Quote:

I don`t own AmigaOS 4 Final, but from Epsilons review I see;
http://amigax1000.blogspot.com/2015/01/amigaos41-final-edition-part-2.html

a) JXFS wizard file system is dead: A warning comes up to remind me that JXFS is no longer supported in AmigaOS4.1 Final Edition, and has a read-only legacy mode only.
b) There seems to be a memory card driver (finally, since now I can update Linux kernel from AmigaOS)
c) It seems faster onboard ethernet is included BUT NOT WORKING (in despite what SSolie sad above) but Epsilon wasn`t brave enough to test it: "You are then asked to choose your network card. I got a bit excited when I saw that the built in X1000 network adapter is included as an option (we have to use a PCI network card under AmigaOS4.1.6). I selected the built in adapter and click on Test this Configuration: Unfortunately it didn't work - I also subsequently found out the built-in network driver has dropout issues and shouldn't be used by X1000 owners at this time."

I wait for time to free PCI slot and trash the slow card, similar as I did to sound card, once onboard audio was supported (or replacing it by Sound Blaster Live emu card)

But, it seems old net card now causes conflicts with newer Linux kernel - cleaned by now, but its good to see MATE on PPC Linux, too.
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=39919&forum=34

> AmigaOS 4 Final

4.1 :-)

> It seems faster onboard ethernet is included BUT NOT WORKING [...] but Epsilon wasn`t
> brave enough to test it: "[...] I selected the built in adapter and click on Test this
> Configuration: Unfortunately it didn't work [...]"

To me it sounds like he tested it.

Quote:

What I ment he wasn`t brave enough to go beyond test button, select it and try it in real use. Even I suppose if test doesn`t work, it shouldn`t in real either, but I wonder why they would put the non working driver. I suppose we have to wait for some next small update via Amiudapte that would make it work - so putting some file was required for update of it later.

Even such things as fast onboard Ethernet driver and memory card driver aren`t huge leaps, they are essential to daily use. It was a bit sad to boot to Linux to use 10x faster ethernet that was already there. Memory card is essential as one can boot Linux kernel and even Amigaboot loader from it.

Quote:

Isn't that their standard modus operandi?

Update:

>> What ever CPU Trevor and the engineers at Varisys decide to use for the
>> next A-Eon motherboard design, I hope that [...] it will be a design that
>> appeals to the MorphOS Dev. Team, so a port might be possible.

> http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=717208 ;-)

http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2015-04-00032-EN.html :-)

There seems to be L3 cache support even, as opposed to OS4.

Quote:

The whole Kickstarter page makes the event look like an advertisement for X1000.

Par for the course I suppose.

Quote:

Well I don't mind Kickstarter but donating money for an event is a waste of money for me. I would prefer to donate some development, not a meeting for few old fellas (no ofense to anyone) sitting and talking.

Addendum:

>> So I guess it went something like this:
>> [...]
>> 04/2012: A-Eon Ltd. founded in UK by Leaman, T. Dickinson and C. Dickinson as partners
>> with Leaman acting as sole director
>> [...]
>> Any objections, remarks, additions?

> "Trevor Dickinson, co-founder and managing director of A-EON Technology"
> http://amiga30.com/kickstarter-launched/
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/890300835/amiga-30th-anniversary-in-california
>
> "Trevor is co-founder and the Managing director A-Eon."
> http://www.kickstarter.com/profiles/890300835/bio
>
> So he is an (the?) A-Eon Technology Ltd. director after all?

"Matthew Leaman is the Managing Director of A-EON Technology Ltd and looks after all the day-to-day business."
http://distrita.com/a-eon-interview-about-amigas-future/

So I guess here we have it from the horse's mouth that the claim that Trevor Dickinson is a (or even the) managing director of the company is false.

Addendum:

> http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2015-04-00032-EN.html :-)
> There seems to be L3 cache support even, as opposed to OS4.

No support for the P5's L3 cache in OS4 yet:

http://blog.a-eon.biz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Video.jpg

Addendum:

> I'm going to tell how I perceive this "quite a story" came along in
> chronological order: [...]

