Mathias

Sice August the 26th we have opened the preorderings for the 2nd batch of Firebee computers. You can read all the background informations in the news article: http://firebee.org/fb-bin/news?action=full_news&idnews=223&lng=EN&offset=0 So far there are 36 preorders that came in the last weeks. Only 14 more before we are able to go into the next PCB production. So if you are considering about getting a FireBee computer, now would be a good possibility to support the project. http://firebee.org

The Atari Coldfire Project released the new website for the FireBee TOS computer. http://firebee.org

Okay, so if your finetuning is nice, and should not be lost, why not. It´s just that the Seldesk GEM application and the "welcome screen" just appeare once, as you might remember. But DarkLord will be able to start it manually. But the resolution is mandatory, as you can never know what other monitors can display. So the 640 x 480 in 16 Bit is really important. And the latest archive is the link above that I posted. FireBees still get delivered with it. The new FreeMiNT is available tomorrow, and user applicatoins like zView, Netsurf, ... have to be downloaded at their project pages. That may be why you go no answer (do you mean your mail from 19th of January?), as there is no new setup, and all the links to the new programs are at http://acp.atari.org (again when atari.org it is back in a few days).

Within a few hours sold, ... ;-o So who is the lucky person? Slor, do not forget to set it back to 640 x 480 resolution, or additionally in best case kick everything from the CF card and unpack the entire fresh FreeMiNT again (without booting afterwards!). So the new owner will have that nice "welcome feeling" as well. http://atari.nvg.org/firebee-mint/

Ah, and some important parts that I missed about unfinished stuff: there is recently no DSP and no Blitter implemented inside the FPGA. That means slooow scrolling as no Falcon DSP applications right now. The Blitter is under construction by Wolfgang Förster and will be done the upcoming months, for the DSP there is no timeline (its half finished) as we have no VHDL manpower recently (volunteers?). All updates for the FPGA are doable with a nice GEM programm from the desktop, like a "Firmware update". Works well for 2 years now.

TJ, the FireBee has FireTOS a slightly adapted TOS 4.04 for Falcons inside the ROM. So any Falcon manual will do or any TOS "first steps" - it´s the same TOS. So you will remember many things as soon as you work with TOS again. Next "layer" is the FreeMiNT setup that we deliver preinstalled at the Compact Flash card (if you like). It is a "GEM dedicated" MiNT without any Unix stuff. So if you are familiar with TOS GEM (again) you will be able to use this MiNT immediatly. Just graphical stuff, and several small new GAM applications for configuring. Only the MiNT- as XaAES config may be of interrest (later). You can try to answer some of your questions here: http://wiki.sparemin...x.php/Main_Page But belive me that MiNT is as easy as TOS itselve. You can use the preinstalled stuff to explore MiNT XaAES and the Thing or Teradesk desktops, without problems. If you step into any opened questions or problems, just ask at the various forums, Atariguys are nice people - and there is no silly question!Edit: you can find the Falcon Owners Manual here: http://dev-docs.atariforge.org/

First, the FireBee is a "Falcon Clone" not a replacement for STs (take a Suska if you like STE compatibility). It is also dedicated to GEM usage, and productive applications. Next point is; for how long now Line-A should not be used? And no, as it looks now there will never be a "Line-A" "native solution". Nevertheless there are 2 parts of software that are helpful: Vincents 68k CPU, that runs a software-emulated CPU at the FireBee, and now as well Hatari. Of course Hatari would need some improvments, and it is not that funny to "totally emulate" with 264 MHz, but it is possible. Of course our compatibility focus is at clean GEM applications, and everything else like ST-Stuff is a fancy addon. For example Klatzs first patch for Arcanoid, etc.

Well, as said, you need to ask exact questions. RSS is working, Netsurf is working quite well (even if you need to be patient, as it is not 100% optimized, and sometimes needs several seconds for rendering), of course no Javascript. USB (mice, kbd, sticks) are working very well, SD card, CompactFlash as well. Missing is recently; SCSI, ROM-Port, Game-Port, ACSI Not well working/recently under construction are: Printer (paralell), FLoppy (just reading yet), MIDI Thats why it is called "Alpha Status" Everything else is in good usable condition. About half of the GEM applications I am testing, are working out of the box. Tell me what you like to do and I can say if it works right now already. Edit: (Beside Typo), the screenshot is with 1680 x 1050 @ 32 Bit

Of course I got my own one, and use it on a (nearly) daily basis. But I am unsure you like some informations from somebody who is deeply inside the project? It´s still "Alpha - Edition" but it really feels like a computer, and is usable for several day to day (GEM-) tasks. As I wrote in the german forum some days ago, I am on my way to use it exclusively as only computer. That´s recently not possible, but the last months I often powered it up instead of my Mac to do small and quik tasks in more easy ways. So if you have exact or special questions please go ahead.

