AmigaOne X1000

AmigaOne X1000

AmigaOne X1000 computer system by Hyperion Entertainment
OS	AmigaOS 4.1 Update 5
Design firm	Varisys
Manufacturer	A-Eon Technology
Type	Workstation / Personal computer
Processor	64-bit dual-core PWRficient PA6T-1682M (PowerPC)
Frequency	1.8 GHz
Memory	4× DDR2 SDRAM slots
Coprocessor	500 MHz XCore XS1-L2 124
Connection	10× USB 2.0, 1× Xorro slot, 2× PCIe x16 slots (1x16 or 2x8), 2× PCIe x1 slots, 2× PCI slots, etc
Ports	4× SATA 2, 1x IDE

AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1

AmigaOne X1000 main board

AmigaOne X1000 is a PowerPC based computer intended as a high-end platform for AmigaOS 4. It was announced ^[1] by A-Eon Technology CVBA in partnership with Hyperion Entertainment .^[2] Its name is influenced by the Amiga 1000 released by Commodore in 1985.

History

A-Eon Technology is a privately funded company formed by Trevor Dickinson, Anthony Moorley and Ben Hermans in 2009 for the sole purpose of developing new hardware for the AmigaOS 4. The focus of A-Eon was on the high-end, with the goal of the X1000 project being broadly to create a computer to continue the original Amiga's legacy.

A partnership with Hyperion Entertainment was formed early on to allow discussion with key AmigaOS 4 developers about what such a next generation AmigaOS 4 computer would need. One important decision made during this early phase was that the AmigaOne X1000 should be a complete system built around a bespoke motherboard with a customised case and peripherals.^[3] This contrasts with the adapted reference design strategy used by Eyetech for the original AmigaOne series.

Even before the 'wish list' was completed, hardware design company Varisys had been chosen as a partner based on their track record both with the PowerPC architecture and with parallel computing. The decision to form a partnership with Varisys had the consequence of bringing XMOS chips to the AmigaOne X1000, as it is the connection between XMOS and the Varisys team, dating back to earlier work on the Inmos Transputer, that led to the suggestion of including an XMOS XCore chip on the X1000 motherboard.^[4] This XCore chip is referred to by A-Eon as the 'Xena' Coprocessor.

The first prototype machines were manufactured during mid-2009 and Hyperion Entertainment began the process of porting the AmigaOS to the X1000 in late-2009. By mid-June 2010, the X1000 was booting AmigaOS from hard disk and the machine made its debut at the Vintage Computer festival at Bletchley Park on the weekend on the 19 and 20 June 2010.^[5]

Release

The original intention was that the machine would be available by Summer 2010, but A-Eon technology announced at the Vintage Computer festival that the release had been delayed.^[6] By August 2011, hardware designer and manufacturer Varisys had begun the first production run of revision 2.1 boards destined for the AmigaOne X1000 beta test team. In January 2012 A-Eon announced that AmigaKit.com would start shipping AmigaOne X1000 to customers with AmigaOS4.1 Update 5 pre-installed. It would also be supplied with a license for AmigaOS4.2 which could be downloaded when it is released by Hyperion Entertainment.^[7][8]

Specifications

The specifications from A-EON Technology's website:^[9]

• Black Pearl PC case, White Case also available^[10]
• ATX Formfactor
• Dual core PWRficient PA6T-1682M 1.8 GHz PowerISA v2.04+ CPU^[11]
• Co-processor: "Xena" 500 MHz XCore XS1-L2 124 SDS
• ATI Radeon R700 graphics card
• Audio: 7.1 channel HD audio
• Memory: 4× DDR2 SDRAM slots
• 10× USB 2.0
• 1× Gigabit Ethernet
• 2× PCIe ×16 slots (1×16 or 2×8)
• 2× PCIe ×1 slots
• 2× PCI slots
• 1× Xorro slot
• 1× Compact Flash
• 2× RS-232
• 4× SATA 2 connectors
• 1× PATA connector
• 1× JTAG connector

'Xena' coprocessor

'Xena' is a new feature of the AmigaOne line. It is the name A-Eon have given to the XMOS XCore XS1-L2 124 located on the X1000 motherboard connected to the 'Xorro' slot, a modified PCI-express slot. XCore XS1 is an event driven architecture made scalable by the low-latency links between cores and zero-latency communication between threads on the same core. [1] 'Xena', a single-core XS1, has eight hardware threads that together provide a maximum of 500 MIPS.

Roughly one quarter of Xena's I/O lines are directly connected to the CPU local bus, while the remaining three quarters are connected to the Xorro slot. These I/O lines to the Xorro slot are configurable in software using 'XC', a set of extensions to the C programming language. They provide a low-latency connection both to the main system and to any Xorro expansions, allowing data sampling or custom hardware control over Xorro. This also makes it possible to link additional XCore chips to Xena via Xorro, scaling up the co-processor's performance accordingly.^[12]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: AmigaOne X1000

• AmigaOne
• PWRficient
• Common Firmware Environment

References

External links

• A-Eon homepage
• AmigaKit.com X1000 product website