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Amiga Update (1998-12-04)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway, Inc.
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981204
A N O P E N L E T T E R F R O M T H E T O P A M I G A N
R E P O R T O N C O M P U T E R ' 9 8
O F F I C I A L Q N X A N N O U N C E M E N T
T H A N K Y O U , A M I G A N S
I C O A S P R U C E S U P W E B S I T E
T H E R E T U R N O F D I C E
G A T E W A Y C O M P U T E R S H O W G R O W S
G A R Y P E A K E O N F L E E C Y
E L S P E T H M O S S O N F L E E C Y
P E T R O H E A D S T O I N D I A
A M I G A O P E R A A P P A R E N T L Y D E A D
A C T T H O U G H T S A F T E R K O L N
A M I B E N C H N E E D S I N P U T S
I M A G E F X S P E C I A L O F F E R
G E N E S I S F L Y E R A N N O U N C E D
N E W N E T W O R K I N G S Y S T E M
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
It's become very apparent that a watershed in Amiga history has been
reached. People are realizing that the days of the Classic Amiga are
numbered, and that Amiga Incorporated is much more interested in the
future. Why this should surprise people is beyond me - it's what Amiga
Incorporated has been saying all along.
They did promise one last upgrade to the Classic Amiga Operating
System before the end, to help bridge the gap. Recent events have made
many lose faith in that promise. The unexpected removal of Fleecy Moss
from Amiga, and the disappearance of the Amiga OS 3.5 pages from the
website were taken as a sign that 3.5 was abandoned. (The A.C.T.
article below seems to be an example of such thought.)
Amiga OS 3.5 IS still in the works. It would be very nice if Amiga
Inc. would tell us exactly what's going on, and it doesn't credit them
that they're so secretive. However, there's no justification in saying
they've gone back on their word, at least not yet. Incidentally, they
claim the disappearance of the 3.5 pages from their website was an
error. Those pages have been restored.
The Fleecy Moss situation is more bothersome to us. This is because
we've come to know and respect, as well as like, Fleecy at "Amiga
Update". We'll miss him for professional and personal reasons.
One problem is that we'll never know exactly why he's no longer
there. That's the way it should be. Internal personnel matters should
remain internal, though we don't have to like it. In fairness, we must
point out that most reports state Fleecy's contract was not renewed.
That terminology is important. It would seem Fleecy was actually a
contract employee, and not an Amiga Incorporated employee. If so, part
of the deal is you can be gone for any reason at all as soon as the
contract is finished. The status of a contract worker is much
different than that of a hired employee, and different rules apply.
After all this is said, we'll still be watching as closely as we can.
In the interests of keeping you informed, we have two items below to
keep you up to date on what's being said about Fleecy in the Amiga
Community. We'll also be watching because A.C.T and other vendors may
well know something we don't.
Despite all that, we refuse to lose sight of the fact that the QNX
announcement was a very pleasant, positive event. If you're going to
build a new version of the OS based on someone else's kernal, and
that's been the announced plan for a long time, then you can't pick a
better kernal to use. Folks, that's GOOD news. Don't ignore it.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
30 Nov 1998
Hi Brad,
...
By the way, prodigy is completely (?) usable with the Amiga, you may
want to pass it along, or not.
Thanks Brad.
Len.
===
Len,
Thanks for the information. Yes, we'll pass it along, in the
expectation that some readers will certainly find it useful.
Brad
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Brad,
Why so many occurrences of the word "Havemose"? Is the new Amiga
called the Havemose Amiga?
Andy
===
Andy,
Errm, well, this is embarrassing. Dr. Allan Havemose is head and VP of
Development at Amiga Incorporated. In our special edition on the QNX
alliance announcement, we picked up his name incorrectly in the spell
checker as Havermose (and we apologize to Dr. Havemose for this). We
copied it from one of the other transcripts and added it to the
dictionary without realizing it was wrong in the transcript.
Then, because of the way the transcript of his remarks was originally
typed, his name looked more like a word than a name. We tried to
correct this, but missed several occurrences of his name due to the
error with our spelling checker. The instances we missed are probably
what you're referring to.
On the other hand, calling it the Havemose Amiga is not entirely
without merit.
Brad
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16 Nov 1998
Brad
thank you for the MOST enlightening bit of news in many ,many moons.
This entire prospect sounds great. I am glad I hung on and waited it
out,
Put my order in for a havemose amiga!!
I also find it interesting to note the large number of amiga owning
and using folks on their staff!!
watch out we're back!
dan
P.S. now the only question is what to do with the Old 2000 be nice if
they had a trade in/up policy! hint hint nudge nudge otherwise I am
going out to look for a video card
===
Dan,
Suspect there won't be any trade-in policies, though it's just barely
possible a video shop would be interested in the old 2000 - at a
reasonable (that is, low) price.
We do agree with your appraisal of the announcement. It was very
encouraging, and one of the most positive signs we've seen for the
future in some time.
Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A N O P E N L E T T E R F R O M T H E T O P A M I G A N
Dreams and Reality
As General Manager of Amiga, Inc. there are times when we can all
lose sight of dreams vs. reality. I have to admit I would sometimes
choose to dream the impossible Amiga is not just about dreaming; it's
about implementing dreams and making them a reality. We've been
working very hard to see that this happen. I believe that in order to
take this company to the next level, we must stay focused on
delivering the dreams not just talking about them in hopes that they
will happen.
At Computer '98, we announced of our alliance with QNX as the
foundation for the Next Generation Amiga Architecture. We have taken
the leap towards flying and I saw the enthusiasm in many people's
eyes, and could feel the electricity in the air! The excitement that
the future holds is great; we are looking forward to working with QNX
and their team. QNX brings the foundation of technology and the values
of what Amiga has always been. The QNX RTOS is a foundation that we
can build on. It's only with a secure foundation that the tallest of
buildings arise. This will not just be an architect's dream, or a
contractor's vision, we are dedicated in making this a reality.