Thanks! Thats a very good initiative. That´s even a possibility for the time after tomorrow.

Some crossposting from atari-forum, as I consider this topic as very important. Many of you may know the german company "Cumputerinsel". They provided us with Atari Photoline as freeware, and gave us a rabat - just till tomorrow - for recent Mac or PC versions to see if there is an active Atari community (I know not the best solution). So please consider to get a Photoline licence, to perhaps attract "Computerinsel" for further Atari development! "Today and tomorrow you got the last chance to get Photoline with an rabate for just 55,- Euros if you order with "ACP" as code. Please remember, we got tha last Photoline for Atari (vers. 2.3) as Freeware plus that rabate if you order a recent Mac or PC (3.2) copy. I consider the success of this possibility as the latest indicator for the well known company "Computerinsel" if there is an Atari-szene at all! http://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=23553 http://acp.atari.org/ News from 2012-06-17 http://www.pl32.de "

DarkLord, no problem at all, It's just my poor english, that makes me unsure. As I said, I know it is not a price that everybody can simply pay. Thats expecially hard for us regarding teammembers and Atari users from countries where you earn much more less, let's say about 200-300 Euros per month, ... theloon, the outer layer is totally shielded! So no problems without case. But the mini-case delivering starts very soon as well!

OK, thats a solution as well, ... We always post just the website, as direct links may change etc. About the price, I know it is not that easy, but it is the best we could give to you when doing small series. There would be a series of several thousands (2000-5000) needed to lower the price significantly, ... and you know nobody of is is earning anything, we are all working for free. Nevertheless, look at the crazy prices for Falcons, CT6xies, PAKs etc. I think it is not that crazy, ... is it?

Hi all, we've done a 10 minute video about our Atari Falcon compatible computer and it's recent stage. You can watch some heavy multitasking action and mainly some online capabilities. It gives a very nice overview about recent software status. And I hope it will show as well the possible potential, as there is still no blitter implemented for example. See http://acp.atari.org

Yeah, i have a good working Debian at my PM9600 as at my G4 Dual 1,2 but I nearly never use it, ... no need for it.

Exactly! there was even a time before Classilla, when I didn´t post at AtariAge. No at a 1GHz machine Classilla is enough for everything I need. Technical ugly pages like Atarimusic are not really interresting.

Well my Hades is right beside my PM 9600/G4 800 that two are my main systems. Macs, as a "political" decision, only with Mac OS 9! But I am not doing very complicated things. Little bit photo editing, some layouts, web issues, office and listening to music. Sadly I have to take the Mac not only for browsing modern sites with huge CSS and JavaScrips, but also for Mail, as my provider needs TLS authentification for the IMAP server that is not availaible at the Atari side. But I hope situation will drastically improve with Netsurf further development and others. But I am in no case the "die hard atari user". There are others that ar much deeper inside "just using Ataris". Because of all the communication at the ACP/FireBee with all the potential customers, I know that there are several people out there using their Ataris productive, and as well for jobs. Mostly because of special issues. Calamus, Sequencers, Database, or very special things. For example last week a guy from Australia contacted us, because he got a mixing-desk automation software at his MegaST, and would like a hardware replacement. Such very special fields occure all the time. And I have the feeling, there is a very huge user basis. And, most of these people willnever show up at the forums. They are working with their Ataris, and do not count it as Game machine, retro, or cool lifestyle item. But what I would really like to know if there is somebody outside "just" using Ataris, with no fallback or backup possibility for the tasks not possible with our beloved machins.

