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Amiga Update (1996-04-12)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Ocassional Newsletter)
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH
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960412
A M I G A T E C H N O L O G I E S S O L D
C O N F E R E N C E W I T H D A V E H A Y N I E
N E W P R O D U C T A N N O U N C E M E N T S
Just when we though things were settling down and the Amiga community was
rebuilding, we learn that AT is being sold by Escom. The company making
the purchase is VIScorp, the Chicago based firm that recently forged an
aliance with AT to use Amiga technology in the emerging TV set top box
market. So the Amiga is going to be an American computer again - but will
VIScorp have any interest in continuing the computer line? I don't know
but I will admit to being concerned - despite the fact that the right sort
of things are currently being said. As usual, we hope for the best and
will try to keep you informed. See below for full details.
We came across a conference with noted ex-Amiga engineer Dave Hayney
recently. It's worth reading. Haynie explains why the aging Amiga hardware
can still do things PCs can't, even though they should be able to
outperform most Amigas in many ways. He also has some encouraging words
about the upcoming (or are they, VIScorp?) Power PC Amigas, which will
modernize Amiga hardware.
Finally, some recent product announcements culled from the Amiga newsgroups
on the Net. At least one should provide some amusement. Just about anybody
with something to sell can post a notice, and many do, as you will see.
Keep in mind product announcements from this source cover mostly small
firms and individual programmers, not the major commercial houses.
We hope you enjoy this issue and hold on folks, here we go again on
another uncertainty trip.
Brad
Oh - there are some new subscribers today who didn't know they were on our
mailing list. We often send to Net connected Amiga owners in the Wisconsin
area when we hear about them. If you decide you don't want to receive this
now-and-then newsletter, just let us know. Addresses are at the bottom.
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A M I G A T E C H N O L O G I E S T O B E S O L D
VIScorp USA and Escom AG Announce Letter of Understanding for Acquisition
of Amiga Technologies by VIScorp
Heppenheim, Germany and Chicago, IL, April 12, 1996 -- ESCOM AG, a German
computer manufacturer and reseller and Visual Information Services 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 function, today jointly announced that
a binding letter of understanding has been signed between the companies.
The letter states that Chicago-based VIScorp would acquire Amiga
Technologies, including the intellectual properties of the former Commodore
Business Machines, excepted Commodore trademarks. The transaction value is
approximately US $40 million. Terms were not disclosed, and the pending
acquisition would be subject to approval by both companies' boards of
directors.
"This intended acquisition is part of VIScorp's strategy to build market
leadership in the fast-growing field of ITV", said William Buck, Chief
Executive Officer. "As a result, we would own Amiga intellectual
properties, including several that are currently used in our set top-box,
Electronic Device (ED(). We would also have control over the supplied chip
sets used in ED as well as Amiga inventories and access to the company's
current sales and distribution channels."
Commenting the proposed acquisition, Helmut Jost, chief executive of ESCOM
AG, said: "VIScorp has a clear vision of the Amiga technology potential
for ITV applications. We are eager to support and work together over the
term of the letter of understanding to ensure a smooth transition between
the two companies. VIScorp anticipates the support of ongoing European
sales of popular models such as the A4000T and the A1200 as well as the
current developments and future releases of Amiga Technologies."
Petro Tyschtschenko, president of Amiga Technologies stated "I am looking
forward to being able to take advantage of the research and development
support potential that an Amiga-related company like VIScorp can provide."
Commenting that the primary objective of the proposed acquisition is to
give VIScorp full access to the Amiga technology to support development of
its ITV device, Mr. Buck noted: "Our intention is to rapidly develop and
begin manufacturing TV set-top interactive boxes -- products that give home
users capabilities such as telephone reception and dial up capabilities,
facsimile, video games, pay-per-view options, electronic mail, and access
to on-line services, including the Internet."
Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.
Regards,
Gilles Bourdin
Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
Public Relations
Email to: gbo@amiga.de URL: http://www.amiga.de/
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C O N F E R E N C E W I T H D A V E H A Y N I E
The following excerpts and commentary have been retrieved from Amiga
newsgroups on the Internet. The next comments are those of the
moderator. Brad
These are excerpts form an online conference Dave Haynie held on Compuserve
sometime before CeBit. I think this will probably put some things in
perspective, and maybe even change some people's opinions... You never
know. :-)
For those who don't know Dave Haynie is one of the most prominent and most
widely known ex-CBM engineers. His words are more or less accepted as
gospel all through Amiga community who usually sees him as Mr.Amiga
himself.
