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Amiga Update (1996-05-13)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH
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960513
N E W I N V I T A T I O N T O V I S C O R P M E E T I N G
N E W S F R O M " P U R E A M I G A "
T W O N E W A M I G A M O N I T O R S A N N O U N C E D
Q U O T E S F R O M I N T E R V I E W W I T H
P E T R O T Y S C H T S C H E N K O
E X C E R P T S F R O M I R C C H A T W I T H V I S C O R P
About this issue:
We found a more involved invitation to the updoming meeting in Toulouse,
on the VIScorp home page. It leads off this issue.
The VIScorp folks also have a link to a new Amiga site in the UK called
"Pure Amiga". We spent some time exploring that site, and found a few
news items and rumors we thought you'd enjoy.
AT has just announced two new monitors. One may be the only 17 inch
monitor that covers the entire range of Amiga modes. It actually
multisyncs down to 15 Khz horizontal. The Amiga community has been needing
such a monitor for a long time. We have the specifications for both new
monitors.
Finally, we have two set of quotes from interesting discussions on the
net. The first is from an interview with Amiga Technogies' President Petro
Tyschtschenko. The second set of quotes is from a very long transcript of
an IRC (that's the Internet's realtime chat facility) session with VIScorp
representatives.
Interesting stuff, all.
Brad
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V I S C O R P M E E T I N G U P D A T E
VIScorp Invites Amiga Community to Attend Meeting
Executives to Discuss Pending Acquisition of Amiga, ITV Opportunities
Chicago IL, May 9, 1996 - Visual Information Service Corp. (Nasdaq VICP,
Bulletin Board), a developer of Interactive TV (ITV) set-top boxes to
enhance television use and viewing by providing Internet access and
electronic communications functions, will host a meeting for Amiga computer
users, vendors, retailers, software and hardware developers. The meeting
will be held in Toulouse, France on Sunday, May 19, 1996 and is intended to
encourage dialogue between the Amiga community and VIScorp, which announced
on April 11, 1996, a letter of understanding with Escom AG to acquire the
assets and intellectual property of Amiga Technologies and the former
Commodore Business Machines.
"The Amiga community is a large, established and dedicated one, and I
believe this is the first time that an owner or prospective owner has gone
to this vast community to ask for its opinions," said Raquel Velasco,
VIScorp's Director of Sales and Marketing - Europe. "We are excited about
the opportunity to tell people about VIScorp and our vision for the future
of Amiga Technologies. "We have asked for proposals and suggestions from
the Amiga community. With the anticipated acquisition of Amiga, we see
limitless opportunities. We welcome ideas and are coming to France to
listen, as much as to share our own vision." The meeting will feature
VIScorp Chief Executive Officer William Buck, Chief Technical Officer Don
Gilbreath, Vice President - Business Development David Rosen, Ms. Velasco,
and Chief Software Engineer Carl Sassenrath.
The company asks that all proposals be sent by May 12, 1996 via email to
VIScorp Manager of Technical Development for Amiga, Eric Laffont, at:
elaffont@vistv.com or via facsimile at: 33-61-538-656. VIScorp has
announced that it intends to begin marketing its first set-top box with
full Internet and Web capabilities, called the Universal Internet
Television Interface(r), (UITI(r)) in the fourth quarter of 1996. The
company says an enhanced set-top device, the Electronic Device(r) (ED(r))
is scheduled for roll out in 1997, and will feature capabilities such as
telephone reception and dial-up, facsimile, pay-per-view options,
electronic mail, access to on-line services, including the Internet, and
more. Both devices utilize the Amiga operating system and chip sets.
Information about VIScorp can be obtained at the company's Web site at
http://www.vistv.com/.
VISCORP
111 North Canal Street, Suite 933
Chicago, IL 60606
Corporate Information Contact: Florine Radulovic
Voice 312.655.0903
FAX 312.655.0910
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I T E M S F R O M U K ' S " P U R E A M I G A "
Amiga Technologies Announce 1995 Sales Figures
Amiga Technologies have announced their sales figures for the short period
of 1995 that they were producing Amigas. They were down on estimations,
mainly due to the fact that they had problems with the production line.
