[News] Two new µ-A1's models on the way | ANN.lu |
Posted on 28-Aug-2004 15:44 GMT by Still Articia? | 170 comments View flat View list |
Two MiniITX A1's models are on the way, both G3. The first one is very similar to the "beta" versions that was sold earlier. The price for this one will be $600USD/500EUR, excluding VAT. The other version will also offer some more features such as Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet and an additional (custom?) PCI connector, and will cost $700USD/600EUR.
More info at: http://www.eyetech.co.uk/addbar.php?Address=/NEWS/TWONE001.HTM
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 151 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by hammer on 01-Sep-2004 01:27 GMT | In reply to Comment 147 (ABM$): Note that, the "Pentium M" (Dothan) @2.0Ghz is quite nice with games (with a decent graphics card). I should rephrase "nice" to killing Pentium IV(Northwood) @3.2Ghz. Sorry pal, you are referring to a the wrong MPU for games. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 152 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Jupp3 on 01-Sep-2004 05:40 GMT | In reply to Comment 130 (Anonymous): >Firewire has lost, USB 2.0 has won, time to accept that. It's not a matter of speed anymore.
I fully agree. Speed doesn't matter. I manage very well with my onboard USB1.1 on my Pegasos 2, no need for USB2.0 (no need for me to f.ex. buy faster USB on separate PCI card) :-) |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 153 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 06:16 GMT | In reply to Comment 144 (Anonymous): And using one of the first 64 bit computers is more forward looking, exciting and in the pioneering amiga spirit than these boards. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 154 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 07:13 GMT | In reply to Comment 152 (Jupp3): > I manage very well with my onboard USB1.1 on my Pegasos 2, no need for USB2.0
Mouse and keyboard and tablet? Shure. But TV/DVB box, broadband modem, 6.1 sound, w-lan, bluetoooth, fat memory stick, drives (DVD/CD/HD/...), scanner, laser printer, still camera, webcam, card/pcmia reader, tablet, IR receiver? At the same time? I don't think so. Not that it matters much in the case of the Pegasos, you can always add an USB 2.0 card. But a mini-itx board that is very often mounted in a case that can not take a single card? USB 2.0 is the most important port for such a board, no other port can take the same variety of hardware. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 155 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Jupp3 on 01-Sep-2004 09:02 GMT | In reply to Comment 154 (Anonymous): >Mouse and keyboard and tablet? Shure. But TV/DVB box, broadband modem, 6.1 sound, w-lan, bluetoooth, fat memory stick, drives (DVD/CD/HD/...), scanner, laser printer, still camera, webcam, card/pcmia reader, tablet, IR receiver?
I doubt we won't see drivers for all those devices anyway. And many of those (soundcard, TV tuner, CD/HD drives, modems etc.) can be connected to other ports aswell (Which I'd say is a better solution anyway)
>USB 2.0 is the most important port for such a board, no other port can take the same variety of hardware.
Wrong. USB1.1 can take most (all?) of the same devices. And when I (rarely) use any device, that would be faster on USB2 (mostly CF reader), "I can wait" :-) |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 156 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:04 GMT | In reply to Comment 73 (Anonymous): >Crippled in clockspeed, but it is faster clock for clock than a Motorola G4, although it lacks Altivec.
Altivec is good for several numbercrunching/media tasks which can take a long
time or simply be impossible with G3 (realtime en/decoding).
Eyetech cripples the G3 by the limited 133MHz Articia S FSB - a chip which
supports the full 200MHz to extract the full performance advantage would be
the Discovery III presently unavailable to any PPC designs in the Amiga market. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 157 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:07 GMT | In reply to Comment 71 (AdmV): >£170 for an 800Mhz processor thats basically crippled compared to other current processors. Wow. Bargain.
Not sure about the current price, but the last quote I have is 98USD. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 158 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:17 GMT | In reply to Comment 83 (Anonymous): >It appears the main problem to build an 800 MHZ board for 99 EUR is the
>enormous price of the CPU. Somebody should hit Mororola with a big stick.
The low voltage 867MHz 7447 is about 160USD. Intel also don't sell their
Pentium-M cheap (but then they are faster than G4, too). |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 159 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:25 GMT | In reply to Comment 102 (Anonymous): >GB max speed: about 120 Mo/s
>PCI max speed: about 130 Mo/s.
You forgot the fullduplex thing which doubles the Gigabit bandwidth needs (in theory).
>About the FireWire, Which chipset is used ? Is it directly inside the southbridge ?
It has the nasty VIA 686B, so there is no Firewire inside the southbridge. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 160 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:28 GMT | In reply to Comment 156 (Anonymous): > Crippled in clockspeed, but it is faster clock for clock than a Motorola G4, although it lacks Altivec.
