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Amiga Update (1998-05-25)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
BACK FOR THE FUTURE ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway, Inc.
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980525
F O L L O W U P T O A I ' S A N N O U N C M E N T
A I ' S P R O J E C T M A N A G E R S P E A K S
T H E " B R I D G E M A C H I N E " - M O R E D E T A I L S
A D E V E L O P E R ' S T A K E O N T H E F U T U R E
O N E O F T H E " M E N I N B L A C K " T A L K S
A M I G A C I V I L W A R E N D S ?
G A T E W A Y ( A N D A I ? ) T O R E L O C A T E
O R E G O N R E S E A R C H D I E S
A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y H O L D S F I N A L S
1 9 9 7 A A A A W A R D T O H O L G E R K R U S E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Some of the smoke and dust have settled from the "BIG" announcement
by Amiga Incorporated at "World of Amiga" in London. We've let a few
days go by and put together another issue for you with some follow-up
items. We think the articles we've assembled, from press releases,
mailings and posts to the Amiga newsgroups, will help to clear up some
misconceptions and bring everyone up to speed on what's known about
AI's plans and what isn't. We even have a statement from one of the
mysterious "Men in Black" who made their thoughts known to AI
officials immediately after the presentation.
Quick comments: no, the Amiga isn't going Intel. No, we don't know
what the mysterious future chip will be yet, but speculating is
becoming the official Amiga Community sport. And no, we're not worried
about the future. We're pleased there is one. Finally, it seems as
though there were some late breaking developments at AI, which caused
last minute changes in the announcements, and perhaps led to some of
the confusion we all sense.
We begin this issue with some notes from our readers. We asked for
your thoughts in our 980515 issue, hot on the heels of the
announcement. Frankly, we didn't get as many messages as we thought we
might, perhaps because there had been so little time to digest the
news. The ones we got, though, were very interesting. We're still
interested in hearing what you think, so drop us an e-mail with your
impressions, thoughts or comments.
Happy reading,
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-MAIL TO THE E-DITOR
=====================
MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Hi Brad!
First, thanks for providing this fine, nearly instant, source of
news!! One of a kind.
Regarding the "Kickoff": As an Amigaphile since 1987, I've been
waiting for this day a loooong time. I had long ago decided that the
essence of the Amiga was the OS (since I got my graphics card! :), but
I haven't yet digested the notion of running it on Intel. I'll get
over that part in time, I hope.
I feel good that the Amiga has a future, and sad to see an end of the
"Classic Amiga" era. I'm sure it will linger for a long time,
especially in THIS house, but its days are numbered. Hopefully the
"feel" of 4.0/5.0 will be the same. At least some of the spirit will
live on via those faithful in the development team.
Regarding the "new" Amiga, there are still more questions than
answers: Has 3.5 has been scrapped, will AI do ANY OS update for the
Classics? Will 4.0 run on a run-of-the-mill clone? Will 5.0? Will
there be a HAL for the pre\box? Who are the "Men In Black" (perhaps
the most important question?)? What does AI mean by a "new software
architecture"? And of course, can AI put together a
platform/interface/system concept that will be able to steal some of
Bill's thunder? Why would BeInc be interested in providing solutions
for an Intel-based competitor? How will hardware manufacturers cope
with being stranded (are they?)? The list is endless and I'm sure you
thought of them too.
I'm looking forward to seeing where this all leads, not only for my
beloved Amiga, but for the future of popular computing. (Carl S. is
RIGHT!) Hmmm. I wonder what Ted Waitt thinks of REBOL?
-- Peter Schaff
Team *AMIGA*
UGN
Newsletter editor, Whidbey Amiga Club
A3000 A3640 CV64 Chameleon Tower
PS: Thanks again for this wonderful newsletter!!
{Thank YOU for the most kind words. The questions you ask are all
important, and some have been asked by many Amigans. We can't answer
them all, but we do have some information in this issue on a few of
them. One thing to note right now, there apparently will NOT be an
Intel based Amiga. Due to the way things were announced, a lot of
people understandably came away with that thought, however. Brad}
=====
THE PATH OF FEELINGS
Hi there -
Thanks for the email updates on the Amiga situation. I have gone from
being unhappy with the Amiga Inc. decisions to now being somewhat
hopeful about what the future might hold. I am doubtful this
particular bunch of guys are going to be able to pull off what so many
other companies have tried to do and failed (IBM, SGI, Sun, even C=),
but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. That new
superchip better be all they are claiming it is--the wintel world is
not going to just sit still during the next 18-24 months.
