Amiga set for re-launch

April 19, 2010 | 10:16

Tags: #amiga #amigaone-x1000 #commodore-amiga #co-processor #x1000

Companies: #a-eon #commodore #ppc

If you grew up in the era of 16-bit computers, a familiar name might surprise you with a comeback: there's a new Amiga in the offing.

Based around the original Amiga A1000, the AmigaOne X1000 is something Commodore could only have dreamed of making back in the early days: with a dual-core 1.8GHz PPC RISC processor backed up with an ATI Radeon R700 graphics processor and 2GB of RAM, the specifications leave its namesake standing, featuring as it did a 7.09MHz processor and an absolute maximum of 8MB of RAM.

The connectivity is something pretty impressive, too: a full ten USB 2.0 ports, 7.1 channel audio output, a gigabit Ethernet port - and a modern standards-compatible web browser to make use of it - PCI Express slots, SATA 2 connectors, various legacy connectors including a pair of RS232 serial ports and two PCI slots, as well as a Xorro slot.

The last - a modified PCI Express x8 slot - will require some explanation: designed to provide additional input output lines to the system bus, the Xorro slot can be equipped with an add-on programmable co-processor to keep multi-core software ticking along nicely. As standard, the Xorro slot will be populated with a programmable 500MHz board dubbed Xena.

The appearance of the AmigaOne X1000 - described by creator A-eon as a involving "customised case, keyboard, and mouse" and expected to take its cues from the Amiga 1000 - is currently being kept under wraps, with a grand unveiling due at the Vintage Computing Festival in Bletchley Park this June.

Are you pleased to see that the Amiga isn't quite dead yet, or would it take more than a programmable co-processor and a dual-core 1.8GHz PPC chip to make you think you'd made the wrong choice moving to an IBM-compatible all those years ago? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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