MiST - Amiga ST FPGA + intro

[Swift Griggs]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2016, Ben Sinclair wrote:
> I'm an SGI guy too!

:-)

> In college I worked as a sysadmin for a lab running a Challenge, and 
> Indigo and Indy desktops.

Cool. From that era I'd guess you mean the Challenge S which was an Indy 
without a framebuffer. There were Challenge series machines to match most 
of the architectures before the O2. They were usually stripped down server 
versions of whatever workstation was current. I still have a Challenge S 
with a 200Mhz R4600 in it (fastest R4k). I use it as a web server. You can 
also use the 180Mhz R5k in that guy. I love watching people try to hack 
it. They get very confused (and doubtless quite frustrated).

> I have a nice O2 with a 1600SW, and just got an Octane that seems to 
> have a bad graphics board.

Nice. I never did pick up a 1600SW. They were too expensive for me when 
they came out, and then by the time they came down VGA based LCDs were 
cheaper and better. However, I'm often still tempted since the O2 has a 
special rig for the 1600SW, as you know. It allows the O2 to use better 
than 1280x1024 which, with a normal LCD, is as high as you can go. I still 
use an NEC sync-on-green capable multisync LCD that's native to 1280x1024.

> In the past I had an Indy and an Indigo with ELAN graphics.

Cool. I have two Indy's and a Challenge S, and I used to have an Indigo as 
well (kinda wish I still had it). I love love love the design of the 
Indigo. I just wish they didn't have 13W3 graphics and proprietary 
keyboards and mice. My Indigo didn't have ELAN, though just "Entry" 
graphics. However, one of my two Indy's is totally maxxed. It's an R5k 
with max RAM (256M) and XZ graphics. I even made a custom case cover for 
it out of stainless steel.  My other Indy has a Cosmo board and a R4600. 
They are actually about the same speed (180Mhz R5k @= 200Mhz R4600). Both 
are fully badged and scratchless. I store the spare ones I'm not using in 
a foam-in-place steel road case that used to be used for a huge mixing 
board (nutty eh?).

> I'd love to have a Tezro, or even a Fuel, but they're hard to come by!

I lurked on Ebay looking for a Tezro for over a year before I found the 
one I chanced across. Now, I need a dmedia setup for it, but I think I'll 
wait just a tad bit longer. I need to get rid of some stuff and clear some 
space to _use_ the darn thing. My house is already looking 
junk-yard-esque. I'm too that point of "OMG, I this is way over the top my 
wife is right, I gotta get rid of some of this stuff!"

I think my Ultra 60 is going to have to go along with a ton of books and a 
small mountain of parts I've deemed not-cool-enough, now. I just need it 
to stop snowing here long enough to get'er done.

-Swift