Sincerely,
David Guerra
{You make good points. My feelings followed the same path as yours,
and I think that's true for many Amigans. Brad}
=====
MUNDANE USES - BUT IMPORTANT ONES
18 May 1998
Dear Amiga Update,
I am glad that the Amiga is moving forward; I'm just never sure just
what it means to me, an Amiga user who uses his Amiga for no Desktop
Video, in fact uses it for all the mundane usages (Word processing,
Email, Games etc.) that were supposed to be ceded to MS-DOS years ago.
The truth is I like the OS, am familiar with it, and don't want to
learn one that I understand is far more clunky. And besides, I'm
cheap; what I use meets my needs, more or less.
Keep up the good work,
Best regards,
Mike Phebus
{The scariest thing I've heard since the announcment is the
indication AI thinks all Amigans use PCs. That could lead to them make
the new machine less than an all-around computer, more of a niche
graphical appliance. I and many others use Amigas as alternatives to
PCs, and I think it's important that continues. So far, no real
indication that it won't. (See the Men in Black article below for an
indication of AI's possible belief that Amigas live next to PCs on all
our computer desks.) Brad}
=====
RESPECT ... ?
22 May 1998
Mr. Webb -
I happened to drive by a new Gateway computer store which had
recently opened in the Dayton area, apparently one of several Gateway
has opened up around the country. I really didn't expect to find any
Amiga products, but decided to stop out of curiosity, and thought I'd
share my findings.
I must say, they really took that cow theme to the extreme. Maximum
bovine! The floor was bare concrete. The wall paper was a mural of a
farm field. The computer desks had metel tractor seats, and there were
"milking" tubes coming down from the ceiling at each computer station,
apparently hiding the power cords. The backdrop behind the computer
station was a corrugated metal section from a grain cylo. Maybe it was
my imagination, but the whole store even seemed to smell like a farm
(it didn't stink, just had that smell of fresh hay).
After walking once around the perimeter, I failed to see any evidence
of Amiga computers. This didn't surprise me, but while I was there, I
figured I'd ask one of the salesmen what he knew. The conversation
went something like this:
"Do you have any Amiga computers?", I asked.
"Amega? No, I don't know anything about that", he replied.
"Well", I explained, "I understand Gateway recently bought the Amiga
line."
The other salesman, seemingly more knowledgeable on the subject,
joined in, "I did hear something about Gateway buying them. We can
special order them for customers who want them."
This was beginning to sound promising, I thought.
Then he added, "What kind of Iomega drive are you looking for?"
Michael Pershing
{This letter made my day, thank you for sending it. Maybe when there
are Amiga ads again we could get Rodney Dangerfield as a spokesman.
Brad}
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F O L L O W U P T O A I ' S A N N O U N C M E N T
18 May 1998
Post by Ben Hutchings
Here's my (rather hurried) report on Friday's announcements. It's
based on the notes I made at the time, plus additional details I
remembered, plus some clarifications I got later from Fleecy Moss and
Joe Torre. It could probably be improved quite a bit, but I haven't
got time to do that right now.
If you need to reply to me, please use e-mail, as I am unsubscribing
from this group until my final university exams are over (late June).
=====
The presentation took place in a large hall on the first and second
floors of Novotel. Petro Tyschtschenko was first to speak; he began by
presenting gifts to the World of Amiga organisers (Peter Brameld and
Norah Hodgson). Then he summarised what Amiga International had been
doing in the past year, mentioning shows, the website, new licenses,
the success of Amigas in the Indian video market, and continuing sales
of Amigas for kiosk systems.
Jeff Schindler then stepped up to make the announcements we were all
waiting for (well, except those journalists who had been to the
lunchtime event). He thanked Petro, and then introduced the Amiga Inc
employees present. Marilyn Flint (Manager), Joe Torre (Hardware
Engineer), and Darreck Lisle (Events Coordinator) were all there.
Gateway was represented by Jim Collas, Senior Vice President, and
Steve Johns, Head of Corporate Development. Jeff then announced three
new employees - Fleecy Moss (Project Manager), Dr Allan Havemose (Head
of Technology and Development), and Bill McEwen (PR).
