6 ms·

A New Motherboard for Amiga, the Platform That Refuses to Die

59 points by Elof 7y ago

smitty1e 7y ago
The need for alternative/open platforms grows daily.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
  Heck, the number of alternative and open platforms grows daily.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    That follows logically from the GP's comment.
- O1111OOO 7y ago
  Big fan of alternative OSes. I would add the word: viable to alternative/open platforms. In lots of use cases this just means a modern, up-to-date, browser. Firefox OS had the potential to become instantly viable but Mozilla (I feel) was working with blinders on. Haiku and ReactOS are at the cusp. ArcaOS (the latest OS/2 incarnation) would be jaw-dropping exciting if somehow (not likely) they went Open Source. Aside from the major commercial players, distroLinux and the BSDs... I don't see lots of viability out there (sadly). Maybe Android x86 (though it's frustrating to use as a Desktop OS)...?
  - 0815test 7y ago
    RedoxOS might become interesting as it's written in a new, memory-safe language. Although it's not quite clear if that language and RedoxOS itself can handle the security challenges...
  - officeplant 7y ago
    FirefoxOS was eye opening when I picked up one of the cheap $40 ZTE phones they were promoting with it. It ran extremely well on the bottom of the barrel SOCs vs similarly spec'd android phones. I was sad to see it gone so quickly.
myrandomcomment 7y ago
This is pretty cool. If he adds an RTG board with HDMI then I will buy it!
- jacobush 7y ago
  Check this out then - http://www.majsta.com http://www.majsta.com a new implementation of Amiga with insane specs.
  - ebg13 7y ago
    "Your [sic] coming from a site that we don't like." Well, gosh.
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      To anyone confused, when you click the link in the GP, the website just displays a message "Your coming from a site we don't like", and redirects you back to the hacker news homepage. I wonder why they don't like us...
      - TehCorwiz 7y ago
        EDIT: I'm an idiot, name, not url. The word 'hacker' in the name probably.
    - mullingitover 7y ago
      Poor grammar, inability to serve SSL. //slowly backs away with no sudden movements//
  - metroholografix 7y ago
    The Vampire is FPGA-based which means they are emulating the chipset (AGA in the works) and the CPU (they came up with their own version of m68k and named it 68080). It’s impressive but it’s not a traditional Amiga. It also has compatibility problems.
  - myrandomcomment 7y ago
goldcd 7y ago
I'm feeling a little dense - but what's the point of this? I get it's a new board, you can take your chips off your old board and now put them on your new board (which is broken down into component boards). i.e. My understanding is that you could take your existing A1200 and put a new board in the case, move your chips to the new board... and you'll have something that acts like your A1200... The thing you started with.. My best guess from reading 2-links down is that the selling point is that you now have modularity. Purpose of this project is that subsequent work can replace sub-sections of the A1200 with something more modern (for example HDMI-out as mentioned below) - but if you did this (replaced all the daughterboards with upgraded versions) it wouldn't be an A1200 any more.. just generally confused Wouldn't a FPGA approach be the way to go, if that's what you want?
- metroholografix 7y ago
  Not necessarily, FPGA cores are not faithful reproductions of the Amiga custom chips. I think the main premise here is that the Amiga custom chips can, with proper care, last for a lifetime or more, but the Amiga PCBs (some of which are 30+ years old now) only get brittle with time. Capacitors leak, traces are damaged/corroded, pins on headers break etc. People attempting repairs with substandard equipment/training also exasperate this issue by damaging the (limited) supply of original PCBs even more. A new PCB solves this issue and also provides modularity for future extensions. At the end, it’s still an Amiga, behaving exactly like an original Amiga would.
  - goldcd 7y ago
    Thanks, you're right, I was being dense. My feeble mind can accept that it's just a replacement board, you can host all your existing chips on.
- davesmith1983 7y ago
  A1200 boards are over 25 years old. A lot of the boards are damaged because of capacitors leaking, just being old. Many of us that still use the Amigas like using "proper hardware". I like the idea of taking a 25 year old computer and hacking the machine to play DOOM or going on IRC or even checking my emails. FPGAs have been used for Amiga Accelerators the fastest accelerator (at present) is the Apollo Vampire V2. Here is a complete rundown of the accelerator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3B8a8N83k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3B8a8N83k
throwaway3627 7y ago
I remember Amigas were still sold in specialty independent stores in the late 90's.

