WinUAE vs FPGA

[Methanoid]

I do NOT want any flame wars here but I would be interested in a calm discussion of the relative merits of each.

I've put my little pile of cash away for an FPGA Replay board and have to wonder WHY? I've got a monstrously fast PC (4GHz quad i5) and I am wondering if I need a replay when WinUAE seems to offer similar (or does it?) features.

What can one do that the other can't?

One thing sprung to mind was networking. WinUAE uses the host PC. Should make putting my BBS online again a bit easier.

[vidarh]

Depends what you want. If WinUAE is ok for you, then why not. For me what interests me about the Replay board is that it's much closer to a "real" machine as opposed to an emulator that leaves that fast PC largely unused... Also the Replay board will fit in a tiny case. I like the minimalism of it.

As for networking, the daughterboard for the Replay will have ethernet.

[lolafg]

Hello ,

i have a minimig and a Chameleon 64 , of course i could use my PC to do the same things but it's cool to have a specific machine to do those things.
That said Winuae is really great and i like using it in my laptop when i am not at home , it's becoming better and better thanks to Toni Wilen !!

[_ThEcRoW]

I'm also interested in the fpga replay, and although i can use winuae on my fast x86 machines, it has something todo with real hardware. And of course, the multiple machine targeted feature of the replay makes it the perfect thing for the retrocomputing enthusiast.
Also, if you want to set a bbs, would be more efficiently to do with a replay, that leaving a pc with winuae running the bbs(unless you plan to run other services on ther machine, if thats the case, then it's ok.)

[alexh]

If your TV/Monitor and graphics card can do 50Hz then (IMO) you have something far better with WinUAE. Smooth scrolling is a must. If you've never run WinUAE at 50Hz then you don't know what you're missing.

FPGA Replay is no more "real amiga hardware" than a PC running WinUAE. But the boot time and form factor (at least of MiniMig v1.1) has it's advantages over a PC.

[Methanoid]

Thanks guys... well since my 4Ghz beast is a server on 24/7 it kinda begs the question why I am NOT running WinUAE as another task. I guess to run a BBS I'd be better off using an older less compatible WinUAE which probably runs with less PC processor time at a same given Amiga speed??

And of course the £300 for a Replay with the ATX adapter and Cutout could go a long way towards the next PC upgrade

[diablothe2nd]

Now that the minimig has AGA support, I'm giving it serious consideration as a backup to my pimped out 1200.

lets face it, we're running on 15+ year old tech. some day only the privaledged/dedicated few will be lucky enough to own a working model, let alone an upgraded one :P

I have spare A1200 & A600 cases. I doubt it'd be much effort to put the minimig inside one, and get a real floppy drive (or a substitute like the sd card reader) hooked into a minimig and route the relevant ports to where they should be on the case.

I guess if you're a purist then only the original will do... for me, if it comes in an amiga case, and the keyboard keys feel and sound like the amiga, and plays like an amiga in terms of software and games then really, what's the difference apart from the hardware inside?

[Methanoid]

Hmmmm FPGA Replay inside an A600 case... might be fun

[fishyfish]

Personally I dont think either is better or worse, theyre simply different.

The biggest downside to Winuae in my opinion is the host hardware/os. Not that I have a problem with either Windows or x86 pcs, I simply like to have dedicated systems. Im not a big fan of using any VMs "seriously", so Winuae is no different. The massive speed available to (Win)uae is also a mixed bag. Great to have at times, but in some ways removes the "amiga-ness". Porting software for example.... when it'll compile with minimum effort, or a lack of amiga-fying/optimising the resultant software feels generic, and loses a little of that amiga flavor.

Having to launch an OS first, just to launch the "amiga" also makes it hard for me to focus on doing anything "serious" and as such any emulated environment for me always ends up just a "fooling around" playground. Amithlon is the exception here for me, but that's not really a "typical" emulator. Yes, you can strip back Windows and have it boot straight into amigaos, but Windows still does peek through at times. A pcs bios also destroys the effect a little, but that's becoming less and less of a problem as time goes on, especially with bios post times reducing nowadays (theyre practically non-existant already in some netbooks).

I think the fpga "amigas" have an edge in authenticity as things stand, and this isnt necessarily down to the software that defines either, but rather due to some of the points Ive touched on.
This doesnt necessarily make it better for everyone, but for some people its more important than the flexibility and speed a software based emulator running on an x86 pc provides. This of course also means that the reverse is true for others.

Different strokes for different folks as they say. Either way I think its great that the amiga will exist long after most of our real Amigas have gone to silicon heaven