"the motherboard's development was almost scuppered when Apple purchased PA Semi. Shortly after the acquisition Apple announced the PA6T CPU would only be sold to preexisting military and industrial customers who already had orders in place and after that the line would be discontinued. [...] Paul Gentle wrote a personal message to Steve Jobs asking him to reconsider the decision not to supply the PA6T CPU for the Nemo development. He received a one word reply from Jobs which was short and to the point which simply said "Sorry". Gentle refused to give up and wrote an impassioned email to Jobs stressing the future success of Varisys, a small British development company, depended on the supply of the PA6T CPU for the Nemo development project. This time Jobs sent a more lengthy but still negative reply saying that if the future of Varisys depended on the supply of PA6T CPU for one project then their business model was broken. It looked like the end of the line for the Nemo motherboard. However, not too long afterwards the PA Semi CTO contacted Gentle to say that he had been given approval to supply the PA6T CPU for the project and the Nemo development was back on track."
http://blog.a-eon.biz/blog/?p=8898

Varisys' success depending on Nemo? Really?


Edit: similar text in Amiga Future magazine (center column)

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 04.01.2019 - 13:31 ]

Yes, Paul managed to secure the PA6T cpus and he was one of the few people with experience designing with this chip.
Since they were hard to obtain he suggested I look at Qorlq cpus, before the e5500 core was even announced.

So, how old do you think the idea behind Tabor was when it was first proposed?

[ Edited by Jim 18.05.2016 - 19:19 ]

Quote:

You might want to consider the recipient. Steve Jobs was not known to be a stranger to hyperbole either

Quote:

Hyperbole?
Looks more like a poorly informed poster.
I exchanged messages with Paul at Varisys long before I knew they had any connection with Aeon.
Varisys' future is in no way dependant on projects funded by Trevor.

Rather, Aeon's success depended on finding an engineering firm with experience in producing quality PPC motherboards.

> Looks more like a poorly informed poster.

Trevor Dickinson poorly informed about what Paul Gentle told Trevor Dickinson?

> Varisys' future is in no way dependant on projects funded by Trevor.

While likely true this clashes with what Trevor wrote Paul told him he had written to Steve Jobs.

> Aeon's success depended on finding an engineering firm with experience in
> producing quality PPC motherboards.

There are many. The key in finding Varisys was their experience with the PA6T specifically.

No all it does is confirming suspicions that Nema is just a revision of another P6T design that may very well been make or break for Varisys.

> it [...] is confirming suspicions that Nema is just a revision of another P6T design

Varisys' pre-Nemo PA6T design is a known product and Nemo surely can't be regarded as a revision of this, unless any design with a certain SoC is regarded as revision of a previous design with that same SoC, which wouldn't make sense.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7183&start=658
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=11&topic_id=7569&start=27
http://web.archive.org/web/20101225035735/http://www.varisys.co.uk/vm31.html

Quote:

Andreas, do you have any references for these statements?
Without contact Paul directly, which I would not do as it would be inappropriate to quiz him about statements a business associate made, I cannot verify them.

But the limited scope of A-eon's production does make them seem questionable and self aggrandizing.

Further, would Steve Jobs really intervene in order to allow Varisys to obtain the kind of purchase amounts that are usually covered by the order minimums of manufacturers like NXP?

The more I look at it, the more A-eon looks not like a vanity project, but a way of inflating Trevor's reputation.

Quote:

As I have said before, Nemo is the realization of specs created by Ack Systems and Amiga
Inc.

> Andreas, do you have any references for these statements?

Nothing beyond Trevor's claims from his blog article. Do you think his reproduction of what Paul Gentle told him is incorrect?

> the limited scope of A-eon's production does make them seem questionable and
> self aggrandizing.

Yes, that's what they appear as. But unless they are completely true, we don't know who told the untruth, Trevor in his blog, Paul in his talk with Trevor, or Paul in his letters to Jobs.

> would Steve Jobs really intervene in order to allow Varisys to obtain the
> kind of purchase amounts that are usually covered by the order minimums
> of manufacturers like NXP?

Trevor doesn't state Jobs' intervention as fact, and neither does he claim Paul stated it as fact. It's an assumption and stated as that.

Quote:

Thanks for the response.
I don't want to appear to be attacking Trevor.
He could be mistaken about his role as company savior, and Paul may very well have said that to him.
It is a nice chunk of business when you consider what Trevor has paid Varisys (and A-eon's apparent margins in general).
But I don't know that it is enough to afford to pay salaries to several employees.

Personally, I would think that the real salvation of Varisys would have come in their buy out.

As to sourcing the PA6T cpus, as a previous customer, Paul might have been able to secure these on his own (without the magical intervention of Jobs).

Trevor HAS paid Varisys for the development of three motherboard.
And paid well.