Reality is the tallest buildings are not built overnight. They take
planning, commitment, focus, and a lot of sweat.
We are embarking on new territory, and there maybe those who will
oppose our strategy. Some will struggle with change and not support
our future plans. Some will disagree with the path we have chosen. To
those I would say, "Lets not get stuck in the past or live in a dream
world." Let's all work together in making Amiga not just a community
name, but a name that will be recognized throughout the world. A name
we can all be proud of.
The recent events over the last few weeks, have hit the community
like a shock wave rippling with excitement and fear. It's unfortunate
that we have had so much confusion and rumors. Change is difficult and
please believe me when I say, I understand the value that the
community brings. I empathize with each and everyone one of you
through these hard times of rebuilding. You must remember that Amiga
is bigger than any one person or computer. It's about people who
aren't afraid to walk up to the edge, look over, see all that's there,
and then take the leap to fly. We don't live in a dream, we live in
reality and this is where the rubber meets the road.
The vision is in place, the architects have started work, now we must
be patient to see the building rise. In order for this to happen, it
is vital that community is united. The User Group community support is
essential in evangelizing the world (come see this new building). The
Development community is critical in expanding and networking it from
one building into many. This is Amiga and now more than ever we must
all take the leap towards flying as the world stands back in awe. We
can do this a community of not only dreamers but dreamers who know
reality and aren't afraid to fly.
Thanks for your support and always keeping Amiga in your heart.
Jeff Schindler
General Manager
Amiga Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
R E P O R T O N C O M P U T E R ' 9 8
Reprinted with permsission from
AmigaWorld News & Stories,
http://www.amigaworld.com/news/index.html
Computer '98
We arrived on Friday 13th, at about 10:30 AM. The hall was pretty
crowded already, although I could remember more traffic from past
years - but that was on Sundays. PC booths were more numerous than
they used to be, and there were much less "Amiga highlights" present.
Especially the absence of phase 5 was felt easily. According to their
own statement, this was because they would not be able to show
something really new, since the BVisionPPC would not be ready before
the end of November. Other sources claim that phase 5 would rather be
present at a Mac exposition held at the same time.
The booth of German distributor Schatztruhe saw the most traffic,
where Magellan II, SuperView, CyberGraphX 4, Linux 5.1, Miami 3.2 /
Deluxe, PFS II and lots of other goodies were sold in the dozens. Paul
Nolan showed another preview of PhotogenicsNG (when will it finally be
released?), and Martin Berndt (Bodyguard, MultiCX) was also there.
Other well-known distributors saw similar sales, like Vesalia, Haage
& Partner and Oberland. At the Haage booth, PageStream 3.4 was the
best-seller since the StormC DSK did not make it into the box in time
for the exhibit. However, Haage took orders and promised to ship them
- free of p&p fees - as soon as possible.
A similar fate struck at Oberland, where the Amiga version of
monzoom3D (formerly Reflections) had a faulty installer script and
thus was unavailable at their booth. Oberland, too, took orders and
promised not to charge p&p for the delivery.
Amiga International, Inc. once again was present with their large
booth, with lots of VIP standing and sitting inside and outside. Petro
Tyschtschenko, who had kindly invited me to a press conference
scheduled for 5:00 PM (many thanks to him!), was also there, talking
to developers, distributors and users alike. It was my first close
encounter with this man, and he made a very positive impression on me.
He was friendly, open for questions and suggestions, and despite the
stress very calm and optimistic. After attending the press conference
that evening, I can understand his positive mood - that was a real ace
up the sleeve, but more to that later.
The Amiga booth had a large video wall, where several demos showed
the gfx and sound abilities of "Classic" Amigas. Every now and then
there was a presentation, among others with Scala MM 400, a preview of
Octamed Soundstudio v2, and the Melody1200 soundcard.
At each corner of the Amiga booth, two Amigas showed some piece of
soft- or hardware. Nightshift showed the excellent Scala software, and
reassured me that the MM 300 package shipped with the A1200 "Magic"
can still be upgraded to MM 400 for the bargain price of 99,- DM
(roughly 55 USD) by sending the registration card to Nightshift. He
also showed me some of the new MM 400 features, like fly-on text,
improved shuffler handling, an online documentation fully done as
Scala presentation, and a nice extra digital vernissage, the first
issue in a series of presentations of artists' work.
Ateo Concepts showed their AteoBus/Pixel64, a gfx card for the A1200
that connects to the expansion port and gives 800x600 resolutions in
24bit plus Alpha, 1024x768 in 16 bit, or 1280x1024 in 8 bits (50-150
Hz vertically, 31-100 kHz horizontally). According to their hand-out,
it is fully compatible with Picasso96, and several expansions to the
AteoBus are also planned (multi-serial, multi-parallel, SCSI, EIDE,
ethernet, sound...).
Short of purchasing a bus expansion, the Pixel64 is the only way to
add a gfx card to an A1200 - at least until the BVisionPPC finally
arrives -, without the need for a PPC card.
Speaking of bus expansions, RBM was also present and showed their
Towerhawk ex for A1200/A4000, and their ONBoard1200, a Zorro-II
expansion for the A1200. Most impressively, it allowed to use a NewTek
Video Toaster/Flyer on an A1200 motherboard. For those who look for a
less "invasive" way of expanding their A1200, the IOBlix1200 S/P was
available, adding fast serial and/or parallel ports to the A1200 clock
port. With the use of the clock port multiplexer, 3 such cards could
be used synchronously, with still more room for a soundcard or a
Catweazel. Funny enough, owners of A4000 systems asked about solutions
for their boards, and sure enough, RBM offered a Zorro card that
sported a clock port... ;-)
But RBM was not the only one to offer serial / sound solutions. Kato
Dev. showed their Melody1200 cards, and the new Twister1200 add-on, a
fast (460800 bit/s) serial card that connects to the clock port, or to
an already fitted Melody1200. The Melody1200 itself was available in
its "pro" incarnation, with a DSP allowing for MPEG2.5/Layer 3
playback with no CPU load (!). For the less ambitious user, the "base"
version came without the DSP, but still with 16bit, 44.1/48 kHz sound
support. All Kato products were available at the Oberland booth.