The business plan that has now been approved for funding by Gateway
is the 15th in a series of refinements by Jeff. Unfortunately not all
of it could be revealed as some details (about a third of the
information that was intended to be announced) have yet to be agreed
with outside companies. The rest is expected to be finalised within
about a month.
Jeff Schindler showed a series of slides (using Powerpoint, sadly)
summarising his points. I noted down much of the content of these so I
could remember what was said. The key question for Amiga is, how can
it regain a lead? The next question that can be asked is, what defines
an Amiga? Amiga Inc decided it was not specific technologies, but the
vision: awesome technology, freedom of choice, an enthusiast
following, a worldwide community, and so on. So the goals for future
Amiga technology are these: ease of use, affordability, high-
performance multimedia, an open architecture, evolution to meet new
standards, and of course fun.
What is the market that Amiga can attack now? Amiga Inc identified
the so-called "digital convergence" market. This is the fusion of
Internet access, digital media and entertainment, with real computers
underneath, of course. It is predicted that there will soon be an
electronic paradigm shift, with ubiquitous digital appliances. Among
products that might run AmigaOS in the future are: Internet
appliances, games machines with Internet and DVD support, set-top
boxes, sub-$500 computers, combined TV/game/computers for the bedroom
or kitchen, PC/TVs, and of course the conventional tower, desktop and
portable computers.
To do this, AmigaOS needs to run on cheap, fast hardware. Amiga Inc
has discovered, through Gateway's connections, a chip in development
that can offer incredible speed at a low price starting from next
year. (It's being kept secret by the company developing it -
apparently, partly for fear of losing their current good relations
with Intel before the chip is in production.) Quoted performance
statistics were: 5-10 times faster than current high-end PC hardware,
400 million pixels per second 3D rendering (in 24 bit colour, with
whatever 3D effects you want), and decoding of 4 MPEG2 streams at the
same time. It can also support high-speed Internet access using ADSL
or similar protocols. Of course hardware isn't everything. Amiga Inc
will need to provide breakway OS technology - "convergence-ware" that
will be perfectly suited to the sort of new products that were
mentioned above. This will mean a new OS core and new APIs.
The next slide showed how Carl Sassenrath had reacted to the news. He
was present at a demonstration of the predecessor to this chip, along
with Amiga Inc, and reportedly said: `It will be fun to again see the
Amiga "blow the socks off" everything else that is out there.' He said
that REBOL Technologies will support the new AmigaOS, which might
interest you...
Now comes the controversial bit. There is a long way from the current
(1992/93) Amiga OS and hardware to this new cutting-edge chip and an
OS with "convergence-ware", and that jump needs to be made in 18
months. The plan is to do this in two steps. Current technology - AGA,
OS 3.1, and 680x0 - is described as "Amiga Classic". The first step
from this will be to the "Amiga Bridge", which will consist of an x86
PC running OS 4.0, with an optional "Amiga Classic" bridge card. This
will be the development platform for the next step. The use of the
bridge card means that it can also run existing programs very fast, so
it may well be useful to non-developers too. The second step is to OS
5.0 running on a new architecture in "digital convergence" products
(which still include conventional computers). This will be basically
software-compatible to the last 4.x release.
What are the building blocks for these two steps? Backward
compatibility is provided by the bridge card (based on the Siamese or
InsideOut PCI cards in development) or by UAE (which should run just
fine on the new chip!). For the development platform, an OS kernel
will be licensed from another company to save time. The choice of
kernel is yet to be announced. All along the way, there will be
software upgrades to meet future standards. The backing of the Amiga
developer community is an essential.
The software timetable is as follows:
Developer program begins Q3 of 1998
OS 4.0 release November 1998
OS 5.0 ready late 1999
The developer program will be handled by ICOA together with Amiga
Inc. It will provide support for porting applications and creating
native applications for OS 4/5. Developers will also be involved in
the process of designing APIs for the new platform. Developer kits and
complete systems (PC + bridge card + OS) will be available from Amiga
Inc. There was a meeting on Saturday morning where an outline of OS
plans was presented, but for the time being that information is not
public.
Key targets for OS 4.x will be: OS 3.1 compatibility; advanced
multimedia performance; support for open standards (such as OpenGL);
real-time, threaded, protected, pre-emptive multi-tasking; a new GUI;
full Internet support. I believe the planned features for OS 3.5 will
be included in 4.x. OS 5.0 will be the final result of all the
additions made to OS 4.0, but will run on the new chip instead of on
x86 PCs.
