Amiga A1222 Plus box …

Is it a render… is it the real deal… time will tell….. (now bring on the boards)

In an exciting collaboration of Amiga technology companies, ACube Systems, AAA Technology and A-EON Technology have come together to announce the production version of the long awaited A1222+ computer. This joint effort brings a new era of collaborative computing for Amiga enthusiasts by leveraging the expertise and resources of the three companies. The A1222+ is custom designed to run AmigaOS 4.x and also supports compatible Linux PowerPC operating systems as well as AmigaOS 3.x under emulation. The motherboard’s compact and robust design is powered by NXP’s QorIQ P1022 dual-core PowerPC processor running at 1.2 GHz. It is supplied with version 2.3 of A-EON’s Enhancer software package which includes advanced video and graphics drivers and a whole host of updated applications, utilities and datatypes. ACube Systems have already successfully produced updated A1222+ v1.3 prototypes and will manage the new motherboard production and testing while AAA Technology will act as the main distributor for the new Amiga machine

 

Amiga A1222 plus info and Pricing

 A-eon announced the A1222, designed to be a low-cost system based on the P1022 1.2Ghz CPU in a Micro ITX design. Development of the board began in late 2015 however due to the CPU design not featuring FPU instruction set AmigaOS4.1 would require an FPU emulator baked into the OS for it to run on the system.

Pricelist here

Kickstarter.. Retro Styled Modular IPS Display

As posted on Stephen Jones kickstarter page..,,,

Checkmate 19″ IPS Retro Monitor Overview

What we are building is a modular display platform to take us into the future of retro computing and gaming or as we say, “Yesterday’s Technology Tomorrow”. It’s the base on which to build your own future proof display solution based on what you need, and with great build quality and good looks. And it’s flexible and upgradable enough for it to last you a lifetime.

“Checkmate really helps in keeping the Amiga alive and relevant. Professionally made new hardware products like these are so encouraging to see. The monitors give a clear and vivid display, providing an ideal all-in-one retro computer solution.”

Amiga Addict Magazine

CRT displays of the kind we all grew up with are terrific displays, but they come with a price. They are not modern tech and as such they are expensive and difficult to maintain, like classic pinball machines or arcade games. We knew we had to come up with a better, more future proof solution going forwards and what we’ve designed is the Checkmate Retro Styled Modular IPS Display platform. Modular inputs and modular outputs.

Modular outputs – it doesn’t come with a panel as standard, you have to add that afterwards depending on what you need. We had to do it this way, start with a base and add options. It’s the only way to be all things to all people.

More info: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/checkmate1500mini/retro-styled-modular-ips-display-for-old-and-new-systems/description

New Amiga Tank Mouse funded  

Tank MouseTank Mouse is a brand new computer mouse, inspired by the famous Commodore Amiga 1352. However under the classic look a modern technology is hidden. Tank mouse blends retro-computing passion with everyday tasks. This modernized version is a wireless optical mouse, which received a touch panel, placed between the two buttons, for scrolling. Tank Mouse operates under Bluetooth or 2.4GHz, which makes it possible to connect to almost any kind of device, but more importantly it can be used with your original Commodore Amiga computer! The mouse connects directly to all computers supporting Bluetooth, for other computers a small USB receiver is included. The iconic bold design makes the mouse not only unforgettable but also suitable for left and right-handed people.

More info here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lukas-remis/tank-mouse-your-new-amiga-mouse/

My X5000 with AMD RX570 and HD5450 graphics

As you could have read in one of my previous posts is my AmigaOne X5000 equipped with an AMD RX570 graphics card. The use of the RX line of cards allows us to use the VA library. The Video Acceleration Library has been created to support hardware video decoding on Radeon Polaris (RX) cards. For us AmigaOS4.x users this is a very welcome addition to the use of our beloved OS and X5000.

The downside to switching to an RX based graphics card is not having support in the Linux kernel for this. This results in losing the ability to use LInux on the X5000. The only option I could think of was adding a second graphics card to bring Linux back to the machine.