Two new, all-Amiga print magazines had their first issue sold at
several booths: Amiga Fever and amigaOS. While amigaOS concentrates on
applications and "serious" work, Amiga Fever seems to cover all
aspects of our platform of preference. Both are glossy, with Amiga
Fever in full-color and amigaOS partly b/w, partly color. Both
magazines made a good first-glance impression on me, with interviews
with W. Dietrich (phase 5) and Fleecy Moss of Amiga Inc., dispelling
some dark rumors spreading recently. No, phase 5 is not in financial
trouble... ;-)
VillageTronic offered the new Ariadne II, as well as their famous
PicassoIV and the add-ons Concierto, Paloma and Pablo. Moreover, they
handed out a form to gauge interest in a 8 MByte Voodoo-II add-on for
the PicassoIV. If they get 500+ orders, it might become reality,
pushing Amiga 3D perfomance to previously unknown heights. Visit the
VillageTronic website for more information!{Note: see Author's
corrections at end of report. Brad}
After resisting the lure of the "common expansion fever" for one hour
or two, greed finally took over and I did spend a small fortune on
hard- and software. After that, when vision became clear again ;-),
the hall was rapidly getting empty. It was about 2:00 PM, and most
booths had only a couple of interested users left.
Sad as it was, it left room for some interesting talks. Martin Berndt
seemed to be positive that Bodyguard, although cancelled by
Schatztruhe officially, might appear at some later time. At the
Vesalia booth, there was some complaining about dropping sales, the
same at CoolBits and some other booths. However, while being sceptic
and somewhat depressed, all of them shared the same credo: we did not
come to this point only to surrender now. Most distributors have a
"second leg" in the PC world, since the Amiga market cannot feed many
mouths anymore. Those who do not, experience hard times indeed.
From myself, therefore, the call upon arms once again: Software worth
using is software worth buying. Support the distributors that support
the Amiga. We are one community, and we cannot survive without
another!
Petro, however, was still smiling like a cat that found the cream,
but it took some more hours to find out what was making him so happy.
Meanwhile, we (I was accompained by the majority of our freshly
founded user group) spend our time watching Annex' dance performance
and buing yet more equipment, which left our backpacks very full and
our purses quite empty.
Finally, I forgot the time, and when one of my friends told me it was
past 5:30 PM, I realised I missed the press conference. S**T!
However, when I arrived at the conference room, a guy dressed in a
boingball shirt calmly informed me that the conference was delayed
"for hardware reasons". Fact was, not a single piece of the hardware
needed for the planned presentation had arrived in time or were simply
missing. So, there would be only one conference, for both the press
and the users, at 7:00 PM - which was then again delayed... Jeff
Schindler opened the doors and called the waiting people in, excused
for the delays and handed out coke and soda. While standing in the
crowd, I spotted Aaron Digulla (AROS) and Urban Mueller (AmiNet),
among other VIPs that obviously did not feel too uncomfortable among
200+ users.
Finally, the conference room was opened for all of us, where one
third of the people found a seat, two thirds a place to stand. Then,
the conference started...
The press conference dropped the bomb we all were eagerly waiting for
- and it was quite a surprise to all of us.
Petro welcomed both press and users, and apologized for the delay. He
told us about the settlement between QuickPak and Mr. Hembach, which
allowed for the A4000T to be assembled and sold again, and asked to
place orders now. (Not at the conference, of course, but at your local
dealer. ;-) )
Bill McEwan then took over, and said that sadly his trusted A1200 was
"too weak" for the presentation to come, and that he was sorry he had
to do the presentation with PowerPoint - which earned him some
"boooh"s, and some laughter as his shoulders slumped and he walked
away as if it broke his heart... ;-)
Bill then welcomed Mike Rees, Darrek Lisle and Alan Havemose, and
passed the word to Jeff Schindler.
Jeff said that Petro recieved an overwhelming response to his
invitations to this conference: "are you sure you want to do this on
Friday 13th?", which he answered "yeah, sure". From the back rows
someone shouted "make it a bad day for Windows", which resulted in yet
more laughter.
Jeff stated that only now, Amiga Inc. is where they intended to be
back at the WoA. And he repeated his promise given at the St. Louis
show, that Amiga Inc. will be honest to the users, and tell only about
what is real and done. "Great things take time", he said to the
audience. "We want the Amiga to be as great as it was when it was
first announced, nothing less" - those were his words.
Then, first mention was made that the OS kernel partner has been
found, and that later on some presentation would be made that would
show "things that you never believed possible", a phrase that
certainly earned some attention, and disbelief.
He then presented some slides, which did say nothing breathtakingly
new: the OS 3.5 upgrade to come, dedication to press and user groups.
He mentioned that the Amiga users share a special bond no other
platform has to offer, which made several people nod in agreement,
including myself (I would not maintain a time-consuming service like
the News & Stories for any other platform). He told us of the
possibility to ship a special "Developer OS 3.5", with some special
power-user options, technical documentation and some "NG starter
apps", that should give a first idea of what the OS 5.0 would be like.
Then, he moved on to OS 5.0 subjects. He said that it was the focus
of Amiga Inc. to make the NG architecture "as ground breaking as when
the Amiga was originally introduced", and that the ultimate goal was
to establish the Amiga as "world leading standard for digital
convergence". Again he reassured the audience that desktop computers
are still a target market for Amiga, but only one among many.
Then, Alan Havemose took over, and shortly introduced himself.
Stating the fact he actually purchased a kickstart 1.2 upgrade, and
had been in charge of the AmigaOS since v2.1 certainly made some
impression on those who did not already know.