I just encountered the thread right now, ... and it is making me very very angry! I would have so much to tell, here are some first thought: -) There is no copyright in Europe! (Es gibt Urheberrecht, Markenrecht und Verwertungsrecht. Aber nichts davon können sie gegen Dich anwenden José - Berne Convention hin oder her.) -) The always appearing "warnings" about usage of the logo - the Fuji; In Germany users got the permission to use the old logo for community actions like printing to T-Shirts, mugs etc. for community activities. This was from Atari Germany several years ago. In fact they told the old logo was owned by somebody else (not Infogrames) and they just use the new one! So I would never easyly fulfill anything they tell us - us who are using the logo years longer than they - some of us decades. (Es gibt in Deutschland sicher eine ähnliche Rechtlage wie in Österreich, daß jahrelange Untätigkeit von Infogrames eine stille Übereinkunft darstellt - auch in Logo-Fällen!) -) An injury to one is an injury to all! Why the small ones? Why not Atari.org, Atari-forum.com or the Atari Coldfire Project? We must not let Andrew Davie or José alone. If the situation would become worse, we should care about laywers (and the payment) for them and fight agains Infogrames together, before they start to treat us all (with nothing in this cases btw.). Let´s see what exactly will happen, but if they go on, we have together to tell that they have to stop immediatly. -) In every case I would prepare. I needed more than 14 days to get the whole story. So maybe others with small pages or low activity may feel alone and get some panic, if they as well get a mail from Infogrames. Let´s organize and be prepared if Infogrames ever likes to atack the 8bit or 16/32 bit community. Mathias (Atari Coldfire Project) P.S: wenn Du weitere Infos zum Logo wills José kannst Du mich gerne kontaktieren. wittauätgmxpunktnet Mit solidarischen Grüßen aus Wien.

Everything is sold. Sorry for not seperating. Take care about them.

I have a maybe interresting set: 2 x PAK68/3 2 x PuPla/2 2 x FRAK/2 1 x GABI 2 x 32 MB Simms 72 Pin 2 Macintosh 68030 Upgrades 1 x 68030 32 MHz CPU + 32 MHz FPU 1 x 68030 50 MHz CPU both boxed, new and never used. You can either use them in you SE, or use the 68k processors for the PAK like I planned to do. All parts are new and from WRS online. I was one of the last regular customers in 2003. The PAKs and FRAKs are partially assembled by Roland Skuplik (all sockets, ...). All the GALs are also included. I never started to finish them as I had two opened questions: 1.) I wanted to use it with the not deliverable TAG-Rams. 2.) I have no ROM-burner at my hand, which is needed. So you would get absolutely new units, that were never touched by me. All manuals are included (in german language) as well as the component placement specification. The Mac upgrades are ready to use (Retail products, no self-construction like the Atari ones), include the complete boxes, with printed mauals in english, a tong for the CPU etc. The PuPla is needed if you like to use a Panther/2 ISA adapter, or If you like to use the PAK/FRAK inside a MegaSTE as I planned to do. As it seems this items are highly demanded, and I never started to finish them (and as I do not like to wait another 7 years), I will give the whole set away for 490,- Euros (worldwide shipping included). Do not ask me what I paid, ... I will not start to sell them seperately, as I do not like to find out which GAL belongs to which unit.

1) Yes the board will fit in several Mini-ATX cases. You just have to look for one with full PCI slot. 2) There was nothing done for Printers. What your software can do now (e.g. NVDI), will also be possible. If maybe the guys get along with the partially released MiNT 98 we could have a chance to get every PostScrip network printer working. 3) The 56001 is under construction and a 1:1 mapping inside the FPGA 4) There are no plans for a FireBee II recently. And your ideas about x16 PCI Express, Blu-Ray etc are not real, are they? 5) Power, well let´s see what will be possible by software. Laptop, let´s see. And of course I will inform you when a further step at FPGA configuration is done.

The board itselve is exactly 260mm x 90mm that is 10,236" x 3,543" but you have to add the connectors which are bigger as the board, and the battery, as the PCI connector. So it could maybe be small enough, or you could put the battery at another place? As soon as the Firebee is ready after production we will provide an better plan with every dimensioning.

Thank you. That is realy important to understand what we do. I think it was the only chance for a native Atari compatible computer. As i wrote at atari.org you could start to save some money, as our computer shall be availaible. You could prepare for getting on at the end of next year? Neverthless donations are also welcome. Just contact us if you like. You are right. But we are estill in the proceess of doing the basis softwaredesign, and making the computer usable. So please wait some more weeks. Final "Product Page" shall be at http://www.firebee.org (webdesigners and databasegurus are welcome). You didn´t see it. Even at the prototypes there is a small green sqare printed at the board at every connector right beside PIN_1 look at this picture http://acp.atari.org/images/foto2.jpeg

Of course Medusa Computer Systems is granting the normal european 2-years warranty, as every other product got.

Hi all. Thanks for the kind words. About the price, I know it´s not cheap, but please consider following points: -) It is the cheapest clone ever -) We got the huge FPGA onboard which is 120 Euro each -) Small series are never cheap. We cannot compare to PC market as we do not produce 50k units up. -) Noone of the team is earning money. We did everything for free to lower the price as much as possible.