This is on the longish side, but it's worth it, believe me...
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Dave: How do you view AT's efforts to "mainstream" the
Amiga, i.e., with PPC chip, OS porting, etc?
(1-18,Dave H) AT is doing the right things.
(1-18,Dave H) Before C= folded, I was looking into using more standard
parts, going to RISC for extra performance, PCI bus for standard cards,
etc. These are all good and necessary moves. At the high end at least,
a Power Amiga can be PPCP compliant, so you can run any PPC OS on it.
That's extra security for Amiga fans who are nervous about buying a new
system. That will let Escom sell systems to people who would never buy
AmigaOS systems, and perhaps turn a few on to the AmigaOS in the process.
That will make it easier for Amigaoids to get Amigas past the corporate
system-censors. And it'll allow 3rd parties like Macrosystems, Phase 5,
etc. to make real Amiga clones if they like. Everyone wins. ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) In reference to the consultation with AT, what do you
think
they should do with the next generation of Amigas as far as
graphics/video/sound hardware (custom chipset vs. graphics board, etc.)
are concerned?
(1-18,Dave H) Strangely enough, the next generation "multimedia subsystem"
is one of the things they're asking me to look into. I have plenty of
ideas; there are things being done now at both established chip companies
and startups that are as far beyond the Amiga chipsets (even AAA) as the
original Amiga was above PClone stuff at the time. These things will
show up from time to time on PClones, but no one's really going to take
advantage of anything on a PC that doesn't fall neatly into a Windows API.
The Amiga has no such constraints -- it's whatever its designers say it
is, in HW and SW. ga
(1-5,Eric Douglas) What is your idea on what the amiga will be like in 2
years, and what is the most promising news you have heard about anything.
(1-18,Dave H) I would hope that in early 1998, AT has sold their first
million Power Amigas, the OS is now totally PowerPC code (at least as much
as that matters, legacy stuff might stay in 68K code as it does on the
Mac), etc. Your low end machine goes for about $500on the street, while
mid and high end systems start at $1200 or so. Two companies so far have
entered the "Amiga Clone" market, shipping the PPCP version of AmigaOS
as standard on their systems. The basic Power Amiga of the time does at
least 1280x1024 noninterlaced graphics, 24-bit if you spring for the
graphics memory. It can also do NTSC and PAL, and it can do MPEG playback,
full screen at 30fps. It has some 3D support hardware as standard for
graphics, as well as the fast blitter. General MIDI and 16-bit digital
audio I/O are also standard. That's what I can hope, and none of that
is impossible. I guess the most encouraging news so far has been that
AT asked me about this stuff, so I have some idea that this might
actually happen. ga
(1-13,RoyP) Dave AT has had problems getting HD drives for the A4000...
(1-13,RoyP) how do you see that situation and do you know of a solution for
them... Also - why did it take so long for C= to even think about CD Rom
drives. ga
(1-18,Dave H) The real problem is the custom nature of the Amiga HD drive.
These were specified by C=, made only by Chinon. Now Chinon, being a big
old supplier of C= parts, was apprently owed buckets of money by C=. You
would think that AT coming along, offering to take any inventory of these
drives off their hands would be a good thing for all involved, but
apparently Chinon didn't want any part of it. That's what I heard, anyway.
So AT is left with no manufacturer of Amiga HD drives (the trick being
primarily the drive going 1/2 speed when you insert an HD disk, and
transmitting Amiga disk code for the appropriate floppy format). The only
viable solution for existing machines is to make this kind of drive, but
AT doesn't have enough volumes to interest drive makers. The best solution
for new systems is to use off-the-shelf floppy controllers; even if that's
going to limit them to 1.44MB rather than 1.76MB, it's the only
cost-effective solution.
[hate to say 'told you so', but... Told you so! -jpop]
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) do you have any general advice or messages of good
cheer for us amiga faithful?
(1-18,Dave H) I believe the Power Amiga is possible, even in this day of
Wintel dominance. If I didn't, I wouldn't waste my time, or AT's. I'm not
at AT, and not in a position to say just what will happen, but if they do
what I'm suggesting, I think they have a good shot at an Amiga Renissance.
