Next A1200 hardware project...

[desiv]

I can totally accept that it's not ecomomically feasible to make an 8M card..

That said, there are a lot of people who want to upgrade, but don't want to spend too much..

So, you can do 2 things...

-Forget them (for this product) and cater only to the higher end customer who is totally OK with spending more money.

-Convince them that your higher price is really worth it.

So, what's the cheapest someone could produce an accellerator/RAM card for the 1200 for?

To be honest, I'm thinking there's no convincing for the 2nd group (could be wrong, but???).

So, you're talking about making it fast and putting cool widgets on it.. Then charge what those people are willing to pay. It's a smaller market, so you can charge them more...

desiv
(and again, I'm OK with that, because some people with 8M RAM cards might upgrade and sell their cards, increasing the number available. ;-)

[papa_november]

Clone the design of the DKB 1202. That card allows for the addition of SLOW RAM, which no other trapdoor RAM card does. Couple that with the fact that it's brand new and you don't have to fight an epic bid war and the price should be justified.

Also, some of the cheaper cards are NOT shipped worldwide; stuff like that shouldn't count.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by papa_november

the fact that it's brand new and you don't have to fight an epic bid war and the price should be justified.

Rubbish. Give a person a choice between something which works well, has no components which can break easily and is £25 vs one which is new but is £60 and they will choose the first.

Originally Posted by papa_november

Also, some of the cheaper cards are NOT shipped worldwide; stuff like that shouldn't count.

If the vendor does not ship worldwide. You contact them, ask them if they will allow you to arrange your own courier to collect it. 9/10 times they say yes as it means they do not have to make a trip to the post office. Using an international courier who collects can be almost as cheap as if the vendor had offered international shipping themselves. If you target people who are offering "local collection only" you can bag absolute bargains!

[athiga]

id like a 060 card but carnt see how its possible

i need a bit help with mp3 mpeg divx video

the idea of an external chipset ripped out of a cheap dvd player on the clockport would be rather wizzy
i recall elbox was goin to support movie cards !

like this mp3 device but better chipset for movies also

http://www.icomp.de/indexe.htm

Atlantis is an external soundcard for all Amiga systems. The core is made up of a Motorola 56002 DSP (digital signal processor), which is clocked at 80 Mhz. This DSP can make any kind of sound generation, such as decoding MPG audio streams. The Amiga multitasking is not loaded when playing back music:

[papa_november]

Originally Posted by alexh

Rubbish. Give a person a choice between something which works well, has no components which can break easily and is £25 vs one which is new but is £60 and they will choose the first.

You might not pay more for something new, (I certainly wouldn't), but people that would are out there and in greater numbers than you might think. A new trapdoor RAM board wouldn't fly off the shelves instantly, but it would sell. Look at Elbox's board - that one was the last one that was available new and it eventually sold out. That one was a good deal pricier than most used cards were going for at the time.

If the vendor does not ship worldwide. You contact them, ask them if they will allow you to arrange your own courier to collect it. 9/10 times they say yes as it means they do not have to make a trip to the post office. Using an international courier who collects can be almost as cheap as if the vendor had offered international shipping themselves. If you target people who are offering "local collection only" you can bag absolute bargains!

Like I said, you'd be suprised at the number of people who'd rather just pay more than go to the trouble of picking through UK eBay and trying to arrange a deal with someone who says he only ships locally.

[Djay]

since new floppy disks are becoming difficult to get, the only solution will be WHDLoad and for that i will need ram...

so ram in the trapdoor... name your price... it will shortly be the only option!

[alexh]

AFAIK they are not stopping production of HD disks just yet. Some people say there is a difference, but I've used them as DD with Amiga for decades without data loss.

[Zetr0]

@Alexh

I have to ask, other than an accelerator, what *other* bit of hardware would you like to see developed?

[athiga]

the cheapest ram today is sdcard so a sd card slot im not shure how fast it is but u can get some decent write speeds from some sdcards

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

what bit of hardware would you like to see developed?

I've already posted.

I believe that the only electronics that the every day A1200 owner would want (that they cannot already buy today) other than an accelerator is a scan doubler. But the Indivision A1200 AGA filled that gap for a long time. You cannot buy them now, but the number of DCE & Indivision scandoublers out there seriously diminishes this market. You probably would not recoup your R&D. Which is why I didn't post this idea.

[Zetr0]

@Alexh

thanks for your thoughts - sorry I missed them.

[Paul_s]

how about a doomsday device. You could have 10 barrel batteries installed in various critical locations on the motherboard!

If you don't change them in 8 years time the strange glowing ooze from the batteries leaks everywhere and takes the Amiga with it (or turns it into a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle!)

