MiST - Amiga ST FPGA + intro

[Swift Griggs]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2016, ethan at 757.org wrote:
> First off the MiST looks neat!

It's an "FPGA computer" it's hyper-neat, if you ask me. :-)

> I picked up a the UltraSatan unit for my Mega 2 ST from Lotharek and the 
> install went well. I plan to buy the SIO2SD unit at some point in the 
> future for my 800XL/130XE.

He's got all kinds of interesting little hardware bits. It stokes a bit of 
nostalgia for the 90's when there was all manner of strange dohickeys and 
frodads for sale for Amigas and STs. I was too poor to buy any of it, or 
an SGI of my own. I think when you have geek lust for something as a kid 
or teen, but can never get your hands on it, it makes it even more 
"special" to you as an adult (where other folks just see some old obsolete 
junk).

> How much are Tezros going for? I assume not that many were sold.

I got a deal on mine for $1000 about two years ago. The owner didn't think 
the machine was in working condition. It turns out it was a decked out 
full-quad rig that came from a California special effects house. It 
wouldn't post or boot. I knew I could sell the CPU boards alone for more 
than $1k, so I bought it. As it turned out, the only problem was that 
someone had juggled the boards on the system as they decommissioned it 
(probably to remove a special board the still wanted), and in so doing 
didn't properly re-seat everything. At the time, similar systems were 
going for $4k to $10k on ebay.

> I used to be a huge SGI fanboy, but the only thing I have left is Octane 
> and Indigo.

I've had an Indigo and I've worked on Octanes quite a bit but never had 
one of my own. The problem with both of them (and my Tezro) is how huge 
and loud they are. If I ever buy a house, I'm going to modify a closet to 
put this crap into so I don't have to hear it. That's the main thing that 
holds me back from using them more. I use my Indys more than my O2 or my 
Tezro because of the noise.

Still, the Tezro can do full HD (1920x1080) graphics in 24 bit color. It 
also has a DVI interface that doesn't require a special 13W3 monitor or 
huge 13W3 -> VGA sync-on-green adapter or a special keyboard & mouse like 
the Indigo (which is a wonderful design, otherwise).

> Do the Tezros have power supply issues like the Fuel?

Mine doesn't. I'm on Nekochan.net quite a bit and I don't see any chronic 
issues with the Tezro power supplies. However, I can confirm the issues 
with the Fuel.

> My coworker sitting next to me has a Fuel sitting on his desks (for fun) 
> and it's dead from a PSU issue or motherboard power issue. I think he 
> said it's common.

Fortunately, there are pretty easy hacks to replace the PS on a Fuel. I've 
got mixed feelings about the Fuel, but it's still a fun machine. If it 
wasn't for the noise, the O2 would probably be my favorite. It's one of 
those completely designed-from-scratch true hardware-Unix-workstations 
with some neat ideas (like the ICE co-processor and the outstanding A/V 
option). The unified memory architecture of the O2 was also really neat. 
The first time I saw someone use an O2 to super-smooth zoom down on a 
16000x16000 satellite image I was very impressed.

-Swift