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Greg the Canuck
Canada
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Posts 24
18 Sep 2009 19:41
| Thomas - Very nice work. How many layers is this board? 6? How many power planes? Signal planes? What software do you use for the layout and the routing? (I am just getting into the CadSoft Eagle product line) Again, excellent work!
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Micke J
Sweden
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Posts 3
18 Sep 2009 19:47
| Excellent news indeed. Congratulations!
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Gunnar von Boehn
Germany
| | (Natami Team Member)
Posts 3727
18 Sep 2009 20:07
| Fabian Nunez wrote:
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Another question: in another thread Gunnar said that this board does not have onboard ethernet, but the production ones will.
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To be precise what I said is that for a mass-production board on board ethernet is planned.
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Thomas Hirsch
Germany
| | (Natami Team Member)
Posts 233
18 Sep 2009 20:21
| impossibilities are accomplished immediately, marvels take a little longer :-)
@Fabian
it was for all four PCBs. But don't take this into consideration for a final price estimation. At this low volume the price steps are unproportional. And I will change the manufacturer anyhow. It is not decided what changes are incorporated into the next board. There are just thoughts of two possibilities.
MiniITX has only *one* PCI slot. So the next "legal" position of a PCI connector is right outside of the board on the left.
@Greg
I managed to get all into fout layers. Two power planes and some exceptions in the VCC plane. The layout was done with OrCad PCB designer.
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Jacek Rafal Tatko
Espania
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Posts 515
18 Sep 2009 20:31
| Fantastic News.
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Gwenda von Boehn
Germany
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Posts 3
18 Sep 2009 21:12
| Hey Thomas, Another job well done! Looks good, go on! Cheers, Gwen
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Marcel Verdaasdonk
Netherlands
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Posts 2089
18 Sep 2009 21:22
| Looking at the name i would say family of? Anyhow welcome to this forum Glenda
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Luc Knaepkens-Düllberg
Germany
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Posts 5
18 Sep 2009 21:51
| I am really looking forward to get my hands on one of these ones after they went into "production". As an Amiga-enthousiast, this is the first time I really start hoping again to use a "modern" Amiga system. Looking forward to do a lot of coding on it :-) Congratulations to the Natami team. Keep up the spirit!
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Fabian Nunez
USA
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Posts 282
18 Sep 2009 21:54
| Gunnar von Boehn wrote:
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Fabian Nunez wrote:
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Another question: in another thread Gunnar said that this board does not have onboard ethernet, but the production ones will.
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To be precise what I said is that for a mass-production board on board ethernet is planned.
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Thanks for clarifying that.
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Fabian Nunez
USA
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Posts 282
18 Sep 2009 21:59
| Thomas Hirsch wrote:
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@Fabian
it was for all four PCBs. But don't take this into consideration for a final price estimation. At this low volume the price steps are unproportional. And I will change the manufacturer anyhow. It is not decided what changes are incorporated into the next board. There are just thoughts of two possibilities.
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That's great - it means that the minimum possible price will be around $250, not around $1000. A Natami board that costs $350 will be much easier to sell than one that costs $1100 :)
Thomas Hirsch wrote:
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MiniITX has only *one* PCI slot. So the next "legal" position of a PCI connector is right outside of the board on the left.
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Ah, I see. So it's entirely possible to fit one of these boards in a standard case and not lose anything that one wouldn't have in any other MiniITX board. Perfect :)
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Joe M
Norway
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Posts 164
18 Sep 2009 22:37
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Great news! Well done, Thomas! I'm looking forward to see some benchmarks and so on.
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Evil Igel
Germany
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Posts 48
18 Sep 2009 23:34
| WHAT A SPECIAL DAY! :D Feels like i am dreaming, our baby camos alive :-)
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Loriano Pagni
United Kingdom
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Posts 123
19 Sep 2009 07:45
| @Gunnar I wanted to ask you something; how high is the motherboard complete with every expansion that you could think of? This is to know how slim a case can be, is there any vertical expansion card, basically what is the total height? Thank you.
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Kowalski .
Italy
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Posts 20
19 Sep 2009 08:23
| Excellent news! I'm chuffed... Keep up the good work, me needs a nice present :-D Hi to all the community, Andre (celebrating)
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Michael Borrmann
Germany
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Posts 37
19 Sep 2009 08:48
| Awesome Work, Thomas...
This is going places... :DReally looking forward buying and using this... Btw, can somebdoy tell me where the Ram on that Motherboard is located? I can't see anything like that... greets,
a very happy Michael
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Gunnar von Boehn
Germany
| | (Natami Team Member)
Posts 3727
19 Sep 2009 08:59
| Michael Borrmann wrote:
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Btw, can somebdoy tell me where the Ram on that Motherboard is located? I can't see anything like that...
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Hallo Michael,
The biggest chip on mainboard is the main FPGA.
This FPGA behaves like the a "Northbridge".
This chip does controll the memory, the CPU bus and the VGA out.
Above and Below it are two smaller chips.
Each of them is one memory bank (fast/chip).
Left of the main FPGA is another FPGA.
This one behaves like the "Southbridge".
This chip does control the PCI and many of the other connectors.
Cheers
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Gone Gahgah
Australia
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Posts 224
19 Sep 2009 10:04
| The board at 17x14cm is almost as small as half the size of the CD32 board which was about 30x15cm. The CD32 didn't allow a keyboard, hard drive, nor vga monitor to be connected directly, so more is included in less space (excluding Akiko which is not needed for chunky modes anymore) including 2x512Mb ram instead of 2Mb. The CD32 also used an external PSU. I imagine from the provided plug that the Natami will use a slim PSU situated inside the case. I wonder what sort of PSU will be required to run it? With the 68060 motherboard installed some more vertical case allowance will be required. Even more vertical allowance will be required if the PCI slots are to be used though I suppose there are low height PCI cards to reduce this requirement. I imagine that the current board size will be the target consumer dimensions. Without a CPU daughterboard - using the 68050/68070 in onboard FPGA - and not using any PCI cards, quite a compact unit can be sold.
It will be interesting to see what cases people desire to have for this thing. I would probably go for having some PCI card space allowance though I'm not sure what I would use it for. What would I use the PCI card slots for?
Guess its best to allow for something.
Maybe a TV tuner module, so I can have DVD, CD, TV and games all in one unit.
This isn't new but it would extend its appeal. Oops, guess I better allow some space for the DVD unit and whatever else.
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Fabian Nunez
USA
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Posts 282
19 Sep 2009 12:04
| The power supply could still be external if one uses a DC-DC converter, eg this one: EXTERNAL LINK
I prefer using them for very small designs because you don't have to worry about heating, and the computer can be put in a very small, thin case.
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Guillaume Michalakakos
France
| | (Natami Team Member)
Posts 144
19 Sep 2009 12:15
| Peter K. wrote:
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Michalakakos Guillaume wrote:
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Yeah !
Very good news ! Many thanks Thomas for make a dream become true !
I announce this on amiga impact with a large smile ;-)
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Indeed great news!
Thanks for spreading the news!
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You're welcome ;-) But at this time, this new is not validated yet on amiga impact :-(
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Loriano Pagni
United Kingdom
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Posts 123
19 Sep 2009 15:19
| Fabian Nunez wrote:
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The power supply could still be external if one uses a DC-DC converter, eg this one: EXTERNAL LINK
I prefer using them for very small designs because you don't have to worry about heating, and the computer can be put in a very small, thin case.
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I would go for a 150W pico-psu but that one looks ok too :-)
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The team will post updates and news here