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Amiga Update (2001-04-22)
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A M I G A |#010422 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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B I L L M A K E S S O M E P O I N T S V E R Y C L E A R
P A R T I N G M E S S A G E F R O M P E T R O
A M I G A T E C H N I C A L U P D A T E - D E T A I L S !
A L A N R E D H O U S E ( E Y E T E C H ) S P E A K S
A M I G A / E L B O X R E L A T I O N S H I P
H Y P E R I O N E N T E R T A I N M E N T E N D O R S E S O S 4
K 4 : K I C K S T A R T A M I G A S H O W I N U K
I F U S I O N I S S H I P P I N G
T A S K I S M S V E R S I O N 2 . 5 3
D I G I T A L A L M A N A C I N E N G L I S H
E L B O X A N N O U N C E S V I R G E D R I V E R S
P R O M E T H E U S P C I A D A P T E R
F M D R I V E R V E R S I O N 1 . 2 5
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Can't remember when we've put out an "Amiga Update" this large. We
could look it up, I suppose, but I do know it's been a while. The
reason for the size is the significance of the announcements made at
the Amiga 2001 show in St. Louis earlier this month, and our desire to
provide a comprehensive follow-up. This issue contains the most
significant information we could find so far about what happened, why,
and where it's likely to lead. I'm sure there's some overlap and
duplication below, but we felt it was important to hear from key
players, and to publish some additional summaries beyond what we had
in our special issue earlier. We'll keep these comments and the e-mail
section small to help reduce the size, but I do have to say it's fun
having tons of things to send your way again!
Last, but far from least, thanks to everyone who wrote to help
provide a copy of colorgadget.library to the reader who'd lost one. He
now has one that's working. We got so many responses we can't answer
them all individually - especially in an issue that's gotten as large
as this one has - but we wanted to let you know we're very impressed
with our reader community.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
4 Apr 2001
Hi Brad,
I just wanted to send a quick thank you for the excellent Amiga Update
(3 April 2001).
Your show report was very well put together. Gary Peake's explanatory
points were a very welcome summary - I've been lost in confusion over
the announcement since it was made. Visiting most of the news sites
didn't help much, and the newsgroups made it even worse - as usual! ;-)
Your work with Amiga Update is always appreciated, but today it was
really essential!
Thanks again!
Richard
~~~~~~
Richard,
Always appreciate knowing when we've done something the readers like.
This issue should provide a lot more detail and, we hope, make things
even clearer.
Agree with your analysis of the newsgroups. Maybe they should be
called "creative fiction groups". We promise to always try and sort
through what's out there to bring you the best information available.
Regards,
Brad
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B I L L M A K E S S O M E P O I N T S V E R Y C L E A R
Bill McEwen - April 12, 2001
Greetings to one and all:
What a wonderful time it was for us in St. Louis. I must thank our
hosts Bob and Diana Scharp and all of the members of the Gateway Amiga
Club. They once again outperformed and kept things rolling.
I want to make very clear what the announcements were and what it
means for Amiga and the rest of the Amiga Family.
1. Amiga has made NO change in strategy with AmigaDE. Things are
going great, as expected, and we have some impressive new customers;
Sharp being the first.
2. Amiga OS 4.0 and beyond was announced. This is a staged series of
releases that will bring a native port of the AmigaOS to the PPC. This
is NOT about WarpOS, vs. anybody. It is an Amiga Inc. port of the OS.
You may infer nothing else from this.
3. AmigaOne A1200 is the first new hardware, for the Amiga, and we
are still planning a standalone ATX board and other new pieces of
hardware. AmigaOne for the A1200 will be out this summer. We are then
looking at releases later in the year, for the new standalone designs.
Summary:
o AmigaDE doing great and on target with the goals that we set forth
and we will continue development efforts.
o AmigaOS 4.0 out this summer with the first of the AmigaOne Zico
specification machines.
o Sharp is a new partner of Amiga Incorporated. More will soon be
released about our relationship.
o There will be more partners and more announcements soon.
o This is a great time to be part of the Amiga Family.
o For more in-depth information click here for the new Technical
Update.
I thank you all for your support and look forward to a very exciting
year before us!
Sincerely,
Bill McEwen, and the rest of the team at Amiga, Inc.
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P A R T I N G M E S S A G E F R O M P E T R O
14 April, 2001
Dear Amigians,
On 1st October 1982 I started with Commodore and tried to hold
together during two bankruptcies our beloved AMIGA. It was a special
honor for me during the weekend of 30 March to 1 April 2001in St.Louis
USA to see and to feel the respect of Amigians during my goodbye
party.
It was great and I am still thinking why, just for me....I have done
nothing special, I tried to keep the company and the spirit alive....I
am overwhelmed and I would like to say thank you again for all the
loyalty and for all the patient in the past.
Now this days, when Bill McEwen is driving forward the company, I
wish him best luck and success...I am sure that Amigians will be
behind him like they were behind me......
The spirit of Amiga should never die..........
Best regards
Petro Tyschtschenko
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A M I G A T E C H N I C A L U P D A T E - D E T A I L S !
{Note: the original of this document can be found at www.amiga.com.
We include it here for those who don't have easy access to the web
site, and to help provide a comprehensive look at present plans and
into the future. Brad}
12 April 2001
On the 31st of March, 2001 at the Amiga show held in St Louis, the
Chairman and CEO of Amiga, Mr Bill McEwen, unveiled the full Amiga
strategy. While only pieces of it had come out in the previous year,
this was the first time that it was explained in detail and in full.
That presentation was an intimate affair, given to the few hundred
attendees at the show banquet. This update now takes the information
presented at the banquet and makes it wholly available for the world.
The future is a content future. Information and activity is slowly
migrating from the physical and analogue to the digital.
Entertainment, research, work, shopping, conversation, education; all
are crossing over to take advantage of the digital universe.
