6 Jan
2010
6 Jan
'10
11:15 a.m.
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm
of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled across something new while
looking at the Minimig board: the X1000. Its appears to be a
multicore Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed
in. See http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't
want to play the hide-and-seek game.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
6 Jan
6 Jan
11:22 a.m.
David Griffith wrote:
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm
of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled across something new while
looking at the Minimig board: the X1000. Its appears to be a multicore
Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed in. See
http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't want
to play the hide-and-seek game.
Oddly enough, I was looking at that yesterday.
It reeks of vaporware to me.
Doc
11:32 a.m.
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 7:22 PM, Doc Shipley <doc at vaxen.net> wrote:
David Griffith wrote:
True - there have been a good few Amiga clones that have never seen
the light of day.
However, Hyperion is not Amiga Inc. Unlike Amiga Inc., Hyperion does
actually /deliver./ It took years to ship AmigaOS 4.0, but a large
part of that was legal wrangles. Hyperion had pretty much finished it,
but Amiga Inc. wouldn't let 'em ship. AFAICT, basically, Amiga Inc
does not like the thought of anyone else making any money off the
Amiga name, even though AInc doesn't sell anything any more. AInc
would have rather sunk and killed the name and the product than let it
go.
However, it appears that a few years back now, AInc lost the lawsuit
and Hyperion now has a permanent right to use the name to describe the
product that it wrote from scratch under commission from AInc.
Fairly soon after, AmigaOS 4.1 followed and allegedly there will be
more to come. Also Hyperion have produced versions for
non-Amiga-badged PowerPC-Amiga-compatibles, such as Efika,
Pegasos/Pegasos 2 etc.
So I think the company is serious.
Secondly, what makes me slightly hopeful is that the spec of the new
machine is not that ridiculous. It sounds like a PowerFicient chip
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm
of non x86/amd64 motherboards. ?I stumbled across something new while
looking at the Minimig board: the X1000. ?Its appears to be a multicore
Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed in. ?See
http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't want to
play the hide-and-seek game.
?Oddly enough, I was looking at that yesterday.
?It reeks of vaporware to me. from (the late) PASemi - now part of Apple, AIUI - with
a modern-ish
chipset and this mysterious custom chip. It's doable. If it ships,
though, I bet it'll be expensive.
Personally, I find the BeagleBoard a bit more interesting - it's real,
out there, mates of mine have them, it's fairly cheap - and I always
was an Archimedes fan more than an AmigaHead. :?)
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
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MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508
1:25 p.m.
Secondly, what makes me slightly hopeful is that the
spec of the new
machine is not that ridiculous. It sounds like a PowerFicient chip
from (the late) PASemi - now part of Apple, AIUI - with a modern-ish
chipset and this mysterious custom chip. It's doable. If it ships,
though, I bet it'll be expensive.
I too am very curious about the X1000. I played with a SAM ep440 and found
it a remarkably useable system even in its current state under AmigaOS 4.0.
I just wish someone would make a portable Amiga. It would be much more
convenient than having to clear desk space for it.
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- In memory of Greg Morris ---------------------------------------------------
11 Jan
11 Jan
4:26 a.m.
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 19:32:12 +0000
Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
Personally, I find the BeagleBoard a bit more
interesting
Or the FriendlyARM Mini2440. Though no "real" mainboard but a
SBC.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
6 Jan
6 Jan
11:32 a.m.
--- On Wed, 1/6/10, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote:
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing
in the realm of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled
across something new while looking at the Minimig board: the
X1000. Its appears to be a multicore Power of some
sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed in.
See http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't want to play
the hide-and-seek game.
I saw this too. And it's exactly the kind of thing I've been hoping for - but it
also seems like another one of those vaporware products that's never going to exist in
a purchasable form.
So, if it really does exist sometime in the near future, I'll buy one - but until
then, I remain cautiously optimistic.
-Ian
11:40 a.m.
David Griffith wrote:
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm
of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled across something new while
looking at the Minimig board: the X1000.
The Minimigs are a lot of fun !
Its appears to be a multicore
Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed in. See
http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't want
to play the hide-and-seek game.
But there are enough powerpc based "amigas" out there, so what ?
Just a new dual-core PowerPC.
The FPGA based minimigs are more fun. Whatever you were ever missing on
your machine, just add it to it now ;-)
Cheers
11:57 a.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010, e.stiebler wrote:
But there are enough powerpc based "amigas"
out there, so what ?
Just a new dual-core PowerPC.
It's a board with specs on par with modern computers. the other PowerPC
based Amigas are stuck around 600-700 MHz. I'm not particularly
interested in just running AmigaOS on it.
The FPGA based minimigs are more fun. Whatever you
were ever missing on your
machine, just add it to it now ;-)
I was wondering if it's possible to attach real floppy drives and/or hard
drives to the Minimig
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
12:07 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
David Griffith wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010, e.stiebler wrote:
Whatfor ?
The SD-Flashes are big enough, or what is your application for a real
harddrive ?