Alan then gave some insight on the specifications of OS5:
Build on a state-of-the-art OS kernel, with the final AmigaOS kernel
being even better than that;
with a high performance 3D engine capable of calculating "hundreds of
millions tri-linear mapped 3D pixels per second", enough to fill a
1920x1200 24bit screen with fluent framerates;
high performance internet solutions - he mentioned ADSL, which ranges
between 2 and 8 MBit/sec. and is currently established as future
standard in both the US and Europe;
higher resolutions up to HDTV, 1920x1200, 24bit, with 1.2 GByte/sec.
3D output (which, again, he compared to the 8 MByte/sec. of the ECS or
the 28 MByte/sec. of AGA chipset);
support for new digital interfaces, like data communication by TV
cable or satelite links;
support for industry standard APIs like OpenGL. "If there is a
standard for it, of course we will support it."
running on almost every hardware/CPU there is, be it PPC (!), Intel
(!?!) or RISC;
Amiga convergence APIs where no standards exists;
support for leading digital convergence processing hardware;
fully memory protected, preemptive multitasking, with processes and
tasks;
efficient and compact (
fully 32bit, prepared for 64bit;
Multimedia / Gaming / Network centric.
The tension rised, because now Alan began to talk about the OS kernel
parter, and began to describe the partner OS as
audio/video/frame hard real-time OS with
virtual memory, being
ROMable, with support for
Multi-CPU systems, with support for
OpenGL and
Java build in, being
scaleable.
By now, most people were on the edge of their seats. Alan told us
that the company he was talking about was founded 1981, therefor had
16 years business experience, with long-time Amiga connections, and
being an established embedded RTOS leader. Business partners included
Cisco, IBM, Phillips, Dupont, VISA, and the NASA using the software on
the Space Shuttle. Reportedly, 10 to 15 engineers of the company used
Amigas...
And the name is - QNX!
Here, my scribblings done during the presentation start to fail me,
because what was shown to us was really amazing. I did not understand
the name of the man who now continued the presentation, but from what
I understood he was one of the co-founders of the company. He told us
about his realtime OS company, and the Neutrino kernel which will be
used by future Amigas. He also told us about his strong bonds to the
Amiga, with his companion and himself owning Amiga #1 and #2 in Canada
back when the A1000 was first presented. Over 70% of his employees own
and use Amigas.
He then continued that the Neutrino kernel is completely self hosted
on PPC, x86 and MIPS CPUs, less than 50 KByte in size and completely
up-/downscaleable on-the-fly. He showed some graphics explaining the
general architecture, which is build around a messenger microkernel,
where process managers, filesystems, TCP/IP stacks, GUI, audio and
character I/O are all mere applications that communicate with each
other by means of the microkernel. While this means a lot of
communication, we were told that Neutrino handles a complete context
switch in less than one microsecond, mere hundreds of nanoseconds.
"We are nothing proprietary, we use standard ELF binaries" - this
sentence did bring back some bad memories about the powerUP / WarpUP
disagreements. Full BSD 4.4 support of the kernel, an almost 100%
compatible POSIX enviroment that allows compiling the Apache web
server without modifications, either full-blown or in a restricted way
to save space, 128bit, IPV6 compatible, endianess transparently
managed, only 1 TCP/IP stack needed in a whole network, with all
connected systems using the same stack, scaleable fonts with
anti-aliasing, full unicode support with japanese / korean / chinese
interfaces natively embedded, a platform independent GUI... my
scribblings fail to list all the stunning things we were told and
shown. A browser was shown, showing the Amiga International homepage,
Yahoo Japan (in Kanjii!) and Amiga Inc. homepage (with full JavaScript
support) in three separate windows. A desktop including TCP/IP stack,
dialer and JavaScript-enabled browser was booted from a 1.44 MByte
floppy - although Alan saw some people in the audience doing quick
file size calculations, and said that QNX has some competition in this
field by the Amiga...
The most stunning thing, however, was Photon, the QNX GUI
microkernel. Two PCs were connected together by a TCP/IP link, and an
application opened on the left machine - and the window was then
transfered to the right screen by two mouseclicks. Then, the two
systems were "joined", which means defined as a single desktop.
Dynamically, the task bar (Win95-like) expanded to the right screen. A
Doom demo was started, and the window dragged to the border of the two
screens, so that the left part of the window was displayed on the left
machine, and the right part of the window on the right screen. The
audience was informed that this was possible for a virtual unlimited
number of screens, distributed all over the world by nothing more than
a 28.8k modem.
There was more shown and told, but I could not write the things down
as fast as they came, and as the Q&A session started, I had to leave
to catch my train. I heard some question about "why wait for an
AmigaOS5, when we can have QNX now?", and it was answered that QNX is
a mere kernel/OS company, and all the higher APIs are left to Amiga
Inc., and that the QNX kernel will change in look and feel until it
becomes AmigaOS5. That was about the last thing said before I had to
take off.
Newsmaster's comment
We were taken by surprise. As the QNX logo first appeared on the
screen, the reaction was almost nil - the majority of the audience
probably never heard of QNX, and neither did I. What was shown
afterwards, however, made some people (including myself) nervous with
excitement. This kernel has something definitely Amiga-like to it.
Some negative reactions were heard when PowerPoint was used for the
initial presentation. The Doom trick failed once, and the second time
window movement was slow and did hang for several seconds. When the
QNX guy rebooted the two computers, it showed that they were PIIs (233
and 266 MHz respectively) from Gateway. The reboot across the TCP/IP
connection failed once.
But those were the "technical difficulties" that delayed the
conference in the first line, since, as we were told, the hardware
intended to be used in the show failed to appear in time. Intel CPUs
do field some massive firepower, are very well supported by
development tools and hardware manufacturers, and widely used and
readily available, so it comes quite naturally that an OS company like
QNX makes use of them. The fact that QNX also runs natively on PPCs
and MIPS shows that QNX is no Intel breed, but truly cross-platform -
"which gets ugly when it comes to endianess", to cite from the
presentation.