I am don't want to knock the guy (and would even lay the decision to use the P1022 at Paul's feet - it was the type of cpu he stated his preference for over the PA6T).
Then again, that preference probably helped cinch the decision to use the P5020 and P5040 on X5000 motherboards.

BTW - Full apologies to everyone (especially André) for my consistent inability to always be soft spoken, polite, and politically correct.
In the businesses I have been in, being able to 'cut through it' has often been more valuable than considerations about bruised feelings.

[ Edited by Jim 19.05.2016 - 18:53 ]

>>> it [...] is confirming suspicions that Nema is just a revision of
>>> another P6T design

>> Varisys' pre-Nemo PA6T design is a known product and Nemo surely can't
>> be regarded as a revision of this

> Nemo is the realization of specs created by Ack Systems and Amiga Inc.

As you know, a mere feature list is tremendously far from a working board design. Furthermore, a direct comparison between real Nemo features and ACK's published feature list shows these differences:

- CPU GHz: 1.8 vs. 2.0
- PEG: 2 (1x16 or 2x8) vs. 1 (x16)
- PCIe: 2x1 vs. 1x2+1x1
- PCI: 2 vs. 1
- GbE: 1 vs. 2
- USB2: 10 vs. 6
- PATA: 1 vs. none
- CF: 1 vs. none
- I/O: SB600 southbridge vs. dedicated chips for SATA2 and USB2
- custom CPU+I/O: Xena+Xorro vs. none
- serial/debug: 2xRS232+1xJTAG vs. 2xUART
- Firmware: CFE vs. U-Boot

The only feature that is exactly the same is the RAM slots.

Quote:

And the type of processor (except for its precise speed).
And that was part of what lead me to contact Paul.

So...I give full credit to Trevor for digging up exactly the right company for the job.

And the SB600 came as no surprise to either of us as we had already been discussing its potential use with the MPC8640/8641 (by that I mean US, not the entire forum).

How many years has this been, btw?

> I don't know that it is enough to afford to pay salaries to several employees.

It's not necessarily been paid for full-time working hours.

> As to sourcing the PA6T cpus, as a previous customer, Paul might have been
> able to secure these on his own

Yes, that's what's strange about Trevor's (or Paul's, if correctly reported by Trevor) story. Varisys had purchased PA6T chips before, so should have been eligible for Apple's "final call".

> Trevor HAS paid Varisys for the development of three motherboard.

It's even four: Nemo, mATX Cyrus, ATX Cyrus+, Tabor.

> I [...] would even lay the decision to use the P1022 at Paul's feet - it
> was the type of cpu he stated his preference for over the PA6T

Availability and compatibility aside, 1.2 GHz e500v2 doesn't seem like proper replacement for 1.8 GHz PA6T.

> that preference probably helped cinch the decision to use the
> P5020 and P5040 on X5000 motherboards.

That wasn't a question of preference. In 2012/2013, there simply was no other sensible CPU choice to make for a new, high-performance (in PPC terms, that is) desktop PPC board than QorIQ P5. (I've never seen any PPC476FP-based SoC for sale on the respective manufacturer's website or at semiconductor distributors, so minimum purchase quantity would likely have been too high for A-Eon anyway.)

> I give full credit to Trevor for digging up exactly the right company for the job.

They were recommended to A-Eon by P.A.Semi, so half credit should suffice ;-)

> the SB600 came as no surprise to either of us as we had already been discussing
> its potential use with the MPC8640/8641 (by that I mean US, not the entire forum).

Others were earlier:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4306&forum=11&start=7
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6124&forum=32&start=12

:-)

> How many years has this been, btw?

About 6, I guess.

>> I don't know that it is enough to afford to pay salaries to several employees.

>It's not necessarily been paid for full-time working hours.

True enough. After all, condider the Friedens arrangement with Hyperion.

>> Trevor HAS paid Varisys for the development of three motherboard.

>It's even four: Nemo, mATX Cyrus, ATX Cyrus+, Tabor

Also the X3500 board, and any design explorations that were not pursued.

>>I [...] would even lay the decision to use the P1022 at Paul's feet - it
>> was the type of cpu he stated his preference for over the PA6T

>Availability and compatibility aside, 1.2 GHz e500v2 doesn't seem like proper replacement for 1.8 GHz PA6T.

I got the impression that Paul's preference was one related to pricing, availability, and the end cost of the product.
And he didn't specifically mention the e500v2 core, just the Qorlq line.



[ Edited by Jim 20.05.2016 - 10:12 ]