Access to this digital universe is via any device that has a
microprocessor, understands the digital language, and can connect to
that digital universe. In the past this was limited to million dollar
mainframes. As technology advanced, the universe became accessible to
two thousand dollar desktops. Today, technology has developed to such
an extent that this digital universe can be accessed from three
hundred dollar games consoles and one hundred dollar cellphones.
The user now has a huge choice when it comes to accessing the one
constant; the digital universe. They have the workstation, the
desktop, the set top box, the games console, the PDA, the cell phone.
Which one they choose depends on many things - where they are, what
they want to do, what time it is. For Amiga, this is the new
challenge, the new frontier, the new WWW. Whatever, Whenever,
Wherever.
All of these devices can access the digital universe, but each of
them comes with a set of capabilities decided by price, market and
form factor. Each plays a part and fits into a role that in the past
defined the activity but which now describes only a profile. For
instance 'Desktop' used to be synonymous with word processing, image
manipulation and web browsing. Now those activities have escaped mere
hardware to become activities in their own right on many other
devices.
These activities have a set of requirements; services that they
require in order to take place. Similarly, devices have a set of
capabilities; services that they can offer to allow activities to take
place. Future digital environments will simply match activities to
devices based upon requirements and capabilities, scaling the activity
up or down to match the capabilities of the host device. Activities
will be free of a particular type or piece of hardware, and this will
free users from the restrictions imposed on them by the restriction
inherent in that hardware.
Increasingly it will the digital content and the digital activity
itself that becomes the only concern. This is a traditional sign that
a technology is maturing, as the underlying technology becomes
invisible to the user. Digital Living will finally deliver on its
promise of Whatever, Whenever, Wherever.
Amiga intends to energise this transition through the creation of a
revolutionary product, the Amiga Digital Environment or AmigaDE. The
AmigaDE will provide a universal content layer that can sit on any
digital device, irrespective of its hardware form or component set,
and give both users and developers (content consumers and content
producers) a common place in which to conduct digital activity.
AmigaDE offers the unique capability of being able to deploy itself
either directly on hardware, co-operatively on a software host
(running just like another application on an existing Operating
System) or, uniquely, on a software host where the user only sees the
AmigaDE but takes advantage of the feature set of the software host.
For the user, the AmigaDE provides a brand new source of rich,
compelling content; everything from games through Internet adventures
to productivity, content creation and serious work. All of this
available on any device that supports the AmigaDE thus not tied to a
specific device or computer type. The user gets freedom of choice
handed back to them. If they want to add the AmigaDE to their existing
computer set up, they can. If they want to use only the AmigaDE, they
can.
The user choses the activity they want to perform and the device on
which they want to perform that activity. The AmigaDE works to match
activity requirements to device capabilities and provides them with
the optimum experience.
For the content producer, the AmigaDE offers a truly universal
solution: Content can be created only once and then distributed to any
AmigaDE user, irrespective of the device that they are using. As long
as the device has the capabilities to support the content, it will
work. No more having to create different versions of the same content
for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. No more having a great product
excluded from the new Set Top Box and PDA markets. The AmigaDE
provides a level playing field and brings a multitude of smaller,
separate markets into one common market with all the business
advantages and opportunites that this entails.
The AmigaDE is a true content environment, allowing users everywhere
on every platform and every device to enjoy great content. In the
home, families can start to build collections of content (everything
from games and productivity applications to digital movies, pictures,
music and documentation) and access this content from any any of the
devices in their home, and ultimately from any device on the planet.
This content will be downloaded from the Internet or across satellite
and cable channels, or by good old fashioned CDs and DVDs and stored
on the individual devices. However, as the family collects more and
more of this digital content, they may want to collect it all together
in a local digital repository, where it can be catalogued, protected
and shared amongst all their digital devices without the hassle of
having to carry CDs or DVDs between rooms or getting into a fight
because eldest son is on the family computer and mother only has the
game console.
Amiga intends to solve this problem and thus provide a complete
solution for Digital Living, by offering yet another new product: the
AmigaOS. This is a completely separate product from the AmigaDE and is
not needed in order to enjoy the wonderful benefits of the AmigaDE.
The AmigaOS, together with compliant hardware, will provide a product
that will sit at the heart of the digital home. As a repository, it
will allow the family to store any type of digital content that they
chose, securely and easily accessed. As a server, it will allow the
family to move that content to any device within the digital home, and
beyond if they so desire, guaranteeing optimum delivery quality at all
times. As a gateway, it will provide a single source of entry for all
digital content into the home, providing protection from attacks and
incursions, allowing parents to control access to external content and
consolidating all digital paths.
For the majority of digital families, the AmigaOS device will sit out
of the way, requiring minumum maintenance whilst quietly and
efficiently enhancing their digital experience. For those interested
in a new level of multimedia experience however, the AmigaOS device
can also be used as a powerful computer in its own right, and it comes
with the additional advantage of the AmigaDE running co-operatively on
it, providing direct access to the content that it is also busy
serving to other AmigaDE enabled devices in the home.
The world is changing. The way people work, the way they play, the
way they communicate, the way they shop and the way they produce and
consume. The very act of living itself is moving forwards to a new
age. Amiga understands this change; indeed, it has been at the
forefront of it since 1984 when it introduced the world to multimedia
for the very first time.
With its two new products, the AmigaDE and the AmigaOS, people no
longer have to stumble over incompatible products and disappointing
content. On their own, these two products offer outstanding
performance and value for money. Together, they mark the beginning of
Digital Life.
The remainder of this article will be of special interest to those
interested in using an AmigaOS device as a computer, or to those
looking for a more technical explanation of the Amiga strategy.
The AmigaDE® and the AmigaOS® are the two products offered by Amiga
to allow for the realisation of the dream of Digital Living. Both can
happily exist independently of each other, but together they provide
an unbeatable combination of power, performance and elegance.