For my part, the show was an exciting one. The QNX people are very
concerned about creating and maintaining a micro(scopic)kernel, with
multi-user, multi-CPU, multi-platform, networking capabilities, no
buts. It is not very hard to imagine the AmigaOS philosophy fitting
perfectly onto the QNX kernel. We were shown efficiency, productivity
and scaleability. That, together with the hardware power of the MMC,
is a very good foundation for a high-performance, low-resource
platform like the Amiga was back in the 80ies.
By the way, Alan mentioned that "Silicon Valey moves very fast", and
that by now, there are two more companies that will probably field
something comparable to the MMC with roughly the same timetable. Even
more, that AmigaOS will be build around the MMC, but it will be able
to be used on any comparable media processor. And the QNX multi-CPU
capabilities will allow for adding a wide variety of CPUs to any MMC
system, if you need the horsepower!
Seeing that QNX runs natively on PPCs, there might even be a chance
that AmigaOS5 might run on "Classic" PPC Amigas...
AmigaWorld News & Stories
16 Nov 1998
Computer '98 corrections... -
Two mistakes in my earlier report from the Computer '98 have been
discovered by readers: The VillageTronic add-on will make use of the
Voodoo-I chip instead of the Voodoo-II, and it is not the peak of
Amiga 3D performance, since the Permedia-II (as used by the
CybervisionPPC) is faster. The latter I cannot confirm, I openly
admit, since I have little knowledge about which 3D chip is better
than another. I only know that the MMC will outperform both... ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
O F F I C I A L Q N X A N N O U N C E M E N T
{We've already reported on the QNX alliance in our recent special
issue and the story just above. However, for your reference, here's
the official word from Amiga Inc. Brad}
Next Generation Amiga Architecture
Amiga Announces Alliance with QNX for Next Generation Amiga
Architecture
Amiga Inc. has announced an alliance with QNX Software Systems Ltd.
to utilize the QNX realtime operating system (RTOS) as the foundation
for the Next Generation Amiga architecture.
"The Amiga shook the industry in the 80's with world leading
multimedia architecture." said Jeff Schindler General Manager of Amiga
Inc. "QNX's RTOS resembles many of Amiga's unique qualities. It
provides the foundation in reaching our vision for the rebirth of
Amiga in the new millenium."
"We see this alliance as a powerful combination of superior OS
technologies, common corporate cultures and shared business vision."
said Dan Dodge, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of QNX
Software Systems Ltd.
Building upon the QNX OS foundation, Amiga, Inc. will work with QNX
to add features and functions needed to create the Next Generation in
Computing, as Amiga did in 1985.
Next Generation Targeted Features
Operating System Core Features
Scalable and modular design
Fully Protected Preemptive Multitasking; with processes and threads
Efficient and compact OS (under 4MBs)
Full 32 bit
True RTOS
Virtual Memory support
ROM-able
Multi Processor support
Distributed processing support
Open standards architecture
Support for industry standard API's
Multimedia
High performance 3D (Open GL)
Full 24-bit true color
Support standard TV, SVGA and resolutions up to HDTV
Multi-Media Gaming centric
Real-time animation (audio/video/graphics)
Internet/Networking
Network centric architecture
High performance Internet solutions
Full Java support
Consumer networking
Convergence
Support new digital interface standards
Amiga convergence API's where no standards exist
Support leading convergence processing hardware
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Should Amiga developers start programming for QNX now?
A: No. While QNX is the foundation OS, Amiga in partnership with QNX
will add user interface enhancements, more multimedia support and a
host of other convergence features. This will be released through
Amiga Inc's developers program.
Q: Will I have to re-write my application to run on Next Generation
Amiga's?
A: Yes. The new OS has a programming model that is similar to the
Classic Amiga's, but also sufficiently different. In particular, the
new OS features processes and threads (a "thread" is like an Amiga
Process/Task), virtual memory and a very clean microkernel
architecture. All access to hardware is through drivers, so if your
application "hits the hardware" it will not work. Most well written
applications should be able to be ported, but to take full advantage
of the new architecture you will want to take advantage of the new
APIs. We also intend to offer significantly better development tools
than are currently available for the classic, which should ease the
transition.
Q: How about my Classic applications? Will they run?
A: For the Development System, we are investigating either an "Amiga
Classic PCI card" or an "Amiga Classic Emulator". Therefore well
behaved 3.1/3.5 Amiga Classic applications should work.
For more information about QNX Software Systems, visit www.qnx.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H A N K Y O U , A M I G A N S
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Open Letter of Thanks from VillageTronic
17 November, 1998
News Source: VillageTronic
Dear friends, customers and supporters.
The Computer`98 fair is over. We are glad that so many amiga people
visited our booth and showed support for our amiga products. Thank you
all for your enthusiasm about the amiga and all the products it still
brings up.
As you all might know we brought out an AVI-animation grabber for our
PalomaIV add on module for PicassoIV. Our friend Laszlo Török from
Hungary visited us for the whole fair and presented it to interested
people. You can leech this software with the name PalomAVI in a week
on our webpage "www.villagetronic.com/amiga" for free. The
animation player Moovid will be included as a shareware version.
Another thing of interest was our voodoo add on board for the
PicassoIV that we showed as an "early beta" made of paper with glued
voodoo chips on it. Probably you saw our survey about it.
Now it`s monday and I returned more or less tired from the show... I
opened my mailfolder to see how many people contributed in our survey
about the Voodoo card for PicassoIV. The actual state is: 185
preorders and about 439 interests.
Now again I ask you all for support: Can you manage to spread this
information to any people that could be interested? If you know people
that might be interested in a card like this they should really
preorder here that we can manage to produce it. We are still devoted
amigians here and we really want to make this card happen (even
against our mac department here :)).
Okidoo... Here I send you the "official" information again, that you
can check out what and how we want it...
With best regards and all the best for the amiga future... Here you
will now find the text that we released before the fair in cologne...
If you want to join our survey reach
"www.villagetronic.com/amiga/survey.html" or for germans
"www.villagetronic.com/amiga/surveydt.html"
Here we go...
Survey about PicassoIV and 3dfx Voodoo AddOn Module
Dear customer.
