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Amiga Update (1996-03-18)
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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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960318
E S C O M M O V E S T O C O R R E C T S H A K Y F I N A N C E S
I N F O O N T H E N E W A M I G A A T C E B I T
We have the classic good news/bad news situation for you today. Well, good
news and potentially bad news, which isn't exactly the same thing. It seems
times are tough for the European computer industry, which now of course
includes the Amiga's maker. Escom is having some financial problems as
are a number of other European companies. It does seem to us that Escom is
doing the right things in response, unlike the late unlamented Commodore.
This issues begins with a press announcement fromm Amiga Technologies on
the subject, and then excerpts some stories found on the net also dealing
with the topic. Much of this information came from the Amiga Net Directory,
an excellent place for net surfers to keep up with what's happening. It's
worth keeping in mind that things aren't just difficult for European
computer companies. All you need do is look at Apple's latest woes. Once
again, we're pleased to see Escom making the sorts of responses indicitive
of (we hope) good business sense.
On the good news side, we have information about the new Amiga model being
shown right now at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. New models when times are
tough - certainly doesn't sound like the old Commodore, does it? Hope that
isn't just wishful thinking.
I have a few additional comments about the new computer below.
Brad
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E S C O M I N C R E A S E S S H A R E C A P I T A L
Bochum/Heppenheim, 7 March 1996. ESCOM AG today increased its capital
with a cash outlay by DM 59,994,000. The nominal amount of the capital
increase is DM 30,300,000. The new shares have been taken over by
Commerzbank AG for the issue consortium and will be offered to shareholders
at the earliest possible date after presentation of the 1995 annual report.
the increase in capital is part of an agreement between the company, its
associates and bankers by which the company acquires new ressources
amounting approximatively DM 100 million.
Manfred Schmitt, principal shareholder in ESCOM AG, has simultaneously
transferred 16 per cent of the base capital to the BV
Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of the Bayerische Vereinsbank
AG, and a further 2.5 per cent of the base capital to Siemens Nixdorf
Informationssysteme AG in Paderborn and Munich, whose shareholding is
hereby increased to 12.5%. In so doing, Manfred Schmitt's share has been
cut by nearly 30 per cent. A further major shareholder is Quelle
Schickedanz AG & Co in Fürth, whose share at 25 per cent remains unchanged.
By this action shareholders and banks have created the right conditions
to give ESCOM AG a more solid financial base and an extension of its circle
of shareholders enabling it to develop its business successfully.
Regards,
Gilles Bourdin
Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
Public Relations
Email to: gbo@amiga.de URL:http://www.amiga.de/
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E S C O M F A C E S T O U G H C O M P E T I T I O N I N E U R O P E
10-Mar-96 - According to a recent article in Computerworld, things are not so
rosy for Germany's Escom AG, parent company of Amiga Technologies and one of
Europe's largest PC box suppliers. The problem is related to increased
competition from outside Europe for the hearts and minds of European PC buyers,
driving profit margins down.
In particular, Taiwan's Acer Incorporated is making big strides for a share of
the PC market in Europe. Acer chairman Stan Shih said, "This is the year of
Europe for Acer." Acer is spending $40 million on a new plant in France and also
stepping up its marketing efforts, concentrating on the consumer business.
On the other hand, Escom is projecting big losses on its operations--perhaps
even triple what was originally announced--in part due to sales coming in nearly
a billion marks lower than expected. Escom is also looking for $69 million in
loans to make it through these rough times. According to Computerworld, Escom
may have overextended itself with the acquisition of British retail chain
Rumbelows and has yet to see much income from Amiga Technologies and its new
Commodore line of PCs because of component shortages and delays in production.
Price wars on PCs have further hampered efforts at breaking even.
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S I E M E N S N O W P A R T O W N E R O F E S C O M
Siemens Joins Computer Rivals to Ward Off Non-European
Competition
13-Mar-96 - According to Reuters, Germany's Siemens Nixdorf AG announced that
they had purchased 10% of Vobis AG which will allow them to increase economies
of scale when purchasing parts, supplies and other goods. This came after
another announcement that Siemens had also purchased a 12.5% stake in Escom AG,
parent company of Amiga Technologies.
"Our strategy with Escom and Vobis is on the purchasing side," Siemens chairman
Gerhard Schulmeyer told reporters at the company's briefing at the opening of
the CeBIT technology trade fair. "The PC business is driven by volumes and
logistics. Whoever controls volume will be the winner. We could not control
volume alone." He also went on to say that the PC business in Europe is getting
tough as competition--much of it from the US and Japan--drives profit margins
down. Theo Lievin, chairman of Vobis AG said, "We in Germany want to do
something together against the Americans and the Japanese." Both Vobis and Escom
have large retail chains in Europe.
The Reuters story made no mention of the new alliance's effect on the Amiga or
Amiga Technologies.
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N E W A M I G A M O D E L P R O T O T Y P E A T C E B I T
The good news from Amiga Technologies is they are in fact demonstrating a new
Amiga model at CeBit. A prototype only at this point, the new machine is
codenamed "Wallker" after its styling. The computer is black or dark grey and
looks like a cross between a 1930's cathedral radio and a walker from "Star
Wars". It's actually quite stylish and like nothing I've seen before, except
maybe the old Commodore B-128-80. Interestingly, that computer was also a German
design, with styling by Porsche of all companies. We don't know who came up with
the styling for the newAmiga.
