[Project] Walker
Thanks to Anthony Fox & Erchin
Technical Specifications
- Main Processor:
- Motorola MC68(EC?)030, clocked at 40 Megahertz in asynchronous design
- Numeric Coprocessor:
- None (FPU Socket available for 68881 or 68882)
- Real-Time Clock:
- Yes
- Chip Set:
- Modified KS 3.1 with support for 1MB ROMs
- AGA / Extended I/O (VLSI) + TONY CHIP
- The new system will run on a 40 MHz base with a bridge to the AGA chips
- Chip RAM:
- 1 (or maybe 2) Mb
- Fast RAM:
- 4 Mb
- RAM Sockets:
- 2 SIMM sockets for RAM expansion up to 96 MB
- Floppy Drive:
- PC High Density Disk Drive (Maybe Amiga-emulation)
- Hard Drive:
- EIDE Hard drive as standard (size depending on market when manufactured)
- CD-ROM Drive:
- 4x Internal EIDE CD-ROM
- Hard Drive Controller:
- EIDE
- Interfaces:
- VLSI SuperIO chip included featuring
- Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP), bidirectional, 24-bit support for printer.device possible due to speedier operation
- Faster serial port with FIFO buffer
- MIDI (not specified yet for Out, In or Through)
- EIDE interface for hard- and CD-ROM-drives
- Floppy interface for PC HD floppies
- Expansion Slots:
- Single Custom Expansion slot will take daughter cards which may provide Zorro and PCI Slots in addition to CPU and Video Slots
- Drive Bays:
- 1 5.25"HH bay for CD-ROM and 1 3.5"HH bay for PC Floppy
- Case Type:
- New Style Desktop Case with connectors for Mouse, Joystick and Keyboard
- AmigaDOS Version
- AmigaDOS3.2, Version 43.1, KickStart 3.2 on 1Mb ROMs
- Contains bug-fixes and small enhancements
- removal of the 2GB limit from FFS
- CDFS revamped and bug-fixed to function with Scala and the new E-IDE interface
NOTE!
Due to Escom and subsequently Amiga Technologies going bankrupt, the Walker
never hit the streets and the project was cancelled. Several prototypes are
believed to be in existence. Two of which remain at the Amiga International Inc
office mini-museum in Langen, Germany. Petro is seen demonstrating these in a
1999 filmed Amiga OS 3.5 promotional video which contains a look at the museum.
ADDITIONAL
Toni was the system controller and did, for example, implement the DRAM interface. The FPGA used on the prototypes had a few frequency problems and were not completely stable at 33MHz. Later investigation showed that CeBIT would have been easier by running the machines at 25MHz.
The motherboard contained a SuperIO chip and a Dallas Clock as major enhancements, aside from the "Toni" custom chip (really an FPGA). The original prototypes did not contain the Dallas clock due to some kind of hardware problem not found before CeBIT. No drivers were actually written for the new hardware. ESCOM died too fast.
Several Walker units were built. The three Walker units shown at CeBIT were put into the "fancy" case. One other machine exists in a standard PC case, which wasn't a problem as the Walker was intentionally a Baby AT like design. The prototypes were brought up in less than a week before CeBIT and were run at 33MHz.
Using a Coldfire was discussed for about a millisecond but the idea was dropped in another nanosecond due to basic Coldfire V2 68k compatibility issues. There never was a thought to use an '040 in the base design and a 50MHz '040 doesn't really exist anyway. The main discussion revolved around using a 33MHz '030 or a 40MHz EC '030. The decision was made against the MMU and for the higher speed even though for the prototypes chips with MMUs were used.