Siamese PCI
Developer: Index Information
Year of Announcement: 1997 |
The Siamese PCI was a new Amiga designed to fulfill different
gaps in the market. While the BoXeR was
aimed purely at Amiga users, the Siamese PCI is designed for Amiga
users who also have a PC and cannot justify a whole new computer.
It played a similar function as the Amiga bridgeboard but in
reverse- the Amiga hardware was located on a PCI and could be used
from within the host environment. If released, the card would have
utilized a Motorola 68040 33MHz or 68060 66MHz CPU. The use of
modern hardware would remove existing bottlenecks- all calculations
would have been handled by the host machine, theoretically making
it the equivalent of an 68k 100MHz system. Current Amiga technology
such as the AGA chipset, 2Mb Chip Ram, CIA's, floppy & IDE
connectors would also have been included. Serial, parallel and
mouse I/O would be handled by the host machine, allowing the use of
cheap hardware. Drivers were under development to allow the Amiga
to use hardware connected to the host machine. This would set the
Amiga free from current hardware restrictions and allow it to use
almost any graphics, sound, modem & network card available for
the PC. Communication with these devices would be handled by the
host OS allowing the hardware to be used without custom Amiga
drivers. It was hoped that this would form the basis of a new range
of 3D games, communication and technical applications that utilized
the power of AGP and next generation graphic cards. Memory could
also be dynamically allocated as Amiga Fast RAM. To finance the
card the developers were accepting advanced orders that would be
paid on release. These indicated that the card would be available
for £399. The CPU would have to be bought separately pushing
the price about £500.
Mac...
The card was also aimed at non-Amiga users using a policy dubbed
'Amiga by stealth'. Adverts would be placed in Mac magazines,
explaining that it would run Mac 68k faster than the PowerPC
processor. Like the Amiga market, there are still MacHeads who are
happy with their existing Mac and do not need a PPC. Apple Mac
emulation would be achieved through 3rd party Amiga software, such
as ShapeShifter and Fusion. This would make it possible to share
information between three operating systems through cut-and-paste
functions. The emulation could also be launched when the host-OS
encountered an application for a specific platform.
Development was canceled in 1999 when Gateway lost interest in
using it as an official Classic emulator for the Amiga MCC. The
current depression in the Classic Amiga market means that
development is unlikely to be restarted. The card remains 75%
complete, requiring additional work to iron out problems.
Development may be started again when the BoXeR is complete and if
there is sufficient demand.
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Last Update: 14/6/2002
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