There was brief mention of the importance of user groups and the
existence of the UGN as an interface to Amiga Inc - though not an
exclusive one. There was a UGN meeting on Sunday morning, but I didn't
go to that. Jeff also sought to reassure Amiga distributors that there
was still plenty of opportunity to sell "legacy" software and
hardware, because new developments will retain backwards
compatibility. The possibilities for new products are of course
greater.
Next to speak was Dr Allan Havemose, the new Head of Technology and
Development. He has previously worked for Commodore-Amiga, building up
the European developer network, and leading the OS development team
for releases 2.1-3.1. He didn't add much to what Jeff Schindler had
said, and unfortunately I didn't take notes of what he did say!
Some more details that came out in response to questions. (These
aren't verbatim, but a combination of my notes and memory.)
Q. Why aren't you supporting the PPC as a development platform?
A. We're negotiating with P5 for support for the PPC. There should
be news in a month.
Q. How do you plan to get a new kernel etc all in place by November?
A. We're teaming up with another OS corporation to use their kernel.
BeOS, Java OS, Linux and others are under consideration.
(Note, this is just for OS 4.0.)
Q. What happened to OS 3.5?
A. OS 3.5 has been dropped. We looked at the plans and realised it
wouldn't be worth doing, when we need to get OS 4.0 done by
November.
Q. How can a little company like Amiga Inc get access to this mystery
chip? And who is making it? Intel?
A. Gateway and its business partners are negotiating for the rights to
use this chip. We can't say who is making it, but it's not Intel.
Q. What will Amiga Inc do to get PC software companies to port to the
Amiga?
A. We can use Gateway's contacts to try to persuade them to allow
these ports, and we will support Amiga developers who want to
work on them.
Q. Who's making the bridge card, and what processor will be on it?
A. Mick Tinker and Steve Jones are working on it. It can use a
68040 or 68060.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A I ' S P R O J E C T M A N A G E R S P E A K S
18 May 1998
This is what Fleecy said today on #Team*Amiga:
OK, here's the story. There is a superchip out there that very few
ppl know about we found out about it because of the GW2k connection
the problem is, it won't be available until at least 1Q/99, which
means that systems won't exist until at least 4Q/99... to develop an
OS for it, we have to use simulators. The chip companies simulators
and compilers are all x86 platform to develop for OS4, we have to use
the tools to create the OS and the APIs. It does mean a brief
flirtation with x86, but not with Windows as soon as the chip is
available, we will move everything across and voila, bye bye x86.
Fleecy Moss, Project Manager, Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H E " B R I D G E M A C H I N E " - M O R E D E T A I L S
The InsideOut is essentially an Amiga on a PCI card. It has all the
usual things like AGA, CIA's, floppy & IDE connectors. It doesn't have
a serial, parallel & mouse port because these are all available on the
host. It has a set of drivers that handle the transfer of data between
the host and InsideOut to simplify how you move data around, kind of
like a 133Mb/s serial port! (consider that the current version of
Siamese is one of the fastest Amiga's you are likely to use and it
only uses 600kb/s across Ethernet).
The Siamese traps all relevant Amiga OS calls and sends them to a
command queue on the Amiga side of the bus, in most cases the Amiga
can then accept that the operation has been completed (such as drawing
graphics to the display). This is what makes the whole thing fast
because the 68k can immediately get on with doing Amiga things and
forget about the graphics, sound & I/O. Also there is little or no
CHIP memory used for the display meaning that large displays take no
extra memory on the InsideOut, its all used on the PC, this also means
that there is no video DMA going on, leaving the full chip memory
bandwidth available for the processor.
On the host there is a command queue which receives the function
calls from the card and the Siamese host software translates the Amiga
function call into the appropriate host OS call. A clear advantage of
this is that the Siamese PCI is totally independent of the graphics
card, disk format, network protocols, etc., as these are all handled
in the end by the host OS. Using Win95 this means that virtually ALL
graphics cards are supported without any changes to the Siamese. At
power up Siamese adds a display database entry for the display
resolution of the host.
There is 2Mb chip on the InsideOut, but no fast memory which is
allocated on the host dynamically. This gives memory access rates that
are about as fast as most Amiga's, however things like disk DMA can be
carried out directly into this memory without it having to transfer
across the bus, also images in memory can be transfer to the graphics
card without using the PCI bus (because it can go across the AGP
port).