(1-13,RoyP) Do you see them having any really great announcements at CeBit
or maybe Demos that we aren't already expecting. ga
(1-18,Dave H) They have a concept I think they're showing at CeBit, which
I really liked. Since I don't know if it's showing public, I can't fill
in the details. But I can say they have a different machine idea than
anything you've seen before from C=.
[I guess this is refering to Walker, actually... :-) -jpop]
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Dave: I'm a little unclear on the AAA chipset, and
your discussion of it earlier, because you started using "past tense", and
ended up talking about what it "is". Has the whole project been dropped,
or is AT working on "off-the-shelf-close-enough", and going to tweak the
rest in software? ga (1-18,Dave H) Well, there's what AAA does today, on
two existing machines. But AAA itself is no more. That's the right
decision, it's just too late, there's too much left undone on it, and it
would cost a fortune to complete it. I can buy $15 SVGA chip with better
graphics specs and faster blitters. That's a function of the way the
compuyter industry has gone. Back in the Amiga's early days, no one did
systej specific ASICs of any kind, except C= and a few other mass
marketers. C= was a good match for the Amiga becuse of this, and the Amiga
chips really were something special. You got roughly 68020 class
performance on the A1000 thanks to the blitter, at a time when the '020 was
a workstation CPU. And having something like an '020 doing your graphics
freed up the 68000, so the system was just that much better than anything
else. Over time, the PC Clone industry spawned a new class of chip makers.
These guys made glue chips for PC Clones, at first, basicallyt making the
"Gary" and "Buster" equivalents for PCs. Gradually, they started cloning
IBM's graphics chips, and that led up to today. The companies that
specialized in graphics chips were rewarded. A good systems house of
today, IBM, Compaq, Apple, etc. might ship 5 million systems a year, if
it's a good year. But these graphics chip companies are shipping 10's of
millions of chips. They're getting expertise and volume unavailable to
systems houses. Add the growth of multimedia concerns (if not good OSs to
drive real MM), and you find that it's going to be very difficult to make a
decent graphics chip today. If you don't have 3 years, 3 million buck, and
a practiced team of 10-20 chip designers handy, you don't even step up to
the plate.
(1-14,Mike Webb) Please clear this up if I have a serious misunderstanding,
but I've seen a number of fairly modern PC's in recent years, and not one
of them has been able to keep up with my 68030 ECS machine in animation --
would these cheap SVGA chips, for all their high resolutions and more
colors, really have a dream of keeping up with a newer, more powerful Amiga
chipset at animation? (1-18,Dave H) Sure. A good SVGA chip of today has a
CPU to "chipram" bandwidth of 50MB/s-100MB/s. The best you get on an Amiga
is 7MB/s. Similarly with the blitter. What you don't have on the PC,
plain and simple, is the AmigaOS. SVGA chips can double buffer, they can
give you a vertical blanking interrupt, and they're wicked fast in their
modern incarnations. But what do you run, Windows or MS-DOS? It's like
letting a monkey drive that hot new Porsche you just bought (well, I
didn't, but you get the picture).
(1-18,Dave H) Look at it this way: the PC has graphics 10x-50x faster, it
has CPUs 5x-20x faster, and it costs less. And yet, the Amiga is doing
stuff you can't do on the PC. Plain and simple. How else would you
explain this? Scala has spent the last 2.5 years writing their own OS to
allow Amiga-like things to happen on the PC. Software really is the key
factor these days. Hardware evolution, if anything, was hastened by the
PClone busines. Software evolution, on the other hand, has been hampered.
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S O M E N E W P R O D U C T A N N O U N C E M E N T S
F R O M T H E A M I G A U S E N E T G R O U P S
With moderator comments where appropriate. Brad
TITLE
The AlphaSpell GUI v1.6
AUTHOR
Fergus Duniho
E-mail: fdnh@troi.cc.rochester.edu
Homepage: http://www.ling.rochester.edu/~duniho/index.html
DESCRIPTION
Spell checking with your text editor is now fast and easy. The
AlphaSpell GUI is a powerful and sophisticated ARexx controlled
GUI that lets you use AlphaSpell to spell check documents in
tandem with your favorite text editor. The AlphaSpell GUI works
with nearly any text editor that has an ARexx port, and it comes
with scripts for fourteen text editors: AmokEd, Annotate,
BlacksEditor, DME, Ed, FrexxEd, GoldEd, GNU Emacs, SkoEd, Textra,
TJM DME, TKEd, TurboText, and XDME. If you think it seems to
be what you've been searching for, check out its documentation
for further details.
