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Amiga Update (2001-08-31)
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A M I G A |#010831 | 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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A M I G A D E P L A Y E R / S H O P
M O R E O N A M I G A D E S H O P
A M I G A A T I T E X P O / C O M D E X A U
A M I W E S T R E P O R T F R O M A M I G A I N C .
E . P . I . C T O M A K E A M I G A D E C O N T E N T
M E R L A N C I A B U Y S W A L K E R A N D M C C
E L B O X A N N O U N C E S D R I V E R S
E L B O X A N D H Y P E R I O N D E A L
S O U N D A N D T V I N M E D I A T O R
R E D H O U S E O N A M I G A E M U L A T O R S
A M I G A F E S T U P D A T E
A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y U P D A T E D
S A K U 2 0 0 1 T H E M E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
It's been another slow news month. There have been a lot of slow news
months lately. There's little doubt that this is due to the vitality
of the classic market dropping ever lower, while the new market hasn't
hit full stride. The good news is Amiga continues to work on the new
market, and seems to be holding to plan, adjusting as reality
requires. We'd hoped to be able to buy an Amiga One readily by now,
for instance, but while we can't yet do so we see the project
continuing. See the Amiga Inc. report on Amiwest for some positive
news on this front.
Amiga Inc. has also apparently decided it's not an accessories
retailer. We notice the Amiga Mall on their site is gone, at least for
now. This follows the quiet death of the "Amiga World" magazine
portion of the site. While retrenching is always of concern, in this
case both of these events could mean nothing more than Amiga is making
sure it concentrates on its core competencies - making computer
software. Many companies go through this sort of scenario - engaging
in all sorts of secondary activities before realizing it's best to
concentrate on what your business really depends on. We hope that's
what's happening, and we think it probably is.
We'll be a lot happier when Amiga Ones and the new OS versions are
readily available, however.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
29 Aug 2001
Dear Brad
We've been trying for a presence in this major
Australasian IT Show (ITExpo/COMDEX) for some
time, but it was only at the 11th hour that we actually
managed to pull it off.
I thought you might like to include this item in your
next Amiga Update, even though the event might
be over before you can do so.
This is a combined Australasian User Group initiative
(Amiga Inc. and Eyetech being fully occupied in the
northern hemisphere ATM) which has stretched our
finances to the limit.
We would therefore be most grateful if any of you
readers could help us Amigans "downunder" with
a small donation.
Information as to how to send these donations is
contained in the news release, and anything up
to $100AUD would be most welcome.
A posr show report will be sent to you in due course.
Best wishes
__
Basil Flinter
~~~~~~
Hello Basil,
We'll be happy to include the story on your presence at ITExpo/COMDEX
in this issue. We wish you the best of luck and hope you find all the
support you need.
Brad
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A M I G A D E P L A Y E R / S H O P
28 August, 20001
From Amiga, Inc.
Greetings to one and all:
We are very excited to announce a brand new product and service from
Amiga.
The AmigaDE Player.
The AmigaDE Player runs on either Windows or Linux desktops and
provides everyone the ability to run all of the new AmigaDE
applications today!
This is a great chance to buy and use the applications that the Amiga
development community has been creating for Sharp and several other of
our new partners. With several of these applications already shipping
in Japan we felt that it was only right that the rest of the world
should have the chance of purchasing them and enjoying them to.
We will have special pricing and a special introductory offer that
will allow you to purchase the player early and then download directly
to your machine when it ships in September. We are very excited about
this first step towards the future of AmigaDE.
We are going to offer the AmigaDE Player for only 19.95. But for
those who wish to take advantage of the pre-sale offer we are taking
5.00 off, so you are able to purchase the AmigaDE Player for either
Windows or Linux desktops for only 14.95. Several applications and
games will be included such as the games seen in the screenshots on
the right.
AmigaDE Shop
You can purchase the AmigaDE Player at the new AmigaDE Shop where you
will soon be able to check out the latest DE applications and purchase
them for your own use.
