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[News] Photos of the A1-LiteANN.lu
Posted on 18-Sep-2003 17:43 GMT by Peter Gordon115 comments
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Soft3 have posted images of the new Mini-ITX formfactor AmigaONE Lite.

You can see them here!
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 101 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by asymetrix on 19-Sep-2003 11:01 GMT
Hi

I like this AmigaOne Lite, small eligant solution.

The specs have the basic requirments for an A600 style machine of 2004 !

Lets see :

Graphics chipset : Radeon xxx - much faster than AGA or AAA, but can I play the latest 3D games on the market ? YES - so good gfx choice (Radeon chipsets have excellent colour display).

sound ? probably AC97. basic sound - good chip.

USB 2.0 - great ! Long list of hardware i can use !

1 PCI slot - good - for a cheap/basic system who wants more ?

must come fitted with decent memory size for 3D games.
colour coded ide1/2

standard PC led/pin config
low,low power -no fan ?

price range ? I will easily pay ~200euro.
Fantasy A1200 style casing, black with engraved leds on keyboard keys and lightup logo (green) :-)

For a normal user who wants to use a simple computer - PASSED.
For a family / gaming system - PASSED
For MULTIMEDIA system - FIREWIRE, audio L/R out needed.
For Audio specialists - 512 voice DSP/digital audio out needed.

what next ? well we amigans want somthing this board does that no other has/can !

AmigaOne lite II ?
A system for professionals

Multi-functional-multi DSP/effects(copper) chip(set) (or common reference design)

EG a new kind of DATATYPES for hardware acceleration.

for example realtime X5 hardware accelerated mpeg4 encoding/conversion/render.

basically any processor intensive task can be asked to hardware assist.

its only now that PC mobo companies have introduced gfx, snd as standard - well done it only took them 18 years or so !

we now need to think another 10 years ahead - somthing light years ahead of its time. AI ? a REBOL chipset ?

just looking at the way standard motherboard communicates to cpu/memory at the binary level shows the inifeciency of the complete system.

move away from a binary transfer system to a vector/function(arg) transfer system(symbolic command).

ok enough of me -

Nice work though ! Cant wait for an Articia P version !


Has it been independatly reviewed by non Amigan specialists ?

I must say adding gfx to the motherboard as standard really pleases me and this hardware is getting in the spirit of Amiga designs.

Fantastic stuff - ok I want 2 :-)

Asy
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 102 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Some Farker on 19-Sep-2003 12:11 GMT
"it looks a bit like the A600 from Commodore, I doubt that this board will find its market. Hopefully its not a DOA like the A600 was."

Well, considering the rising popularity of ITX boards, I think you're wrong. The board will find it's niche quite quickly. As a matter of fact, I'd bet this board will be featured on www.mini-itx.com soon.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 103 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by vortexau on 19-Sep-2003 12:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 98 (Anonymous):
One of the first here to post an insightful comment!

The A1XE is the DESKTOP System.
The A1 Lite is for OTHER uses!

Systems that MAY NOT even have a keyboard!

(You don't buy a FORKLIFT when you want a SPORTSCAR - but Forklifts sell in BIG numbers . . . .
The X-Box, for instance, is NOT normally considered a Desktop!!)
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 104 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Ville Sarell on 19-Sep-2003 12:38 GMT
In reply to Comment 50 (Eva):
Eva wrote:
"Ehrm but no-one noticed that PEGASOS BOARD ia a MINI-ATX ultra optimized?!?!?!?"

Actually I didn't see any Peggy boards in the link that THIS THREAD WAS ALL ABOUT. So buzz off.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 105 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 19-Sep-2003 12:42 GMT
In reply to Comment 50 (Eva):
@Eva
Ehrm has nobody noticed that the Pegasos being mATX has absolutely nothing to do with the mini-ITX AmigaOne?

Why do you insist on starting an AmigaONE/Pegasos or AmigaOS/MorphOS war on EVERY thread? Do you really have that boring a life?

@Topic

TBH, if the price range is between 200-400 EUR then I think Eyetech/MAI are onto a winner with this one - a VERY nicely specced system.

Ian
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 106 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Peter Gordon on 19-Sep-2003 14:05 GMT
An interesting opinion from outside the Amiga scene...

Once of my colleagues is a Linux fan, and definately not an Amigan. He has absolutely no interest in the Pegasos, or my AmigaONE XE board. He is, however, a fan of Mini ITX boards, and has a VIA one.

He looked at the A1 Lite prototype, and due to the socketed processor and the onboard Radeon instead of VIA graphics, proclaimed it cool, and depending on price would consider buying one.

If Eyetech pitch this correctly, they could be onto a winner.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 107 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by CapAARGGHH! on 19-Sep-2003 14:13 GMT
Mateys, yer on t'somethin. Yer tiny lit'el computin boards is just what d'cap'tin ordered. Aarggh!

