phase 5 news

A/BOX Logo

Code name: A\BOX

A leap forward towards realising a vision

The product - the data - the facts

October 22, 1996: phase 5 digital products are pleased that they are now able to announce the long-awaited specifications for the new computer system scheduled for 1997 and based on a powerful Custom Chip technology. Under the name of the current project, A\BOX, we are realising a trail-blazing visionary concept that explodes the barriers of today's standards. As an extremely powerful and creative personal workstation, A\BOX will appeal to all users who wish to work actively and creatively with the most modern technology and who have no desire to put up with the limitations imposed by mass hardware products that have fallen victim to a cost-cutting spree nor by the restraining software corsets of systems that are intended purely for passive consumers and users. With the enormous power it offers and its integrated functions the A\BOX project can claim to be implementing a computer design that is as innovative, as outstanding and as exceptionally cool as the Amiga 1000 was 12 years ago - a computer design that all Amiga enthusiasts can welcome as the reincarnation of their favourite computer system on a state-of-the-art technical level.

The hardware of the A\BOX

The computer project we announced has given rise to a great deal of inaccurate speculation, rumours and false information which have been bandied about in general discussion forums (in many Internet newsgroups for example) during the last few months. This is why we would first like to put the record straight and deliver a few basic facts about the A\BOX concept. The A\BOX project does not specify a system that builds up on standard technologies such as PCI-based graphical chips. We at phase 5 digital products take the view that a new innovative computer must also offer innovative hardware to match in order to stand out among the current PC designs and overcome the limitations they impose. On the other hand, this in no way implies that in designing an innovative computer we need to depart in any way from standards that are useful and meaningful for the user of the system (such as a PCI bus for simple expansions, the use of standardised RAM modules, standard interfaces etc.). The technological innovation, rather, is to be found on a level of integration which is of central importance in controlling the system. And despite the effort involved, which we will be going into later, today's modern methods of design and production make it possible to realise such an innovative concept in the form of ASIC's at an extremely competitive price. The central component of the A\BOX is a novel Custom Chip which is now under development at phase 5 digital and which will be responsible for many important functions in the system. These include complete memory administration and processor linkup, all DMA-like functions including video and audio DMA, blitter-type functions, I/O and control functions. A team of experienced chip and hardware designers are working on the realisation of this sophisticated concept, supported by software designers and aided by the most modern, high-level synthesis tools for VHDL-based designs. During the first half of 1997 major efforts will go into phases of simulation and testing, the result of which will be the production of the first silicon tapeout. This will be followed by the mass production of the ASIC's which, of course, will be put in the hands of one of the world's leading ASIC manufacturers.

In conclusion it can be said that the A\BOX project is an ambitious one which creates new techniques, a project in which we are by no means reinventing the wheel, but rather one in which we are making extensive use of the most modern techniques and development possibilities that are available today to an innovative company that is willing to invest in order to develop an outstanding, powerful and competitive product.
The Silicon Dream

The heart of the A\BOX is the system controller, CAIPIRINHA, which will realise the functional integration on which the A\BOX concept is based. CAIPIRINHA opens up new dimensions of power and technology. CAIPIRINHA will be implemented as a VLSI Custom Chip design in 0.35 um CMOS ASIC technology using a modern, probably 575-pole BGA housing. With a bus width of 128 bits to the memory bus, extensive dual-port buffers and FIFO's in the data lines, and clock rates of initially 100 MHz externally and 200 MHz internally, CAIPIRINHA can provide an intense data throughput and powerful additional functions which do not rely on the processor, such as support for 3D and multimedia applications.
The corner-stones of the CAIPIRINHA design:
CAIPIRINHA is basically designed as a highly complex system and memory controller in the form of a SOMA Engine (Sole Memory Access). At the same time CAIPIRINHA manages all access to the A\BOX memory which takes the form of a highly powerful Unified Memory Architecture (UMA). All external memory access, including that of the processor, only occurs virtually and is administered and implemented by CAIPIRINHA. Unified Memory Architecture means that the entire system memory is made available as a unified memory which stores all types of data, such as programs and their data, display data, 3D-textures or Z-buffer data, audio data, incoming flows of video data etc. etc. and which can be addressed by all functional units in the system. For the user UMA means that the entire memory in the system is available for all applications at all times. When the memory is expanded with inexpesnive SDRAM modules, the additional memory capacity is then always available for all applications and functions in the system. In terms of its principle UMA corresponds to the Amiga Chip RAM which can be addressed both by the processor and by the custom chips and video and audio DMA units of the Amiga. Unlike the Chip RAM, however, and unlike the low-cost attempts made to implement UMA memories in the PC field, the memory subsystem of the A\BOX in the form of a unified memory architecture will be implemented with 128 bits databus width and by use of synchronous DRAM's which have a speed of 100 MHz, which allows a band width of 1.6 G-bytes/second. A special method of controlling the SDRAM modules also considerably reduces latency times when accessing the memory.