As there are some posts on the hyperion forum referring to the setup of two graphics cards in the X5000 I thought it would be nice to write about my own setup.

Choosing what card to use.
Since the PCIe X16 slot is already in use for the RX570 card it leaves us with the PCI and PCIe X1 slots to choose from. The PCIe X4 slot in the X5000 is due to bad design blocked by the PCIe X16 graphics card so cannot be used. As PCI graphic cards are hard to find and very outdated (like Radeon 9250) a PCIeX1 card would be the better choice . Finding a PCIe X1 radeon/amd based graphics card is an option, but I tried using a PCIe X16 to X1 converter as those converters are easy to find and cheap due to the whole crypto mining landscape these days. As having a usable linux system for me is more important than the ability of playing games, the performance is not a big issue and a PCIe X1 slot would be good enough.

By using a converter you have many cards to choose from. I started with a Firepro RV620 based normal size graphics card but eventually got it replaced. I could not find a decent way to fit the card in my X5000 case.

For me the best way was to use a low profile Radeon graphics card (MSI HD5450), as this card leaves us the space we need for use of the converter board.
This card also has DVI and HDMI outputs so any monitor can be used, and the connectors are where I want them to be, on the back of the machine.

The monitor.
I first made the choice of attaching both graphic cards to the same monitor. As this is usable, the downside is having to switch input when starting up Linux. As my Philips monitor does not have great buttons and an OSD menu to do the switching, I am using a second monitor attached to the new graphics card just for Linux use.

The result.
So there we have it. The AmigaOne X5000 with RX card for the best OS4 experience and the option to run Linux by using a second graphics card. All stuffed away in the X5000 case and ready for action.

To do.
At the moment the Linux graphics card (HD5450) is using the FBdev (driver) in the Xorg.conf so hardware acceleration is limited… (i think there is a way to make use of hardware acceleration by using the GPU) The other thing will be making use of just on big Linux drive with several partitions instead of two drives.

Thanks.
Big thanks go to the captain of the Amiga Linux Development community, Christian Zigotzky and of course all forum members who keep the scene going. Thank you!

17/2/2022 UPDATE!

As mentioned before the FBdev issue has now been solved. This means that we now have Hardware 3D support. YEAH!!! It was hard to find the correct xorg.conf values needed to get things going…

 

GLXINFO!
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.17.0-rc4_A-EON_X5000, LLVM 12.0.1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.2 (Core Profile) Mesa 21.3.3
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 1.50
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.1 Mesa 21.3.3
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.40
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 2.0 Mesa 21.3.3
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 1.0.16
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
My Xorg.conf to get it up and running!
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “Device1”
Driver “radeon”
EndSection
Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AIGLX” “on”
EndSectionSection “Module”
Load “dri”
Load “dri2”
Load “dbe”
Load “glx”
Load “type1”
Load “freetype”
Load “record”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
Option “RENDER” “Enable”
Option “RANDR” “Enable”
Option “DAMAGE” “Enable”

Option “GLX” “Enable”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen0”
Device “Device0”
Monitor “Monitor0”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Viewport 0 0
EndSubSection
EndSection

The Checkmate A1500 Case

Amiga Cases – A500, A1200 and A600The new case is designed as an homage to the beauty and power of the Amiga 3000 and has the optional keyboard garage like the original Amiga 1000. The modular design is capable of building a highly powerful, True Amiga, based on the A500, A600 and A1200 motherboards with all of the extras that are available for these amazing computer motherboards like the Vampire accelerator/24bit graphics upgrade. http://www.apollo-accelerators.comThis video shows inside the case with components mounted with version two prototype testing.

Source: www.AmigaSystems.com

KEY2 LE First Look by Crackberry Kevin

BlackBerry KEY2 LE is here! We’re at IFA2018 in Berlin where BlackBerry Mobile is launching their brand new smartphone in three vibrant new color options: Slate, Champagne, and Atomic! Hit play and let me know in the comments which color option you’d like. Any other thoughts on the device leave them below, will PIN the best feedback for others to enjoy.