Sept. 19th - National "Talk like a Pirate" Day
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 108 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by yoodoo on 19-Sep-2003 15:53 GMT
In reply to Comment 106 (Peter Gordon):
Spot on. I'm just about to buy a Nehemiah EPIA board (1GHz) to build a multimedia system to sit in the lounge: nice and quiet, compact etc etc. It will run Linux. I'd be more than happy to use a nice PPC instead of the C3: especially when I know support/drivers will be very quick to surface.

The main purpose of the A1-Lite is surely for STB applications, embedded controllers in production lines, multimedia kiosks etc etc. It isn't meant to be a hi-spec desktop.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 109 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 19-Sep-2003 18:27 GMT
In reply to Comment 108 (yoodoo):
"The main purpose of the A1-Lite is surely for STB applications, embedded controllers in production lines, multimedia kiosks etc etc. It isn't meant to be a hi-spec desktop."

All that, and it could nicely fit in the A500's old niche as a computer for beginners. With overall a much better spec than the A500.

(For example, one reason the A500 was never popular in schools was that it was almost impossible to network it. The Lite has built in Ethernet.)
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 110 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 19-Sep-2003 19:34 GMT
In reply to Comment 103 (vortexau):
> The A1XE is the DESKTOP System.
> The A1 Lite is for OTHER uses!

I do not agree. The Mini-ITX form-factor makes the new board ideal for "OTHER uses", yes, but its onboard PPC processors (potentially, more than one CPU will fit) make it an excellent board for a powerful yet silent desktop system as well. The PPC architecture is inherently more efficient than x86. It is an error to liken this board to the Eden/C3-based ones based on its form-factor. I believe that this board will offer a level of performance which no consumer-oriented board in the same form-factor has offered before, which is something!

This board has non-technical qualities, too. The choice of ATI (over, say, NVIDIA) for graphics (hopefully coupled with U-Boot-derived firmware) means that users will not depend on proprietary software by default, which should make the board uniquely attractive especially for hackers in the Free Software community.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 111 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 19-Sep-2003 23:37 GMT
In reply to Comment 88 (Olegil):
>This is not the final product, it's just a pre-production test. Why would they make a complete board when it's not meant to be that way after all?Just to add confusion? :->
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 112 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 20-Sep-2003 01:34 GMT
In reply to Comment 111 (Anonymous):
I'll assume you're just misinformed, and not being a troll. In manufacturing (anything, not just computers), engineers will try a lot of ideas out. Some of the better ones will make it all the way to something that could be mass-produced and sold, so that it may be tested in "real-life" situations (famous example: all those cars that get smashed by a big striped block in accident impact testing). The company will compare all these, and eventually pick one, which is the one that will get mass-produced and consumers will buy.
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 113 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by petr krenzelok on 20-Sep-2003 07:58 GMT
In reply to Comment 106 (Peter Gordon):
Just don't depreciate VIA. I had some talk with their marketing person, and they seem to understand the spirit of community. They even invited few of most successfull mods to be part of their booth.

VIA Mini-ITX means several versions - embedded system - two ethernets, four serial ports, CF reader, direct DC converter on-board etc., while e.g. media version means dolby 5.1 (next it will be hopefully Envy 7.1), USB2, FireWire, TV-OUT (enhanced version in next-generation hopefully too (1622 chip)).

VIA has very good VT8237 south-bridge too (not used in mini-itx afaik yet though). I think the company has potential.

And remember - they do own S3 .... does anyone believe in return of S3 gfx? I did not, but read news on http://www.viaarena.com ... interesting, I think that it will be cool to see those on upcoming mini-itx boards integrated.

So - if someone is for small form factor, they should provide nice media and connectivity options -

- 10/100 Ethernet (or two)
- USB2.0 definitely - releasing 1.0 family these days is bad joke
- dolby 5.1 as well as is bad joke stereo only AC'97
- fire-wire
- TV-OUT, DVD playback support in hw (as VIA has)
- FastATA or at least ATA133
- decent memory support
- wireless
- the PC should be quiet

I can imagine such PC being an A1200 replacement .... I currently own Nehemiah M10000 board and am going to build small, silent PC, for browsing the web, watching movies, listening to mp3s ...

I think that the trend, at least for home multimedia is clear - small, nice looking, silent, + connectivity (wireless option)

cheers,
-pekr-
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 114 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by hammer on 20-Sep-2003 11:01 GMT
Other potential competition (i.e. high performance) may come from "Pentium M" based solutions...
Photos of the A1-Lite : Comment 115 of 115ANN.lu
Posted by Nomad of Norad on 20-Sep-2003 17:29 GMT
In reply to Comment 100 (Anonymous):
> Why does everyone keep complaining about Fireware?
> There ARE good USB2.0 alternatives...

Firewire is a cleaner and simpler system, and is used in slightly different applications than USB (2.0 or otherwise) is.

I, for one, also hope the final AmigaOne-Lite uses Firewire, and USB 2.0, too.

NoN
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