Due to the integration of the video DMA into CAIPIRINHA the UMA memory can simultaneously be used as a display memory. CAIPIRINHA provides two video DMA engines: one 220 MHz high-performance video output for resolutions of up to 1600 x 1280 pixels with 24 bits and a refresh frequency of 75 Hz and a Genlock-capable 135 MHz video output for a second monitor or image output in video resolutions such as PAL/NTSC or S-VHS. The video output of the 135-MHz output can be superimposed as a window on the 220 MHz display while both video DMA's are in parallel operation.

Unlike conventional raster scan displays, CAIPIRINHA's video DMA engines function on the basis of a random memory access (Random Access Display), which makes it possible to display any data in visual form at any random screen positions. With this method windows, as hardware windows for example, can be superimposed and moved around anywhere with their full content, without any delay or jerkiness, even with moving animation or video sequences. Special pipelines and FIFO buffers within CAIPIRINHA's video DMA ensure a stable data throughput. The complex display possibilities are controlled by an integrated display-list RISC processor (DLRP). As the video DMA engines always have an output in 24-bit display mode, it is, of course, possible to mix any depth of shade at will. In this way, for example, on a memory-saving background with a colour depth of 8 bits it is possible to display 16-bit and 24-bit windows in any position. Of course CAIPIRINHA makes it possible to open and display virtual screens of any size and to make use of the capacity of the entire RAM. For example an image-processing application can open a virtual screen of 4000 x 4000 pixels in 24 bits in a system expanded to 72 M-bytes and scroll it in a display that can be represented on the monitor in 1280 x 1024 pixels without any delay or jerkiness. Another interesting feature of CAIPIRINHA's video DMA engines is the fact that windows need no longer be merely rectangular, but can assume practically any outlines. Last, but not least, video data in the RAM which are intended for output can be stored in various formats such as RGB, YUV or CMYK and displayed simultaneously.

It goes without saying that CAIPIRINHA has a highly complex functional unit (FAME, Flexible Area Movement Engine) for rapidly writing into, copying and linking memory locations or images, and which, in a similar way to the hardware windows that can be displayed with CAIPIRINHA, can assume practically any outlines and not merely the rectangular forms we know from classical blitters (block image transferers). At the same time a parallel DSP-RISC type processing unit is also integrated into this functional unit. With a very compact set of commands this allows fully programmable image and signal processing and matrix operations. This means that FAME supports special multimedia and 3D applications which can make optimum use of this supportive processing capacity which is available parallel to that of the CPU. Because it is a programmable DSP-RISC processing unit, however, FAME is not limited to today's standards. Its powerful features are also available for future standards such as new 3D or video-compression algorithms.

Audio output via CAIPIRINHA physically occurs via 2 channels in 16-bit CD quality. Internally the number of virtual audio tracks is limited only by the memory space available. FAME is able to engineer real-time generation and mixing of various audio tracks in any random format (e.g. also 24-bit audio) without making demands on the processor. It is also possible to generate various sound effects, a feature which is optimally supported by functions similar to DSP. In general digital samples, FM-synthesized sounds and envelope-VCO generated tones can be generated, modified, mixed and output via these freely programmable audio-DMA.

In addition to these superb functions CAIPIRINHA offers a full range of additional controlling functions: an integrated PCI-bus controller controls the PCI expansion bus which is available for low-cost standard expansions in the lower performance range or for I/O applications with medium band width (e.g. Ultra-SCSI or ATM). A local 16-bit DMA bus is available for further I/O applications, and an interesting and easy-to-implement interface is specially available for hardware manufacturers who do not want to work with standard PCI components. Another important feature which will play a major role in future multimedia applications is the integrated IEEE 1394 firewire bus. A large number of electronic enhancements for computer and consumer can connected via this high-speed serial bus.
The general system design of the A\BOX

The A\BOX system will be implemented as a progressive and innovative concept of a personal workstation which offers extremely good value for money. As we have mentioned, the system builds up on the innovative CAIPIRINHA chip which serves as the functional heart of the system. The type of processor we intend to use will be the Initial PowerPC processors of types 603e and 604e. Theoretically these can be operated with clock frequencies of up to 500 MHz. At present, with the first A\BOX design, a maximum of two processors can be connected on the CAIPIRINHA processor bus; a corresponding expansion option for the second processor will be available in the A\BOX design.

The memory can be expanded by using inexpensive standard SDRAM modules with a width of 64 bits (168-pin JEDEC DIMMS). In future these SDRAMs will increasingly be replacing slower, traditional DRAMs. Eight slots will be available so that the memory can be expanded to a maximum capacity of 1 gigabyte. The slots can be expanded in pairs (due to the 128-bit mode).

