amiga-news.de - Archive

Archiv 'New hardware and software products'

`17.Dec.2005` Jens Schönfeld (ANF)	new product by individual Computers: Keyrah Keyrah makes keyboards of classic computers available to new computers. The board fits the case of a C64, VIC-20, C128, C-16 or Amiga 1200, and turns the computer into a USB keyboard. Keyrah gives new life to defective computers, or computers that have been moved to a different case, because the mainboard is no longer needed. In addition to that, two digital joysticks can be connected that will act as additional keys (for example cursor keys). The joystick ports show a special strength of Keyrah: The high data transfer speed. We followed the discussion about a newly produced USB-version of a classic joystick with great interest. Many customers have judged this joystick as unusable, because the reaction to any movement is too inert, thus making games unplayable. For the full gaming fun, Keyrah transfers it's data ten times faster than the USB version of that joystick! As a special titbit for fans of the C64, we're using a switch that's almost identical to the one of the original computer. The only difference (not noticable to the user) is that it's lead-free, and therefore RoHS-conform. It switches between two keymaps that are either adjusted to the daily use under Windows, or especially for emulators like Vice and Amiga Forever. Keyrah has been successfully tested with all common operating systems like Linux, Amiga OS, Mac OS and Windows. It works on desktop and laptop computers, but also on the X-Box. Keyrah is a standard USB human interface device, so proper function is also ensured with systems that are not mentioned here. Keyrah will be available in february 2006, the price will be about 30,- EUR. The exact scope of delivery is not yet decided, we're investigating the possibilty to include a USB cable and tools for this price, so we can deliver a package that our customers are used to: Ready to go without additional equuipment. Pictures: Keyrah in a C64-II case Interior view of C64 case (cg) [News message: 17. Dec. 2005, 02:24] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`12.Dec.2005` Jens Schönfeld (ANF)	individual Computers: 8 Bit Baby is available The product "8 Bit Baby", that was already announced in forums and with flyers, is finally available! It's an experimenting-board for hobbyists who want to develop hardware on their own. As the name already suggests, the board aims at users of the popular 8-bit computers of the 80s. These computers all have expansion ports that carry all important signals. Unfortunately, most hobbyists do not have the chance to make their own expansions, because experimenting boards normally do not have slot-connectors. This problem is now solved with the "8 Bit Baby". The board has a special connector for a computer on each of the four sides: for C64: 44-pin, raster 2,54mm for VIC-20: 44-pin, raster 3,96mm for C16/C116/plus-4: 50-pin, raster 2,0mm for Apple II: 50-pin, raster 2,54mm The board is prepared for a programmable logic chip by Altera in order to bring hardware development up-to-date. The EPM3064 can replace many TTL-chips with it's 64 macrocells and up to 34 IO-pins. TTL-chips were used on a regular basis for hardware-expansions in the 80s. The Altera chip can be programmed without expensive programming equipment, you just need a so-called JTAG-cable for the parallel port. The development software "Quartus" can be downloaded at no cost from www.altera.com. If you do not want to solder the JTAG-cable on your own, you can buy the "multivolt" version from us for 12,- EUR each. Axel Muhr has opened the website www.8BitBaby.de for all interested people. It's the perfect place to discuss the "nuts and bolts" of your hardware projects! We will of course publish example circuits on that site, and hope for your participation! Prices: 8 Bit Baby board (1 pc.): 7,90 EUR 8 Bit Baby board (4 pcs. and up): 6,90 EUR (prices include 16% VAT where applicable) We'll offer a parts kit shortly that includes all necessary parts to build the Altera PLD circuit. It's mostly standard-parts, except for the 3,3V voltage regulator that your local electronics store might not carry. Since this part might be hard to get, it's included with every 8 Bit Baby that's ordered before the end of the year! Fortunately, this product is not affected by the EU laws and the consequences that we announced on november 24th, because the EU-directive does not apply to single parts. There's more products in our portfolio that are not affected, these can still be sold within the EU: Deathbed Vigil DVD, signed by Dave Haynie 5,25 inch disks double-sided, single-density cartridge cases for C64-cartridges double-CD Commodore Billboard and Funet archive (ps) [News message: 12. Dec. 2005, 00:37] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`10.Dec.2005` (ANF)	Minimig: Amiga 500 as FPGA reimplementation Under the title link says an amiga.org member that during the last twelve months he has newly implemented the complete chipset of an Amiga 500 into a FPGA (field programmable gate array). He used a Spartan-3 FPGA development board programmed in Verilog. Please consider that there is no further confirmation of the existance of this project apart from the developer's statement and some images (see below). According to the designer is in the current version of the project codenamed "Minimig" support for sound and keyboard still missing, and the emulation of the flopppy controller is not very accurate (as "floppy discs" are MMC flash cards used with ADF images stored on them). The Workbench as well as some games (New Year Lemmings is named) are allegedly already running on the prototype. The FPGA contains the complete Amiga chipset (Agnus, Paula, Denise and both CIAs) including ChipRAM but not CPU and FastRAM. The two inmdependent bus systems of a real Amiga were put together to a combined synchronous bus with a 7.09379 Mhz clock and existing only within the FPGA. RAM and CPU are linked via two bridge chips (synchronous-asynchronous conversion) with this internal bus. A real ROM does not exist, instead there's a bootloader loading the Kickstart from a memory card. Images: Plasma effect on Minimig, demonstration of a Copper bug New Year Lemmings on Minimig The Minimig prototype The used processor (3,3V version of the MC 68000) (cg) (Translation: wk) [News message: 10. Dec. 2005, 16:24] [Comments: 4 - 02. Jan. 2006, 01:03] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`10.Dec.2005`	Disk drive emulation with Flash memory card Under the title link describes Tim N. Taschpulatow his hobby project of an emulated Amiga disk drive using a SD/MMC memory card. With this hardware, for example linked as drive DF1:, you can read an ADF diskfile on an Amiga computer like from a real disk. Write access is presently not possible. Photos of this construction can be found in a Russian thread on Amiga.org.ru. (snx) (Translation: wk) [News message: 10. Dec. 2005, 11:40] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]

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