Re: AmigaOne X5000

[Al Zick <al%familysafeinternet.com@localhost>]

Hello,


On Mar 3, 2017, at 5:07 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:

> On Fri, 3 Mar 2017, Al Zick wrote:
> > The AmigaOne X5000 is out! In fact, I have one.
>
> Sweet! Congrats, Al. I took a look at the deals at Amiga on the  
> Lake and it was pretty pricey. I want to say it's like $1500 -  
> $1900 USD depending on options, but I might be misremembering. It's  
> just a tad too rich for my blood. However, I'm still really  
> interested.

The less expensive version is supposed to be out soon.

> Does it have an FPGA on board like the X1000 did? I've wondered if  
> they added that so you could drop some VHDL or whatever and  
> reproduce an "real" legacy Amiga in those gates, then funnel 68k  
> through that layer rather than having to always resort to UAE. Is  
> that possible with the AX5K?

I am not really sure.

> > It seems fast, but AmigaOS doesn't give it much of a work out.
>
> Yeah, it's definitely a case of hardware outpacing software. The  
> post-Commodore era has sucked. IIRC, only Escom was the last non- 
> Commodore company able to actually produce a "real" Amiga.  
> Everything else has turned out to be a tease or a dirty lie. So, my  
> hat is off to the A-EON guys for the work. My only regret is that  
> it looks like a cheap PC in a crappy case.

Mine looks really bad. I put it into an old PC case with a Dell  
keyboard, and monitor. I guess it would give people a real surprise  
if they booted it up and I wasn't there.

> The other sad fact was that the M68k line sorta died. Yeah, sure  
> Coldfire was pretty close, but still not pin or microcode  
> compatible. Bummer. I put a lot of work into learning the 68k in  
> the '030 era when it had become fully 32 bit. In my (albeit  
> limited) experience, I found it to be very comfortable to program on.

This is sad. I really like 68k. It seems to me there was a was a  
Coldfire cpu that they based an accelerator card on for the Atari. I  
am not sure how well it worked, but from what I read it had a system  
to trap 68060 instructions and run it through an emulator.

> > I did try installing NetBSD on it with Bochs. Here it is in the  
> > installer: http://datazap.net/sites/14/Bochsinstall.jpg I think it  
> > is only using 1 core.
>
> You are emulating x86 though, right? Cool screenshot. I *am* jealous.

Yes, I am emulating x86.


> > It looks like there maybe a new PowerPC notebook:http:// 
> > www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/
>
> Huh, and they are made by A-Cube, too. The same folks who make the  
> SAM460. Cool. I hope it makes it to production. If it looked  
> halfway cool and could run AmigaOS, that'd be the culmination of a  
> longtime dream since Commodore never produced a portable Amiga.  
> However, it looks like those folks are concentrating on Linux.

Yes, they do seem to concentrate on Linux. I would rather see them  
use NetBSD.

> > Also, Servergy has built a new PowerPC server: http:// 
> > www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1262676
>
> I saw that come out, too. It's hella expensive, though. I can't  
> remember but I just remember a sharp inhalation of breath when I  
> saw the $$$.

> > There maybe other PowerPC system too. I know that they plan on  
> > building 2 more versions of the X5000.
>
> > The problem is that Debian may drop support for PPC:
>
> That's okay. I've dropped support for Debian. So have a lot of  
> folks now that Devuan Beta 1 has been so stable and successful.  
> Post systemd distros who downed the poison pill with a big jar of  
> Lennart's cool aid are dead to me. Dead forever - no more chances  
> after that fiasco.
>
> > http://tenfourfox.blogspot.ae/2016/11/debian-drops-powerpc.html  
> > The author of this article believe like me that NetBSD needs to be  
> > ported to the new PowerPC system. There must be someone who can  
> > port to this system.
>
> Well, if it does happen to garner NetBSD support I'd probably buy  
> one myself. I wish I was rich, and I could buy a couple of  
> interested kernel devs their own rig to work with.

I really hope that NetBSD is ported to it. It sounds like NetBSD  
already supports the single core processor - the e500, but I believe  
the system I have has an e500mc.

> Anyhow, I hope you enjoy your new machine. If you happen to write  
> up any blogs or other experiences with it, shoot them to the list  
> or to me. I'd love to hear about your experience.

I want to try booting a NetBSD kernel with e500 support and I will  
let you know how it goes.

-Al