AMIGAX

New AmigaOne Netbook AmigaOS 4.1 compatible

AmigaX — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:11:42 +0000

This Saturday (22-Oct), Hyperion announced they are working in drivers for an OEM PowerPC based netbook already available. Drivers will be available in the 1Q-2012.

The only PowerPC based netbook in the market is the LimePC. http://www.limefree.org
The LimePc is based on a Freescale PowerPC MPC5121e processor

Other details:
- 400Mhz MPC5121e Processor
- 8,9″ TFT Screen (1024×600) -> Rumor: 12″ screen
- 256 Mb RAM -> Rumor: 512Mb
- HD: 4, 8 or 16 GB
- Wireless LAN
- Battery Li/Ion 3400 mAh
- Webcam 0.3 Megapixels
- Ports: 1xVGA, 2xUSB, 1xRJ45, 1xSD Card reader
- Powervr SGX 2D/3D graphics accelerator (the iPhone 3G graphic chip)
- Soundcard

This configuration could change in the commertial product, but this is a minimum base config. And the best: The Netbook price is 199$ http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Vodacom-Linkbook/

The Amiga branded Netbook will cost between 300 and 500$

Very good news!

My new project: A2000

AmigaX — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:17:06 +0000

Here is my new-old A2000. She is in perfect shape.
It’s a basic A2000 rev 6.3 with rom 1.3 and 3.1 and two floppy drives.

I’ll upgrade it with:
- Buddha Ide controller
- GVP A2000-HC+8 SCSI Card
- Tekmatic 2060 or ACA620 (when available).
- Network card
- Cybervision 64/3D

Replacing the CD32 Laser Unit

AmigaX — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:43:28 +0000

Recently I bought a NOS CD32 v4.0 (French version) with a scart cable.
Very nice, but the consoles didn’t work with CDRs and had many problems with originals CDs.

I decided to replace the CD32′s laser unit buying a new one in Dönberg Electronics LTD.
This is the model: KSS 210b http://www.donberg.ie/descript/k/kss_210b.htm only 12,9€ + shipping

this is was what we did:

Original Laser unit inside the CD32

Now the CD32 works like a NOS one and it can read CDRs without problems.

How works HXC Floppy Emulator in Amiga (rev B / rev C)

AmigaX — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:43:03 +0000

Every Amiga user have (or have had) a lot of floppy disks because the floppy drive is the native format and you can find thousands of games and programs in this format.

Thanks to WHDLOAD and the popularity of CFCards as a Hard Disks, the A600/A1200/A4000 users now can forget the floppy drive.

But what about A500/A2000 users without IDE or SCSI controller?

I discovered an incredible device: a floppy disk emulator that works with SD memory cards.

The emulator can be installed replacing the internal floppy disk and connecting the floppy cable to the emulator. I have installed the emulator as external device because my Amiga must share this “toy” with an Amstrad CPC. In the pictures you can see the cables comming out but the Amiga case is closed with screws.

Its very simple to install, only plug the floppy controller cable and the power.

You must set the jumper like you can see in the photo.

The only bad thing is: you need to use a Windows machine to convert the adf/dms files to a propietary format, then copy the files to the SDCard.

Once the files are in the SDCard, when you turn on the Amiga with the emulator connected and the SD inserted, a special program load from the

SDCard. This program shows you all the floppy images in the SDCard. The system supports folders and is “multidisk”, this means you can select multiple disks, for example: workbench install, workbench fonts, workbench extras. If you press f10, the system reboots and the Amiga boots from the first disk selected, in the video you can see “Amiga Workbench 2.1 install disk”.

Pressing the left and right buttons in the emulator, you can browse through the files you have selected before, in this example you can see Amiga Extras and Amiga Fonts disks. Only one image can be loaded at the same time in the emulator!! ;P

The emulator read, but also WRITE in the SD using an Amiga (emulator revision C).

I’ll put more videos and info about this cool device.
You can find more info in the official web:

[edit : 7-dec-2010]
A new video : HXC rev. C (with write support) formating a floppy and copying files.

Speed test with Sysinfo: Reading files the HxC emulator works like the real drive (arround 20k/s)

Speed writing data: It’s very slow writing data (1 minute/100k vs 20 seconds the real floppy).

ACA630 and ACA1230

AmigaX — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:05:41 +0000

Jens did it again. Individual Computers has designed two new accelerator cards for classic Amigas. The ACA630 for the A600 and the ACA1230 for the A1200.

Very interesting cards. I love the ACA630, it comes with 32Mb and a 68030/28Mhz (not EC).
You must quit the internal floppy drive if you want to install the Indivision+ACA630.

HXC Floppy Emulator it’s perfect to replace the A600 floppy drive: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
I think the disk emulator will fit perfect with the ACA630 and the Indivision. I’ll do a review in other post.

The other card, the ACA1230 comes with 64Mb and a 68EC030. No MMU and No FPU. The only option it’s a RTC clock.
Will be a 56Mhz version far more interesting than this. But the 28Mhz version costs only 99€!

Playing again…

AmigaX — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:43:11 +0000

I’ve long without updating the blog.
AmigaCenter repaired my A4000 board 6 months ago.
Now I’m back with the BBS project.

My A4000 is dead

AmigaX — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:27:48 +0000

I’m not updating the blog because my A4000 is dead.
My motherboard is in Amiga Center and I think next week will be here for play again.

My Amiga is broken

AmigaX — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:30:08 +0000

I’m having a lot of problems with the Zorro cards. I think my motherboards are damaged.
I’m going to send the board to Amiga Center France. They repair Amiga boards.
If they can’t repair the board, I’ll buy an Amiga 4000T from Softhut.

X-Surf Card “Recoverable alert error 0100 0008″

AmigaX — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:01:58 +0000

My new X-Surf has worked very well for a week.. Today I have a problem:

When turn on the computer sometimes:
- The green led in the Xsurf is on -> then the card works
- The green led is off -> then recoverable alert 0100 0008

I’m going to check the card in my other Amiga 4000, but I don’t like this problem.. the card is hot, and I have an extra fan inside the case…

updated:

Now I’m using my other A4000 and the X-Surf is working without problems. My old A4000 is broken, I think the buster or something related with the Zorro slots.

I’m going to put a X-Surf speed test here.

Mediator, my worst nightmare

AmigaX — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:51:27 +0000

After a week working pretty stable, now the computer reboots randomly again.
My graphic card and my network card works fine, but random reboots are unacceptable in a server.

I removed the Mediator and the problems are gone.

I ordered a Xsurf card, I will not waste any more time with the Mediator.

* edit: mediator works perfect in my other a4000