Information on the Walker is a bit hard to come by at this point. Below is a
very sketchy specification list from the Internet. It's followed by an edited
(by me) section of an IRQ conference discussing the machine. The conference
included an AT employee who was participating from the CeBit show, using the
handle VascoAT.
I do have a JPEG of the new machine and can make it available to persons
interested in seeing it. Contact me by e-mail if you'd like a copy of the
picture.
Brad
A1200 Walker:
68030/40 Mhz
5 mb RAM
PC-Diskdrive (Maybe! Amiga-emulation)
External Keyboard (A4000 keyboard)
EPP Parallel port
MIDI
Expansion slot for further upgrade to:
PCI
Zorro III/IV
and more..
Nick ("handle"): VascoAT
Name: ~Amiga_CeB@slip139-92-41-120.ut.nl.ibm.net (AMIGA Technologies CeBit 96
Promotion Team)
**** Logging Started : Fri Mar 15 12:40:05 MET 1996
<VascoAT> Yes here: What do you wanna know? (live from CeBIT)
<VascoAT> Prototype: EPP, Fifo-Serial, Super-IO, Kick 3.2, 68030/40 MHz,...
<VascoAT> Its an own processor-slot (new) to keep PCI, Zorro, PowerPC as an
optional expansion. I forgot the new 24-bit printer driver!
<VascoAT> Yesterday the prototyp was opened and I got pictures from inside. The
design of the new prototyp is {like} an vacuum-cleaner.
<KnileBar> vasco: has it an EC or a real 030 ?
<VascoAT> EC cause its much cheaper to get the PLCC than the PGA version
<Howard-MD> Vasco: Just write info, the suspense is killing me! =)
<VascoAT> The Price: about 1500 DM
<VascoAT> It's gray!
<VascoAT> OS 3.2: Bugfixes known from Rom 3.1, 24bit printer...,
Super-IO-Support,
<VascoAT> It looks as a vakuum-cleaner; I like it
<Drizzit> Vasco: SuperIO? Explain.
<VascoAT> Super-IO meens all the new IO-Features (FIFO, EPP)
<rslayer> VascoAT: It has detachable keyboard right?
<VascoAT> Yes it has a detachable keyboard
<VascoAT> AT's TCP/IP: as255r2 {rework of the Commodore networking stack. Brad}
<VascoAT> Sorry no info about the price of 3.2
<VascoAT> new harddrive interface is EIDE
<VascoAT> 11 amigas here and even more at VillageTronic
<VascoAT> I wasn't allowed to leave this area and thus hadn't the possibility to
see VT
<VascoAT> And I also have to present the surfer; it's not easy
<VascoAT> We try to sell the new AMIGA for about 1500 DM
<VascoAT> DM= german marks (1.45 DM ~ 1$)
<VascoAT> Yes, 43.xx1 Kick
> vasco: tell us more about the FIFO and EPP stuff
<VascoAT> 5 MB Ram, Simm sockets on board
<Blast_SSP> VascoAT: 5mb ? 1+4 or ?! 2+3 ?!
<VascoAT> 5 MB= 1MB + 4MB {1 MB chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM (hmmm?) Brad}
<SimD> vasco: 1MB chip ram? I hope you didn't mean that :/
<Blast_SSP> Vasco: why only 1 mb ? I don't get that.. WHY ?!
<VascoAT> 1 MB Chip, there is an empty socket for Chipmem
<VascoAT> But this may change: the A1k2 was designed for 1 MB Chip and...
<VascoAT> If you have Fastmem, you don't need much chip. Try it!
<VascoAT> Yes the new Amiga is great, if you could see the design ... But I
think
nothing for the people who have already an A4000. Wait for PowerPC, it comes
!!!
<VascoAT> We need Fastmem for the speed. There are 6 sockets, 1 used by chip,
1 used by fast
<VascoAT> We didnt include JPEG as datatype
<VascoAT> yes, 4 empty sockets {for RAM SIMMs. Brad}
<VascoAT> 32 MB work
<VascoAT> Everything that I told is what I see and what I got from the
devoloper.
But remember: It's a prototyp
* csd points out to NiteFlite that Vasco is at CeBIT, working for AT. That's
pretty official in my book.
<VascoAT> august '97 {availability date. Brad}
<rslayer> VascoAT: You mean '96 I hope...
<ReFly> Vasco: Is there any card slots? (and what type they are, if exists)
<VascoAT> It's an 68030 running at 40 MHz
<VascoAT> Yes it comes with an external keyboard
<VascoAT> There is no name for the new prototyp: The Projekt is called "Walker"
and he looks as a walker
<VascoAT> The CPU-socket will come up for this feature
{Question asked about Power PC for current Amigas. Next answer may have
been for that question, but it wasn't clear. Brad}
<VascoAT> beginning 97
<Switch> VascO: So the PPC boards will be available before the new amiga?
<VascoAT> We work on PPC thus are not all at the CeBIT :-)
<Mosh> did vasco say anything before I joined?
EEP ? We *belive* he meant EPP which is:
The Enhanced Parallel Port protocol was originally developed by Intel,
Xircom and Zenith Data Systems, as ameans to provide a high performance
parallel port link that would still be compatible with the standard parallel
port. This protocol capability was implemented by Intel in the 386SL chipset
(82360 I/O chip). This was prior to the establishment of the IEEE 1284
committee and the associated standards work.
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ || Brad Webb - available at:
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com
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/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || Portal -- XJumpdisk
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