AmigaDE & AmigaOS
The AmigaDE is a universal content environment that can sit native on
low-to-medium resource devices or sit hosted, in software, on medium
to high end devices. Its purpose is to provide a consistent,
interactive environment for users across many different devices and to
provide a consistent development model for developers across those
same devices.
The AmigaDE uses the Tao-Group's intent® product set to provide a
clean service abstraction that allows it to sit on both hardware and
software hosts. In this context, one should consider the full device
itself as a set of layers with hardware at one end and, a user
experience at the other. Separating them is a set of layers which take
the capabilities of the hardware, abstracts and packages them and then
makes them available to system and third party applications, which in
turn are experienced and manipulated by the user via a content
environment.
From the user's point of view, such static terms as 'desktop' and
'workstation' no longer need to define the digital experience. The
AmigaDE is a digital environment in which any content can be executed
subject to both its requirements and the capabilities of the host on
which it is sitting. If the AmigaDE is hosted on a physical device
which has a Geforce 2 graphics card, a 1 gigahertz Athlon and 256
megabytes of SDRAM, then it will be able to offer those services to
any content that runs on it. If it is running on a PDA with a 100
megahertz processor, 8 megabytes of SDRAM and no hardware accelerated
features, then it will only run content that is able to execute within
those resource constraints.
From the developer's point of view, such dynamic brokerage requires
that they either create content for a specific level, in the knowledge
that it will run on anything above that level, or they can take
special advantage of the tailoring system, allowing the AmigaDE to
dynamically modify the performance and presentation of content to the
device profile. They can thus choose to target smaller markets as a
subset or go for the broader market for increased sales.
If one considers the device as a whole, then the AmigaDE starts at
the user end and grows down towards the hardware end. Since every
device has its own particular physical nuances, the AmigaDE uses its
clean service abstraction wherever possible to take advantage of other
operating systems that have already done all the hard work of
abstracting the hardware. This allows the AmigaDE to spread rapidly to
the maximum number of devices with the minimum amount of effort whilst
offering the device builder (and through them the user) the choice of
how they want to present and experience the AmigaDE.
Some users can chose to run it co-operatively on top of an existing
and well understood Operating System, such as Windows or Linux, whilst
others can use it on its own, chosing a software host that best suits
their needs to sit underneath it, perhaps a small realtime operating
system. In this master mode, the software host remains hidden beneath
it, and the user chooses only to interact with and work within the
AmigaDE environment. The emphasis in this approach is on the word
'choice', something that no other operating system provides in such a
complete way as the AmigaDE.
Amiga is hard at work on the next version of the Software Development
Kit (SDK) which allows developers a glimpse of more capabilities of
the AmigaDE and introduces the multimedia services for the first time.
This will ensure a glut of content when the AmigaDE makes its first
appearances in the consumer market.
The AmigaOS, Amiga's other new product is intended to become the
server core for Digital Living. This will be built up from the
existing base provided by AmigaOS 3.9, the latest version of the
venerable but neglected AmigaOS that started its life in 1984.
The current AmigaOS, version 3.9 runs on the old AA hardware which,
while advanced for its time, is now showing its age. After much
discussion with the existing Amiga community, Amiga released the zico
specification. Zico is an open description of hardware that Amiga
encourages IHVs to use, and which provides a requirement for the first
version of AmigaOS4, OS4.0 to run on. This provides such features as a
PPC processor, PCI, AGP, USB, Firewire and other features standard in
other computers but are new to the AmigaOS.
PPC was chosen both because it continues the relationship of Amiga
with the Motorola processor family, and because with the Book E
specifications, the PPC family now offers a very easy migration path
from 32 bit to 64 bit processors.
All of these hardware facilities are required to provide a first step
towards the physical requirements that the new AmigaOS will have in
its role of a next generation digital server. A clean implementation,
with no performance losses due to being tied to the older AA systems,
means full access to what the user pays for and a far better
performance all around.
Amiga is also aware that during the past five years, third party
companies contributed to the extension of the Amiga AA platform by
providing PPC accelerator cards in ingenious implementations to
increase processor power past the discontinued 68k series. In
considering the design of OS4, much thought was given as to whether it
should also run on those cards. While Amiga had a great willingness to
reward the owners of those cards for the loyalty they have shown to
the Amiga, it was also painfully aware that many of the
implementations were done in such a way that, while adding performance
to the AA Amigas, the details of the implementations would be
antagonistic to the performance of a new version of the OS, slowing it
down and, in some cases, crippling it.
Given that AmigaOS4 is the first step on the road to a product in
which performance will be of paramount importance, it was decided that
there would have to be a clean break. This was done with the zico
specification and, because of the clean nature of that specification,
the first zico compliant device, the Eyetech AmigaOne - the first, new
Amiga certified hardware in over five years - has been designed in
record time and will soon be available for shipping.
However, Amiga is still mindful of the thousands of loyal users and
developers who have invested significantly in the PPC accelerators.
Amiga is looking to offer an opportunity for third parties to create a
software compatability layer that can map the clean OS4 to these PPC
accelerators.
AmigaOS4 itself will move the existing 68K-based OS3.9 to a PPC
implementation. By order of impact upon user experience, each library
and module is being examined and re-implemented in such a way as to
take maximum advantage of the new zico standard motherboards and their
sub system cards. This is a gradual process and will be spread out
over a few releases of the operating system. Consequently, the first
release (OS4.0) will contain a mixture of native PPC and 68K code
which will run through a high speed PPC 68K emulator. As further
releases come out, the proportion of PPC code to 68K code will
increase until the OS no longer needs to run any emulated code within
itself.
In addition AmigaOS4 will also open up the capabilities of the zico
standard, providing USB, Firewire and full access to the PCI and AGP
world of plug in system cards. Amiga users will be able to take full
advantage of the very latest in graphics,audio and networking
technologies
Most importantly, AmigaOS4 will see the first introduction of the
AmigaDE for existing Amigans, with it running co-operatively on top of
the Operating System, and then slowly being integrated until, with the
release of AmigaOS5, both will effectively merge to become one.
