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the_pope
24th January 2009, 16:37
Hi everyone,

I signed up because of "Harrison" advising me to do so. See, he told me he'd support any project trying to bring back the Amiga...

Yes, you might want to see the website from my profile (uh, I read the forum rules and it says no website promotion so I would think direct linking wouldn't be nice) because, people, it's time to make new Amigas. Sure, as the man told me in a few e-mails, there are other projects to "revive" Amigas. Not like this one, I believe.

He said, it would be nice to start with the Coldfire CPU. I say no, just talk to Motorola and tell them to make a much better 68k, 100% compatible with the old one. Then integrate all the technology from the AAA chipset into a new one (or have Motorola do that, for a price) with fall-back, 100% compatible modes to the AGA chipset and OCS. Then, add PCI and AGP buses or PCI Express and PCI, or PCI Express and PCI and AGP. Then, the system would be able to accomodate a lot of technologies like SATA 3.0 Gbps (via PCI-X or PCI Express), some top-notch video card via PCI Express (like a Radeon HD 4870 x2! If we only get AGP, we'll have an Nvidia 7600GT or an ATI Radeon HD 3850), a TV tuner, fast ram (DDR2 or 3 or XDR) and...this is why I posted here. I never had an Amiga (got a friend who did, but he's hard to reach - always busy) but since they were so outlandishly cool in terms of what they could do (yes, you could've had about that much fun with a PC, but for the price of 2-3 Amigas), I thought they very well belong to the vintage computers family in need of a ressurection.
So, what I need to know: what are the optional, hard-to-get hardware enhancements that should be included in this project ? Harrison mentioned the Catweasel PCI floppy disk controller. This is going to be quite nasty, because I was thinking about the Panasonic floppy drives, with disks that could hold over 100 MB on them (and 32 MB on a regular floppy disk). The trick is that they worked with regular hard drive controllers and not floppy drive controllers, so it will take a bit of engineering to make that floppy drive act like a regular floppy drive (or modifying the Catweasel controller). Anything else that could be had on an Amiga, hardware-wise ? I was thinking PPC CPUs (because these were developed a lot of time after Commodore went bust), but he said the software for these is limited so it wouldn't make sense.

Case design: I have another friend who liked the Amigas and owned one until he was forced to get a PC (because of work). I asked him for help on a case design that would look like the A500 or A1200. He replied with some lines that made me laugh in tears:

Step 1: beige plastic
Step 2. round corners
Step 3: grooves

To allow for USB ports etc, add plain rectangular holes. Don't get fancy. Just beige, flat and don't forget that groove. Not too many! You don't want to give Amiga users a heart attack. 7 is maximum, although, if you ask me, seven grooves is way too wild. I'd stop at 5. Maybe stick to 1.

He was obviously joking and I wouldn't get mad at him for taunting the Amiga designs. I thought about a cross between the Zenith Mastersport 386SX (I own a Goldstar clone of that laptop), the IBM 5140 Convertible and the Amiga 1200. And I also thought about an Amiga laptop, similar to the picture of the Amiga laptop prototype that can be found on the old-computers site.

A final note: if you like the idea, please, please, please promote the site - if you have a site, please post a link there. Look around, find companies that may invest in this (the keyword is "seed capital" companies).

Hopefully the admins will allow me to ask for this :D If you don't, people, please edit this request out :)

Thank you!

the_pope
31st January 2009, 00:03
All right...you people appear to not like this idea. I don't know if it was the way I said it or just the fact that it's a commercial idea...maybe because I never owned an Amiga or because I came here due to Harrison's advice and not on my own...I don't know.

I was hoping to get a wealth of info about after-market add-ons to various Amiga designs, like Harrison gave me. To know exactly what should the new Amiga contain.

I already made a sketch of the desktop case design, which looks awfully close to a laptop. I guess the only two things left to do are the 3D models of the future Amigas - one desktop, one laptop. Then maybe carry on the Amiga line from there.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who at least read this.

Harrison
31st January 2009, 01:31
Don't worry Alex, everyone has just been quite busy since the new year and probably not had the time to read and reply to your post. I've moved the post into the Amiga Hardware section of the forum as it is a more logical place for it.

I did however hope that some others might have posted ideas and replies by now. Hopefully they will soon.

Do you have the concept sketch to show us?

For everyone, in case Alex (the_pope) hasn't quite been clear enough in what he wishes to achieve, here is the idea.

He wants to find out what every Amiga fan loves about the current classic Amiga range, and what they would like a new Amiga to be. All ideas and thoughts are most welcome. I've already given him a lot of ideas and my own thoughts via email.

My ideas included expanding on the MiniMig idea, to make the system more powerful, to offer something equal to a highly expanded A4000. With a Coldfire CPU, PCI and AGP slots, DIMM ram sockets, USB, LAN Network port, SATA, Memory card slot (SD?) with kickstart loaded from a memory card (like the MiniMig to bypass copyright, and also allow custom ROMs), built in Catweasel controller so Amiga and other format floppy disks can be accessed. And finally all the different versions of the existing custom chipsets built into a single chip design and switchable from a boot menu.

Basically my idea for the ultimate Amiga. A new small form factor Amiga that uses modern technology and offers the ability to run it in different kickstart and custom chipset versions to allow nearly all classic Amiga software to run, and also to provide more CPU power, more modern graphics card and PCI card support out of the box than any classic Amiga can currently provide (even an 060 powered one). I basically just want a new top spec classic Amiga system.

Other ideas from Alex are to build a PPC based system similar to the SAM440 but better. But to somehow obtain the final blueprints for the AAA or Hombew chipsets and finish development of them and based a new Amiga around them. But also to add as much current PC technology to the new Amiga design as possible.

I hope some of you can add some more ideas to this discussion as Alex is very enthusiastic about exploring this subject, and trying to discover what the Amiga community really wants from someone willing to invest time and money into the development of a new Amiga system for the community.

the_pope
1st February 2009, 00:44
Yeah, I did draw a sketch of an Amiga but I need it a bit more detailed to be able to post it here. For starters, there will be a foldable screen with just one hinge, to allow 360 degree rotation, integrated speakers and tweeters, webcam, volume and balance knobs, 5-way equalizer and...should I put VU meters on it ? They definitely look cool on the 286 sketch, especially because they're analog. But the Amigas are in the timeframe when the VU meters were simply "bars" made of LEDs.

Will get back with the Amiga sketch. This will be the desktop prototype. I still don't know what will be inside the laptop prototype, in terms of hardware.

Zetr0
1st February 2009, 06:43
In the summer this Year I will be building an Amiga based Laptop.

it will sport a full 15" SVGA screen and Micro keyboard with Amiga Keys.

I am not sure what I want to base the classic hardware on.... it will either be An A600 or a CD32, the latter requiring some serious custom upgrades.

it will have a low-profile floppydrive as well as an internal SFF laptop DVD/CDRW there will be other features, but thats what I plan for the summer period :)

Niagara
1st February 2009, 19:34
Allthough i don't have a clue about computers, i fully support this idea!!!!
COOOOL!!
I think it's worth the effort.
Keep up the good work!!

Nia.

PubZombie
1st February 2009, 22:10
Allthough i don't have a clue about computers, i fully support this idea!!!!
COOOOL!!
I think it's worth the effort.
Keep up the good work!!

Nia.

yep me too - please

the_pope
1st February 2009, 22:27
Which one ? Zetr0's or mine ? :)