Topic: Minimig - An Amiga in an FPGA

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

What is Minimig?

Minimig stands for Mini Amiga. Minimig is an FPGA-based re-implementation of the original Amiga 500 hardware. In it's current form, Minimig is a single PCB measuring only 12*12cm which makes it the smallest "Amiga" ever made and the first new "Amiga" in almost 14 years! Minimig is available for download as an open-source / open-hardware design under the GNU public license. This page describes the architecture and the inner working of the Minimig. All design files can be downloaded from the download

[Sirgod]

That's pretty cool, But unless you have saved your old Kickstart disk from the 80's it's going to be tough. Of course one could probably find one online these days though.

The boot sequence is a 2-step process. The first step is to configure the FPGA. Like said, this is done by the PIC controller. The second step is to load the Kickstart image. This is done as follows;
Once the FPGA is configured, the system is booted in a special state. In this state, a small bootrom is overlayed at addresss #0. This bootrom loads the kickstart through the floppy emulator. Once the kickstart has been loaded, the bootrom resets the system. The bootrom then disappears from address #0 and the system boots as if it were a normal Amiga. The code from the bootrom is written in 68000 assembly. I have used the freeware AS32 assembler from the Freescale website. I have made it available for download here as I can't find it anymore on their (again...) redesigned website.

Stephen 'Amiga Rocks' Smith

[Nemesis]

That's pretty cool, But unless you have saved your old Kickstart disk from the 80's it's going to be tough. Of course one could probably find one online these days though.

Downloading them is what most people would do I suspect.  The author of the site of course can't say that or he risks his site being taken down and a lawsuit.  Some hacker probably already has the disks online though. 

This is the type of situation where current copyright law fails.  The owners of the code have no use for it and won't market it and no company wants to buy it and sell it.   Those few who do want it and would willingly pay for it can't get it without breaking the law. 

[Just plain old Punisher]

Who ownes the amiga copyright?

[Sirgod]

IIRC Gateway has it. But that's been a few years ago. So my info might be outdated.

Stephen

[Javora]

IIRC Gateway has it. But that's been a few years ago. So my info might be outdated.

Stephen

Gateway took what they wanted out of Amiga and sold off the rights.  At the time that Gateway bought out Amiga, Gateway was planing on building their own computer/TV all-in-one system with Amiga OS handling certain functions.  Gateway never really got that project off the ground and sold Amiga when Gateway started having financial difficulties.  But I don't remember who bought it.  One of my friends knows more about that stuff than I do, I'll try to ask him when I talk to him tomorrow.

Amiga rocked back in the day and I think (read IMHO) that Microsoft could have some serious compition if Amiga ever went open source and Linux was able to use that code.  Some of the fan based Amiga OS's that I saw in the mid 90's were pretty cool.  Sadly this is all that is left of Amiga the way I see it:

http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/06-03-2007-4930.html

http://www.commodoregaming.com/pcshop/Home.aspx

[Panzergranate]

Gateway premiered the Super Amiga at the Cologne Computer Fair in 1999. There was a review by stunned magazine hacks!!

Apaently NASA had comissioned them to build something to replace the aging 1980's Amiga A4000 which they were still using to process space probe image data. At that time and fpr a long time afterwards, only A4000's had the image processing hardware devotion for such a task. Obviously PCs were never up to the job nor were the slightly better than PC,  Apple Macintoshes.

The spec was as follows:

Multiprocessor.

Memory 2 Giga Byte.

Can run 20 monitors at the same time (2 in normal use). ID software did a one off special version of Doom to play on 20 monitors surrounding the gobsmacked Journos for a 360 degree view at the Cologne Computer Show demo.

Operating system is QNX's Neutreno, a non-platform far faster (and reliable) than MS Windows operating system, which NASA utilises throughout its facilities.

Cost of a new Gateway Super Amiga.... If you have to ask then you can't afford one!! About the same as a 100 Macintoshes or 200 PC Clones!! About the same as a Ferrari!!

We have a Gateway PC here and compared to the Compaq, Tulip and other home PCs we use here, it is built to a far better standard and easy to open up to work on.