AmigaOS4 will not only be able to run existing AmigaOS applications
(this requires an Eyetech AmigaOne with a AA system attached to it to
provide the AA chipset), but also new AmigaOS4 applications. In
addition, the presence of the AmigaDE means that AmigaOS users will
also have access to the growing volume of AmigaDE applications, able
to take full advantage of its host (one of the advantages of Amiga
owning its own host) and as a side benefit, they also have access to
the large volume of Java applications, since the AmigaDE also provides
a high efficiency Java solution.
In one go, Amigans, both users and developers will go from a small,
isolated platform to one that reaches across the AmigaOS, AmigaDE and
Java worlds, providing a glut of content and a huge increase in market
potential for developers. They can either develop for the AmigaDE, in
which case they have a large market opportunity that spreads far
beyond the number of AmigaOS users or they can concentrate on the
AmigaOS and take maximum advantage of the advanced features of both
the new hardware and the new OS. Again, the emphasis is on choice.
The ultimate purpose of the AmigaOS product is to reach AmigaOS5,
where all the services required by the digital core product set will
be finally implemented. This includes brand new and, in some cases,
revolutionary new services that will put the AmigaOS firmly out in
front once again. These are being developed internally by Amiga in
parallel with the AmigaOS4 product set and will be available later in
2002. More details will be released as the work progresses.
For those requiring a small taster, there follows a preliminary
feature list and version schedule. All things are subject to change.
The first release of AmigaOS4 is targeted for Summer (in the Northern
Hemisphere), with further releases every six months.
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS4 represents Amiga taking control of the AmigaOS and
reinvigorating it as it drives it forwards as an integral part of the
Amiga Digital Environment.
The purpose of the AmigaOS4 family of releases is to;
1. move the 68K OS3.9 to a native PPC OS, enhancing and where
necessary reimplementing the OS to take advantage of the PPC CPU
2. add new functionality to improve the functionality and performance
of AmigaOS
3. allow for full backwards compatability via the Eyetech AmigaOne
(with a classic Amiga attached) or retargetable application
compatability via any AmigaOne
4. move the community to new, state of the art hardware
5. provide an attractive computing environment to non Amigans so as
to encourage growth of the Amiga community
6. integrate the AmigaDE into the AmigaOS
7. provide a foundation for the development of AmigaOS5
This project will be accomplished via a staged set of releases which
allow Amiga Inc to build from the bottom up. This gives developers the
maximum increase in performance across the releases and ensures that
the users can look forwards to regular and better products rather than
having to wait over a long and frustrating period of time until
something is in their hands.
AmigaOS 4.0
AmigaOS4.0 is the first release of AmigaOS4. It provides the first
stage on the road to a PPC AmigaOS designed to take full advantage of
the potential of the zico based computers being developed.
It is designed to take the key elements of the current AmigaOS and
reimplement them as PPC native systems, providing for the biggest
increase in performance. The remaining elements will be left as 68k
code for this release and be executed via a PPC 68k emulator, which
will also be used for the execution of 68k based application code. In
addition, it will add new features that have never before been
available in the AmigaOS.
The feature set for OS4.0 will include;
o ExecPPC allowing for the following execution of PPC, 68k and mixed
(PPC+68k) executables. This will be PPC native.
o A PPC 68k emulator - ExecPPC will be capable of executing 68k code,
but it will be done via the native PPC 68K emulator. At no time will a
real 68k processor be used
o Virtual Memory System - OS4.0 will for the first time allow
developers to create new applications that can take proper advantage
of the MMU capabilities of the PPC and make use of Virtual Memory,
particularly important with the new games and applications being
created. This will be PPC native
o Graphics system - all PPC native
. AmiRTG - high performance retargetable graphics system that
provides full access to hardware acceleration features of modern
graphics cards
. Drivers - Voodoo3 and Matrox G450
. Ami2D - low level access for high performance 2D functionality
. Ami3D - low level access for high performance 3D functionality
. Full Mesa 3.4 implementation for 3D development
o Audio system
. AHI integration for samples and streaming
. CAMD integration for MIDI
o File system - PPC native
. AmiFFS2 - brand new reimplementation of the AmiFFS offering much
higher performance and reliability
o Connectivity - PPC native
. AmiNetStack - brand new high performanceTCP/IP stack optimised for
PPC, multiplayer gaming and content serving
All other AmigaOS libraries will remain as 68k executables and be executed by
ExecPPC via the 68K emulator
AmigaOS 4.2
AmigaOS4.2 will build upon the foundation of AmigaOS4. It is designed to ;
o Integrate the Amiga Digital Environment (AmigaDE) into the AmigaOS
o make OS4 fully device retargetable, allowing all applications to be
able to operate without the need for physically attached older Amiga
hardware
o Open up access to the new hardware features offered by the zico
hardware specification
o Convert, reimplement and enhance more of the AmigaOS4.0 68k code to
PPC
The feature set for AmigaOS4.2 includes;
o AmigaDE integration
. AmigaDE hosted directly in the AmigaOS
. Full access to all content experience and development
. Personal Java
. SHEEP scripting language
o Audio System - PPC native
. Retargetable Audio system (RTA)
. AHI/CAMD drivers for EMU10K1 PCI cards
. Multiple Audio Contexts
. Advanced MIDI support
o USB - PPC native
. USB2.0 DHCP stack
. System device drivers - mouse, keyboard, hub
o Amiga Device retargeting - PPC native
. Amiga.devices reimplemented as retargetable, removing the
requirement for old Amiga hardware to be present
o Further conversion of 68k code to native PPC - this will be done by
order of contribution to execution performance, to give developers and
users the most improvement.