After the development of the AriadneII ethernet card VillageTronic
(one of the few remaining hardware companies for the zorro based
AmigaClassic computersystems) is considering about the ongoing support
and development of new addon products for the graphics board
PicassoIV.
As far as there are no clear statements about the current amiga
market we need to know how many people would show us support for the
development of such a new product. So we came to the conclusion to
make a survey.
Our aim is to develop an 8MB 3d-addon board with Voodoo chipset
(3dfx). This card would need a ZorroIII based amiga system like A4K,
A3K or A1200 with special ZorroIII extensions. For us the point is
that we need about 500 preorders that shows us that the product will
be viable and we can pay our development costs. Now the point is on
you to fill out our survey that we can see if there will be enough
pieces sold.
Help the amiga market and you could see a modern and progressive
product for your miggy...
(all product names are registered trademarks of the concerned
producer)
------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I preorder an 8mb Voodoo 3d module for the PicassoIV for the
preferential price of 249,-DM. If there won`t be enough preorders and
no card will be developed this contract will become invalid. Payment
will follow shipment.
name:_______________________________________________________
street:_____________________________________________________
city:_______________________________________________________
email/Tel.No.:______________________________________________
date & signature:___________________________________________
------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I`m interested in an 8mb Voodoo-3d-Module for picassoIV. For now
I`m not able to preorder but I will show my support for the idea with
my signature and buy later. Later the card will cost 299,-DM
name:_______________________________________________________
street:_____________________________________________________
city:_______________________________________________________
email/Tel.No.:______________________________________________
date & signature:___________________________________________
------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you,
Ekkehard Brueggemann
Village Tronic Support Team
Village Tronic Marketing GmbH
Mühlenstr.2 - D-31157 Sarstedt
www.villagetronic.com
amigasupport@village.de
Tel.: +49(0)5066-7013-20
Fax.:+49(0)5066-7013-49
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I C O A S P R U C E S U P W E B S I T E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New ICOA Web Site Now Online
20 November, 1998
The Industry Council Open Amiga (ICOA) is please to announce that
their web site is finally online at http://www.amiga.net. This site
will serve as a focal point for developers both large and small to
communicate with each other and to bring together information of use
to all.
Some sections of the site are not yet complete, but it has been
decided that things can move forward more quickly given the input of
the entire ICOA membership. If you would like to volunteer to assist
in any part of the site, please contact Ted Wallingford at
ted@server.pantheonsys.com and let him know.
The new site features special sections for documentation, workgroups,
discussion lists, news areas and more. Many areas, such as Your News,
allow items to be immediately contributed by ICOA members to go
online.
The ICOA is a professional society of Amiga developers and serves to
help developers and advance the Amiga platform.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H E R E T U R N O F D I C E
24 Nov 1998
DICE is a freely distributable C compiler environment for the Amiga
computer by Matt Dillon. It started off life as shareware but became a
commercial product published by Obvious Implementations Corporation.
With the decline in the Amiga market, Matt released the source code to
DICE in 1997.
This is where Richard Drummond came in.
Richard perceived an interest still remaining in the Amiga community
for DICE and in October of this year he produced a cleaned-up release
of DICE based on Matt's source. As a result Richard received
enthusiastic responses from many Amiga users. So, with Matt Dillon's
help, he set up the DICE Development Group to continue work on DICE.
The Dice Development Group would like any programmers wanting to help
with DICE overhaul to join. Dice will be a totaly free compiler with
source. New features: Compiler optimisations,(PPC/C++), Your
suggestions.
Mail Richard Drummond:
dice@drummond.u-net.com
or
Matthew Fletcher:
Matthew.Fletcher@student.shu.ac.uk
Visit these sites:
http://www.drummond.u-net.com/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Foothills/5278/page13.html
or join the Dice mailing-list:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/dice
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G A T E W A Y C O M P U T E R S H O W G R O W S
November 20th, 1998
The Gateway Computer Show - Amiga 99(tm) will be held on Friday March
12 through Sunday March 14, 1999, in St. Louis Missouri, U.S.A.. The
show is organized and owned by Amigan-St. Louis's Bob Scharp. Bob has
organized all the Gateway Computer Shows(tm). Amiga 99 will be the
fifth and largest show yet. Every Gateway show has had continuing
increases in attendance year over year. The Amiga shows in St. Louis
are a great confirmation of doing something right. The things
attendees asked for were, a bigger show, and a better banquet hall.
Amiga-St. Louis(tm) is listening to your concerns. We are moving Amiga
99 to a bigger hotel, the Henry VIII Hotel. We are making the banquet
bigger and it will be held in it's own hall. Keep the page
"http://www.amiga-stl.com" book marked on your browser. Visit our
site, and see the exciting things that are planned for Amiga 99.
Bob Scharp
Amigan-St. Louis
bscharp@icon-stl.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G A R Y P E A K E O N F L E E C Y
18 Nov 98 22:
Fellow Amigans,
As most of you now know, Fleecy Moss is no longer with Amiga Inc. It
is important as users and developers that we closely examine the
sudden demise of Joe Torre and Fleecy Moss from Amiga Inc. and whether
this does or does not impact our goals. I invite everyone to debate
this issue with an open mind.
There may well be concerns here which do not bode well for the
community at large and in particular those of us who have stayed the
course over the last few years without any assistance from any outside
sources.
There is only a limited time that revenue and resources can be
devoted to any cause without some interaction from those controlling
the flow of that cause. I am not talking about interaction from a
financial standpoint, but rather from a technical sharing of knowledge
and information. If the aim is to keep a finger on the pulse of the
community, Amiga Inc will find it hard to do that without interaction
with the community at large.
We are at an important juncture with the recent announcement of QNX
as the OS partner. What we, as users and developers, do with the Amiga
Classic and the Amiga II may or may not be important to Amiga Inc and
thus QNX (as a partner). We must look at the OS3.5 developement, PPC
development, and QNX developement from the proper vantage point of
what it will and will not do FOR US.