As a standard feature the system provides two video outputs, one of which has a maximum pixel rate of 220 MHz and the second of which can be operated at 135 MHz. In addition to this, the second video output can be synchronised externally and is thus suitable for compatible analogue video applications.

Also available, naturally, are an integrated Fast SCSI-II controller with an external port and an integrated ISDN connection. Via standard video inputs two analogue video inputs can be simultaneously digitalised in Y/C quality and then processed in real time. The audio inputs and outputs also offered by CAIPIRINHA which it will, of course, be possible to synchronise with the video ports, are available in the form of Cinch jacks for processing high-quality audio data. Keyboard, mouse and other operating devices are connected up via a serial desktop bus. In addition to this, there are external connections for the IEEE 1394 firewire port, the serial interface and the parallel interface.

Due to the open design concept of A\BOX, the outstanding hardware features of the CAIPIRINHA system controller and the excellent operating system capacities, A\BOX offers itself as an ideal platform for unusual applications for third-party developers working both in the field of software and in the field of hardware. Any I/O expansions which may be required, such as ATM boards, Ultra SCSI or RAID controllers or others can be easily adapted via the PCI bus. In addition to this, the most versatile enhancements can be developed for the A\BOX via both the PCI and the 16-bit DMA bus.

At present all options are still open as far as the housing is concerned. The mainboard design of the A\BOX will, at all events, be geared towards the usual standards so that the option of choosing a more inexpensive standard housing will be kept open in addition to a custom housing.
A large number of options for the operating system software

A large number of options will be available for the operating system software of the A\BOX. In general the A\BOX project aims to implement an Amiga-OS-compatible operating system of a state-of-the-art technical standard and to provide it as a basic operating system for the A\BOX. Modern functions such as support for multi-processing are to be transparently integrated. The basis for this development has already been created in the form of the Amiga-OS 3.1 compatible operating core which is currently being tested in the software labs of phase 5 digital products. In the near future we will also be pressing ahead with more development work in co-operation with important software partners, for example on an updated GUI or other high-level components. An important aspect of this development work will be our efforts to make the operating system provide complete support for the superb possibilities offered by the hardware.

In addition to this we also plan to implement a NetBSD and a Linux version for the A\BOX in co-operation with other partners. The current concepts provide for a very close integration of these OS adaptations into the basic operating system of the A\BOX so that parallel operation of the two operating systems and of software applications based on these operating systems will proceed with extreme transparency and excellent coordination. A\BOX will also be open for other operating systems, especially including the ones that are already suitable for the PowerPC. In the future we might use attractive standard operating systems by way of licence agreements and emulation.
Open concepts for the future

The A\BOX concept which we have introduced here will be structured in such a way that it is forward-looking and open. The technology used in the CAIPIRINHA custom chip is upgradable on silicon level. This means that in the future it will be possible to implement compatible systems enhancing the functions with wider memory or wider processor buses and to realise faster versions of this custom design with higher internal clock rates. In addition to this it is conceivable that a downgraded 64-bit version will be implemented. This means that systems of average capacity (e.g. 24-bit screen resolution with a maximum of 1280 x 1024 pixels) but which possess the full functional power of the concept we have outlined can be implemented at a price range considerably below DM 1500 or USD 1000. In order to possibly implement such a low-price version of the CAIPIRINHA Custom Chip, phase 5 digital products in the near future will be seeking contact with partners who might possibly be interested and who offer the preconditions for the large-scale manufacture and distribution of such a product. But phase 5 will also be open for OEM partnerships with regard to the mass-produced A\BOX mainboards or the CAIPIRINHA system controller.
Worldwide availability guaranteed.

Worldwide availability guaranteed. For our own A\BOX systems, which will be sold in a price range starting from DM 3,000 (USD 2,000 or GBP 1,300) net (in the 150 MHz class with the basic features, i.e. a 16 M-byte memory, a hard disk in the 1 GB range and a CD-ROM disk drive) phase 5 digital products will be setting up an active international distribution system during the course of 1997, which will ensure that product and sales support is available as soon as delivery commences. This work will include selecting sales representatives, giving them preparatory training courses and opening up distribution and service branches as far as is necessary for professionally attending to important markets. The expansion of our Internet activities in the fields of sales, support, product support and marketing will make an important contribution towards distributing the system among an interest group that spans the four corners of the globe. These activities will guarantte for a worldwide availability of the A\BOX systems to interested users and customers.
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Disclaimer: All rights reserved. All specifications are preliminary and subject to change without notice. AMIGA is a registered trademark of the respective owners. PowerPC is a registred trademark of the IBM Corporation. Now, Davy, that's what we call Cool Stuff!
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