AmigaOS 4.5
AmigaOS4.5 represents the final stage in the creation of a native PPC
OS. It tasks include:
o All remaining 68k OS code to be converted to PPC native
o All hardware features of the zico specification to be made
accessible to developers
o New user environment
AmigaOS 5
AmigaOS5 represents a revolution in the development of 'other'
operating systems and the evolution of the AmigaOS as it seeks to
provide the best way forwards for users and developers. Its feature
set includes;
o Brand new services model providing
. Virtual Memory
. Memory Protection
. Symmetric and Asymmetric modes
. Contract QoS
. 64 bit
. Fully distributed
o AmigaOS4 sandbox
o PDP sensory processing system - PDP stands for Physical to Digital
to Physical and provides a scalable system that provides for capture,
conversion, representation, manipulation and presentation of sense
delimited observation and interaction
o Orthogonal Persistence - all content is persistent, instead of
having to be saved to and loaded from storage.
o Safe and Unsafe environments - separate memory spaces in which
developers can continue to use unsafe languages or develop using the
new SafeC language and environment.
o Semantic Context - an environment is which the user can layer any
number of associations, relationships and meaning to their environment
and content, and use that semantic information to organise and query.
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A L A N R E D H O U S E ( E Y E T E C H ) S P E A K S
Apr 10, 2001
{This item was found on the net. Brad}
Whilst Amiga Inc are getting all the details of OS4/5 up on their own
website I thought it might be useful to give my own views as to where
we are, where we are going and why the St Louis announcement was so
pivotal to the future of the Amiga. Its quite long I'm afraid, but
hopefully a useful basis for further discussion. If the general
consensus is that it helps clarify the issues involved I'll also stick
it in the AmigaOne section of our web site. If I've got some details
wrong I'm sure Fleecy will comment ;-)
Over the last few months we have been working closely with Amiga Inc
to ensure that the AmigaOne is worthy of being the next generation
Amiga - and that of course means that it must have a robust,
expandable, secure, efficient real time operating system. But that was
meant to be the Amiga DE wasn't it? Well yes and no. The Amiga DE is a
quite basic real-time operating system designed primarily for single
tasking - and certainly single user - operations on embedded systems
such as set top boxes, PDA's, cell phones etc. And since these devices
have both low power cpu's and very limited user interfaces the DE
needs to be free of much of the clutter that we normally take for
granted in a desktop operating system.
On the other hand a home server - the central box that coordinates
all the Amiga DE devices and runs 'proper' desktop applications -
needs many more facilities, such as task-level memory protection and
OS-level virtual memory, that are not practical to implement within
the DE without completely compromising its portability and speed.
So what we have now ended up with is the best of both worlds. Desktop
Amiga users will have a desktop/server OS, natively coded for the PPC,
with added memory protection, virtual memory and a much improved file
system, whilst still retaining the efficiency, real time
responsiveness, elegance and familiarity of the Classic Amiga OS. The
DE will follow its own development path but be totally integrated
within OS4+
Developing the new OS is to be a 4-stage process:
- OS4.0 will be an updated version of OS3.9 with special facilities
added to allow existing classic Amiga applications to run on the
AmigaOne, accessing the classic Amiga hardware via the hardware bridge
on the AmigaOne 1200/4000. Much of the operating system will still be
in 680x0 code with in line instruction conversion to PPC code.
- OS4.2 will add additional features and the recoding of much of the
OS in native PPC code. However the major milestone in this release
will be the complete retargeting of all operating system I/O away from
Amiga specific hardware/chipsets. This means that retargetable
'Classic' applications can be run on the AmigaOne (or any
Zico-compliant PPC board) without any 'classic' Amiga hardware
present. At this stage the Amiga DE will also be ported to the Amiga
OS so that the AmigaOne can be used as a development/porting platform
for Amiga DE content (as a more familiar alternative to the currently
available Windows/Linux development environments). Drivers will
obviously be provided for those resources which are retargeted to the
AmigaOne motherboard (USB, sound, graphics, UDMA etc).
- OS4.5 will be an entirely PPC-native, entirely hardware independant
version of the operating system, with full driver support for all Zico
resources (FireWire, Matrox NG graphics cards, SCSI etc)
- OS5 is a full 64-bit fully distributed SMP operating system which
will implement virtual memory, memory protection and the Amiga DE in a
fully-spec'd, modular home-server/desktop OS.
OS4.x will only run on PPC boards conforming to the Zico
specifications which excludes BlizzardPPC & CyberStormPPC accelerators
- even when coupled with a Predator-SE PCI bus. We (and Amiga Inc) are
pressing DCE, the current manufacturers of these boards, to come up
with a 'Zico compliance kit' to preserve the investment of existing
BPPC/CSPPC users and allow them to run OS4.x.
Of course this means that - from OS 4.2 on - you will only need a
existing 'Classic' Amiga for those few applications that are genuinely
not retargetable (ie those that still insist on 'hitting' the classic
hardware). All of the existing application software developers we have
spoken to are more than willing to port their applications to a fully
hardware independent PPC AmigaOne. This also means that by the time we
would have scheduled the design and production of the AmigaOne 3000 it
would probably be an irrelevant piece of hardware as far as most users
are concerned. We're not closing that door just yet, but, because of
this hardware independance from OS4.2 onwards we believe that existing
Ax000 users will be able to run their applications on stand-alone
AmigaOne PPC hardware much sooner than we had originally anticipated.
And as far as that most famous of all big-box Amiga accessories is
concerned - the Video Toaster - we are going straight round to NewTek
ask them to port drivers for their existing PCI-based Toaster to OS4.x
as soon as production AmigaOnes are released!