Some of the applications to be available in the near future are :
Batty
BoxIkon
Convex
Lineo
Sol
We are very excited about this and we hope that you will share this
information with many of your friends and let them learn about the
future in computing with the AmigaDE Player.
><> Bill McEwen ><>
President CEO
Amiga, Inc,
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M O R E O N A M I G A D E S H O P
{From the website of the Amiga Content Distributiion Network.
http://www.amigadev.net/}
24 August, 2001
Welcome to the Amiga Content Distribution Network!
Amiga developers have had a serious issue facing them for several
years. "How do I extend my markets beyond the existing Amiga user
base"? Amiga has begun creating channels for your products that extend
beyond your current customer base by creating a partnership with Sharp
for delivery of applications and more partnerships will be secured in
the near future
Soon, Amiga will begin selling content. Some of this content will be
the same content that is available through Sharp Space Town but will
be made available from the Amiga Web site. There is no physical
product to create, no shelf space or placement costs associated to the
distribution from the Amiga web site. You create the products, we
deliver to the customers. You just have to make more great products!
Amiga will also be delivering the AmigaDE Player, an environment for
running the same content that runs on PDAs like the Sharp Zaurus. The
AmigaDE player will run hosted on Microsoft Windows systems and Linux
systems. We don't believe the cost of this product to be prohibitive
(about the same as what we expect you to charge for your apps) so if
you hook the customer on the PDA you can sell additional licenses to
them for their desktop PCs. We are creating a unique section off of
the Amiga web site specifically for AmigaDE issues and an electronic
storefront for selling AmigaDE content.
About the AmigaDE Shop
The AmigaDE Shop will allow customers to purchase your products by
way of electronic download......no waiting for the physical product to
arrive. Customers agree to a licensing scheme when they create their
account (before they ever purchase) similar to other internet based
software delivery companies. Customers will be able to download the
software that they have purchased immediately after charging their
credit card or a transaction through PayPal. Immediate gratification
from customers will help sell products.
Main Screen
Amiga will present a menu to the user with 3 applications shown on
the main screen. These applications are a random sampling of what we
call Level 1 and Level 2 applications. These applications are
designated a specific level by Amiga personnel. The designation is
based upon Amiga's belief of the products salability. Please remember,
Amiga makes money when you do, so we all have a stake in the success
of a product. We have no bias towards particular developers as the
best products are those that will sell and we need revenues as well as
you. The three products images will be links to the product's page and
there will be a link to the developers web site and the price for the
product. In addition, there will be a rating for the product displayed
along with the other information mentioned.
Customers will be able to access all product from the main screen via
2 methods...... searching for a product by name and by category.
Product Pages
Each product will have it's own product page. From this page,
customers can view screen shots, read reviews from customers of the
product, purchase the product, or rate/review products that they have
purchased. A customer can only rate/review a product that they have
purchased.
Charts
AmigaDE Shop will offer its customers information about the activity
of other customers by displaying statistical information in our Charts
section. Customers can see the top 5 products downloaded from the shop
for the current week. They can also find out what categories have had
the most downloads and find out the all-time download leaders.
One additional offering is the "Star of the Week". This is designated
by the product with the most ratings points for the previous week. A
rating point is equivalent to a point for each star given to a product
during ratings of the specified week. If a product gets rated once for
5 stars it gets 5 rating points. If a product gets rated 3 times with
each customer giving it 3 stars the product gets 9 rating points.
Look for the AmigaDE Shop to go on-line in September with the AmigaDE
portion of Amiga's website to offer forums for the applications sold
on the site and additional customer information about AmigaDE.
AmigaOS channel
For those of you who have developed AmigaOS applications and are
looking for a similar distribution channel, send email to Gary Peake
and he will get you more information about those opportunities.
Good luck to all in our venture into this new distribution channel
for Amiga products.
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A M I G A A T I T E X P O / C O M D E X A U
AMIGA PRESENCE AT AUSTRALIAN MAINSTREAM SHOW
ARMIDALE, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Sat, 18 August, 2001
It is with great pleasure and excitement that the Amiga community in
Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) announces that there will be
an Amiga stand (Stand K18) at the forthcoming major mainstream
ITExpo/COMDEX computer show at the Southbank Melbourne Exhibition
Centre in Melbourne, Australia on 5-7 September, 2001.