They managed to produce 6000 A4000T models and 80,000 A1200's, and around
14,000 M1438S monitors. This compares to the expected figures of 25,000
A400T's and 100,000 A1200 models. The low figures maybe reflects on the
pricing structure, which came under a lot of flak when the new models were
released, especially as the A1200 was no different but £200 more expensive
than when Commodore ruled. However, AT are hopeful that the sales will
pick up, and have estimated that they will sell 500,000 Amigas this year,
and also 100,000 monitors, which could include some new Amiga compatible
large screen models {see below. Brad}
They are also suggesting that they could shift some 50,000 CD-Rom drives.
Apple Make Deal With AT
Apple have confirmed that they have made an agreement with Amiga Tech. to
port their movie player Quicktime to the Amiga Range. This will allow the
Amiga to step into the next generation of multimedia, which would include
playing movies off the WWW. Or course, Quicktime is already supported on
the Amiga via MainActor Broadcast. This software, supplied by
VillageTronic, is available for all graphics modes from ECS through AGA to
Graphics Cards. However, it's hoped that the Apple version will be a tad
cheaper than the US$279 asked for MainActor.
Pure Amiga Rumour Warehouse
New Amigas to have all-new chipset!
The next Amigas will reportedly have an updated disk-handler chipset in,
and also hinted at is a all new graphics chipset. Offering the possiblity
of 24-bit graphics, planar/chunky modes and revised resolutions, it will
take the place in development of the now-dead AAA set. Also possible is a
new sound set, incorparating 16-bit audio, possibly 8-channel. This will
be a boon to users and programmers alike, and one can only hope it gets put
into production.
New OS due "soon"
The new Amiga operating system, previously called Workbench 4, is due at
the beginning of 1997. This means of course that the A1300 will have to
rely on OS3.1, unless AT get their combined fingers out. Hopefully with
full CD-support and faster filing system, it has been confirmed that it
will not use MUI. This will be a relif to those who thought MUI is just
too slow on a basic Amiga to be used for an OS without going down to
Windows screen speed level.
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S P E C S O N T W O N E W A M I G A M O N I T O R S
AMIGA M1538S
CRT
15" diagonal Black Matrix, 0.28 mm dot pitch,Short persistance (P22) tube
Anti-static AR faceplate finish
DISPLAY TIMINGS
Horizontal: 15 - 38 kHz, Vertical: 45 - 90 Hz,Bandwidth: 40 MHz
MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS
1024 x 768 (interlaced), 800 x 600 (non-interlaced)
All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!!
CONTROLS
Mains on/off, Contrast, Brightness, Vertical height, Horizontal Position,
Volume
INPUTS / OUTPUTS
Analog RGB via 23-pin AMIGA-Sub 'D', 0.7 V - 75 Ohm, Separate H and V sync,
Audio input LHS / RHS phono socket, Audio input signal 1 V p-p 5000 Ohm,
Audio Output 0.5 W RMS per channel
POWER SUPPLY
Line 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz, Power Consumption 65 W max.
ENVIRONMENT
Reliability > 35,000 h, Operating temperature 0 - 40 °C,Relative humidity
10 - 90 %
APPROVALS
EN60950, PTB, MPRII, EN29241, 89/336/EC, EN55022 Class B, GS
PHYSICAL
354x360x380mm (HxWxD), 14.4 kg unpackaged
WARRANTY
1 year parts & labour
Available at your AMIGA-Dealer
AMIGA M1764
CRT
17" diagonal FST invar mask, 0.28 mm dot pitch, 307 x 225 mm typical display
size
Anti-static AR faceplate finish
DISPLAY TIMINGS
Horizontal: 15 - 64 kHz, Vertical: 45 - 125 Hz, Bandwidth: 85 MHz
MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS
1280 x 1024 60 Hz, 1152 x 870 68 Hz, 1024 x 768 76 Hz (recommended)
All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!!
CONTROLS
Mains on/off, On screen Display control of all functions
INPUTS / OUTPUTS
15 pin 'D - Sub' captive lead, 0.7 V - 75 Ohm, Separate H and V sync,
Combined sync ( TTL )
POWER SUPPLY
Line Volts 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz, Power Consumption 95 W max.