Finally, one of the most significant parts of the announcement is
that Amiga Inc have decided - quite properly in my view - to take
their ownership of the Amiga OS seriously. They are taking development
control, standards definition and quality assurance for the Amiga OS
back in house for the first time since 1984. This is the first step in
ensuring that we are no longer blighted with compatibility issues
between different software modules, or 'kernel wars' between third
party developers. Provided everyone is sufficiently unbiassed to see
the move in this light there is no reason why Amiga shouldn't choose
the best elements from Haage & Partner's WarpOS, Ralph Schmidts's
MorphOS, the work from the AROS project team and the existing Classic
OS in developing OS4 & 5. The important thing is that we now have - in
the shape of Fleecy Moss - a combined helmsman, navigator and Captain
for the Amiga OS. And I for one am fully committing our AmigaOne
hardware to Amiga's new OS strategy - for the sake of forward
compatibility and reliability - and without the diversion of seeing if
we can get Linux, MorphOS or anything else running on the AmigaOne
board.
Hope this helps
Alan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A / E L B O X R E L A T I O N S H I P
April 11, 2001, Snoqualmie, Washington, USA. Amiga Inc is pleased to
announce a long-term relationship with Elbox Computer Ltd of Krakow,
Poland. At the St Louis trade and user show on the 31st March 2001,
Amiga Inc announced the development of AmigaOS4, the latest version of
the high performance, user-friendly operating system that introduced
multimedia to the world. To support AmigaOS4, Amiga Inc also released
the Zico hardware specification targeted at PowerPC processors. Elbox
Computer Ltd are working closely with Amiga Inc to ensure that their
existing and future products will gain Zico certification, and thus
provide a perfect platform for AmigaOS4.
'St Louis marked the beginning of the future.' said Bill McEwen,
President and CEO of Amiga Inc. 'Key to that is the Amiga community
moving forwards in a single direction, united and determined. With
Elbox as a partner, another key Amiga company has joined the drive
forwards towards success.'
'Our long-term commitment to computer technology is now giving
tangible results in the Amiga market,' said Maciek Binek, CEO of
Elbox. 'Now, with the Amiga Inc. initiative, we can see a clear sign
of future-oriented thinking and strategy, a breakthrough for this
computer. We hope Amiga will soon again become the common word.'
'Elbox have taken a major role in not just supporting the existing
Amiga market with their many products but also in providing a path
forwards.' said Fleecy Moss, CTO of Amiga Inc. "Our relationship with
them will ensure that their existing customers can benefit from
AmigaOS4 whilst new users coming to the Amiga will have additional
excellent choices in the hardware that they can buy.'
AmigaOS4 is currently under development and will ship in Summer 2001.
Elbox products can already be purchased from all major Amiga dealers,
and their next new product, the SharkPPC+ will be available along with
the premiere of the AmigaOS4 system.
About Elbox :
Elbox Computer Ltd of Krakow, Poland is a privately held company that
has been in business since 1982, and has grown rapidly from its
industrial systems roots, now having a significant presence in
peripherals, multimedia systems, high performance motherboards,
enclosures, application software and general computer subsystems. Its
products are used throughout the world and set a new standard in
price, performance and customer satisfaction. For further information,
please send an email to info@elbox.com or visit Elbox website at
http://www.elbox.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H Y P E R I O N E N T E R T A I N M E N T E N D O R S E S O S 4
11 April, 2001
In the aftermath of the recent announcement by Amiga Inc. that the
Classic Amiga OS would be ported to PPC, many users have asked us to
comment on the technical merit of Amiga's OS 4 strategy and what it
would mean for games and 3D graphics.
Prior to Amiga's announcement, senior software engineers of Hyperion
Entertainment identified the key bottlenecks in the Amiga OS which
hampered the performance of our games: the slow 68K based filesystem,
the 68K based RTG system, the lack of virtual memory and the dual CPU
architecture of the current PPC boards which generates
performance-crippling context switches.
Amiga OS 4 will address all these issues and do much more.
We can confidently predict that with Amiga OS 4, users can look
forward to performance levels never before seen on the Amiga.
Hyperion Entertainment has therefore signed on to develop the 3D API
for Amiga OS 4 and provide a fully featured OpenGL(tm) implementation
through Mesa 3.4.
All our current and future game-titles will take full advantage of
everything that OS 4 has to offer.
Unlike some who unashamedly claim that « games don't play an
important role anymore in the current Amiga market », we are committed
to once more make the name « Amiga » synonymous with top-quality
entertainment software.
Senior staff-members of Hyperion Entertainment will continue to work
with Amiga Inc. to ensure that Amiga OS 4 will provide everything
game-developers need to accomplish the goal of putting Amiga back at
the forefront of gaming and 3D graphics.
Ben Yoris
Hyperion Entertainment Software
PR Manager
Web: http://www.hyperion-software.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
K 4 : K I C K S T A R T A M I G A S H O W I N U K
2001 heralds a new venue and the biggest show yet!
The Kickstart Amiga User Group (http://www.kickstart-amiga.co.uk) is
proud to announce the details for K4: The Kickstart Amiga Show, in
association with Eyetech.
The Date: Saturday May 26th 2001
The Place: Banstead Youth Centre, The Horseshoe, Banstead, Surrey,
England, SM7 2BQ
The Time: 11am-5pm (to be confirmed)
The web site: http://www.kickstartshow.co.uk
This year's show has been moved to a larger, more convenient venue,
better served by road, rail and buses following the phenomenal success
of last year's event. Our new venue at Banstead Youth Centre means
that we can accommodate more exhibitors, bigger stands, a bigger games
area, bigger demonstrations and seminars and bigger crowds!
K4: The Kickstart Amiga Show will be crammed full of events to keep
you entertained all day, as well as giving you an opportunity to meet
other Amiga users and get yourself up-to-date with what's happening in
the Amiga world - including the latest information on the new Amiga
platform.
The Kickstart Amiga User Group is one of the biggest Amiga user
groups in the country, with a membership diverse in age, experience
and professional backgrounds.
Exhibitors
----------
More room means more exhibitors and more chances to buy hardware and
software for your Amiga face-to-face with the retailers. As always we
are being supported by all the major Amiga dealers, and the main
exhibition space if already filling up fast.