It depends on the application, but expect about 2x the performance
from the 68k processor than you would normally have expected.
Regards
Mick Tinker
Access Innovation (formerly Index Information)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A D E V E L O P E R ' S T A K E O N T H E F U T U R E
18 May 1998
All right guys, listen to me a minute. First of all, I've been
developping on the Amiga for the past 7 years. I like to believe I've
contributed to this platform. Now we have been told some SERIOUS
changes are coming up for the future. For the past year, we ALL
complained at the lack of DEVELOPMENT. Yesterday, they announced a
plan for the FUTURE. So the Amiga can exist not only in a year, but on
4, 5, maybe *10* years. The Bridge is *NOT* the system of the future.
The bridge is meant as a *TEMPORARY* development system. It will run
Amiga software by itself, NOT on the PC's CPU. In 18 months, they want
to come up with a totaly new architecture. This new archiecture will
have *NOTHING* to do with the x86. Zilch. What CPU will that be? It's
not sure yet. Maybe Merced? Maybe Altivec? maybe something yet
unreleased? Just one thing is sure: They are NOT going x86. So no, the
Amiga is NOT turning into a Windows box. So, just give AInc time to
explain the WHOLE plan. We've been told only SOME of it so far. They
will probably explain more of it as the show will proceed this
week-end. Just read the press release they issue, and take a few mins
to analyze what you read THERE. And think about what you want to use
in 3 years of now: An Amiga 4000 with a PowerUP but AmigaOS still
running on the 68040? Or a totaly new CPU, ahead of both the 680x0 AND
the Pentium? They are planning the future, not just tommorow, neither
the day after. But the next years. So, just give them time to explain
the details, and THINK about it.
Thank you.
Eric Sauvageau, NewIcons/SysInspector
co-author/author
----------------------------------------------------------------------
O N E O F T H E " M E N I N B L A C K " T A L K S
19 May 1998
Posted by Mikey Carrillo
Hi!
(I originally posted this item on Saturday 16th of May unfortunatley
UKONLINE my ISP has got some problems with their News server so I'm
now posting from my work server instead 4 days late, apologies if this
has already been covered)
Right where do I start.
firstly if you have read the news pages on the Amiga web directory
then you will have read about the mysterious men in black.
I'm one of them, and I shall tell you what went on to the best of my
ability but please remember It may not be 100% accurate but I will
try.
Once the announcement ended we were all invited outside the hall were
refreshments and food was served to all attendees (Something never
seen under commodore)
After I had got my freebies I stood around talking to other another
user and that's when I noticed Andy Korn of CU-Amiga magazine along
with Steve and Jenny (of Alive Mediasoft) in a circle with other
people one of whom was Joe Torre. The Other MIB's I now know as John
Helliwell the other hangs around the newsgroups under the name of ROB
- Hi Rob! -
At any rate after much discussion about Vodoo II and Graphics cards I
decided To interupt the discusion and speak to Joe Torre (who
incidently is a very nice man)I asked him if OS 4.0 would run on dual
systems i.e. Intel and Motorola 68k series. His answer was no - intel
processor only.
So I asked him how we existing amigans were expected to benefit from
it. He looked surprised and said something along the lines of "Well
there is a possability that we shall release an amiga on the card for
PC users."
To which (I think it was Rob) said but I haven't got a PC (others
voiced their agreement)
This astonished Joe Torre and I could tell by his reaction that this
was news to him, Then the other man in black said that it is most
common outside the US for Amiga users to only have Amigas. i.e. europe
and uk.
He then stated that all the amigans in the US (as far as he knew) Had
both formats and didn't think that it was going to be a problem. (My
opinion is that they thought most amigans only used their amigas as an
alternative to PC's NOT by choice.)
I further went on (with support of others) to state that what they
had done had virtually killed of the existing Amiga Market, since
without PPC there was no way that existing Amiga users would continue
to support a platform for 18 months - 2 years without upgrades and
support.
"Think of the developers" I said, "What are they going to do? Who's
going to want to develop decent games/applications for the Amiga
market now? What about people like Phase 5 and others? they have sunk
a lot of money into helping the Amiga and now they are possibly
staring bunkrupty in the face, Whose going to want to develop for PPC
when it has no future?"
Joe Torre responded that he thought that PPC has a future for now,
but as myself and others pointed out the Amiga is going down a
mainline railway line whilst PPC has hit the buffers.