Power Saving 2 W max.
ENVIRONMENT
Reliability > 50.000 h, Operating temperature 5 - 40° C, Relative humidity
10 - 90 %
APPROVALS
TÜV, EN60950, NEMKO, CSA22.2 No.950, UL1950, ZH1/618, GS, DHHS, FCC/A,
EN55022/A, EN55082-1, EN60555, 2ISO9241-3, MPRII, TCO92
PHYSICAL
400x418x434mm(HxWxD), 17 kg unpackaged
WARRANTY
1 year parts & labour, RTB
Available at your AMIGA-Dealer
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Q U O T E S F R O M A M I G A M A G A Z I N ' S I N T E R V I E W
W I T H P E T R O T Y S C H T S C H E N K O
"Amiga Technologies president, Petro Tyschtschenko said that it's pretty
much, 'business as usual,' for Amiga Technologies now that Chicago-based
VIScorp has made its intentions official that it wants to aquire Amiga
Technologies from German parent company, Escom AG. He said that VIScorp
has a set amount of time to make its assesment of the purchase and to close
the deal. Tyschtschenko indicated that he was optimistic that this would
happen as planned.
"Asked whether he thought VIScorp would develop new Amigas, he said that he
was certain of it, but that the detailed plans of the new partnership would
be revealed at a press conference to be held in Frankfurt on May 23. He
also interjected that the infamous Amiga Walker would NOT be produced in
the oddly futuristic casing seen at the recent CeBIT96 trade show and that
it would have a 'traditional' Amiga A????-style name. He then thanked
Amiga Magazin for sponsoring an effort to come up with a new name.
"Tyschtschenko confirmed that ex-Commodorians Andy Finkel and Dave Haynie
had been hired on as 'external advisors' and that talks are continuing with
US-based Motorola.
"As an interesting aside, and perhaps one final dig at Commodore,
Tyschtschenko said, 'The purchase will sure be staged trouble-free, because
we fortunately don't have the problems as with the purchase of Commodore.
After all, AMIGA Technologies is a decent run, German company.'"
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Q U O T E S F R O M I R C C H A T W I T H
V I S C O R P R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
The IRC session happened May 8, 1996. The full transcript can be found at
the Amiga Web Directory site. We reproduce a few interesting quotes from
the copyrighted transcript. We've added some topic notes to the quotes.
Present from VIScorp were "vog" (Carl Sassenrath, Director of Software and
"AztecC" (Jim Goodnow, Senior Software Engineer. (vog = VIScorp OS Guy.)
US DEVELOPERS, MOTOROLA
Frotz | vog: cool. so when is there going to be a *US* developer's
conference? I find it very disturbing that there is a
meeting in France to decide the fate of the machine, and NO
meeting here.
vog | Frotz: Yes... USA is a good idea. I need to talk to Bill
about that.
kolla | vog: hows the support from motorola?
vog | kolla: good I hear.
paulaM | yes, dont forget the us/canada :)
vog | paula: I won't forget US or Canada
A GOOD APPLE STORY
vog | Hammer: to continue my Apple story: They wanted me to
implement an object oriented OS that multitasked.
vog | Hammer: I figured, if they threw enough money at it,
perhaps it could happen.
vog | Hammer: They purchased a cray xmp48 to program it on.
HammerD | vog, did you start work on it?
vog | Hammer: yes. But the cray is a pretty unfriendly place to
code.
vog | Hammer: The guy in the office next to me, Sam Dicker, also
one of the original amigans...
vog | brought in his Amiga... to the Apple Advanced Technology
group, because he could not stand using a Mac.
vog | He would hook up from the cray to his Amiga! Geeze that
made people mad around apple.
vog | But, anyway.... things got complicated very fast.
vog | Apple didn't want to do a multitasking OS.
{At this point the conference went into a more formal, moderated mode.
Brad}
New channel: #VIScorp
JAVA
vog | If a language does not gather speed within a year or two
vog | it is probably doomed to a struggle. Smalltalk is a
perfect example.
vog | So that is the way of languages. JAVA has a few more
months. But
vog | if you compare it to HTML, it has only accomplished .001
percent of the acceptance and widespread use.