Confirmed exhibitors so far include:
Eyetech
Analogic
Kicksoft
Forematt Home Computing
Weird Science
Blittersoft
Amiga Active Magazine
GSM Paper
User Groups
-----------
In addition to Kickstart, user groups from around the country will
also be exhibiting at the show, and will be on hand throughout the day
in the User Groups Area to talk to show goers, take memberships and
promote their activities.
Confirmed user groups so far include:
Kickstart Amiga User group
Amiga Support Association
Gloucester Amiga User Group
Demonstrations
--------------
This year's show will feature a dedicated demonstration theatre,
where user group members, software developers and retailers will be
taking time out from the show to demonstrate an array of hardware and
software, as well as field questions from the audience.
Games Arena
-----------
The popular Kickstart Games Arena returns again this year. This
year's Games Arena will be run by our friends at the Blackpool Amiga
User Group, who will be staging various games competitions throughout
the day, including the Kickstart Amiga Show tradition - Sensible
Soccer!
Directions to the show
----------------------
From the M25: Exit at Junction 8 of the M25. Follow the A217
(Brighton Road) northbound into Banstead, then take the A2022
(Winkworth Road) and take the first right. Follow this street until
you pass a school then turn right into 'The Horseshoe' to find
Banstead Youth Centre. Ample free parking is available at the venue.
This route will be fully signposted on the day.
Contacts
--------
For show enquiries and stand bookings please contact Ray McCarthy
(Show Promoter) at ray@kickstart-amiga.co.uk or call (01737) 215432.
For all other enquiries, please contact Chris Green (PR Co-ordinator)
at chris@kickstart-amiga.co.uk or call (07971) 273850. More
information will be posted regularly to the show web site at
http://www.kickstartshow.co.uk
*********
PLEASE NOTE: All software sold by anyone at the show must be original
and proof of ownership may be required from vendors before entrance to
the sale is permitted. The Kickstart Amiga User Group reserves the
right to refuse entrance to any person, regardless of a booking. The
Kickstart Amiga User Group cannot accept responsibility for any goods
purchased at the show. Entry to the show is at your own risk.
Kickstart reserve the right to add or remove events from the show
without notice.
*********
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I F U S I O N I S S H I P P I N G
9 April, 2001
Blittersoft announced today that iFusion is shipping as of today!
iFusion is an iMac emulatior for the Amiga.
The current specification is as follows:
Support for up to 2 Gb of physical/Virtual memory
Supports AHI
Support for Hardfiles, CD-ROM drives and Partitions
Keyboard/Mouse support
Support for floppies and removable media
Support for Apple's built-in virtual memory
Supports on-the-fly switching with supported graphics systems
(CyberGraphX
Support for OS8.6 through OS9.1
Runs directly from Mac OS CD - no external ROM image required
System Requirements:
WarpUp v16 (Supplied on the CD)
PPC card with at least 32Mb of RAM (64 preferred). There is currently
a problem with BlizzardPPC due to an incompatibility with
WarpUP/BlizzardPPC. This is being investigated by Haage & Partner/Sam
Jordan.
Cybergraphics v4 or later
http://www.blittersoft.com/
Late News:
On 21 April, Blittersoft announced it had purchased the rights to
iFusion for the Amiga, including the possible port to AmigaDE. Their
announce intention is to continue to work with the authors on further
development.
On 22 April, Blittersoft made another announcement concerning iFusion
as follows:
Blittersoft will be sending an update to all registered users of
iFusion in the next day or two. We inadvertantly placed a version of
iFusion on the release CD that was not the latest one supplied by
Microcode Solutions. Since discovering this, we have received an even
newer version, which is the one that will be sent. This also includes
an updater program. Please ensure you register your purchase as
detailed on the release CD, or visit Blittersoft website.
http://www.blittersoft.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T A S K I S M S V E R S I O N 2 . 5 3
6 April, 2001
TaskiSMS is program to send SMSes (short text messages) to cellular phones
and also others electronic devices. To send message program uses internet
gates of cellular phone operators and also other gates which was make
accesible by providers of others digital services (for example digital
television).
Requirements
To run TaskiSMS you must fulfil following requirements:
Hardware:
o Amiga with Kickstart 3.0+
o about 1MB free RAM memory
Software:
o Magic User Interface (MUI) version 3.8+. MUI is shareware package
written by Stefan Stuntz. You can download and order package from
http://www.sasg.com site.
And additional MUI custom classes:
o NList.mcc version 19.97 or higher, written by Gilles Masson
o NListview.mcc version 19.62 or higher, written by Gilles Masson
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC_NList0_89.lha
o TextEditor.mcc version 15.9 or higher, written by Allan Odgaard
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC_TextEditor.lha
o BetterBalance.mcc version 11.2 or higher, written by Maik "bZ!"
Schreiber
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC_BBalance.lha
o Toolbar.mcc version 15.6 or higher, written by Benny Kjær Nielsen
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC_Toolbar.lha
o And also connection with internet via packet compatibile with
bsdscoket.library (AmiTCP, Genesis, Miami)
Full version of program will be sent via e-mail.
Restrictions for demo verison:
o length of SMSes restricted to something about 130 characters, full
version splits long messages to 160 characters parts.
o disabled sorting list of SMSes and address book entries,
o disabled option which allows to disable advertisements,
o disabled possibility to add custom folders,
o window "About" appear at start of program.
Registered users have got additional possibilities:
o get for request betaversions of program,
o request to write plugin dedicated specially for his cellular phone
provider.
http://taskisms.taski.com.pl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
D I G I T A L A L M A N A C I N E N G L I S H
09-Apr-2001
Digital Almanac III English version available !! Yes folks !! It is
done !! The English version of DA III has been finished and is ready
to be delivered !! The update for German users will follow in the next
days !!
Digital Almanac III is an astronomy program developed for the Amiga
that offers you lots of features.
The essential features of this software are:
PowerPC support (WarpOS) for fastest calculations.