[Exit]

As mentioned here (yes i want indivision aga too *LOL* ) a real upgrade would be a 68060 turbocard + grfx in one... but, when i have to choose i prefer the turbocard... its hard to get your hands on one and thats payable

or amigakit has to talk with the developers of the NATAMI team and maybe the can create a FPGA 050/060 card for the 1200

other upgrades wanted:

-finished backplate for the indivision aga 1200 , so no fiddling anymore!
-MAS player

[clueless]

I would like to hear amigakits further thoughts on this thread since they started it?
IMHO any new hardware which isnt top of the range, must have and comparable of not better than what has already been developed -wont be a particularly good commercial success.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by clueless

IMHO any new hardware which isn't top of the range, a must have and comparable if not better than what has already been developed -wont be a particularly good commercial success.

I whole heartedly agree. I'd even go further and say comparable is not good enough. The Amiga market is too small. I imagine you need to be able to target almost every A1200 owner regardless of what hardware they own today for the project to be a commercial success?

ZorRAM is an example of a hardware project which targeted a small subset of Amiga owners. It was for a subset of Amiga owners (only A3000 & A4000 owners) and then a subset of A3000/A4000 owners (i.e. ones without an accelerator which could take Fast RAM).

I'd be curious to know the ROI of that project. I think in a previous thread that AmigaKit said it was a positive value (but then they would, wouldn't they? )

[Wasagi]

I'd also like to hear some feedback from amigakit regarding what they think of the proposals here, what kind of timeframe they will be working to and the like.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by alexh

...You need to be able to target almost every A1200 owner regardless of what hardware they own today for the project to be a commercial success.

Not going to happen...

I think it's more likely to be something high end that targets a subset of the small A1200 market that they can charge more for.. Just as they did with the ZorRam.
Yes, it's a smaller market, but you can charge those people more.

There are too many 1200 owners who just can't (won't) justify spending over $x amount, and that amount is less than an accelerator or most of the other ideas would cost.

We (assuming I'm included :-) would love USB, but can't justify spending over $100 USD for that, especially considering some of us don't have RAM/Accelerators yet (because we feel they are too expensive).

So, you're not going to get the whole (or even most) Amiga 1200 crowd.

But you can shoot for the smaller subset who has proven they will open their wallets more for their hobby..

desiv

[alexh]

My comment wasn't really about price as a factor. Just functionality. I meant that your needed to appeal to all A1200 regardless of what hardware they own to sell products in that price bracket. But I do know what you mean and price is a big thing, with anything.

Originally Posted by desiv

We would love USB, but can't justify spending over $100 USD for that

Why would you love USB? I never understood why anyone made a Native Amiga USB host in the first place! Let alone how people were able to sell it. USB only appealed to a very small subset of Amiga users, incredibly small. The three top reasons to get USB on the A1200 each have ultra cheap PCMCIA equivalents. Wired Ethernet, Wireless Ethernet & Mass Storage. Add to that HID devices (keyboard & mouse) and Mass Storage not working in the majority of games and you've got a poor product.

Originally Posted by desiv

So, you're not going to get the whole (or even most) Amiga 1200 crowd.

Price wise I would agree with you. But I still think with the right product you can appeal to all A1200 owners ready to spend that amount of money. Do you not think the Indivision AGA 1200 was one of those products? Existing products in this area (DCE ScanMagic/FlickerMagic) were relatively rare, they were sub-standard in terms of quality and compatibility. More and more people wanted to use an LCD monitor rather than a CRT monitor or TV.

Originally Posted by desiv

But you can shoot for the smaller subset who has proven they will open their wallets more for their hobby..

I'm not sure that is true any more? Most of us 30-somethings have less disposable income right now than at any time in our lives. Perhaps you are right. Lets Tax the devoted fans (again)

[Amigaman]

Originally Posted by Wasagi

I'd also like to hear some feedback from amigakit regarding what they think of the proposals here, what kind of timeframe they will be working to and the like.

I agree. While I have seen some very good ideas, its only Amgakit who can really say what they have the capacity to build. Perhaps some sort of vote, once they have shortlisted, and pre-orders for those of us who will open our wallets.

I hope that along with the hardware, they will consider the software too. A combined accelorator with a built in wireless network card would be cool if they can produce the drivers to let me log onto my router, and surf the net. thats just an example.

Amigakit, lets hear your thoughts

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Amigaman

a built in wireless network card would be cool if they can produce the drivers to let me log onto my router, and surf the net.

Interesting.

Did you know you can already do that with an A1200 using a second hand £2.50 Prism2 PCMCIA wireless ethernet card & one of the existing Amiga TCP/IP stacks + Web-browsers??

Existing Amiga web-browsers are pretty poor compared to the PC. More and more so as websites go flash based. The experience is going to be terribly painful. It's not something that AmigaKit could fix.