24 April 2020, 07:01 | #1 |
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A New Amiga Architecture - 3AC
Drawing inspiration from the Commander X16 project, I've decided to investigate and research the possibility of creating a new Amiga architecture that would be backwards compatible with OCS / ECS / AGA Amigas while moving past AGA in terms of graphics and sound capability. It will not be a feature clone of the planned but cancelled AA+ or AAA chipsets but rather derive features from them both that would show a linear step up from OCS / ECS to AGA to this new architecture. It is provisionally called 3AC (3rd Amiga Chipset) to highlight it is the third major version of Amiga hardware. I'm a layman when it comes to programming and hardware design but I envision an Amiga that is based approximately around the following specifications - - Standard 16mb RAM expandable to 128mb - 4mb Kickstart ROM - 100mhz processor - New Workbench (NWB) - A fork of Workbench 3.1.4 that uses the new features - Anna (replacing Agnus and Alice) - Violet (replacing Denise and Lisa) - Penelope (replacing Paula) - Grace (replacing Gary and Gayle) - Berlin (replacing Buster and Budgie) - Zoe - A new 3D chip, essentially an Amiga GPU - 16 12-bit sound channels - Capable of 1280 x 720 resolution with 4096 colours onscreen (without using HAM mode but HAM10 is possible) - Enhanced graphics that utilise the Zoe chip - USB compatibility - SD card support - VGA connector - Mini-Zorro - A new form for Zorro that is one-quarter the size but incorporates features past Zorro III As you can see, it's my idea of the kind of Amiga I'd like to use as OCS/ECS was showing its age by the '90s and AGA was under-powered and rushed out. 3AC represents a true step-up from the OCS chipset. I'd like to get all of your thoughts and opinions about this idea and if you'd like to work on it with me, please get in touch as it's something I want to see through to completion and release. Last edited by EAUniW; 27 April 2020 at 09:34. |
24 April 2020, 08:23 | #2 |
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You need to have way more details than coming up with funny names for the chips to get anyone interested or involved in this.
Currently it pretty much reminds me of this: [ Show youtube player ] EDIT: And let's be real here, if you're looking for a souped up Amiga-compatible device, the Vampire already exists so there's really no reason to make another competing product Last edited by britelite; 24 April 2020 at 08:28. |
24 April 2020, 08:30 | #3 |
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Only 12 bit sound? 720p resolution?
No thanks. Let's dump the Amiga tradition of releasing things when they're already outdated. |
24 April 2020, 09:25 | #4 |
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I'll be looking forward to your github repo's.
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24 April 2020, 10:28 | #5 |
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Hi EAUniW, love the enthusiasm towards a AAA type Amiga architecture. Now that you have gave some basic ideas towards a hardware system. I would now try to gather other people’s ideas of what they might want. I know for me I’d have a few particular requirements, otherwise I’d at this stage go for adding a Vampire card to my system.
I’ll take a few moments before posting my suggestions soon. Also you need to consider software for this system, unless your making a cheaper Vampire system (I don’t have a Vampire yet) Sincerely best of luck |
24 April 2020, 10:40 | #6 | ||
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24 April 2020, 11:09 | #7 |
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When you say ‘work on it with me’, what do you envisage happening? How much money do you have to invest with this?
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24 April 2020, 11:15 | #8 | |
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Quote:
PS: (someone already thought of it : Back to the future (end of 1st movie)) |
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24 April 2020, 11:51 | #9 | |
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Sorry if this may sound harsh, but for me this sounds like a pipe dream, or another "what-if" story, but not a realistic project that, may - even remotely - become reality. |
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24 April 2020, 11:54 | #10 |
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It's clear people have a lot of "dreaming" time upon their hands, in quarantine. The "let's build a new Amiga" threads pop up on many forums again...
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24 April 2020, 12:41 | #11 |
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I wish you luck with your endeavours.
It's taken the team behind the Vampire many years to get to the point where their next-gen vision for the Amiga has actually produced something usable. |
24 April 2020, 13:58 | #12 |
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If you need a starting point, the MiniMig AGA cores are open-source under the GPL. I would suggest looking at the register map of the closed-source Apollo cores for the Vampire as a source for OS inspiration as well. The limiting factor on the Vampire is not hardware but operating system support.
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24 April 2020, 13:59 | #13 |
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AKA "Just toss a few FPGAs on a board, how hard could it be?
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24 April 2020, 14:09 | #14 |
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24 April 2020, 15:24 | #15 | |||||||||||
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Don't get me wrong: i like the project, but it is hard to "draw inspiration" from it in terms of compatibility .. The X16 uses primarily old fashioned chips, that are still available for CPU, sound, IO ... only gfx is done via FPGA. Amiga Chips are not available in numbers and only old stock: that is not going to work. You could take a look at the "ZX Spectrum Next" that is compatible, got some new features (e.g. an Amiga-like Copper) and is entirely FPGA based. But we got the Minimig, MISTer, and of course the Vampire already... Quote:
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What is the basis for this chip? what can it do? how? .... Quote:
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(and I am not really a Vampire fan, but you keep on mentioning "new" features that are already there ...) Quote:
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or better some simple breakout connector like on the ZX Next or the RaspPi and maybe some Amiga-style "Clockports" Quote:
Last edited by Gorf; 24 April 2020 at 16:29. |
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24 April 2020, 15:59 | #16 |
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Wow, this is the best troll post I have seen in a while. The lockdown has given you a little time on your hands I see.
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24 April 2020, 16:04 | #17 |
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It does sound almost 25 years out of date before even starting it! Sorry but this is no "step-up" of anything Amiga.
And who is going to produce these new fancy name chips? And in what volume will they be produced? |
24 April 2020, 16:55 | #18 |
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Berlin for the win!
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24 April 2020, 17:52 | #19 |
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..
Last edited by EAUniW; 27 April 2020 at 09:33. |
24 April 2020, 18:08 | #20 | |
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Quote:
12-bit values are a pain in the backside for CPUs to move around, unless they're zero-padded within 16-bit values. You really don't want to moving data around in byte-and-a-half chunks. For this reason, 8 sound channels of 16-bit would be far more likely an upgrade than 16 channels of 12-bit sound. For similar reasons, a 16-bit chunky RGB screenmode is more plausible (certainly more useful) than 12-bits. You certainly don't want to be messing around with 12 individual bitplanes, and even in chunky mode a byte-and-a-half per pixel is inconvenient. Nice pipedream, though. Would you anticipate sticking with 68K or a different CPU / architecture? |
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