AmigaOne Lite Mini-ITX Board

[Wurzel]

This looks pretty cool, look here for the story over at epiacenter.

The eyetech group seem to be trying to revive the amiga platform and are releasing this mobo:

The AmigaOne Lite Mini-ITX Board





Spec's:

2x PS/2 Ports
Parallel Port
VGA Connector
SVHS TV Connector
10/100Mbit Ethernet
2x USB
Gameport
1x 32Bit PCI Slot
1x SODIMM
ATI Radeon Chip onboard
CPU Socket for PPC cards (like the Motorola 7440 in Apples´ G4)
2x IDE Connector

Afaik it's only compatible with linux at the moment and the soon to be released amiga OS4, here's the Eyetech linkie

That's al i know about the board at the mo' but it does look quite promising

[joshwa]

i don't mean to sound negative - whilst it does look cool, i just don't think reviving the amiga platform is a path worth pursuing...

[Rabs]

They are optimistic anyway, the amiga was a top computer in its time, fast, efficient and no bloatware

However in the day and age of gigantic HD's and cpu speeds that spiral upwards at a massive rate, cheap and widely available components, a huge pc software library etc, its never going to be anything but a niche which is a shame really...

[St3v3]

Instead of wasting their time with the amiga platform, maybe they'd try the same for the Pentium-M CPU. I'd love to have a board like that based upon the Pentium-M. Would be an amazing server.

[Stoo]

I think it's up to the developers on which projects they wish to "waste their time" on.

There is still a small, but strong amiga community out there, and if servicing their needs is something they want to do I can't see anything wrong with it. Nobody is forcing you to buy it..

P4-M? http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.ph...rder=0&thold=0

Already posted a bunch of times in this very forum

[walibe]

I'm sorry but you guys have completely missed the point. The AMIGA One already exists its out, this is just a small slimmed down version effectively and there will be ALOT of demand for this board.

It DOES NOT natively run AMIGA applications, only through emulation as you'll see the board now uses a PPC chip not the original 68k previously used. the AMIGA OS 4.0 that runs on it is basically just a straight move from 68k OS 3.9 to the PPC. Eyetech has been commited the AMIGA for along time.

There will be alot of demand for this board due to its size meaning people can have a second AMIGA box thats little and doesn't take up much desk space. There may only be a few thousand AMIGA Only users, but there are tens of thousands more out there who are fans and this would be ideal for.

Lets not forget this board also lends itself to embedded apps.

http://www.walibe.com/modules.php?na...article&sid=16

[Methanoid]

With respect Walibe but I think you’re missing the point.

I’m a great fan of the Amiga and owned a good dozen of them. The AmigaOne will do nothing in the market except for die hard Amiga fan-boys. It only allows you to emulate a Classic Amiga (something any old PC can do) and other than that it is just a PPC Linux machine. It has no market as it will be squeezed to death by PPC Macs and fast PCs, both of which can emulate via WinUAE and MacUAE.

Eyetech missed a great opportunity. They should have finished the 80-90% Access Innovation “Amiga on a PCI Card” (aka Siamese PCI). This ran a 68040 or 68060 but used the PC memory, had AGA graphics but also used the PC VGA as RTG, and could use the other PC peripherals. Now, put that in your Shuttle and you have a very fast Amiga AND a PC.

[walibe]

I’m a great fan of the Amiga and owned a good dozen of them. The AmigaOne will do nothing in the market except for die hard Amiga fan-boys. It only allows you to emulate a Classic Amiga (something any old PC can do) and other than that it is just a PPC Linux machine. It has no market as it will be squeezed to death by PPC Macs and fast PCs, both of which can emulate via WinUAE and MacUAE.

No again YOU have the missed the point. It only emulates the classic AMIGA through software, the new AMIGA platform is not directly backwards compat due to the PPC and new architecture. Its an entirely different area and cannot be emulated by WinUAE and MacUAE which emulate the classic AMIGAs.

With respect, please read the above artical.

PJ

[Methanoid]

Who the hell wants to emulate a PPC AmigaOne? No-one...

The Classic Amiga was the only one worth bothering about and CAN be run as an emulator on PC or Mac.

AmigaOne is a waste of space... and money. I'm happy for you that you have such money to burn.

[walibe]

As pointed out in the artical its expected to have a sales base in embedded applications as well a bunch of people wanting to pick one up. If the price is right they could easily sell 5-10,000 boards if complete with AMIGA OS 4.0 (Which we all believe will be the same time as the release date of this board - Q12004).

I'd like to see a hardware AMIGA emulation also as the WinUAE is far from perfect for AGA emulation. There was a soloution from Index once but not much ever came of it.

PJ

[St3v3]

Didn't amiga's die off ages ago anyway? I'm not being disrespectful as I owned an amiga but I'm sure it makes more sense to stick with a PC now.

Can't u get an amiga emulator for the PC ?

[walibe]

Yes you can but this is a totally different AMIGA. Its like comparing the MAC Classic todays Power MACs.

[Methanoid]

Thats the sad thing... it should have been a super-Classic Amiga and not this PowerMac Linux thing. Oh well... like it matters.

[daverobev]

Totally, totally missing the point(s) - embedded/kiosk stuff from a small, non bloated OS (ie, compactflash card could fit the whole OS plus apps)...lol went to Heathrow the other week, all I saw was screens telling flight times/gates etc crashing and rebooting Windoze 95.

Also just the whole OS idea...not bloated like Windoze and Mac (yeah even mac os is bloated), but small, streamlined and efficient.

Oh, why bother you ask. Because Windows and Office is not the be-all and end-all, and neither is Linux. Because neither are hobby-oses in a lot of ways that the A500 with AmigaDOS 1.3 was.

Just because! Ugh I dunno how to explain it. Windows works now, just about, since the NT kernel went mainstream. But its not perfect by a long, long way. So why not try to do better, building on what was an amazingly advanced OS for its time? And that had LOADS of people doing demos, programming, etc on it, at one time? Why not try to rekindle that (and put the nastiness of the recent past behing them)?

And why not make it simpler for the end user than Linux, and cheaper to buy than a PowerBook?

[walibe]

I couldn't of put it better myself.

[Flibb]

If they could do an Amiga for around £250, with a HD, internet and DvD that could be plugged into a TV count me in The market would be incredible if sold correctly (would need to be quiet). 90% of PC owners use none of the power of their machine, they dont need to, its used for the internet the odd letter, most are suprised that it can play audio cd's! With games the PS2 is capable so PC memory etc in an amiga would be fine as long as they were coded properly. Dont get me wrong I wouldnt be without a PC but having a set top unit would be great. The xbox has accidently filled this market but MS cant target it at the moment.
Cheers
Flibb