He later stated that perhaps he should have stated the Amigans case
more strongly during development meetings (from what I gather mostly
made up from PC people)
We all pleaded with him to go back and talk to the rest of the team
and work out something with Phase 5 and PPC, because come colgne '98
the Amiga market will have shrunk to virtually nothing.
(After having made the points to poor old Joe (sorry Joe I know I/we
gave you a hard time) we noticed Jeff Schindlers Boss (jeff incidently
had scuppered) Jim Collas We all went over and explained it all to him
all over again. The only difference being that He admitted that they
had wanted to speak to Phase 5 before the meeting (at which Mr
Deitricht stormed out off.) but were unable to.
I stated that 15 revised plans and they still cocked up (to which Jim
sadly agreed) At any rate he promised that they would talk to phase 5
as soon as possible.
Last minute note: I spoke to Andy Korn again today, May 16th (god I
bet he's sick of me)and he told me that AI/inc had met with H&P and
Phase 5 around mid morning but what was said he didn't know. (I would
have loved to have been a fly on the wall)
****************************************
So please guys & girls email
Jeff Schlinder and co. and tell them we want OS4.0 for PPC as well and
to run on our existing machines!!! NOT the PC! Let's deluge the guys
and gals at AI/inc.
*****************************************
One more thing. What AI/inc have in store for OS5 Amigas is nothing
short of breathtaking and for that they should receive our support
Sorry for the long post but I thought you'd like to know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A C I V I L W A R E N D S ?
May 20th, 1998
Phase 5 / Haage & Partner Cooperation
In a joint anouncement after the recent World of Amiga show in
London, and as a reaction to the plans revealed by Amiga Inc.,
Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products have emphasized their full
and continued support for the PowerPC integration.
With joint efforts both vendors will further support the developers
and the users of PowerPC technology, and will ensure a fast growing
number of stunning and powerful applications.
With many thousands of PowerUP boards beeing shipped so far, a number
of installed systems which is rapidly growing, the PowerUP boards
already provide an attractive market for all developers.
This fact is underscored by many upcoming PowerUP releases of major
Amiga software packages, and the increasing support of software
vendors which has been agreed on during the WoA even after the
announcements of Amiga Inc.
Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products emphasized that the
competition of their different approaches towards PowerPC integration,
as well as the public dispute about this, are a matter of the past.
"We will ensure that users of PowerUP system have a transparent
integration of their PowerPC software, and will see a rich variety of
most powerful applications to be released soon" say representatives of
both companies.
Further development of PowerPC system software shall be done with
close consultations between the companies; beside that, cooperations
in the development of powerful PowerPC-based system libraries and
other OS extensions are being discussed.
In meetings of the managements of Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital
products with Amiga Inc.
already during the WoA show in London, it has been agreed that a new
proposal will be presented to Amiga Inc. which outlines an alternative
option to "Amiga Bridge" system planned by Amiga, Inc.
This alternative is a new PowerPC-based system, which will feature
the planned Amiga OS upgrade and can be out for sale in the retail
channels by end of the year already.
Beyond incorporating standard industry components and interfaces,
such a system can provide additional options which allow for creative
development and expansion in the spirit of the Amiga and can also run
the current and next releases of AmigaOS.
Based on the PowerPC, this system will also provide continuity and
innovation for all users and developers, and will allow the Amiga
community to take part of such stunning developments such as
Motorola's new AltiVec technology, an extension to the G4 PowerPC
processors which will provide a breathtaking performance already early
next year.
With approval and support of Amiga Inc., this technology can
introduce the long-awaited revival of the Amiga platform already this
year, quickly providing a growing market of powerful systems which
users can buy, and for which developers can develop and sell software
and add-ons.
Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products also encourage all Amiga
developers who want to participate today in an existing innovation,
and who want to be a part of an Amiga market which provides growth,
continuity and innovation from now on and during the next years, to
speak out now and commit themselves to support the PowerPC as the
heart of the next generation of Amiga systems.
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G A T E W A Y ( A N D A I ? ) T O R E L O C A T E
22 May 1998
Gateway itself is moving to San Diego, and it is possible that Amiga Inc.
will be following them. It seems that Amiga Inc will be moving
-somewhere-.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine VP, Legacy Maker Inc.
http://www.cucug.org/ar/ http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/
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O R E G O N R E S E A R C H D I E S
20 May 1998
Going Out Of Business Sale Now until
June 30, 1998
A sad sad day...