Thus, while the northern hemisphere will be abuzz with the release of
the AmigaOne and other new Amiga product, Amiga enthusiasts
"downunder" will also have their share of excitement. They are excited
at the prospect of bringing their favourite platform, neglected for so
long so as to be near extinction, and despite the fact that much of
the Amiga's future product is still under development, back to the
attention of the PC-oriented IT community.
Having failed to attract the attention of the general public or the
IT industry media with Amiga-only shows over the last three years, the
idea of an Amiga presence (no matter how small) at a major mainstream
IT event, was originally mooted by Amiga Downunder UG Inc. (ADUG)
(http://www.amigadownunder.org), an Internet-based Amiga User Group
covering both Australia and New Zealand (Australasia).
This ADUG initiative has received enthusiastic support from the
Australian Amiga User Group community, so the Amiga presence at the
Melbourne ITExpo/COMDEX Show will be a cooperative effort by all Amiga
User Groups, all of whose members, together with a few of the Amiga
dealers still remaining, will be manning the Amiga stand.
We may not be unveiling the AmigaOne in Melbourne, but you can be
assured that the excitement will be just as great; so, if you can
possibly make it to the Show, please do so!
What Will People See at the Amiga Stand? -
First and foremost, they will see that the Amiga is coming back. And
we will be showcasing whatever new Amiga products (such as the SDK,
Amiga DE and Amithlon and, hopefully, pre-release versions of other
Amiga product) that we can get. And even if people can't see all the
new goodies at the Show, they can at least be told about them, thus
increasing an awareness within the wider IT community of the new
Amiga.
We Need Help -
Yes, as a small community, we do need help. We need help in two ways.
(a) We need help financially, because we need to defray the cost of
our presence at the Show as our financial resources are very limited,
and (b) We need help with Amiga product, so that we can have lots of
new Amiga product to showcase.
So if anyone can help us FINANCIALLY by sending a donation of any
kind, no matter how small (AUD$50 would be great) or if anyone has any
Amiga PRODUCT that we can let people know about or, better still,
SHOWCASE for them, please send an email asap to:
secretary@amigadownunder.org, with "Melbourne Show Assistance" as the
subject head, and details of what you are offering in the body of the
email.
You will then be advised of the shipping address or the Show's bank
account details.
About ITExpo/COMDEX -
ITExpo/COMDEX is a premier Australian IT Show. Attracting thousands
of visitors, it is held three times per year; first in Sydney, then in
Brisbane, and finally in Melbourne. For further information about the
ITExpo/COMDEX Shows, visit their website at: http://www.ITExpo.com.au
About ADUG -
For information about ADUG and other User Groups within Australasia,
visit: http://www.amigadownunder.org
__
Basil Flinter
Secretary
Amiga Downunder UG Incorporated (ADUG)
http://www.amigadownunder.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I W E S T R E P O R T F R O M A M I G A I N C .
AmiWest Show Report
Bill McEwen, President and CEO of Amiga Inc., made a number of
exciting announcements at the AmiWest show in Sacramento, California.
The AmiWest show is organized by the Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
and is one of the largest Amiga shows on the West Coast.
The following products were announced for release by Q4, 2001.
o AmigaOne PPC Computer
o AmigaOS 4.0 PPC Operating System
o Amiga x86 (x86 Amiga emulator)
o AmigaDE 1.0 and Series Zero Game Pack
AmigaOne PPC Computer
The AmigaOne PPC computer, being built by Eyetech in the UK, is based
on Zico specs published by Amiga Inc. Amiga Inc.'s flagship next
generation desktop continues to advance towards the first real new
hardware for the Amiga community in over 6 years. Excitement is
mounting at both the Amiga office and around the world as Amigans
realize that the long wait will soon be over. All partners in the
AmigaOne and AmigaOS4.0 project have been working hard to meet
deadlines as the project moves into its final stages.