59 points by Elof 7y ago

smitty1e 7y ago

The need for alternative/open platforms grows daily.

HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
Heck, the number of alternative and open platforms grows daily.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  That follows logically from the GP's comment.
O1111OOO 7y ago
Big fan of alternative OSes. I would add the word: viable to alternative/open platforms. In lots of use cases this just means a modern, up-to-date, browser. Firefox OS had the potential to become instantly viable but Mozilla (I feel) was working with blinders on. Haiku and ReactOS are at the cusp. ArcaOS (the latest OS/2 incarnation) would be jaw-dropping exciting if somehow (not likely) they went Open Source. Aside from the major commercial players, distroLinux and the BSDs... I don't see lots of viability out there (sadly). Maybe Android x86 (though it's frustrating to use as a Desktop OS)...?
- 0815test 7y ago
  RedoxOS might become interesting as it's written in a new, memory-safe language. Although it's not quite clear if that language and RedoxOS itself can handle the security challenges...
- officeplant 7y ago
  FirefoxOS was eye opening when I picked up one of the cheap $40 ZTE phones they were promoting with it. It ran extremely well on the bottom of the barrel SOCs vs similarly spec'd android phones. I was sad to see it gone so quickly.

myrandomcomment 7y ago

This is pretty cool. If he adds an RTG board with HDMI then I will buy it!

jacobush 7y ago
Check this out then - http://www.majsta.com http://www.majsta.com a new implementation of Amiga with insane specs.
- ebg13 7y ago
  "Your [sic] coming from a site that we don't like." Well, gosh.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    To anyone confused, when you click the link in the GP, the website just displays a message "Your coming from a site we don't like", and redirects you back to the hacker news homepage. I wonder why they don't like us...
    - TehCorwiz 7y ago
      EDIT: I'm an idiot, name, not url. The word 'hacker' in the name probably.
  - mullingitover 7y ago
    Poor grammar, inability to serve SSL. //slowly backs away with no sudden movements//
- metroholografix 7y ago
  The Vampire is FPGA-based which means they are emulating the chipset (AGA in the works) and the CPU (they came up with their own version of m68k and named it 68080). It’s impressive but it’s not a traditional Amiga. It also has compatibility problems.
- myrandomcomment 7y ago

goldcd 7y ago

I'm feeling a little dense - but what's the point of this? I get it's a new board, you can take your chips off your old board and now put them on your new board (which is broken down into component boards). i.e. My understanding is that you could take your existing A1200 and put a new board in the case, move your chips to the new board... and you'll have something that acts like your A1200... The thing you started with.. My best guess from reading 2-links down is that the selling point is that you now have modularity. Purpose of this project is that subsequent work can replace sub-sections of the A1200 with something more modern (for example HDMI-out as mentioned below) - but if you did this (replaced all the daughterboards with upgraded versions) it wouldn't be an A1200 any more.. just generally confused Wouldn't a FPGA approach be the way to go, if that's what you want?

metroholografix 7y ago
Not necessarily, FPGA cores are not faithful reproductions of the Amiga custom chips. I think the main premise here is that the Amiga custom chips can, with proper care, last for a lifetime or more, but the Amiga PCBs (some of which are 30+ years old now) only get brittle with time. Capacitors leak, traces are damaged/corroded, pins on headers break etc. People attempting repairs with substandard equipment/training also exasperate this issue by damaging the (limited) supply of original PCBs even more. A new PCB solves this issue and also provides modularity for future extensions. At the end, it’s still an Amiga, behaving exactly like an original Amiga would.
- goldcd 7y ago
  Thanks, you're right, I was being dense. My feeble mind can accept that it's just a replacement board, you can host all your existing chips on.
davesmith1983 7y ago
A1200 boards are over 25 years old. A lot of the boards are damaged because of capacitors leaking, just being old. Many of us that still use the Amigas like using "proper hardware". I like the idea of taking a 25 year old computer and hacking the machine to play DOOM or going on IRC or even checking my emails. FPGAs have been used for Amiga Accelerators the fastest accelerator (at present) is the Apollo Vampire V2. Here is a complete rundown of the accelerator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3B8a8N83k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3B8a8N83k

throwaway3627 7y ago

I remember Amigas were still sold in specialty independent stores in the late 90's.