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Author Topic: What's the point of the MiniMig?  (Read 5223 times)

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Offline gdankoTopic starter

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What's the point of the MiniMig?
« on: November 09, 2007, 02:24:09 PM »
Maybe I am stupid or maybe I am some sort of infidel, but I do not see the point of the MiniMig. This unit emulates a 7 MHz A500 for > $200 USD? Why bother buying this thing when you can get a real A500 for about $25 USD?
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Offline Tomas

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2007, 02:28:27 PM »
Quote

gdanko wrote:
Maybe I am stupid or maybe I am some sort of infidel, but I do not see the point of the MiniMig. This unit emulates a 7 MHz A500 for > $200 USD? Why bother buying this thing when you can get a real A500 for about $25 USD?

But can you put a a500 in such a small case footprint? There is also less and less working a500 available.. Our hardware is aging, so any new hardware is very welcome in my opinion.
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Offline skurk

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2007, 02:29:18 PM »
A few points from the top of my head:

- Small footprint
- Brand new hardware, will last longer
- ADF support, no messing around with floppies
- Supports modern VGA monitors
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Offline Ral-Clan

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2007, 02:30:51 PM »
When all the original A500s are gone, it'll be good to have an open source method of making more.

Baby steps.  You need to develop a clone A500 as a test-bed before you can develop a clone A1200, then a clone A4000 then a new MiniMig 060/PPC with PCI slots, USB, etc. etc. etc.

Did you learn to crawl before you could walk, and walk before you could run?  Or did you start off as an olympic sprinter from day one?
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Offline Homer

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2007, 02:31:04 PM »
And what happens when the A500's have all gone  :-?
Its all about extending the life of what we have, and having a play with some new technology at the same time  :lol:
Besides, the future is probably Minimig2 rather than u know who  :-D
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Offline downix

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2007, 02:31:12 PM »
Quote

gdanko wrote:
Maybe I am stupid or maybe I am some sort of infidel, but I do not see the point of the MiniMig. This unit emulates a 7 MHz A500 for > $200 USD? Why bother buying this thing when you can get a real A500 for about $25 USD?

How long will your A500 last, however?  MiniMig is brand new.  That $25 A500 has had how many owners?  How did they treat it?  Can you fix it if things go wrong?  MiniMig means new hardware, and fixable hardware at that.
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Offline AndrewBell

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2007, 02:31:48 PM »
Minimig uses PS/2 mice and keyboards, and a VGA monitor, which a real A500 doesn't. It also uses flash memory for mass storage, which is faster, quieter and more reliable than floppy disks.

Real A500s haven't been made for a long time, and when the last one breaks, they're gone for good. Minimig solves that problem.

Minimig is open source, and can/will be improved to the level of an A1200/CD32, or even way beyond.

But the real point of the minimig is that Dennis wanted to do it, and anyone who didn't see the point couldn't stop him.
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Offline Homer

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2007, 02:32:00 PM »
Wow, I've never seen so many new posts in the time it took me to write that  :lol:
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Offline Homer

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2007, 02:33:06 PM »
It just happened again  :-o

This must be peak time on A.Org  :crazy:
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Offline gdankoTopic starter

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2007, 02:42:21 PM »
Wow a lot of you seem pretty defensive of this device. It was a simple question!
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Offline JimS

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2007, 02:45:00 PM »
All he other posters have been spot on.... But I'm reminded of the famous reply to the "Why climb a mountain" question.... "Because it's there". Some things just have a "Cool Factor" that outweigh practicality. ;-) Minimig is one of those things.


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Offline pyrre

Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2007, 02:48:27 PM »
But, most important.. did you gen an answer to your question?
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Offline gdankoTopic starter

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2007, 02:50:03 PM »
A MiniMig would be "cool" if you could tune the CPU from 7.16 MHz to 060/50 and beyond. Or if it was socketed to allow upto G4 speeds.

But I would rather use a TV or 1084 and a trusty old A500 than to drop $200 on a board with some chips on it.
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Offline Ral-Clan

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #13 on: November 09, 2007, 02:55:32 PM »
Quote

gdanko wrote:
A MiniMig would be "cool" if you could tune the CPU from 7.16 MHz to 060/50 and beyond. Or if it was socketed to allow upto G4 speeds.

But I would rather use a TV or 1084 and a trusty old A500 than to drop $200 on a board with some chips on it.


I think you missed the point.  A minimig A500 clone needed to be built, used & improved upon BEFORE you can have those things you wish for.  As I said above, it takes baby steps.  You have your fancy multi-gig Intel computers today because someone developed the 8088 XT PC back in 1980.
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Offline alexh

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Re: What's the point of the MiniMig?
« Reply #14 on: November 09, 2007, 03:01:30 PM »
Quote

skurk wrote:
- Brand new hardware, will last longer

Quote

ral-clan wrote:
When all the original A500s are gone

Quote

Homer wrote:
And what happens when the A500's have all gone  :-?

Quote

downix wrote:
How long will your A500 last, however?

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Apart from the floppy disk drive, the A500 and A600's (with the exception of the A500+) are like concrete. They will last for many, many years. Considering the MiniMig's are being home made, probably to a much lower quality standard to the factory built Amiga's the physical hardware may not last that long.

MiniMig was created for fun, and should be treated like that. If you start rationalising it, MiniMig cannot compete on price, expandability or compatibility.

Form factor is it's one true "Amiga" plus point.

Other plus points are that it is a reconfigurable computer. It can be reconfigured as an Amstrad 464, a Sinclair Spectrum, a C64 or even an Atari ST etc.
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