Lest anyone misunderstand my personal resolve or committment, Team
AMIGA will not only stay the course but will make efforts to also
involve others in the linux, unix, posix community in our efforts to
attain open platforms and open systems for the long term future.
I invite anyone interested in our cause to email with specifics as
soon as possible so that a concerted effort can be made to achieve our
long term goals of open systems for the community at large.
Sincerely,
--
Gary Peake
Team AMIGA Global, LLC (pending)
gpeake@teamamiga.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E L S P E T H M O S S O N F L E E C Y
17 November, 1998
Forums: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Hello amiga people, my name is Elspeth Moss the wife of fleecy. He is
bound by some of the contract he signed to keep quiet but I am not.
I want you all to know that to my husband, the amiga is very, very
importnat. Many times I have gone to bed without him, weekends have
disappeared and there are times I have wanted to pull the plug on his
computer just to get him back. I know the children and I are the most
important thing to him but the Amiga isn't that close behind. I don't
understand the fascination myself but when he talks of the plans, the
community, the ppl, I can see that it is more to him than just a
computer.
Over the past 18 months he has gone from the happiest of the happy to
the saddest of the sad. Frustrated, angry, ranting as the job has
progressed - or not progressed. When he got the news on wednesday, he
was devastated. It took him 4 hours before he was back on the
computer. First he started moves to get a new job so we wouldn't be
deported - in fact with our new daughter Evie not having a birth
certificate yet, we would probably have to leave her - thanks Jeff
Schindler - and then he was back emailing ppl, coming up with new ways
to keep the community going, to prevent it from being destroyed.
Of course he has to find a job first but I think I know that I won't
be seeing him much for the next few months in the evening. I am used
to it. I just want you all to know the kind of man he is - honest,
principled, always figthing for the underdog, obsessive - a pain in
the backside. He may have been sacked but he will never give up on the
Amiga, unlike some others.
Thank you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P E T R O H E A D S T O I N D I A
November 27, 1998
Petro Tyschtschenko to speak at the BSC India '98
On the 10th of December, Petro Tyschtschenko will be attending the
Videoshow BSC India '98 in New Delhi, India. He will be speaking at
the "Cable Channel Session", which is an emerging medium for
advertisers and he will stress on how well the Amiga can improve the
quality of presentation of the Cable Channel and make it much more
viewer friendly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A O P E R A A P P A R E N T L Y D E A D
Unfortunately the Cologne show did not provide the hoped for boost
for the Amiga Classic market, and Ramjam Consultants have therefore
abandoned the Amiga Opera port.
Previous offers of support from Amiga Inc appear to have been
withdrawn, and the future for the Amiga Classic market now seems even
more bleak than at any other time.
While the big public news from Cologne is undoubtably good for the
future of the new generation of Amigas expected to be released
sometime during the year 2000 - the new kernel will be Neutrino >from
QNX Software Systems Ltd - a lot has happened out of the public eye to
cause most remaining Amiga Classic developers to lose confidence. If
you know of some rare bird who starts where others have already given
up, this may be his chance. let me know atmagic@operasoftware.com .
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A C T T H O U G H T S A F T E R K O L N
{Before you read this, please look at the Editor's Thoughts at the
beginning of this newsletter. Brad}
Albrecht Computer Technik Thoughts after End of Computer98
Finally things seem to clear up. After having discussed further Amiga
development and commercial oportunities on the Amiga platform with a
number of hard- and software people A.C.T. draws this conclusion:
Amiga Inc does not seem to be interested in supporting the Real
Amiga. Their continued back-and-for and the announcements show a
complete ignorance of the remaining market and an incredible
insensibility for the needs of developers, retailers, press people. It
is not likely that anyone will be able to make a fortune out of Real
Amiga development or sales now. It is not true that Amiga Inc is in
close discussion with developers - not a single developer known to the
partners of A.C.T. has been seriously contacted. Pretending that such
cooperation takes place is a slap in the Amiga community's face.
Just like others A.C.T. will continue to produce, enhance and support
their current product range. It is not possible to invest in future
projects though, so four software products have been cancelled right
after the fair and two major hardware projects will not be carried out
(Festiva, the High End Soundcard at a price BELOW that of a comparable
PC soundcard, is among them). Prelude additions, software etc. will be
continously developed and supported though - we will not let our
customers down, but we will not be able to grant the wide service and
support we have given to users all over the world in the future to the
same extend.
The disapointment about Amiga Inc being unable to show any real
products (QNX is NOT an Amiga Inc product) convinced us that they do
not have anything to offer right now.
A.C.T. is interested in cooperating with companies having products in
development or actually on the market. We have a position to keep and
extend, we have a reputation to defend and we have families to feed.
We would also be interested in helping a company that does not have
anything to offer at the moment getting started, but that company has
to ask us - not vice versa. Our knowledge in Digital Audio as well as
driver programming, hardware expertise and customer relation could be
helpful - if this help would be accepted. We do not beg for open ears.
Computer98 set an end point to an area of home computers. The Amiga
market can not be revived and developers still active on this market
will try their best to support the users that haven't migrated - but
it should be clear and kept in mind that most of this support, even
new products that pop up from time to time, base on enthusiasm, not on
market power.
What about the future? QNX offers a powerful kernel and interesting
features, yet it is a system among others and will have to prove that
it can penetrate the home computer market the same it does with the
embedded system market.
Amiga Inc's future plans seem to target to SetTop boxes, Dishwashers
with intelligence, TVs that cook your coffee and take your children to
bed. Although this may be a market in the future it is not a market at
the moment or within the next two years. We do not have the financial
means to develop applications for two years without selling in the
same time, so we cannot and will not develop for the "new" Amiga OS at
the moment. We would have needed detailed, usable information and
developer support NOW - we did not get it, so this unknown,
indifferent system is no choice. The way the owner company presents
itself in public is not destined to raise trust in their ability of
support in the future.