Bill also announced that the two week slip in schedule for the
Eyetech AmigaOne which had appeared in June had now been pulled back
to just one week. The new Rev B boards are functioning well, with live
PCI and AGP slots and work is now focused on bringing the board and
the CPU cards together. The first week of August will see full system
boards delivered to the AmigaOS4 team for preparations to move
AmigaOS4.0 from the test bed machines.
For more details regarding the AmigaOne, see
http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/ or
http://www.amiga.com/products/one/.
AmigaOS 4.0 PPC Operating System
The AmigaOS 4.0 project is being managed by Amiga Inc. in partnership
with both Haage-Partner (H&P) who are porting the main portions of the
new PPC OS and Hyperion Software who are doing 3D and Mesa for the new
PPC Operating System.
AmigaOS 4.0, which will only run on the Eyetech AmigaOne, is moving
forward nicely. With the help of Amiga partners such as Matay, much of
the development work has used a combination of A3/4000s, Matay
Prometheus PCI bridge boards, Cyberstorm PPC Accelerators and H&P's
StormC v4.
This has allowed the project to move forwards without having to wait
for an actual AmigaOne board to become available. Consequently, the
new file system and the core of the TCP/IP stack were completed over
two weeks ago. The PPC 68K emulator is being fine-tuned and the new
Amiga PCI library is being profiled against the Eyetech AmigaOne live
PCI slots. The RTG system is being enhanced, with a full PPC
implementation of the extended and most used functions, to allow for
stunning 2D and 3D performance. In addition, the Voodoo 3 drivers have
been completed and the G450 drivers are under development, to be
followed by drivers for the new Matrox G550.
While the porting of the 68K elements of the AmigaOS will continue
through AmigaOS4.2 and AmigaOS4.5, the first set of libraries ported
to PPC will ensure that AmigaOS offers impressive increases in
stability, functionality and speed.
Once the test bed to AmigaOne migration has been completed, Amiga
will provide screenshots and benchmarks of the new system. These
reports are aimed at demonstrating the superiority of the AmigaOne and
will give the community an early look at the features of the product.
In addition, Eyetech has commissioned some very impressive case
designs that will give the AmigaOne the looks to go along with its
brains.
Amiga x86
Amiga was able to demonstrate a prototype of an x86 emulator for 68K
for the AmigaOS3.x series. This product, codenamed Amithlon, provides
only RTG compatibility and is being targeted at providing a first step
from x86 towards the AmigaOne. Amithlon is self-booting from CD on
almost any x86 laptop or PC desktop. It is able to run most RTG
programs at speeds beyond that of a standard Amiga 060 cpu. Several
developers at the AmiWest show tried their applications on Amithlon
and commented that they had never seen such fast run times before on a
68060 Amiga computer. Amithlon is being written by Harald Frank and
Bernie Meyer.
Many Amigans who left when Commodore went bankrupt have been looking
for a way to run their favorite Amiga applications on newer hardware.
The purpose of the emulator is to allow x86 PC owners to experience
the benefits of running the AmigaOS and applications without having to
make a potentially risky purchase of an entire machine. Marketing and
community will then slowly draw these people towards the superiority
of an AmigaOne with a full native OS running on it, along with the
latest applications. Amithlon is not a port of the AmigaOS and there
are currently no plans to see the AmigaOS ported to x86.
More details of the Amithlon including feature lists and release
dates will be published shortly.
