Quote:
Originally Posted by grelbfarlk
One perspective it's now basically something like this:
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/pa...yNo=167&No=941
Sure the V4 has more LE's, but that board is $90. So you're buying €100 worth of hardware with a €250 software license. This doesn't apply to the magic of adding plug in compatibility to the A500/A2000/CDTV. So why not take a cheap off the shelf board and slap the core on it and call it a day. It makes buying a retail copy of Windows seem cheap. |
Actually that was the original plan - use a cheap off the shelf board with an adapter board connecting it to the Amiga hardware.
There's a reason that plan didn't work out.
You implications are either dishonest or misguided. Did you note that the FPGA board you listed also listed the manufacturers of the main components - something extremely unusual? Why? Because that board is subventioned by them. They are also manufactured in large series (compared to Vampire boards) and thus have lower overheads and lower component costs. That Altera/Intel use it as a demonstration/development board reasonably means the FPGA cost is much lower than what the Apollo team can even dream about.
The price is listed in US dollars which means it doesn't include sales tax/value added taxes which (unless I'm mistaken) the Vampire prices do. If that is true you should subtract 19-25% from the Vampire price to get something comparable. Paying for the Terasic board doesn't contribute to a continued development of hardware, software and soft core unlike doing the same for the Vampire board.
Now you can of course think the Apollo people should go back to the plan of using off the shelf boards with adapters. Up until fairly recently the team was still looking for people to join, why not offer your services if interested in doing the work? We need more people like Majsta in this world IMHO...