AT LAYOFFS
RMerlin | vog: AT recently fired a lot of employes. I heard it's
standard procedures before the new owner comes in, so they
can hire back who they want.
RMerlin | vog: Now, do you think that some current VisCorp employes
(like you) who already knows a great deal about the Amiga
might step in and take an aactive part in direct Amiga R ?
vog | Yes... I think that will happen. I don't know what VIScorp
has promised AT and its employees. But I don't
vog | think we can endure having too many chiefs running the
show.
US MARKETING
mramiga | Will we see a real attempt at marketing the COMPLETE LINE
OF AMIGA COMPUTER in the USA.. not some half hearted
attempt or no attempt at all. IE aggresive priceing,
mramiga | support for graphic cards and true 24 bit on the WB?..
and is the Amiga checkmark gonna be brought back?
vog | I've had to think about how to answer this question,
mramiga.
vog | VIScorp is not a big company.
vog | If it succeeds in what is trying to achieve, it will likely
partner or merge with a larger company that will bring
money to the USA marketing.
vog | On the technical questions... yes, those are important.
RTG related. {RTG = Retargetable Graphics. Brad}
vog | I don't know about the checkmark. There is a marketing
person at VIScorp.
vog | He will make that decision... with perhaps some of our
influence. ;)
mramiga | Well in my opinon and many others if you cant grab at
least a minor part of the US market then you shouldnt even
try. and just let the amiga die
vog | Markets don't happen that way.
vog | Take a look at anything.... CD, CDROM, PCs. They all grow.
vog | They start small and build. That's what will happen here,
if VIScorp can get a good partner.
vog | And, I should say that MANY big companies are interested in
us.
AMIGA SOUND
U4ia-F8 | As a 'musician' i am always interested in the sound aspects
of computers
U4ia-F8 | the amiga sound chip is way out of date now
U4ia-F8 | what plans are there for upgrades? etc..
U4ia-F8 | ie. 8 bit don't cut it anymore.
vog | Yes, Amiga audio has been out of date for too many years.
The original designer of the
vog | audio chip, Glen Keller, completely updated the audio
system about five years ago. he
vog | swung by the mountain and told me about his upgrades. Very
nice. But, they never were manufactured for reasons that
only Commodore can know.
vog | What can we do? Fix it! We have to... but it will take
time. If the PPC happens, all of this will be addressed.
THE IRC
vog | Ok, just one thing first: I want to let everyone know that
this is
vog | not the only IRC that we will hold.... there are plans for
a more formal IRC with VIScorp in the next couple weeks.
At that session I expect to have
vog | Bill Buck, Don Gilbreath and others from VIScorp to answer
your questions. I have
vog | already proposed this to Bill, and he is very open to the
idea. I hope we can find a good server in France to work
it through, so if you know of something, please tell me via
email.
THE FUTURE
SASCMan | I have noticed that VIScorp has been, for the most part,
unwilling to refer to the Amiga as anything more than a
'chipset' or 'technology'
SASCMan | that makes us shudder...
SASCMan | My questions: 1) Is VIScorp going to make set top boxes?
or 2) Is VIScorp going to make set top boxes and computers?
(please refer to the Amiga as a computer)
SASCMan | perhaps to 'upgrade' box owners to full blown Amiga's
vog | That's just the suits way of talking... buzzwords. Don't
read anything into it. As for your questions:
vog | Ah, a trick question. This is multiple choice. (2) is the
plan. We MUST make both an STB and a Computer to survive.
SASCMan | (in hopes of selling them up to computers, I hope)
vog | No, in hopes of expanding the Amiga into 10's of millions
of locations worldwide.
vog | I should point out to everyone on the channel....
vog | we want 2 things: 1) a high volume of Amigas, posing as
STBs and 2)
vog | good quality Amiga computers for a range of budgets.
vog | DO NOT READ ANYTHING ELSE INTO OUR WORDS! IF THE DEAL
HAPPENS, THIS WILL COME TO PASS.
JacobE | vog: one last thing, a few people want to know if there's
anything juicy you can tell us about amiga's upcoming
future
vog | No, all I can say, is it is going to be a surprise. :)
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Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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