Isn't it a bit stupid to say "faster than the G4 if the G4 hadn't Altivec"? Because that means it is not faster. The Mini is faster than the Porsche if the Porsche turbo charger is ripped out. Duh. That Altivec speed kicks in when you really need it: a filter in a graphics program, video encoding, games, simulations. In the end, it all depends on what you do with the computer: Get a G3 if you are into programming and office use, it will work for you. But a video/graphics/multimedia/games enthusiast who bypassses the G4 and the 300% speed increase Altivec can provide on grounds of "the G3 is ten percent faster with integers" must be mad. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 161 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:28 GMT | In reply to Comment 111 (Anonymous Orc): >it IS cheap - the board is around 130 EURO (which includes the'name' licence.
No, it was 130GBP which is 190+EUR.
As for the CPU...there is a joke going around Eyetech is always paying last year's prices. ;^) |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 162 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:33 GMT | In reply to Comment 158 (Anonymous): > Intel also don't sell their Pentium-M cheap (but then they are faster than G4, too).
I don't know about Intel but the mobile Athlon XP is pretty cheap: below 100 EUR for the XP-M 2500. It can be underclocked to be cool (at 800 MHz, it doesn't need active cooling, a big passive heatsink will do) and, if you are lucky, be overclocked to the XP 3200 level and beyond. It fits into desktop mainboards. Great chip. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 163 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:34 GMT | In reply to Comment 112 (Anonymous Orc): >399 UKP was the A1200 launch price in the UK. That was in 1991,
>so If you factor in inflation, then, in todays prices, that would be 547 UKP
Very interesting logic, indeed. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 164 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:49 GMT | In reply to Comment 135 (ABM$): >If PPC was good for JPL and NASA, then its good enough for me.
*LOL*
This is such a characteristic stupid phrase for Americans without a clue... </Herrmansmode>
I hope you have fun with your 20MHz PPC, my 060 will run circles around it.
Still, there is nothing like the prestige of a milspec piece of HW, eh? ;-D |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 165 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 09:52 GMT | In reply to Comment 155 (Jupp3): > And many of those (soundcard, TV tuner, CD/HD drives, modems etc.) can be connected to other ports aswell (Which I'd say is a better solution anyway)
That makes no sense unless you count the PCI option as "port". Because USB 1.x and the few legacy ports are hardly adequate for most of the hardware that was mentioned.
> Wrong. USB1.1 can take most (all?) of the same devices
There is a difference between can take and makes sense. USB 1.x is very slow, it peaks out at 1 MB/second or so in real life tests (12 MBps theoretically). Good enough for HID devices but beyond that? USB 2.0 is spec'ed at 480 MBps. Not as good as Firewire, I'm told, but still a world of a difference. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 166 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Jupp3 on 01-Sep-2004 12:02 GMT | In reply to Comment 165 (Anonymous): But still I rather plug CD-ROM and HD to my IDE port...
Modem... Hope I get never (again) THAT desperate to get online :D
Printer, Scanner... Sure they would be faster, but as I said earlier, I (and many others, I guess) can wait (rather than invest in new hardware), and personally I don't print that often (except at school, where it's practically free) and my printer connects to Parallel port anyway :)
If YOU can't wait, just either buy a motherboard with USB2 onboard, or one with spare PCI slot for one. It's as simple as that. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 167 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2004 14:08 GMT | In reply to Comment 166 (Jupp3): > Modem... Hope I get never (again) THAT desperate to get online :D
What went wrong? I have an USB ADSL modem from devolo, formerly known as Elsa, and am very satisfied with it, it's reliable and fast and as easy as it gets (no power supply, no ethernet stuff, no cryptic web administration). I prefer ICS and a software firewall over a router, after prior experience with a LG router from hell. Things would be different with Linux but Linux will only get on my computers over my dead body.
> If YOU can't wait, just either buy a motherboard with USB2 onboard, or one with spare PCI slot for one. It's as simple as that.
Don't have to tell me that, that's what I said above ;) The point was: the micro-A1 is not easily expandable, not having USB 2.0 on-board can hardly be excused. During the transition from USB 1.x to USB 2.0, many PC mainboards had a small extra chip for USB 2.0. Beats me why none of those is on the board. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 168 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by ABM$ on 02-Sep-2004 00:13 GMT | In reply to Comment 164 (Anonymous): Way OT, but here goes nothing....
Yeah, but thank [place the name of your
preferred deity here] that said 20 Mhz
PPC was milspec HW and that it all arrived
in one piece.
Beagle 2 was not so fortunate. I really
have no idea what sort of computer HW it
had onboard, but if the loss turned out
to be the result of some type of computer
problem, the irony of that would not be
lost on this "clueless" American. All the
same, I'm honestly glad the orbiter (Mars
Express) faired much better:) |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 169 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Anonymous on 02-Sep-2004 10:56 GMT | In reply to Comment 168 (ABM$): > but if the loss turned out to be the result of some type of computer
problem
No. AFAIK, they believe that the density of the atmosphere was misjudged (ie. it crash-landed). Unfortunately, it doesn't send any data on descend, so they have to make wild guesses. |
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 170 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Crumb // AAT on 02-Sep-2004 14:26 GMT | In reply to Comment 160 (Anonymous): I had a long discussion in AW.net and man, I fully agree with you! |
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