New Hardware Available for Amiga OS 4.1, Finally (SAM-440)

Posted by Hans de Ruiter

Yes, another Amiga OS 4.x related blog entry. That is because a lot is happening at the moment. In an earlier post, it was mentioned that no hardware that could run Amiga OS 4.x was available for purchase; thus, the shiny new Amiga OS 4.1 was out of reach to everyone but the few (one thousand or so) that already owned Amiga-ones. Well, this hardware drought is finally over. This is now available for purchase with a beta version of Amiga OS 4.1 that will be upgraded to an OEM version once the final version is released.

At $836.40 US ($1253.77 NZ), this is on the expensive side. However, this is understandable due to the low-volume nature of this produce (i.e., it is not being produced in millions). More importantly, this is the first new Amiga hardware that is actually available for purchase. The CPU runs at 667 MHz, making it slower than the CPU in existing Amigaones. On the other hand, it has a DDR 266 memory controller as opposed to SDRAM at 133 MHz (with hardware issues lowering the memory bandwidth Amigaone further), so its memory access is faster. As a result, CPU intensive tasks will be faster on an Amigaone, but memory limited tasks (e.g., image processing) will be faster on the SAM 440. The general feel of Amiga OS 4.1 on the SAM-440 has been described as comparable to the Amigaone.

I would strongly encourage anyone interested in Amiga OS 4.1 to buy this board (unless they already have an Amigaone). The more users and developers that come on board, the faster Amiga OS and its software base will progress. 

SAM-440 Motherboard Technical Specifications

• MiniITX Form Factor (17x17 cm)
• CPU SoC AMCC 440ep
  • Integrated DDR 266 memory controller
  • Integrated PCI controller
  • Integrated Flash memory devices controller
  • Integrated USB 1.1 Host and 2.0 Device controller
  • 2 integrated Ethernet 10/100 ports
  • Up to 4 serial ports
  • 2 I2C interfaces
  • SPI interfaces
  • 64 pin for I/O General Purpose
• 512 MB DDR soldered onboard (or in alternative a DDR DIMM 100 slot, max 512 MB)
• USB 2.0 OHCI/EHCI NXP PCI controller
• Audio Cirrus Logic CS4281 and Realtek ALC655 Codec
• Silicon Image 4 Serial ATA ports
• ATI RADEON Mobility M9 with 64mb RAM graphic chip
• Pericom 8150B PCI Bridge
• FPGA Lattice XP with 80 pin I/O expansion connector
• PCI Slot - 32 bits, 33 Mhz
• mini PCI Slot - 32 bits, 33 Mhz (optional)
• RTC with backup battery
• UBoot 1.3.1

Comments (1) | 28 September 2008