The FPGA based minimigs are more fun. Whatever
you were ever missing
on your machine, just add it to it now ;-)
I was wondering if it's possible to attach real floppy drives and/or
hard drives to the Minimig 
12:10 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 1:57 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote:
I was wondering if it's possible to attach real
floppy drives and/or hard
drives to the Minimig
No. But there's this:
http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/
Looks like a regular hard drive interface, and an interface for a
1571, but not the amiga floppy (yet).
brian
12:13 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 2:10 PM, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 1:57 PM, David Griffith
<dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote:
Maybe I'm wrong. It supports DD floppy drives, so maybe it will
read/write amiga floppies. The catweasel can do it.
brian
I was wondering if it's possible to attach
real floppy drives and/or hard
drives to the Minimig
No. ?But there's this:
http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/
Looks like a regular hard drive interface, and an interface for a
1571, but not the amiga floppy (yet). 
12:36 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
* On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 02:10:40PM -0600, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at
gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 1:57 PM, David Griffith
<dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote:
The C-One is a really interesting project. I got one last year.
Probably the most interesting thing about it is that it's something of a
mystery! The original project was designed by Jeri Ellsworth (of the C64
DTV project), but the schematics and design docs were permanently lost
and Jeri moved on to new projects. Even now, the maintainers are making
new discoveries about how the damn thing is put together and how to
write cores for it. They're reverse-engineering their own product.
Like in the "good old days", over the life of the project various
corrections and hacks have been made to the existing boards. If you buy
one you'll notice traces have been dremeled out and jumpers added here
and there, and there have been other "patches" released since I bought
mine. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my
understanding that they can't make new boards without doing a complete
re-layout because of the lost design files.
Another oddity: Even though it comes with a hardware 65816, none of the
existing cores make any use of it. It is purely vestigial.
One of the better changes was the addition of an extender card with a
second, larger FPGA to give core developers access to more overall
logic. It's allowed the C-One to be an excellent Minimig platform, with
a fully in-FPGA 68000 implementation.
If you want a really cool FPGA hacking board, I still recommend it. Just
don't go into it expecting a polished finished product (They're very
up-front and honest about this on the website when you go to buy.)
I was wondering if it's possible to attach
real floppy drives and/or hard
drives to the Minimig
No. But there's this:
http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/
Looks like a regular hard drive interface, and an interface for a
1571, but not the amiga floppy (yet). brian
-Seth
31 Jan
31 Jan
11:03 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
On 1/6/2010 2:36 PM, Seth Morabito wrote:
Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but I meant to respond and it's taken
this long.
Probably the most interesting thing about it is that it's something of a
mystery! The original project was designed by Jeri Ellsworth (of the C64
DTV project), but the schematics and design docs were permanently lost
and Jeri moved on to new projects. Even now, the maintainers are making
new discoveries about how the damn thing is put together and how to
write cores for it. They're reverse-engineering their own product.
Due to some significant disagreements over the design of the PCB and
compensation, Jeri all but abandoned the C1 and directed her efforts to
the DTV. Jens, who had the money invested, took the boards, some other
FPGA developers, and went his own way.
The truth of who's right and who's wrong may never be known, but that is
why Jen has precious little of the information.
It's a shame, truly it is, because it could have been the minimig or a
similar system, selling lots of units. As it is, its history is
significantly marred by a disagreement between the designer and the
manufacturer.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
1 Feb
1 Feb
7:01 a.m.
New subject: TU56 Heads
Hi, all,
I have two DEC TU56 (DecTape) read/write heads which appear to be in
good shape, though I have no way to test them.
Is there any interest in these? I don't want to give them away, so I am
entertaining offers, Buyer would also need to pay shipping.
I really don't want to let them go, but I need some cash.
Email me with your offer.
Rick Bensene
6 Jan
6 Jan
12:49 p.m.
New subject: Minimig (was new non-x86 mobos)
David Griffith wrote:
I was wondering if it's possible to attach real
floppy drives and/or
hard drives to the Minimig
Not in the current generation ones, no. There are simply no (other)
connectors on the board --- may not be spare I/O pins either on the FPGA.
The hard drive would require a controller, and a bunch of I/O pins.
The current SD reader actually creates MFM to feed back into Paula which
functions (among other things) as the FDC. Realistically, the amiga
doesn't have an FDC ala NEC 765/Intel 8272. The amiga uses Paula as the
DPLL, data and clock recovery, and provides indication of MFM SYNC. The
CIA chips provide both input and output floppy control signals. The
coordination of everything all together is handled by the CPU using
trackdisk device within the ROM. MFM decoding is done via blitter
within Agnus.
There are add-on devices to add functionality, but they likely wouldn't
be easy to interface......
Keith
12:05 p.m.
On (11:15 06/01/10), David Griffith wrote:
A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm
of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled across something new while
looking at the Minimig board: the X1000. Its appears to be a
multicore Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed
in. See http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't
want to play the hide-and-seek game.
XCore processor based according to XMOS employee Jonathan May:
http://twitter.com/jonathan_may/status/7404
Who happens to be the son of David May, transputer architect, and now CTO of
XMOS. The INMOS/XMOS similarities don't end with the name... Very cool
stuff.
http://www.xmos.com
Cheers,
Andrew
--
Andrew Back
a at smokebelch.org
5219
days inactive
5245
days old
16 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
-
andy＠flirble.org -
brain＠jbrain.com -
brianlanning＠gmail.com -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
doc＠vaxen.net -
emu＠e-bbes.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
keithvz＠verizon.net -
lproven＠gmail.com -
rickb＠bensene.com -
sethm＠loomcom.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com