AmigaDE 1.0 and Series Zero Game Pack
AmigaDE 1.0 (based on Elate/Intent by Tao Group) is being programmed
by more than 30 programmers worldwide under the management of Amiga
Inc. There are over 3000 developers currently signed up to produce
content for various digital devices from cell phones, PDA's,
handhelds, and even desktop computers running AmigaDE 1.0. Amiga also
announced the first set of games that is being released under the
moniker ``Series Zero'' to Sharp for use on the Zaurus handheld
devices. The 5 games that are being released as part of the Series
Zero Game Pack are:
Batty by Titan Computers Boxikon by e.p.i.c. interactive gmbh Convex
by Zeoneo Linea by Titan Computers Solitaire by John Harris
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E . P . I . C T O M A K E A M I G A D E C O N T E N T
Snoqualmie, WA - August 6, 2001
e.p.i.c. interactive entertainment, a well-known name in the Amiga
gaming community, today signed on to create additional games for the
AmigaDE. These games will initially target PDA's and handheld devices
such as the Sharp Zaurus.
e.p.i.c. has been active in the Amiga gaming market since 1996. Some
of their titles include "sixth sense investigations" (1998) and
"virtual gp" (1999). One of their biggest hits on the Amiga platform
was "foundation directors cut" (1999). Apart from their own titles,
e.p.i.c. also creates ports of titles on other platforms such as the
classic adventure game "simon the sorcerer II" and the realtime
strategy hit "earth 2140".
The first three titles that e.p.i.c. will create for the AmigaDE are
"Boxikon", "Piles O' Tiles", and "Pegger". All three are puzzle games
with superb graphics and presentation layout. In its upcoming
releases, e.p.i.c. will create other kinds of games such as card
games, action shooters, puzzlers and sport games.
"The Amiga in its classic form was a dream come true for developers
and users alike", said Thomas Steiding, General Manager and one of the
founders of e.p.i.c. "Most of our employees started their careers with
Amiga and remain diehard fans. We look forward to creating the same
kind of excitement on the PDA platform."
"e.p.i.c. has been an excellent partner and has created some premier
content for Amiga," said Bill McEwen, President and CEO of Amiga, Inc.
"We look forward to their active participation as they translate their
gaming expertise from the desktop to the handheld market."
The market for video games in the United States, which includes
arcade, PC, console, and online gaming, is currently estimated to be
worth $11 billion. The AmigaDE platform allows developers to create
game applications that target this market. The binary portable nature
of AmigaDE content allows applications to migrate seamlessly from cell
phones and handheld devices to set-top boxes and up to desktop
machines and servers.
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M E R L A N C I A B U Y S W A L K E R A N D M C C
9 August, 2001
Merlancia Industries is pleased to announce the purchase of the
legendary Amiga Walker and MCC designs.
The Walker and MCC designs (created by Frogdesign and Pentagram
respectively) are now owned exclusively by Merlancia Industries. These
designs will be implemented in Merlancia's MMC/Torro line of
multimedia PowerPC products.
The Walker case, designed in 1995-6 by Frogdesign for Escom AG will
be implemented in a Space Conservative Desktop unit; expressly useful
for offices and cramped desks. The Walker design, currently Merlancia
Radian, will feature a PowerPC G3 or G4 (750 and 7410 resp.) processor
with an advanced graphics chipset and will be targeted for sale around
the $1500 to $2000 price point.
The MCC case, designed in 1999 by Pentagram was planned as Amiga's
Multimedia Convergence Console. Merlancia will be implementing this
design for its Apocalypse DT and ST series systems, based on the
PowerPC 7xx and 8xxx series processors. The MCC design will be
implemented in set top box and low cost desktop packages based on the
X-Casting Broadband Video delivery method next year for prices ranging
between $699 and $1299.
Dr. Ryan E. A. Czerwinski, CEO of Merlancia Industries comments "We
anticipate minor styling changes and modifications, as needed for the
implementation of our hardware, none of which will effect the beauty
or harmony of the case designs. We will be producing the cases out of
stainless steel, with the possibility of other materials being
available as well."
Bill McEwen, President & CEO of Amiga, Inc said "As Amiga has
transformed itself to a Software company, having Merlancia build new
products based on these designs is exciting, and we look forward to
seeing more great products from the Merlancia team".
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E L B O X A N N O U N C E S D R I V E R S
Krakow, 27 Aug 2001
http://www.elbox.com
We are happy to announce the first release of the shared MMU & NO_MMU
version of Mediator drivers.
The new pci.library 4.1 can currently work in both modes. Along with
the new pci.library we release new versions of all the drivers
released so far.
