Within the last couple of years, we have seen 'new' Amigas being released in the form of clones. I say 'new', because they have all been based on just one of two motherboards, the A1200 and A4000.
Now, in bus like fashion, we have three new motherboards: One from DCE and Power Computing (as used in the A5000 and A6000), the BoXeR from Index Information and Blittersoft, and then another from Index which is used in their Access machine.
The DCE one and the BoXeR are fairly similar; '040/'060 CPU, SIMM sockets, Zorro slots, IDE interface and a CPU expansion slot.
But if you were to design a new Amiga Motherboard, what would you put in it? Here's a sort of questionnaire; if you like, you can send it to us via email or post, as we'd be interested to see what you think... The rest of this file is plain text, so load it into a text editor, or whatever. Note that in each section, I haven't put 'tick boxes' or whatever, prefering to see what your individual thoughts are.
CPU --- Maybe you think a dual processor system on board, with '040/'060 and PPC slot together, after all, a next generation Amiga will need more than an '060 to get by. Or maybe just a PPC processor on its own, with 680x0 emulation? Then again, AI are not decided on a particular CPU; by providing just an '040/'060 slot, additional CPUs (be they PPC, Alpha, or whatever) could be provided via an expansion card, depending on what AI decide. Graphics/Card Slots ------------------- Should the AGA chipset be kept, or replaced by AGA emulation (cheaper, but things will get very slow when using software which requires it)? Should PCI slots be implemented, or use a new chipset? If the latter, should this chipset be an existing one (eg, Permedia 2), or a new one developed by AI? Should Zorro slots be there as standard, as an option, or not at all? Memory ------ How much as standard? 32bit or 64bit? SIMMs or DIMMs? Interfaces ---------- The main choice is IDE or SCSI. The problem is that although SCSI is faster, it is also more expensive, and will make keeping the price at PC level difficult. Should SCSI be an option? Other ----- What else should be there as standard? Maybe you like the built in scan doubler of the DCE board, which allows VGA monitors to be used without problems. Are there other things you would like to see standard on a new Amiga motherboard?
Mark