A2964

A 64-bit capable, 21st Century Amiga PC Bridgeboard for the A2000/3000/4000, and eventually any Zorro II capable Amiga (including A500 with sidecar modifications) using modules based on the ETX/XTX/PICMG COM Express Basic form factor family,

• 64-bit; Must be Core 2, Intel Atom, or Via Nano based.
• Based on the XTX and/or COM Express industrial/embedded system-on-module form factors.
• Processor options include Intel Pentium M, Core solo, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, and VIA Nano.
  • The 1.6GHz VIA Atom has in excess of 2x the performance-per-watt over the 1.6GHz Intel Celeron-M 520.
  • Use of an Intel Atom SoM is possible, however due to its inability to execute in-order instructions, is not preferred ( see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-atom-cpu,1947-5.html )

• Ampro XTX 830 or Ampro ReadyBoard 830 (Core solo or Celeron models) looks like a good preliminary choice, the Advantech SOM-4780, or perhaps the new PEB2736, from Portwell, which is Atom-based.
• the XTX/COM Express modules mate using a board-to-board connector made by Hirose. A reel of 1000 of these surface-mount Hirose FX8-100S-SV connectors from parts supplier Digi-Key costs $1677.00, which breaks down to USD $1.68/each
• Advantech PCM-9382 3.5" Biscuit with Intel® Core™2 Duo/VGA, LVDS, LAN, USB, 2 SATA, SSD

Phase I

In phase one, the sole goals are:

• Have a running XTX SoM running from a socketed bridgeboard with zero data-level Zorro interaction between the SoM and the Zorro bus
• Powered by drawing drawing from the Zorro and/or ISA bus power pins.
• Capable of running [AROS http://www.aros.org], Linux, ReactOS, or Windows XP.

Phase II

For the A2000/3000/4000 versions, the bridgeboard will contain an additional Xilinx FPGA, which, among other tasks, will be responsible for bridging back to the ISA bus from the Low Pin Count/LPC header (Intel LPC specification as PDF), which is designed to be nearly identical at the protocol level) using and the plans from Standard Microsystems Corporation at http://www.smsc.com/main/tools/legacy/isalpcext.pdf

• • The FPGA will handle bridging back to the Zorro bus, and will offer at least two modes of operation:
    • The ISA bus connectors is owned, operated, and arbitrated solely by the on-board PC guest, with no interaction possible from the host Amiga.
    • The ISA bus is passed through to the host Amiga, functioning as a clone of the Golden Gate 2+ (1500x644 photo)
    • Potential for compatible Elbox Mediator-style 32-bit PCI bus imitation.