I don't quite see the appeal of ESP8266, it has its own TCP stack that needs maintenance (frequent firmware flashing, with all that involves), and one is stuck to its limited wifi capabilities and slow access. It is unclear for me what transfer speeds one can achieve with ESP8266, but I have only seen people use as a "modem", with serial link at max 115200 baud. Which really isn't much! Personally I have better ways to use that serial link, such as connecting to a device with more capable TCP and wifi stacks, using very well functioning PPP drivers in existing Amiga TCP stacks.

SOUND:
8 Voices 16 Bit SuperPaula

CPU:
FPU (I don't mind about MMA)

SAGA:
- Some basic 3D acceleration HW

PORTS - CONNECTORS:

- As for the standalone board, I'd love to have USB1-2 support for Joypads, Keyboard and Mouse, possibly with a HW stack that emulates regular interfaces (Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick/Pad, ATAPI, SCSI, ecc...)
- Built in configurator for remap Joypad - Keyboard - Mouse controls over regular Amiga ones (Think about Steam controller confugurator).

- Ethernet port (10/100 would be enough)

- 2 ATA (Sata I?) internal port (One for HDD and one for CD/DVD)

- DIGITAL-VIDEO Out

- Good quality Stereo Out

- Expansion Bus would allow First or Third party developing expansion boards.

Maybe a custom made Case (Something like a Wii would be enough for me).

For standalone board, 256/512/1GB memory options, V2+ 6-pin expansion connector, and an edge connector or pin header for future bus-board expansion (pci, pcie, sata, msata).

Let's plan ahead for future expansion. In 2037 when everyone else is using handheld quantum computers we would at least like some options to upgrade our Amiga + Vampire computers! ;-)

The ARRIA 10 that you wanted to use on the standalone, the price went up after intel bought the company, so, are you still using the same ARRIA 10?

How much more in price, if there is one, is the next higher MHz ARRIA 10 FPGA? Approximately how much faster might it be? Could you offer a few with faster FPGA's as some people MIGHT be willing to buy one exceptional Vampire II, for whatever reason. :-DDD

I am kind of confused now. So are you considering this just for the 1200 system? is the standalone system safe, so it will have an SODIM, or atre least 4GB?

If I remenber correctly your announced plans, it was going to be 512mb for the 1200 board. Now it seems you are maybe going for less. I must confess I am dissapointed if that's it. I though I could show my Amiga 1200 to some friends feeling proud of what it will do, but in that case, it will be very limited for some tasks. I really hope to be wrong.

In any case, today I don´t have time for it, but tomorrow I will post you some real life cases in which an Apollo system can perform some task only if it has more than 512mb, even the processor is only 100mhz.

I certainly will!!!

There are amounts I'd be willing to part with, if there are visible performance gains.... For instance, even if it's the same MHz, maybe it has more LE, enough to get 64K instruction AND data caches....

I'd pay $100 US to get 35% more performance.

For instance, on the current FPGA, 35% would be from a ~140 MHz 68060, to a 190 MHz 68060... Yeah that WOULD be worth it.
(These are estimates of the current Vampire 2 FPGA being used, while the 35% is accurate if using that number.)

Perhaps should only consider what softwares can be ported and how much memory they needs.
I mean if Frogatto or Mace from OS4 is a goal then it will need enough memory

Alain

What would the point of that be? How much RAM software needs depends entirely on how much _data_ you intend to feed them.

Is an amiga not a "thing" ?

and as such they work perfectly for said task.. oh and they are very very cheap, an "expensive" "boutique" one is only $7 USD..

So, now I'm playing this sad game, that people with obsessive compulsive disorder get stuck in.....

T R I M P S

People are saying "256 Megs is enough...", "512 Megs is MORE than you should ever hope that was available for you....".

Well, when you play this game in Google Chrome, it uses 831 MEGABYTES of RAM.... Oh, and look up a screen of the game, and come back with an opinion.

P.S. The Google Chrome sub-directory on my hard drive uses 512 megabytes of space. Still more space is used up on other parts, like the "users" area.

First off 2GB is more than the maximum for the Amiga OS.  I/O registers and Kickstart flash memory take up some addressing as well.  The maximum is more in the range of 1GB of RAM or so.

Secondly, why waste board space with PCI when Ethernet, some USB, IDE, and Audio are already planned to be on the motherboard without using PCI for any of it?

I know that back in 2002 when I had winxpee running on my computer with 4 gigabytes of RAM, that only ~3.6 gigabytes was usable.

So, as you say, not all of 2 gigabytes are available, but it surely can't be much more than 50 to 100 megabytes not usable, right? So, it would be MUCH better to have 2 gigabytes - 100 megabytes, than 1 gigabyte, and missing out on using 900 megabytes!!!!!

1 extra gigabyte costs ~$40 maybe, but losing the use of merely 100= a loss of $4. That's a GREAT TRADE OFF!!!!!

That's a ridiculous comparison, doing anything in a web browser is just about the least efficient way possible of achieving something.

Running this (http://pnacl-amiga-emulator.appspot.com/) in chrome takes ~51MB and that's ignoring the plugins (PNACL) where it's actually implementing things.

I've worked on PS3 and Xbox360, 512MB would be amazing for an Amiga 1200/CD32 and you could achieve staggering effects with that much ram available.
Even with 256MB I don't think you could achieve better demos or games with more.

It's productivity software that might want more ram, but frankly the Amiga even with a Vampire is still going to be thousands and I mean _THOUSANDS_ of times slower than a Windows/Linux/OSX/RaspberryPI machine.

I completely understand what you are saying, BUT;

IF the addition between 256 and 512 megabytes (and even 1 gigabyte) is neglible, and
IF the powerrequirements wont exceed whats produced with a normal PSU

Then I dont see why we should limit ourselves to 256mb.
It might not be utilized by many programs currently, but creating a baseline where we have 512mb or 1gig as a standard that developers know they have available.
I dont know the addition in cost from 512mb or 1 gig, so thats for the Apollo Team to verbalize here in this thread.

If it massivly increase the cost or powerrequirements, OR delays the project by months, well, then its probably better to stay with the current config, and let the core evolve.

We have been talking about the different memory levels for 3 pages, and at the end of the day, it all comes down to the cost in power and added dollar/euro cost. No real point discussing it much futher until that aspect has been adressed.

And why less RAM?  lower cost, lower power requirements, less design work, smaller package sizes..