New Amiga motherboards from Jens

[kolla]

Yes. New motherboards, new colourful cases... we just need new keyboards and we can have all brand new machines. The guy making cases also has mentioned he wants to do new key caps in matching colours, but it would be sweet if there was a source for new, real Amiga keyboards.

[kolla]

Kickstart stored in flash. I suppose there will be software to flash custom kickstarts? How to recover from a badly flashed kickstart?

[roondar]

It seems to me the primary value for this board is the fact that it is new hardware, which means the capacitors/resistors/ets will all be in working order, all components will just do their stuff, getting a power supply won't be any problem and it's likely to last a good while before becoming a problem.

To me this is good news, the 20-30 year old main boards in current amiga's are not going to last forever (in fact, my old A500 needed a new board a while back because the old had developed so many faults it really wasn't worth repairing anymore) and need (by todays standards) rather exotic power supplies.

The rest (faster chipmem, kickstart as flashrom, etc) seems like icing on the cake for me.

Yes, it's not really cheap, but like the C64 reloaded - it does breathe new life into the aging hardware purely by giving a means to keep the old stuff running longer

Well, that's my view anyway!

[SKOLMAN_MWS]

New faster processors 68020 from Tekmos http://www.tekmos.com/products/68020-microprocessors

[BigFan]

This thread has been derailed completely by dreamers.
Anyone seeing any big market here is definitly smoking pot. If you all are so whise and talented and gifted then start your own production and/or kickstarter campaign.

All additions to the board that increase complexity beyond what JS is able to design, test, build, test , redesign all alone will never ever face the light of day.
Did you forget that he is the one to pay the bills and bear the risk ?

Get down. Ask something more realistic.

[BigFan]

The Tekmos chips run at 16, 20, 25 and 33 MHz. Same speed as (Motorola)Freescale

Have you ordered a batch lately? Tell me about pricing
Just kidding.

[Amiga1992]

What I would REALLY do to assure these machines last a long time, is produce them in a way that they would be easily serviceable in the future. I am sure that would ramp costs up a bit but a motherboard hard to fix is as good/bad as a real a1200 one. One with future instead of programmed obsolescence or difficult to replace parts seems like a much better idea than the original motherboards.

[duga]

Originally Posted by kolla

Yes. New motherboards, new colourful cases... we just need new keyboards and we can have all brand new machines. The guy making cases also has mentioned he wants to do new key caps in matching colours, but it would be sweet if there was a source for new, real Amiga keyboards.

Or a PS/2-port for external standard keyboards.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by duga

Or a PS/2-port for external standard keyboards.

there already exists a solution for that, and we already know Jens's answer... people who don't need it don't need to pay for it

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

there already exists a solution for that, and we already know Jens's answer... people who don't need it don't need to pay for it

Is that the new direction for this thread?

In that case, I don't want serial or parallel port, why should I have to pay for it?

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Is that the new direction for this thread?

In that case, I don't want serial or parallel port, why should I have to pay for it?

oh come on, if you can't tell the difference i give up

[HardStep]

Definitely a great board with great features.

Perfect for desktops, but for using in a tower the original motherboard will provide means to connect hard disks as well. Not complaining though.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by duga

Or a PS/2-port for external standard keyboards.

Yes, because gluing an old PS/2 keyboard ontop of that brand new A1200 case looks awesome. But really, PS/2? Last PS/2 keyboard I have I bought in Russia 15 years ago.

[Arnie]

You can still get new ones...even Amiga ones.

[kolla]

Great, how do you fit it into the brand new A1200 cases?

[kolla]

To be a little serious, PC keyboards with stickers do not count as Amiga keyboards. If I could easily buy good quality real Amiga keyboards with USB connectors, I would use them on all my computers.

[dJOS]

Imo Amiga reloaded should take a leaf from the original Phoenix 1000 replacement motherboard and concentrate on giving us the extra ports and storage support that would give an enhanced user experience. I'd include built in flicker fixer in this ideal.

The original Phoenix for those curious:

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/phoenix

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by kolla

To be a little serious, PC keyboards with stickers do not count as Amiga keyboards. If I could easily buy good quality real Amiga keyboards with USB connectors, I would use them on all my computers.

what would you consider to be a "real Amiga keyboard", out of interest?

[clebin]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

what would you consider to be a "real Amiga keyboard", out of interest?

I agree with (edit) kolla and for me it's all about the layout. An Amiga keyboard has the CTRL key to the left of the caps lock, Big Delete/Help buttons, just the 10 function keys, Amiga keys and so on.

This is more controversial but I don't even need it to be a big old chunky thing - I'd buy an Apple-style 'chiclet' keyboard with the Amiga layout in a second.

Chris

[kolla]

Me too. The point is very simple, the only layouts I am at home with are real Amiga keyboard layout, and those of DEC VT-220 and 320. PC and Mac keyboards I always end up reconfiguring, moving keys around, and even then I am not satisfied. For many years I used an A3000 keyboard with my Linux PC via Catweasel cards, but at some point computers stopped shipping with PCI, and now my main desktop is a mac mini (intel) anyways. I have keyrah, but it is a clunky and not exactly elegant solution.