NEW FEATURES
Fixed bug that sometimes kept the last release from working.
Other bugs fixed.
Support for ten more editors added since the last release.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Varexx: ftp://aminet.com/pub/aminet/util/rexx/varexx.lha
AlphaSpell: ftp://aminet.com/pub/aminet/text/edit/ASpell.lha
ReqTools.library and RexxReqTools.library:
ftp://aminet.com/pub/aminet/util/libs/ReqToolsUsr.lha
A text editor with an ARexx interface.
AVAILABILITY
Any Aminet site, for example:
ftp://aminet.com/pub/aminet/text/edit/ASpellGUI.lha (102043)
It is also available from the AlphaSpell support site on bitnova:
ftp://bitnova.com/duniho/ASpellGUI.lha (102043)
PRICE
The AlphaSpell GUI is free, but AlphaSpell itself costs $20.00 to
register.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freeware. Copyright ) 1995-6 Fergus Duniho.
WEB PAGE
http://www.ling.rochester.edu/~duniho/AlphaSpell.html
SUPPORT SITE
Telnet: bitnova.com
FTP: ftp.bitnova.com
..........
TITLE
AmIRC - The AmigaOS IRC Client
VERSION
1.0
AUTHOR
Oliver Wagner <owagner@lsd.wupper.de>
DESCRIPTION
AmIRC is a fully featured GUI IRC Client, including
builtin-DCC and ARexx scripting support. See the WWW
site or the Readme for a thorough description of
features.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOS 2.04 is required (OS 3.1 suggested)
Requires a TCP/IP stack compliant to the AmiTCP or as225r2 API.
(e.g. AmiTCP 4.0demo, AmiTCP 4.2, as225r2, inet-225, Mlink).
MUI 3.0 (3.3 suggested)
AVAILABILITY
http://www.vapor.com/AmIRC/
ftp://ftp.vapor.com/support/AmIRC/amirc10.lha
ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/amiga/comm/amirc/amirc10.lha
Also available on Aminet in /comm/tcp.
PRICE
Shareware (unrestricted demo version). Sisisware fee
] is DM 35,-- or US$ 20.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
(C) 1995-96 Oliver Wagner (owagner@lsd.wupper.de)
All Rights Reserved
The package is freely distributable in unmodfied form.
/**********************************************************************
* Oliver Wagner * Voice ++49 231 9700 925 *
* Fuzzy Demonstrations-Zentrum Dortmund * Fax ++49 231 9700 929 *
* im Informatik Centrum Dortmund ICD e.V. ***************************
* Joseph von Fraunhofer-Str. 20 *
* D-44227 Dortmund *
********************************************/
..........
[ Note: The moderator, when he imagines he has time for such ]
[ things, often edits posts like this for grammar and spelling. ]
[ Considering the theme, though, it seemed most appropriate to ]
[ leave this one unsullied.... Enjoy. -Dan ]
TITLE
MoronCX - The commodity which does not suck
VERSION
1.0
AUTHOR
Thomas Eicher
Hans-Schmidmayerstr. 26
85435 Erding
t.eicher@hsp.zer.de
thomas.eicher@x3network.net
http://royal.owl.de/~eicher/
DESCRIPTION
Basically, this is a programm that will increase the coolness
factor of your amiga by severals degrees. If your amiga sucks,
this program might work as a de-sukka-pacator.
Right. See, for the Mac there's a program called SimB&B. It
will play random Beavis and Butthead samples at random intervals.
But Macs suck, because there's no multitasking. So you can
either have a Mac which does not suck (running SimB&B) but can't
do anything else or you can have a Mac which sucks.
Well, I got an Amiga which does not suck by definition. It got
multitasking, so the only thing missing is SimB&B. Well, actually
MoronCX is a lot better than that.
