Apollo Computing stepped forward to reveal its “Proper next-gen Amiga” to the masses earlier this week. The German firm has unveiled the Apollo A6000, a comprehensive modern Amiga system featuring advanced technologies, including a “cutting-edge V4 AC68080” FPGA, which makes it the “most powerful Amiga 68k compatible ever created.”
Moreover, the Apollo A6000 retains the cutesy retro styling of the Amiga A600 (probably that machine’s best feature), enhanced by eye-popping tech specs and a built-in mechanical keyboard.
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Vintage Amigans may best remember Apollo for its Amiga A1200 trapdoor accelerators, and more recently for Vampire FPGA accelerator boards for a host of legacy Commodore machines. While building up its expertise in the vintage-to-modern FPGA technology arena over the last decade, it appears to have finally reached the milestone of this fully remastered machine, which dovetails with the 40th anniversary of the Amiga.
So, what is the Apollo A6000? We’ll put together a specs table shortly, but the highlights include the aforementioned AC68080 FPGA, the provision of an unheard-of amount of Amiga system RAM (fast RAM and Chip RAM), CF plus dual SD slot storage, the SAGA chipset, and ample modern connectivity and peripheral ports.
Special attention should be paid to the AC68080 FPGA, which Apollo says they spent 10 years creating. A combination of reverse engineering the Amiga chipset and the Motorola 68000 series of CPUs has led to the development of this processor. There’s actually a website dedicated to it here if you want a super-deep dive on the ‘Apollo Core.’ At that link, you will be able to dig through the details of the features of the fast and fully featured ‘AMMX’ enhanced FPGA.
|
Processor |
V4 AC68080 FPGA |
|
Chipset |
SAGA |
|
RAM |
2GB fast RAM, 12MB chip RAM |
|
Storage |
128GB CF card and dual SD card slots |
|
Ports and interfaces |
HDMI, 5x USB (one for power), Maggie 3D-VFX RTG graphics, Ethernet, mouse, joystick, IDE HDD, stereo audio with optional analog out, JTAG, expansion bay |
|
Keyboard |
Mechanical keyboard with ABS caps and Cherry MX switches |
|
Software |
68K Apollo OS installed, which “runs Amiga OS 3.x software, games, Atari and MacOS” titles |
|
Case |
3D printed FDM case with choice of colors |
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Unfortunately, we have some bad news to share regarding the Apollo A6000’s pricing and availability. With all those nice custom-made technologies coming together in the A6000, it is priced at over $1,000. In its home country, Apollo sold 40 First Edition Codename Unicorn devices for €960 each within hours of the announcement. Converted directly, that’s $1,128, but you could deduct 19% German VAT and add locally applicable U.S. sales tax to get a better idea of the final actual pricing.
The lucky buyers of this first production run of 40 units can look forward to delivery shortly. However, those of us who missed that first run should stay tuned to the links above for news of the next batch(es). On its Discord server, Apollo says details of the subsequent production runs and options will go live on the coming Friday (September 26).
You wait 30+ years for a new Amiga…
Amiga hardware fans with smaller budgets can also look forward to the A1200 from Retro Games. This full-size Amiga A1200-a-like machine will be fully unveiled in October.
Meanwhile, the new owners of Commodore are also thought to be working on a new Amiga-like computer. CEO Peri Fractic teased a collaboration with veteran Amiga engineers and an ambitious product roadmap in an August video bulletin.
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