Next A1200 hardware project...

[Genlock]

For me !,
a completely compatable USB connector would give me access to video equipment, tv tuner , camera transfers, mass storage devices not to mention mass paged memory, printers.. i could go on and on, but of course it would be no good if you dont write the drivers for all these goodies too.

[Amigaman]

Its great that AmigaKit ask the community about what they want.

My suggestions would be

1 Ram card
2 Accelorator card (68K)
3 Accelerator card with built in wireless network card (and cable to the a1200 expansion panel with socket and arial or built in like a laptop)
4 Conversion kit and instructions for people who want to install slim CD drives inside the 12oo case, including measurements, buffered IDE interface etc.
5 A600 accelorator (ok ok this is not for the 1200!)
6 Er.. is there any chance that Amigakit can licence old designs from companies that no longer make Amiga hardware?
7 would it be worthwhile being a reseller of the GVP hardware that has recently been re-released?

ok thats some quick ones, plus my first post ever.

[Paul_s]

q) Flower Holder like on VW Beetle

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

q) Flower Holder like on VW Beetle

LMFAO, what you like.

Next you will be asking for red and white shell suit with a boing ball pattern on them, .

[alexh]

Originally Posted by desiv

Judging by the response here, it's pretty obvious that there is a shortage of A1200 8M RAM cards available at reasonable prices.

It is the first stop for all newbies. But I have a feeling that people just pass them around as they buy accelerators. I'm pretty sure the demand is not as high as you'd think.

Do you not have an A1200 RAM card or an accelerator? Are you desperate to buy one? If the answer is yes then you may be right.

A quick search of ebay shows several on there at the moment, looking at back history several come along each week.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=130413951240
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260644036145
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=180541086364
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=170522025470

The price ranges around the £35 mark. As low as £10 and as high as £70.

AmigaKit is not going to be able to manufacture new 8Mbyte A1200 RAM cards for retail under £50.

[Jimbo]

An accelerator that doesnt cost stupid money would be nice.

[amigakit.com]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, very interesting reading, keep the ideas coming.

One of the objectives of a new production run of A1200 hardware would be to keep Ebay prices in check at a sensible level and to provide quality readily-available hardware with a warranty.

I honestly don't think that a RAM card could be commercially viable at under £50 due to the high tooling costs of the trapdoor connector for a relatively small run of cards. Although a good quality accelerator for WHDLoad purposes is a better idea maybe?

We wouldn't want to commission old designs from previous manufacturers- it is better to manufacture new progressive hardware (as per ZorRAM) using modern components and design techniques.

[Wasagi]

Now this sounds interesting.

What type of accelerator are we talking? I think something with a socket to take an 060 is definitely the way forward.

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, very interesting reading, keep the ideas coming.

One of the objectives of a new production run of A1200 hardware would be to keep Ebay prices in check at a sensible level and to provide quality readily-available hardware with a warranty.

I honestly don't think that a RAM card could be commercially viable at under £50 due to the high tooling costs of the trapdoor connector for a relatively small run of cards. Although a good quality accelerator for WHDLoad purposes is a better idea maybe?

We wouldn't want to commission old designs from previous manufacturers- it is better to manufacture new progressive hardware (as per ZorRAM) using modern components and design techniques.

[Jimbo]

I like the thinking for the accelerator But from what I see on ebay they go for well over £100, not that I look all the time. Way I see it, less money = more sells. I mean I want one but I wont pay that for one, I am sure many people think the same.

[Wasagi]

I think a high end accelerator with possibly RTG is the way forward.

[Franko]

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I like the thinking for the accelerator But from what I see on ebay they go for well over £100, not that I look all the time. Way I see it, less money = more sells. I mean I want one but I wont pay that for one, I am sure many people think the same.

I paid £294 just over 3 years ago for a Blizzard060/128Mb Ram then four weeks later on ebay again I paid £473 for a Blizzard060/PPC /256Mb Ram.

My point is if you really want it you have to be prepared to pay for it.

[Jimbo]

Yeah I guess. My point is is its not that I cant afford it, its just money better spent on a machine that isnt so old if you get my meaning. It also narrows the market down a lot. I don't really need one as I only use whdload stuff really. But for the right price me and including a lot of others would buy one for the hell of it.

[Franko]

I get your point Jimbo, but the way I look at it is, if you've paid out all that dosh and your machine does what you want and need it to do, then it's money well spent.

[Cammy]

If you decide on an accelerator, I have noticed a few hardware guys on IRC and various Amiga forums talking about how they'd love to get their hands on some new A1200 edge connectors, so I'm sure you could sell those off as spare parts to help cover the MOQ.

