AMIGAzette: Your project is very interesting and it recalls me the story of the big Petro when he said that the Amiga would be very competitive with a chip faster than a 68060.
Oliver Hannaford-Day: A Coldfire powered Amiga will be very competitive, PC users wont like itbecause it is not running at 2Ghz`s but hopefully the 220Mhz Coldfire will be able to do most of what a PC can do.. It is very exciting.
AMIGAzette: I have some question for you and we would be very glad if we can put youranswers in our magazine.
Oliver Hannaford-Day: Please feel free to ask as many questions as you wish and if your readershave any more I will be happy to answer those as well.
AMIGAzette: which is the latest step in your project?
Oliver Hannaford-Day:Well first I will give a bit of background information,The prototype is being designed for the Amiga 4000 and will just be the basic card with the Coldfire, A flash chip to hold startup code and a compatibility module that will give 95% compatibility with one of the 68K
CPU`s (For example: 68000, 020, 030, 040EC or the 060EC), An SDRam interface and an expansion connector.
Now to answer the question, The CPU, flash chip, SDRam interface and expansion connector is finished,
The fast slot connector is currently being connected, The Address and Data busses are done. (which is 64 out of 200 pins done anyway) Hopefully that shouldn't take to long and then its time to get the prototype printed..
AMIGAzette: what are your relations with Motorola?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: None existent, Basically there has been no reason to yet, The small numberof Coldfire`s needed for the cards development has been purchased through
3rd party distributors, Even the quantities needed for the final card would be to small to get Motorola interested.
One reason to contact Motorola will be to get a licence to use the "Digital
DNA" logo...
AMIGAzette: Are you working only on a revision of the chip or do you intend tobuild a new mainboard?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: It is just a CPU upgrade, Just like the Cyberstorm, I have attached a(exclusive) picture of what the prototype will look like. (Its actually just a coloured picture of the top layer of the current design)
AMIGAzette: if no will the 1200 mainboard be compatible?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: The first card is for the Amiga 4000, This is simply because thats my mostpowerful machine, Latter a version for each Amiga will be made including the
A1200, CD32, A2000 and CDTV.
AMIGAzette: Have you got an idea of the price of the chip when finished?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: It will be approximately £180, I am trying to make the card as cheap as Ican so everyone can afford it but the actual price will depend on the amount of pre-orders I get when the card is ready, A couple of people have asked for a Draco version (which if I decide to do) which I would put all the extra`s on (The Draco is for video editing so extra`s like Firewire, PCI slots and extra memory would be fitted as standard after all the original
Draco cost $10,000)
AMIGAzette: Will it be sold by Motorola?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: No, It will be sold by me and hopefully through most Amiga retailers too, IfI am lucky we will get a mention on Motorola`s web site as they do have a page listing all Coldfire products available.
AMIGAzette: what are the Amiga programmers in the world points of view?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: I dont know, I have nothing to show Amiga programmers yet, As soon as afunctional prototype is finished I will be looking for software (and hardware) developers who are interested in porting Amiga programs over..
I hope Amiga developers do at least give the Coldfire CPU a try, There are still many 68K Amiga programs being developed, All can be easily ported to be Coldfire native, I would also like to see great PPC programs like Amp2 ported over as the Coldfire is more than powerful enough to run such power hungry programs (PS: I know it isn't Amp`s fault that it needs PPC power,
Mpeg decoding is a very CPU intensive task.)
AMIGAzette: Will the chip be ready this year or when you think it will bereleased?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: The 220Mhz V4 is already available, I can get the 162Mhz V4`s within 24hours, The 220Mhz versions take longer and need to be purchased in larger quantities than the 162Mhz version so will only be used on the finished card.
The card will not use the V4e which may or may not be available.
AMIGAzette: the last question: why didn't you talk about your project to Eyetechin U.K.?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: The Coldfire project is to upgrade currently available Amiga`s to the new220Mhz V4 Coldfire and not to make a new motherboard, Unlike the PPC CPU the
Coldfire simply doesn't need a new motherboard, The Coldfire is a member of the 68K family and connects to the motherboard as simply as a 68060 or 040
CPU, Many people have asked why I dont make a new motherboard and the answer is basically we dont need one.
Eyetech have the problem that the PPC is not like the 68k so a new motherboard is the only real way to get a stable, fast system which makes the most of the 600Mhz PPC, in the end the two projects are very different,
I can not help Eyetech and they can not help me..
AMIGAzette: what are the studies you have made in the sense which school didyou attend?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: Well I went to Scotch Orchard Primary School from 5 to 11 and Netherstowe High School from 12 to 16 and then I left.
I am not well suited for school, Since I left I have learnt much much more, I like playing with computer, electronics and that sort of thing, I have no problem dismantling a computer just to see how it works and if I can put it back together.
AMIGAzette: how long have you spent about this project and when will the boardbe released?
Oliver Hannaford-Day: Well the actual project was started in April this year, This was reallyto see how much interest there was, I had no design software or Coldfire chips but I had read up a lot on the Coldfire CPU and was already sure it could be used in the Amiga..
There was a lot of interest and the design was started....
When will the card be released? I simply don't know,
If everything went well then in four or five months ( 25th December 2002 - 25th Jan 2003).
The design I sent you is almost finished, The design is very active at the moment, Already the crystal on the image I sent you has been removed and the clock frequency is now taken from the motherboard. (I am also looking at the removal of the expansion connector and instead fitting a second fast slot for extra SDRam and using the Zorro bus for normal expansions.)
I hope the design will be finished by mid October and sent to be printed. This prototype "should" work, I see no reason why it wont..
Then its a simple matter of adding an IDE interface and USB chip to the design, Upgrading the 162 Mhz Coldfire for a 220 Mhz version and its ready for launch...
Software will be written to improve the Coldfire`s performance while the cards are printed.
Well I think that covers everything..
Thanks for your e-mail
If you or your readers have any more questions please to email me.
Oliver Hannaford-Day
Coldfire Project Manager
www.cdtv.org.uk/coldfire/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amigacoldfire