Virtual telescope with three different view modes.
Free zooming with mouse, keyboard or direct position input.
You can choose any place and time of observation.
The place is not limited to Earth only !
Stars catalog containing more than a million stars internally up to
+16m.
Additionally including of the Hubble-GSC star catalog with more than
25 millionen stars.
High-precision calculation of planets position using the DE404- or
VSOP87 tables.
Satellites of Mars, Jupiter, Saturne and Uranus.
High-resolution textures for all planets and satellites in 8bit and
in 24bit format.
Collection of more than 100,000 (!) minor planets and asteroids as
well as about 1,000 comets.
User can add his own objects by orbital elements.
Database with more than 100,000 (!) deep-sky objects. Contains
catalogs like Messier, NGC, IC, UGC, PGC and many more.
Creating of ephemeris tables.
Calculation of global circumstances of solar and lunar eclipses.
Creating of animations in IFF-ANIM, QuickTime and MPEG format.
Output of high-resolution star maps to your printer.
Easy-to-use MUI surface with drag&drop support.
Possibility of controling an external telescope by the program !
http://members.tripod.de/achimste/da3e_introduction.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E L B O X A N N O U N C E S V I R G E D R I V E R S
10 April 2001
ELBOX Computer, the company who care about their customers, announces
hereby the official release of their proprietary driver for S3 ViRGE
PCI cards to be installed in the MEDIATOR busboard.
This driver is 100% compatible with the Picasso96 graphic system.
This is the first Amiga driver for the S3 ViRGE PCI card, which
supports full hardware 2D acceleration in this card.
As usually, this driver is for registered MEDIATOR owners and will be
provided as such with all the new MEDIATOR boards.
With the release of this driver, support for one of the most widely
available (and cheapest) PCI graphic card has been added to the Amiga
community.
ELBOX: the company who care.
Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER,
Press Department
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P R O M E T H E U S P C I A D A P T E R
Warsaw, March 29, 2001
Matay are pleased to introduce you to our latest product -
"Prometheus" card for Amiga.
It is the most advanced PCI bridge adapter available for Amiga
computers equipped with Zorro III expansion slots. With "Prometheus",
a world of cheap, standard PCI cards opens before you! Some features
of the product:
- Works with any Zorro III equipped Amiga, regardless of the
turbo/processor card installed in the system,
- Four 32-bit PCI slots clocked with 33 MHz,
- Fits any tower case, also works with desktop A3000/4000s when open,
- Works with other Zorro III cards, supports AutoConfig (TM),
- Real transfer rates between Amiga and PCI cards - up to 12 MB/s,
- Real transfer rates between PCI cards - up to 120 MB/s,
- Additional on-board connector for the power supply,
- Professionally designed four-layer printed-circuitboard with
gold-galvanized contacts - complies the PCI standard specifications.
Together with the "Prometheus" card we bundle a CD-ROM with:
- Drivers for the Voodoo3 graphics card, developed in close
co-operation with Hyperion and the authors of Picasso96. 2D drivers
work under the P96 system, 3D functions are available through Warp3D,
- Drivers for a sound card and a network card,
- A completely FREE software development kit for programmers. There
is no need to sign NDA and no additional fees - we want to make
"Prometheus" the most open PCI bridge solution as far as the drivers
development goes,
- Demo versions of the games that use the 3D functions of Voodoo3:
Heretic 2, Shogo.
The "Prometheus" package also contains multi-lingual reference manual
(also in English), holders for the bridge and PCI cards and the
extension cord for a graphics card.
Prometheus - no promises, just solutions.
http://www.matay.pl/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F M D R I V E R V E R S I O N 1 . 2 5
8 April, 2001
Description
-----------
FMdriver is a new driver system for the FrameMachine
video-card from electronic-design.
It is a completely rewritten driver and it features
the fastest possible access-speed to the hardware.
It is fast enough to watch television on the Workbench
(PPC strongly recommended!)
The driver and the TV-program are included as 68k and
PPC-versions to provide optimum performance.
The FMdriver archive contains several programs:
FMBaseConfig -- A config-program which allows the easy
configuration of the Prism24-display and
digi-sizes.
FMTV -- This program allows you to use the
FrameMachine for watching television on the
WB (!!).
It also allows to configure the Prism24 so that
you can watch TV over it.
You additionally have the option to make
snapshots from the video and save it as image
to disk.
FMInit -- A small tool which allows to initialize the
FrameMachine with user-definable settings.
It is very useful to copy this tool into
the WBStartup drawer to auto-init the FM
on boot. as alternative, you can also use FMInit
from Shell.
FMRecorder -- Record small movies directly to your harddrives!
This program is also able to playback the recorded
anims and also allows to convert them into single
images.
FMRecord -- This shell-program allows to record FMMovie anims
directly to harddisk (like FMRecorder does).
FMRecordDec -- This shell-program is a converter from the FMMovie
file format into single images (same funtionality
as FMRecorder, but useful for script-processing).
FMGrab -- A small shell-program which allows to grab images
and save them to file.
PLEASE READ THE DOCS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION!!!!!!
Requirements
------------
o FrameMachine video card, with or without Prism24 add-on
o AmigaOS3.x (tested with 3.9)
o About 2MB free RAM
o 68020(+)
o OCS, ECS or AGA (runs from 2 to 256 colors (!!) )
> For full image quality and speed you should have running
> with CGX V3/V4 or Piccasso96 in 15 Bit or more
Additionally you need for the PPC-Versions:
o a PPC 603e/604e PowerPC accelerator board
o WarpOS V3 or better
Distribution
------------
FMdriver is GIFTWARE. If you use it,
please send me a donation.
Author
------
Stefan Robl <stefan@qdev.de>
More infos about ArtecScan, the QBox, FMdriver, CGXBlanker,
DPMSManager, AVL and my other Projects?
Just visit my Homepage: http://www.qdev.de
Have fun!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2001 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_
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