Welcome to the final edition of the Oregon Research News. This last
year has been difficult for all Amiga users and even more so for us at
Oregon Research. This is a sad day in the world of Amiga. After ten
years of service, it is with great sadness that I must announce that
Oregon Research is going out of business.
The expenses of operation have far exceeded business income for too
long and our creditors have lost their patience. Even though Jo and I
have both taken jobs outside of the business to help repay the debts,
it is not enough.
In an effort to repay our business debts and avoid personal financial
ruin, we are forced to liquidate all of our inventory and business
assets. We have tried to avoid this action for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, time and the bill collector caught up with us before
Gateway could deliver on their promises.
I want to take this opportunity to personally thank each and every
one of you for supporting us over the years. Without your loyal
support, Oregon Research would never have been possible and my
personal dream of building my own business would never have become a
reality. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My only regret
is no longer having the opportunity to serve such a wonderful subset
of the human race. Until we meet again.....
Bob Luneski
orres@teleport.com
http://www.orres.com for sale prices, including software, hardware
and code rights
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A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y H O L D S F I N A L S
25 May 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Amiga Informer Announces the Final Round of Competition in the
Amiga University Prize Contest.
If you'd like to win one of the great prizes in Amiga University's
online trivia contest, be sure to register right now for the last
round of challenging questions at www.amigainformer.com/amigau
You'll be eligible to win any of the following prizes:
* Super CD-ROM bundle or Pen Mouse from Turtle Lightning
* Airmail Pro from Toysoft and Aweb II 3.1 from Amitrix
* Aladdin 4D 5.0 from Nova Design
* $400 Game bundle from Vulcan Software America
* Amiga 1200 Computer System with Magic Pack software
So, if you're up to the task, register now. Winners will be selected
from those with the best scores. Hurry and play now because it will
all be over in the beginning of June! Good luck, Amigans.
The staff at The Informer would also like to let our readers know
that issue 14 will be a bit delayed. Do to the massive amount of
information released at the World of Amiga show in London and
subsiquent related information, we felt it necessary for us to delay
printing. This amounts to about a one week delay, so if you are a
subscriber you should get your issue around week 3 of June. Once you
get the issue and see the detailed and, I should say, excellent and
exciting news, you will be happy. Good things are finally happening on
the Amiga and you can read it all in issue 14 and those that follow.
Thanks for your support,
Fletcher Haug, Editor in chief
The Amiga Informer Magazine (www.amigainformer.com)
And our friends at:
Pantheon Systems (www.pantheonsys.com)
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1 9 9 7 A A A A W A R D T O H O L G E R K R U S E
London, UK. Saturday May 16, 1998.
Holger Kruse, creator of well-known Amiga Internet connection
software "Miami", received today the AAA Award International 1997 at
the World of Amiga show in London, UK!
Presentation
The AAA Award International 1997, consisting of a custom designed
crystal glass Boing ball and a fine diploma, was handed over by Petro
Tyschtschenko, MD of Amiga International, Inc. who along with Martin
Sahlén, director of AAA Awards, performed the presentation. Holger
Kruse, voted winner by Amiga users all over the world, expressed his
gratitude for receiving this recognition. The ceremony was performed
at the Novotel Exhibition Centre, Hammersmith, London.
Motivation
The motivation, for which Mr. Kruse received the AAA Award
International 1997: "For creating Miami, 'the first TCP/IP stack for
EVERY Amiga user'. The inexpensive, fast and easy fashion of Miami has
helped making the Amiga a true Internet computer with a wave of new
applications as a result."
Acknowledgements
The AAA Awards Committee wishes to thank all Amiga users who voted,
Amiga International Inc. and the World of Amiga management for their
support.
Contacts
AAA Awards, homepage http://www.aaa-awards.org
AAA Awards, suggestions hotline +46-90-71 00 20 (24 hours)
AAA Awards, fax +46-90-71 01 46<br>
Holger Kruse, e-mail kruse@nordicglobal.com
Martin Sahlén, e-mail director@aaa-awards.org,
martin.sahlen@aaa-awards.org
Petro Tyschtschenko, e-mail ptysch@amiga.de
The AAA Awards 1997 presented in proud association with AMIGA
International, Inc. and Cloanto.
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Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format)
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
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Copyright 1998 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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