I'd also like to point out to everyone who is interested in A1200 8MB RAM cards that it is not essential for the design to rely on jumpers or a keypress to disable part of the RAM. The DKB 1202 uses a small command in the Startup-Sequence that detects if the PCMCIA slot is in use, and if it is the card reduces the RAM from 8MB to 5.5MB automatically.

Also, a 8MB RAM card is perfect for WHDLoad games and is fine for using your A1200 online or for coding, pixel art, music composition and other productivity software. Until a few months ago my main Amiga for the last 4 years has been an A1200 with 8MB FastRAM, so I think it's a fine setup for the general Amiga user who these days won't do much more than play WHDLoad games. I figure if you want to use AmigaOS with as much power as you can get, use UAE, Amithlon, Aros, MorphOS or AmigaOS4 on newer hardware. They will run all the software that actually takes advantage of a faster CPU much faster than any real Amiga. Or if you're after some sort of hybrid solution using FPGAs emulating a 68k softcore, the Natami is coming along quite nicely and already has more software developers working on games for it than any other Amiga system except maybe classics if you include Aminet game uploaders.

Of course, if AmigaKit manages to find stock of some 030-060 CPUs to build new accelerators that's fantastic, those would surely be just as welcome as a RAM card if the cost isn't going to be too much higher. It's plain to see that both products are in demand, even if not everyone can understand why.

[Zetr0]

@Cammy

I think you kinda hit the nail on the head there princess 'C' =)

If AmigaKit can source 030 - 060's and edge connectors then this is pretty much the hard bit done (surprisingly) - although with the former there might be some RoHS compliancy complications for the european distribution. However there are exceptions for equipment thats manufactured today that either replaces/upgrades compoents of existing equipment that was on the market prior 2006.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by alexh

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=130413951240
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260644036145
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=180541086364
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=170522025470

Funny, I mentioned location being an issue, and all your links are ebay UK..

:-)

Oh, one other thing. I remember reading about A1200's needing "fixes" to be able to work with CPU/RAM cards? Might this be an issue or would a properly designed board be able to work on all A1200's?

I can see how they couldn't hit the price point for an inexpensive RAM card.
But a CPU/RAM board will cost more. The more it costs, the smaller the audience. And, the smaller the audience, the more you have to sell it for to make it worth while. Which makes it likely that it would be a higher end CPU/RAM board.

My issue there is, one, not sure I want to spend that much (however much that is). :-)
And, with things like FPGA Arcade coming out (??), might that be a better solution for not much more than the CPU/RAM board.

Although, if they sell higher end CPU/RAM boards and people start selling their 8M RAM cards on e-bay (US) to make way and the price on those comes down, I'm all for it!

Trickle down electronics manufacturing! Hmm.. well, maybe that wasn't the right phrase, but.. :-)

desiv

[Hewitson]

Quite frankly I think its time for people to stop being tightasses.

Back in the day us people with powerful Amiga's had to suffer because no one wanted to pay the money to upgrade.

15 years later we are still suffering the same problem. Pull your fingers out & buy a bloody accelerator. A 020 with 8mb is crap, and a new 8mb board is nothing short of a ridiculous suggestion.

[Brakus]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

An idea that might be good could be - Custom A1200 Plastic casings and keyboards.

There are many companies that can manufacture plastics based on a prime-design, so imagine if you will multi coloured / opaque A1200 chassis with a housing designed for an SFF or Buffered IDE place for it to be screwed down, even and extention to the original chassis so that it could have a SFF CDROM drive underneath the FDD drive.

Theres quite a lot of possibilites with this as I am sure black/CBM White and Opaqe would be really BIG sellers.

Black Keyboard replacements would be a huge want with the customizers, theres a few companies I was in contact with when developing some custom chassis and they are quite low cost with low MOQ's too.

This + 1!

I particularly like the idea of a new case that adds expandability to the old... But why stop with an A1200 case, why not an 'updated' A4000D/3000D case ?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Cammy

if you're after some sort of hybrid solution using FPGAs emulating a 68k softcore, the Natami is coming along quite nicely

Never going to be anywhere near the speed of an 060 with todays FPGA's.

Originally Posted by Brakus

why not an 'updated' A4000D/3000D case ?

Does Elbox no longer sell these kits? I personally wouldn't want to change my A3000D/A4000D case. Just the PSU. Maybe front bezel.

[Jimbo]

Hewitson you do talk out of your arse sometimes. 020 with 8meg is not crap at all. Plenty fine to run whdload like most of us want to.