, how about complete replacement PSU's for A4000's? No faffing about with nano psu's and switches and adapters and what not but one complete kit.

Also better psu's? I bought the 120v psu from you guys when I bought my A1200, but tbh it would be nice if the lead to the amiga was a bit longer than 6"

[vulture]

I have to give my vote for the 060 with sdram idea (optionally without the 060 itself for those who already have one as already mentioned). An 060@100mhz with - say - 512 ram and a mediator would fly! I wish there was a new ppc/060 design, but I suppose that's a project amigakit wouldn't undertake.

[desiv]

Ok, so lets say that with Jens' new cards, every A1200 (and A600) owner will now be able to find RAM and/or accelerator and RAM in low to medium range...
So, what's next for an A1200...
Ok, you have your Amiga 1200 with gobs of RAM (8M-64M depending on your solution, and some go over that I believe)...
You have a PCMCIA ethernet card.
You have s-video (amigamaniac) or VGA (indivision when they are back in stock)..
You have IDE CF based storage...

So, that's limiting what's left..

I think Cammy is right, that leaves clockport expansions.... But what is really needed there?

I would think, if you could come up with a clockport expander that provided USB AND MP3, that would just about cover most everyone's A1200 needs... :-)

(Or an MP3 clockport with a passthru so you can add a Subway if you want..)

desiv

[alexh]

Originally Posted by desiv

I would think, if you could come up with a clockport expander that provided USB AND MP3. Or an MP3 clockport with a passthru so you can add a Subway if you want..

You can already buy a 4-way clock port expander from DJBase which reportadly works with Subway + MP3@64

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=52581

[desiv]

True.. That just seems like a lot of little things to all fit inside the Amiga 1200..
I would think it would be pretty crowded in there.. ;-)

So, perhaps, just a new supply of clockport MP3 players?
Although, considering I have probably 6 devices within arms reach that will play MP3s, I'm not sure what the actual requirement is.. ;-)

I suppose, if you want to always keep your PCMCIA card available for CF cards, a clockport ethernet card might be nice, and wifi (with WPA on card) would be nicer.
(Can the clockport bandwidth provide that?)

But again, for the cost, I'm not sure there would be enough of a market...

Hey, you know what might be nice?

An internal CDROM kit. Buffered IDE port, cable, mounting bracket and cutting template.
It looks fairly simple to add a CDROM, but the whole "cutting the case and mounting" bit is tricky..

I suppose you could just use a longer cable and mount an adapter on the pop-out panel on the back of the 1200, and provide an external mini-cdrom? To make it easy for those who don't want to cut up the case...

desiv

[Wasagi]

I have to ask again, Any feedback amigakit?

[8bitbubsy]

A 68060 with CPU socket (no CPU included to save money for retailing).. Maybe with onboard SDRAM (or with a RAM socket).

PUHLEEZE!

I know making a 060 board is expensive and a hassle, but if you go for the "get the CPU yourself" option, then it should be doable..? I have 2x 060 CPUs but no 060 accelerator
We are many in this thread that wants a shiny new 060 accelerator that has a modern design and that maybe can be flashed with upgrades and so on.

[amiman99]

There are so many responses, so I think there should be a Poll and lets just take a Vote. Lets take the ideas from everyone and make a vote, then we can see what has the most interest.

I'm voting for 060 card below $200, with PPC always desired.

I have 030 50MHz with 64MB ram, so more speed is always appriciated.

[NovaCoder]

A modern 060 card could easily run at 100mhz....just go ask the Atari boys

But I'd personally rather see an FPGA running the new 020 softcore.

[gulliver]

What about a new production run of the best clockport soundcard available:

The Melody 1200 Pro (How I wish someone would be selling them!)

And please dont dare mention the Delfina.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I'd personally rather see an FPGA running the new 020 softcore.

Which new 020 softcore would that be? A recent announcement? Not really had my ear to the ground but I've not heard anything from Tobiflex or Yaqube.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by alexh

I'd say as far as ever. The size of the PCB makes in pretty expensive. It would have to be a much smaller board with break-out cables. The contents of the FPGA is unfinished for AGA and the size of the FPGA unknown hence price unknown.

Been looking at Chameleon lately, right :-)?



...and the breakout cable in detail:

Originally Posted by alexh

The price will be many times the price of an second hand A1200.

I'd say forget the dream for the time being.

I'd say: live it.

Jens

[FOL]

Nice, .