Amiga computer remade

Several Amiga clones/remakes are in the works. Each with a slightly different aim, some for total compatibility, some to be faster and offer more features. Hopefully someday whe'll be able to also document which differences these make to coders. (probably especially to interest for 680x0 / hardware hitting coders)

Recent Amiga computer clones/remakes

• Minimig
  Minimig is an FPGA-based re-implementation of the original Amiga 500 hardware (PAL version). It's based on available hardware documentation and info from WinUAE(?). The project was made public on 5 december 2005 and has gone opensource in july 2007. Commercial ready-to-use boards were sold by ACube Systems.

• Vampire
  Originated from the Natami N68070 CPU but focused more specifically on the chipset specifics at the expense of some lackluster PC-style polygon rendering capabilities. As of this writing (June 2018), the release of the Vampire Standalone is rapidly approaching. It includes the 68080 softcore running on a Cyclone V FPGA. The SAGA chipset core in the Gold3 core will be compatible with AGA as well as having chunky modes accessible using Picasso96 drivers.

• Clone-A
  project started oct 2005 and made public in december 2006. Although in mid 2007 it was demonstrated in a development form, with FPGA-based boards replacing the Amiga chipset (mounted on an Amiga 500 motherboard), it has not made any appearance as a fully working Amiga.
  This project aim to totally reproduce the output of the Denise, Gary, Paula chips, CIA and later even the Agnus chip. This means you could run an Amiga on partly the original chips and part on the FPGA.
  • Jens Schoenfeld interview extract (PDF, 363KB) (dec 2006)

• FPGA Arcade
  Programmable Gaming Hardware which will be able to emulate Atari ST, Amiga and several other computers from the 1980's.

Abandoned projects

• AAA
  Was to be the official successor to AGA. Compatible with OCS/ECS but not with AGA. Had features like 4-6x times faster blitter and multi-write copper instruction. Commodore in it's infinite wisdom decided to scrap the AAA project.
  • The Dave Haynie Archive (containing old specs and notes, including those for AAA)
  • AAA custom register names
  • Amiga History.co.uk about the AAA

• BoXeR
  the oldest project with the aim on AGA compatibility. However this project was abandoned and never released. Plans included an AA chipset (next gen AGA chipset) with 20x bandwidth of AGA, 32 bit blitter (up to 20x faster), Unified Memory Architecture, 16-bit sound, HD floppy drive support)
  • Info on the plans for AA+

• Draco
  Amiga clone which used AmigaOS, but only supported RTG (Cybergraphx). It was meant for the video market.
  • Amiga History Guide on the Draco

• Phase5's amiga-clone projects
  (see http://www.amigau.com/aig/phase5.html for detailed info on these)
  • A\Box
    was a clone developer by Phase5. It did however not emulate the custom chips, so whether it's a 'clone' is debatable. It was announced in 1996 and in the beginning of 1998 they announced it was postphoned. Unfortunately in 1999 they admitted it had been cancelled and in january 2000 Phase5 filed for liquidation proceedings.
  • Pre\Box

• Power A5000
  a planned Amiga clone computer, announced by DCE and Power Computing. It would feature a PowerPC G3 processor.
  • wikipedia - Power A5000

• NatAmi (Native Amiga)
  This reimplementation is based on implementing the features documented and described in the HRM and then expanding on it 'within the Amiga philisophy'. In 2007 I claimed it would be able to display 1280x1024 in 32bit, handle bitplanes and chunky, have a 100 times faster blitter and eventually also 8 channel 8/16bit audio was announced as feature. It's development started in 2003 (but not made publicly known until the end of 2006?). At the start of 2008 a 1st prototype was shown and at the end of 2011 the Natami MX developer boards were distributed. A part of this platform has been used to start the Vampire series of accelerators. See above.