Super Amiga Hobby Project

[Mask of Destiny]

This probably belongs in the Amiga section, but I figure more people will read it here. Feel free to move if you feel it's necessary.

Someone recently sent me a link to a low-cost Spartan 3 (an FPGA) dev board and it revived an idea I had for a hobby project. No idea whether or not I'll attempt it (or if I could complete it if I tried), but I think it's a fun idea to dream about.

Basically it would be a Coldfire V4e based computer with a mostly AGA compatible chipset and modern connectivity (PCI, USB, Ethernet). The AGA-like stuff would be implemented on FPGA and would support the classic modes and sound formats, but would also have updated modes for things like 24-bit color and 16-bit 5.1(6) channel sound. Nothing too fancy like 3D acceleration or a sound DSP, though I suppose with a PCI card and appropriate drivers you could get those as well. If there's room left over, a 68K soft-core might be added for a compatibility mode.

Ideally it would be able to run Amiga OS 3.X (ROMs and install disks would probably have to be provided by the user) with the help of that trap-based 68K emulation library and a new 680XX.library and AROS (obviously the Amiga port would have to be revived).

Personally, I think this would be really cool. It would retain the classic hardware that helped make the Amiga so cool, but would also bring the machine forward enough to be useful for lightweight computer tasks. Obviously it would be a rather foolish commercial venture, but I see this as more of a hobby project than anything.

So I guess the question is, in the unlikely event that I actually do this, would anyone buy one and how cheap would it have to be.

 

[VertigoXX]

Hmmm... Yeah, this goes in the Amiga forum... But I'll leave a redirect link in the gen forum for ya.

Something like you describe... Truth of the matter is, you'd probably only be able to sell at most four to six of them, nomatter how cheap you sold them for. People would be more apt to want to build their own using your instructions rather than buy one outright. If you're able to pull it off with off-the-shelf parts (or even stuff that's easily orderable), make a site about how it was done so other people can try it for themselves too.

 

[Mask of Destiny]

I think I could sell more than six. It wouldn't be any more expensive than any of those hard to find PPC accelerators or the yet-to-exist Dragon and those seem to be in fairly high demand (relatively speaking anyway). I really only need to sell enough to use up a minimum order's worth of parts (looks to be 40 ATM).

The Coldfire only comes in a BGA (ball grid array) package which is pretty much impossible to solder without expensive equipment. I could base it around one of the FireEngines (daughter boards with RAM, ROM, etc.) used by the Coldfire Devboard which can be bought QTY 1, but it would raise the price. Soldering the FPGA wouldn't be fun either as it will probably be a QFP (solderable with some funky techniques) or BGA. I don't see many people wanting to go and find some place to get the board manufactured for them.

Again, this is really a hobby project, and if I can't find 40 people to buy one I'll just keep it all to myself. I just figured there might be others out there who might want such a "Super Amiga" for ~$300 US (current target price, may vary quite abit depending on manufacturing and part costs).

 

[it290]

I'd certainly buy one for $300, as long as it had PCI and USB. Also 15khz screenmodes are a must. Potentially you could run OS 4.0 on this as well, but licensing is the major hurdle there.

 

[Mask of Destiny]

Well the $300 figure is just an educated guess but hopefully I should be able to do the motherboard (with mounted processor of course) for that much if not the whole system( case, hard drive, etc).

PCI and USB are definates.

Originally posted by it290+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(it290)</div><div class='quotemain'>Also 15khz screenmodes are a must.[/b]

Do you mean being able to display 15KHz display modes (i.e. scandoubled onto a VGA display) or actually output 15KHz modes (for an Amiga monitor). The former is a definate, the latter is a maybe.

<!--QuoteBegin-it290

Potentially you could run OS 4.0 on this as well, but licensing is the major hurdle there. [/quote]

It would still need porting. Some of the system level code will be PowerPC specific; however, it's much more portable than it used to be. That said, there's really nothing keeping more keeping it from running (slowly) on an A4000 with enough RAM any more than there is keeping it from running on my proposed machine.

I'll probably contact Amiga, Inc. once it's done to see if they'll either license OS 4.0 or 3.9/3.5, but I don't have high hopes for getting a positive response.

 

[it290]

I mean actual 15khz screenmodes; scandoubled PAL modes don't always look/size that great, and low-res stuff just looks a lot better at 15khz. Most VGA chipsets don't support it, but if you're using FPGA stuff it should be possible, right?

 

[Mask of Destiny]

Well in theory anything is possible. I'll see how much work it is if and when it comes to that.