Sam440ep


Sam440, also known by Sam or its codename Samantha, is a line of modular motherboards produced by the Italian company ACube Systems Srl. The Sam440ep version is a motherboard based on the PowerPC 440EP system-on-a-chip processor which includes a double-precision FPU. It is made by AMCC. Their primary targets are the industrial and embedded markets, running operating systems such as Linux and AmigaOS 4.
At the time of AmigaOS 4.1 release in 2008, it was the only AmigaOS 4 compatible hardware available since the manufacturing of AmigaOne machines ceased in 2005; Sam440 was later succeeded by the Sam460ex and AmigaOne X1000.

Main features

Notable features of the Sam boards :

Sam440ep

Sam440ep was the first modular motherboard produced by ACube Systems Srl.
The specifications are the same as for the revisions before, except for:
There is no graphics chip on the Sam440ep-flex, so you have to use a PCI-graphics board.

Prototype

The specifications are the same as for the flex prototype, except for:
On 2 April 2009, ACube announced the availability of SAM440ep-flex revision 2, it has the same specifications as the flex prototype except for:
OSNews review provided view by someone who never used AmigaOS computer before: Thom Holwerda commended silent CPU-fan-less operation, but criticized higher price. His evaluation of AmigaOS was mixed, although the platform offered "whole new world of technology to explore and play around with", it was still a relic of the past mainly due to lack of modern features like memory protection and unusual user interface. Review of the Sam440ep in the Amiga Future magazine noted performance comparable to older AmigaOne generation, but criticized non expandable RAM and lack of legacy interfaces. Also some features of the new board were still unsupported by AmigaOS. Testing the 800 MHz variant of the Sam440ep-flex, Amiga Future highlighted CPU speed behind the MicroA1, but surpassing it in graphics, memory and harddisk performance.