Amiga OS 3.5 seems to be dead. There is no information available
about it, no contract has been sent out, no discussion took place. We
are not interested in an OS that does not even support the feature
nearly every modern Amiga has (through Shareware) nowadays. A
Plus-Pack is of no interest to us. We have withdrawn our offer to
implement ARTAS - at least based on the financial agreement so far.
ARTAS will be made publically available but NOT a component of an
Amiga Inc OS3.5. This issue is subject to change depending on
professional offers from Amiga Inc (which we do not expect any more).
A last few words: any developer needing help is highly welcome to
contact us. We will try our best to share our know how in software
design and we will continue to support and sponsor developers wherever
possible. We are very interested in participating in serious,
professionally guided projects that might regain a bit of market
space.
Contact information: Marc Albrecht, Seth 2, 21769 Lamstedt EMail:
albrecht@act-net.com http://www.act-net.com
This statement may be released to web sites, news groups or FIDO
echos but only in its complete, uncut and unedited version.
Marc Albrecht, 20.11.1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I B E N C H N E E D S I N P U T S
29th November 1998
'Bench gets busy
AmiBench has for the last year and a half provided a first class
Amiga Service to thousands of users.
With over half a million hits under its belt this resource could be a
major benefit to Amiga Users/Dealers Worldwide.
We now need your help to improve this well used and maintained
service even more.
The AmiBench Dealer Directory is due for a major upgrade but before
we do so, we need your help!
We need as many Amiga / Draco / Flyer Dealers, Amiga supporting
ISP's, Repair Centres as possable to be entered in to the database.
Please dont worry if the details have been entered before, We'll sort
it out.
Please check http://www.thunderstorms.org/AmiBench/ for more details.
Remember this service can not acheive its aims without the support of
the Amiga Community.
Dont forget that AmiBench is the best online Amiga Classified site in
the world that deals with only Amiga and Amiga Clones which include
Toasters and Draco's.
Mark Wilson : Public Relations for AmiBench
Web: http://www.thunderstorms.org/AmiBench/
Email: AmiBench@thunderstorms.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I M A G E F X S P E C I A L O F F E R
Special Video Offer with ImageFX Upgrades
For Immediate Release
Available through January 1999, when you purchase an ImageFX 3.2
upgrade, from any version, you can also order the top-rated Catalyzer
video tutorial volume for less than half the normal retail price of
$49.95. Your price is only $20 plus shipping!
The Catalyzer video tutorial series have been acclaimed by users and
reviewers worldwide for showing how to unleash the power of ImageFX
with apparent ease. These videos show you how to achieve stunning
animations and amazing results with ImageFX is a series of practical
tutorials.
This limited time offer is only for the first volume of the Catalyzer
video tutorial series for ImageFX. Other volumes are available through
your local Amiga retailer or mail order firm. Thanks to the great
people at Legacy Maker for helping us make this holiday offer
possible!
But Wait - There's More!
We've also made special arrangements with Visual Inspirations, makers
of Control Tower and VisualFX, to include bonus coupons in the ImageFX
package to allow you to order their VisualFX for ImageFX for a
whopping 50% discount as well! VisualFX replaces ImageFX's interface
with a powerful, yet easy to use, icon driven interface that makes
creating sophisticated transitions and animated effects nearly
effortless.
Ordering Upgrades
Upgrades from ImageFX 2.0 through 2.6 are only $79.95 plus shipping.
Upgrades from earlier releases are only $124.95 plus shipping. Call
between 1pm and 4pm eastern US time at 1-800-IMAGE-69 in the US and
Canada, or call 804-282-1157 from anywhere else in the world to order.
Orders can also be faxed to 804-282-3768. We take VISA, Mastercard,
and (International) Money Orders.
ImageFX is the Amiga's award winning image editing and special
effects package. It combines nearly every tool you could possibly need
for creating images, painting, image processing, image file format
translation, special effects, morphing, and more. It has all the high
end tools without the high end price. ImageFX is a must-have package
for all Amiga, DraCo, and Video Toaster/Flyer owners. There simply
isn't anything else that offers you everything that ImageFX has - and
with this special holiday promotion, it's a value that can't be beat!
Happy Holidays from Nova Design, Inc. and Legacy Maker!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G E N E S I S F L Y E R A N N O U N C E D
Genesis by Randomize, Inc. Annouces the Genesis Flyer, The Video
Toaster Compatible Amiga
Toronto, Canada - Nov. 26, 1998
Randomize, Inc. is pleased to annouce the release of its Genesis
Flyer, the Video Toaster Flyer compatible Amiga.
The Gesesis Flyer is available as both a complete turn-key system
including Computer, Toaster, Flyer and Drives or as just the Computer.
The Genesis Flyer Computer Features:
Video Toaster / Flyer Compatiblity
Compatiblity with other Video Slot Applications
060 CPU Speed
32 MB Ram
5.1 GB IDE HD
36x IDE CD-Rom
High Density Floppy Drive
5 Zorro II Slots
AGA Chipset including standard features
More!
System Price - $2449.95 US, $3749.95 CDN
Turn-Key System Includes:
Genesis Flyer Computer
Video Toaster and Flyer
2 x 9 GB Video Hard Drive
1 x 4 GB Audio Hard Drive
System Price - $7999.95 US, $12239.95 CDN
For more information, visis the Genesis Flyer site at
http://www.randomize.com/flyer.html
Dealer and reseller inquiries welcome.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W N E T W O R K I N G S Y S T E M
PlipWorks ( System Shock Solutions, Italy) is a hardware and software
package which allows, for a small cost, to connect two Amiga computers
together thanks to a parallel cable and to get very good speed, better
than a standard serial nullmodem connection. The software is Sana II
compliant, and so it's possible to use a standard TCP/IP stack or
Amiga Envoy networking software. With it it's possible to reach a very
good transfer rate like 50k/s with 68030 based machines or 80k/s with
68060 processors. A 2 mt. Plip cable, the software driver and an
installation and using manual are provided. The price is 39.000 lire
(23 US$, 39 DM).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html
All back issues available (in ASCII text) at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1998 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A
U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_
amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
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