New Amiga motherboards from Jens

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Akira

It would be awesome if this came in a form factor that would also fit an A600, but one could only dream.

Thanks Jens for the update on this very interesting project!

I seem to remember Jens once commented this and the answer was something like: "compatible with A1200 and A500 cases for sure...while the A600 was in "would be nice/possibly but probably not" -category. So.. unlikely but not totally impossible..
Its not just a matter o making a shorter board though, the trapdoor connector on the A600 is 90 degrees "wrong" so I'm not sure how to solve that in a good way. Remember, the board will ship without CPU so you will *need* some kind of expansion card.

Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Its not just a matter o making a shorter board though, the trapdoor connector on the A600 is 90 degrees "wrong" so I'm not sure how to solve that in a good way.

You make it 90 degrees "right"?
You don't need to use the trapdoor. Who uses the trapdoor? it's cumbersome, especially on the A1200. I usually just open the whole damn thing when installing/removing something from there.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Akira

You make it 90 degrees "right"?
You don't need to use the trapdoor. Who uses the trapdoor? it's cumbersome, especially on the A1200. I usually just open the whole damn thing when installing/removing something from there.

Well ok, a600 trapdoor would be impossible to use in any case. But even so. There are other differences in dimensions that make it.. should we say... hard.. the width of the A600 lower edge is 7cm vs 10cm on the A1200 (where the expansion slot is on the A1200). The Floppy on the A600 is at 10cm..
Also, there are issues with the lower metal sheet on the A600. You'd need to cut out a wedge at least. And possibly sandpaper down the edge around the small trapdoor. And there's the awkward placement of the A600 joystick/mouse ports.. they are approximately at a location where the right edge of say a Blizzard 1230 would be ;-)

http://www.exretro.com/galleries/com...2021.49.43.jpg

Im still not saying its impossible but it might lead to some unwanted compromises. ;-)
Ideally there would be a separate version for the A600...

Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

[Mick]

Couldn't there be 2 different PCB sizes? A500/A1200 and A600/PC tower?

The I/O ports could just be routed to the PCI expansion slots via ribbon cables in a PC case? ok I'll stop banging on about it now.

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Sure you can, there will be a xmas in 2017 too ;-)

Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

Maybe he is just wishing that this does not end up in the growing list of projects that turned in to Vapourware. You know, an expected release date of 2217 or something

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by whiteb

Maybe he is just wishing that this does not end up in the growing list of projects that turned in to Vapourware. You know, an expected release date of 2217 or something

In the end it will depend on us, the potential buyers. The business model for the Reloaded Model is said to be "binding pre-orders" which means that whatever clever design Jens pulls out of his hat it will only happen if enough of us place orders.
That being said, I doubt anyone would wanna promise a specific date, so Ok, maybe Xmas 2017 isnt a certainty either :-)

Skickat från min LG-H850 via Tapatalk

[tom256]

Any news?

[utri007]

Any news? Prototype should be done now and preorders should start soon. At least that was a original plan??

[Locutus]

Amiga product announcements not hitting the timelines, come on you know how this works :-)

[eXeler0]

I'm pretty sure this is the sort of news you will hear about when it happens as its future depends on a lot of people knowing about it and placing pre-orders.
As for the original timeline, forget it already ;-)

[Ffin]

Originally Posted by utri007

Any news? Prototype should be done now and preorders should start soon. At least that was a original plan??

The wiki page has been updated, the Amiga Reloaded will now include 8MB flash memory for kickstart, DVI video output with built-in RTG modes at an estimated price of 350 Euros. The timescale has also changed, the aim is to have a prototype done this year.

If you read this Jens, please include a header for a L7 NMI, and make sure the ethernet add-on actually gets done.

[Cylon]

The NMI was suggested a long time ago and i'm quite sure it will be implemented, as Jens already had it done on the ACA630.;-)
Also helpful would be a reset-header and a <multifunc>-Kickstart switch/selector.

[Signman]

Ok, I'll bite. What's a L7 NMI?

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by Signman

Ok, I'll bite. What's a L7 NMI?

The "Level 7 interrupt" is also known as the NMI, or "Non-Maskable Interrupt". It is the highest priority interrupt, nothing can interfere with it. On the 68K range, there are several interrupt lines, which have a priority. A level 3 interrupt can be interrupted by a level 4 interrupt for example.

Grounding the NMI line with a switch causes the 68K processor to jump to the NMI exception vector. Normally, this would give you a nice GURU alert, but software can patch into the NMI vector and be jumped to when it is triggered, like Hrtmon.

This is a hardware mechanism completely seperate from the OS.

[utri007]

OK, one more product to "not to wait", I consider this cancelled. Specks, time and price has changet so much, that this is new product wich I'm not interested.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Ffin

The wiki page has been updated, the Amiga Reloaded will now include 8MB flash memory for kickstart, DVI video output with built-in RTG modes at an estimated price of 350 Euros. The timescale has also changed, the aim is to have a prototype done this year.

If you read this Jens, please include a header for a L7 NMI, and make sure the ethernet add-on actually gets done.

Hm yes indeed, it seems to have been updated in February this year..
The RTG part is a nice addition I guess..
Quote:
"The Commodore A1200 Reloaded has a DVI-I output as standard. This will allow you to use any modern monitor, and even flat-screen TVs with HDMI output (adapter cable required). The Flicker fixer functionality is the same as our very popular product "Indivision AGA MK2", but there's more: This version of Indivision AGA MK2 includes a graphics card that can be used with the P96 RTG software. "

So.. a new version of Indivision with a further expanded chunky (from ECS version) mode directly on the motherboard?

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Hm yes indeed, it seems to have been updated in February this year..
The RTG part is a nice addition I guess..
Quote:
"The Commodore A1200 Reloaded has a DVI-I output as standard. This will allow you to use any modern monitor, and even flat-screen TVs with HDMI output (adapter cable required). The Flicker fixer functionality is the same as our very popular product "Indivision AGA MK2", but there's more: This version of Indivision AGA MK2 includes a graphics card that can be used with the P96 RTG software. "

So.. a new version of Indivision with a further expanded chunky (from ECS version) mode directly on the motherboard?

This is very interesting, it sounds like the direct frame buffer mode (chunky) as used by the IndivisionECS which unfortunately was somewhat crippled by the slow ECS bus, an AGA version would be much more useful. The IndivisionECS only had a single game that supported it (Doom) but someone ported P96 over which was really cool. Hopefully Jen's will support it with a proper library and API this time around

[grond]

Sounds like it's not going to work with a Vampire. AFAIK the Indivision ECS chunky mode doesn't work with the v600 so I'd expect the same thing to happen with the Indivision AGA and v1200. But then you'd already have the Vampire's video out so losing the Reloaded's DVI would probably be a trifle.

[Locutus]

Isn't that because some of your saga registers are at the same address as the Indivision's?

If so this would be a fairly trivial fix....

[eXeler0]

I'm really interested in this motherboard.. but... I have an Apollo 1260 and I will get a Vampire V1200. If neither one of these two works with the Reloaded, i will have no use for it at all..
If its just a matter of the new Indivision not working with V1200 and you can simply ignore that output then fine. Everyone will be using HDMI from Vampire anyway. If it means it wont work at all, then that would be no good...
Remains to be seen if Jens will be interested in making anything else than a mobo for his own line of accelerators...