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A propos d'Obligement
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David Brunet
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Interview with Paul Gentle
(Interview conducted by David Brunet - February 2012)
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The AmigaOne X1000 is now shipping. This awesome project for the Amiga community was managed by A-Eon with the help of
Varisys. Today, we offer you an interview with Paul Gentle, one of the founder
of Varisys.
 Hello. Can you introduce
yourself?
Hi, my name is Paul Gentle and I am the Commercial Director at Varisys.
Adam Barnes and Paul Gentle from Varisys
What did you do before working
at Varisys?
Before working at Varisys, Adam Barnes (my business partner) and I worked for
a company called Transtech Parallel Systems. We started off building
boards based around the transputer (a predecessor to the XMOS chip fitted to Nemo)
and progressed to building super computers using Intel i860s. When the owner
of that company decided that he wanted to retire, Adam and I decided to start
Varisys. Before that I worked for Ultra Electronics.
Could you tell us the story
about Varisys: who founded it, when, your goals, etc.
Adam and I decided to start Varisys on a beach in Tel-Aviv in 2000. We were
away on a business trip and knew that we both needed a plan for the future
and we decided that Varisys should be it. Varisys started out with custom
design and manufacture mainly for rugged and military applications and that
still accounts for the bulk of our business. We are expanding and are
currently looking for new premises to give us some more space. The future is
bright.
For what type of clients do
you work? Could you give us some famous names?
We mainly work for military customers, people like General Dynamics, Raytheon, BAE, and Selex.
The PowerPC represents what
proportion of your clients/production?
For a long time there really wasn't a PowerPC roadmap for high end designs.
Then PA Semi entered the market. Once that avenue was closed after the Apple
acquisition, Freescale responded by introducing high end parts based on the
QorIQ architecture. The high end embedded market has been diluted with the
advent on power efficient Intel parts and also more prevalent use of FPGAs.
Why working with the PowerPC
today? What are the strengths of this type of processor?
The PowerPC is a great architecture for low power high performance
applications. Most of our customers require our products to be supported for
10+ years and this tends to be difficult with boards based around Intel
processors. Maybe this will change in the future.
Did the Apple switch from
PowerPC to Intel x86 have impacted your business?
Only in that it would have been a better result for us if Apple had been a
customer for PA and that variant of the PowerPC had of continued to be
developed. I emailed Steve Jobs after the acquisition and let him know my
thoughts although his response was very brief "Sorry. Steve.".
Is the PowerPC has a future?
What are the "obstacles" that prevent to establish itself despite all its strengths?
The PowerPC has a very positive future with more multicore devices appearing on the roadmap over the next 12-18 months.
Did you know the Amiga
before A-Eon contact you? Did you get an Amiga in the past?
Of course we knew of the Amiga and Adam and I were intrigued by the project.
Unfortunately, I had a ZX Spectrum and Adam had a BBC Micro.
Could you tell us your
first meetings with A-Eon? What was your initial reaction about the Nemo/AmigaOne X1000
project?
We first met with a representative of A-Eon in 2008 and we were put in
contact by the European Technical Support guy from PA Semi. After some email
communication we had a meeting in London to try and thrash out the details
of the architecture. It was clear from the start that we were dealing with
enthusiasts and that is really how we see ourselves - we take pride in being
able to propose realistic solutions based on cutting edge technology.
What were the difficulties
you encountered during the design and the development of the Nemo motherboard?
The Nemo design was quite straightforward and the first version worked
well. We had some difficulties with the getting life signs out of the SB600
(South Bridge) but once these problems were overcome it was plane sailing.
The AmigaOne X1000 is
probably the only computer with a PA6T-1682M processor. The idea to put a PA6T-1682M on the motherboard comes from you
or A-Eon?
As I mentioned, we were put in contact with A-Eon through PA Semi so the
processor choice was a done deal from the start.
The manufacturer of the
PA6T-1682M (PA Semi) no longer exists. Is this processor still manufactured? What is the volume of your stocks?
The PA Semi processor is no longer manufactured unfortunately. We were able
to reach an agreement with Apple for continued supply of the processor but
there is a finite amount of stock.
The frequency of the PA6T-1682M
is 2GHz. It seems that on the Nemo board, it is only 1.8GHz. Why?
The frequency that was quoted on the PA marketing collateral was never offered
as a standard part option.
Nemo board have a nice chip
on it: Xena. Why did you add this chip? What are its functions?
The Xena chip is interesting because it offers users the ability to add
functionality to their X1000 machines. We have designed a Xorro interface
board that will enable user to add their own circuitry. It follows the ethos
of the original Amiga, where users are encouraged to get hands on and be as
inventive as possible.
Do you plan to make a new
revision of the board?
I am not sure I can comment on that at the moment.
How many Nemo boards were
produced before the final revision (2.1)?
A handful of boards were produced to prove that the design was good. I think it was 5.
How many Nemo boards (final
revision) do you plan to produce?
The final number has yet to be confirmed.
Do you think you will
personally use the AmigaOne X1000 (with AmigaOS 4.2 or Linux)? Is there a utility outside of the small world of Amiga?
Having the ability to run Linux makes the Nemo board a very good general
purpose development platform. We have certainly played with it extensively
here although the appetite for AmigaOS amongst the younger engineers
seems to be a bit of an acquired taste.
Do you consider to port AROS,
or contact the MorphOS Team for a port of MorphOS, in order to increase sales of the AmigaOne X1000?
This work is not on the development road map at this point in time.
If you had to build a successor
of the Amiga X1000, which processor or features would it have?
Watch this space...
Your SSC (Small System Controller,
www.varisys.co.uk/ssc.html) would make a cheap Amiga computer. What is your
opinion about it?
The SSC design is a little long in the tooth. Again, watch this space...
A last message for the Amiga
community?
I hope that everybody that has committed to the X1000 has a good experience.
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