FEATURES
o It plays _your_ favorite 8SVX samples off your disk drive, you
aren't limited to built-in samples
o You can still work as if it weren't running
o Like every good CX, MoronCX can be given a hotkey, or be
remote controlled via Exchange.
o You can determine the exact minimum and maximum delay between
two samples
o You can have MoCX shuffle your samples, or arrange them in a
order you like
o It is startable from WB, from WBStartup or from a shell
o It will always load and save it's config from and to it's
icon's tooltypes.
o You can select a volume which will be calculated into the
sample's internal volume level.
o It doesn't use MUI
o There will be lotsa ready-to-run sample packs for MoCX
You're still reading ? Reading sucks. Better install MoCX now.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOs 2.0+
Some 8SVX samples or sample pack
While you're at downloading, why not try
Aminet:util/cdity/MoCX_BnB.lha
AVAILABILITY
The package has been uploaded to AmiNET so it should be
available from your local AmiNET provider, for example:
ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/util/cdity/MoronCX10.lha
54265 Bytes
PRICE
If you are the programmer of a shareware product for the Amiga,
I consider it only fair that you send me a registered
version and/or a keyfile for your product.
If you use this program regularly, please send me an email and
consider registering. Registering is free.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
MoronCX is copyrighted 1995,96 by Thomas Eicher.
Permission to use is granted to everybody.
All rights reserved.
It may be freely distributed in its original form and with its
unmodified documentation.
mfg, Tom.
t.eicher@amc.cube.net http://royal.owl.de/~eicher/
--
Friends don't let friends use MS-Windows! Just say no, kids!
..........
TITLE
Chris's Button Strip (CBS)
VERSION
2.0
AUTHOR
Christopher Schnurr
Email : cjs@icbl.hw.ac.uk
Snail : Sandstich
Combe Lane
Widemouth Bay
Bude
Cornwall
UK
DESCRIPTION
CBS is a set of three button strips for Final Writer which
cover most aspects of HTML editing. Using Final Writer's User
extendable menus and button strips, a number of Arexx scripts
have been written to allow both point and click and keyboard
short cuts to the most used HTML web designing codes.
FEATURES
NWYSIWYG (NearlyWYSIWYG) viewing as editing : centered text
is centered, italic text is italicised, headings are larger, etc..
o Keyboard and menu shortcuts
o intelligent cursor and code positioning
o Automatic list and table generation systems
o 40 most common HTML codes in Arexx code (incl. tables & forms)
o Equivalent text clips for use without Arexx
o additional 20 customisable textclips
o transparent saves to Ascii .html
o use of HTML3.0 templates
o different colours / fonts for HTML code
o Source code of macros is not compiled or encrypted :)
o fully documented in HTML format
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
CBS requires:
* Final Writer R3 or above with Arexx support (for greatest
benefit)
(Final Writer Lite is untested but should work.)
* ARexx (bundled with Workbench 2.04 and above.)
* 217k of disk space (including html-ised documentation)
* No special memory requirements (apart from running Final Writer)
AVAILABILITY
- WWW - http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~cjs/cbs/index.html
- Most Aminet sites. Examples of which are:
USA: ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/text/misc/cbsv16.lha
EUR: ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/text/misc/cbsv16.lha
PRICE
This editing suite is Chocware. To register, send chocolate
particular to your home country. Once registered you will
receive Version 2.0 and free further updates.
Example Fees:
Mint Hershey Bar (US)
Dark Chocolate (Belgium)
Viennese Truffles (Austria)
Small Thorntons bag (UK)
Irish Cadbury's product (EIRE/NI)
DISTRIBUTABILITY
The unregistered version is freely distributable if done in a non-
commercial way. It is *NOT* to be distributed on magasine coverdisks
or similar without the owner's explicit written consent. The
registered version is *NOT* freely distributable.
This suite of programs is copyright 1995, 96 by Christopher Schnurr.
OTHER
To encourage users to register (I'm hungry), version 1.6 has only
the Arexx macros for button strip 1. This does however include
most of the commonly used HTML codes, except for those needed for
tables or forms. Version2.0 has three button strips and approximately
60 different functions involved in web authoring.
--
Grasping the bird's tail...
---------------------------------------------------
| . o ,o o o o o o o |
| `-( `|\ )=, `-) `-( '-) '-) '-( |
| /< /< /< /< < \ < \ /< < \ |
---------------------------------------------------
cjs@icbl.hw.ac.uk http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~cjs/
video : (+44)-131-451-5686(ISDN-2)
-=========================================================================-
_ __ _ <>_ __ _ || Brad Webb - available at:
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || Portal -- XJumpdisk
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