All the new drivers have been re-written to co-operate with our
newest software: drivers for PCI Sound and PCI TV cards released in
the Mediator Multimedia CD. More details:
http://www.elbox.com/news_16-08-01.html
The following files are included in MediatorUP2.4.lha:
pci.library ver. 4.1 NEW
The way how the pci.library and all the drivers are working (MMU /
NO_MMU) can be switched over by the contents of the MMU file located
in the Envarc:/Mediator drawer.
Manuals:
ReadMe
UserManual
VoodooGuide
VirgeGuide
MediatorNET
Copyright
Software:
Mediator_Install
PciInfo ver.1.2
Drivers:
Voodoo.card ver.2.5 NEW
Virge.card ver.1.3 NEW
MediatorNET.device ver.2.1 NEW
Prefs files:
MMU
VoodooMem
VodooInt
VirgeMem
VirgeInt
For the newest Vendors.txt file, see:
http://www.yourvote.com/pci/vendors.txt
Please copy appropriate files to drawers:
pci.library to Libs:
MediatorNET.device to Devs:Networks
Vendors.txt to S:
MMU to Envarc:Mediator
VoodooMem to Envarc:Mediator
VoodooInt to Envarc:Mediator
VirgeMem to Envarc:Mediator
VirgeInt to Envarc:Mediator
Voodoo.card to Libs:Picasso96
Virge.card to Libs:Picasso96
Please read VoodooGuide before installing your Voodoo card.
Please read VirgeGuide before installing your S3 Virge card.
Please check CGX pages:
http://www.vgr.com/mediator
for the newest version of CGX drivers.
Note: CyberGraphXV3 S3 ViRGE driver does not work with pci.library
4.1. If you want to use it still you should use pci.library 2.2
(enclosed in Archive drawer).
More information about the latest drivers, see:
http://www.elbox.com/news_arch.html
Darek Dulian
ELBOX COMPUTER, Support Department
See Mediator-related sources:
The unofficial e-group on MEDIATOR:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga-Mediator
The unofficial MEDIATOR website: http://www.amiga-mediator.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E L B O X A N D H Y P E R I O N D E A L
13 August, 2001
Warp3D for Mediator
Elbox Computer and Hyperion Entertainment are proud to announce that
they have entered into a license agreement. Hyperion will support
Mediator PCI 1200, Mediator PCI ZIV, Mediator PCI 4000 and Mediator
PCI ZIII busboards with fully-featured Warp3D Voodoo3 drivers for 68k
and PPC processors. Warp3D Voodoo3 drivers will be available for
registered users of Mediator directly from Elbox. Drivers for Mediator
PCI 1200 and Mediator PCI ZIV busboards will be released first, to
appear within 3 weeks. {See story above. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
S O U N D A N D T V I N M E D I A T O R
Listen and Watch:
Sound & TV in Mediator
16 Aug 2001
Elbox Computer has released its brand new Mediator Multimedia CD
package to open the world of PCI Sound and TV cards for Amiga users.
This CD has been prepared to provide you with the selection of
drivers for PCI sound cards, TV tuner cards and graphic cards for
Mediator PCI busboards for Amiga 4000, Amiga 3000 and Amiga 1200
computers.
The basic features of the Sound, TV & Graphic drivers:
Sound drivers:
o The AHI-standard drivers for music cards to provide support for
Sound Blaster PCI128 cards based on ES1371, ES1373, CT5880 and EV1938
chipsets.
o The Sound Blaster PCI128 card makes use of the PCI bus in the
Mediator busboard as the busmaster performing DMA operations to/from
the external memory.
o With 8- and 16-bit mono and stereo playback and 16-bit stereo
recording plus user-selectable sampling rates from 5kHz to 48kHz, the
Sound Blaster PCI128 produces precise audio fidelity.
o Possible connection of 2 or 4 (optional) speakers for an engulfing
3D-surround sound experience.
o Two independent stereo DACs for simultaneous playbacking of two
stereo PCM channels.
o Mixer: All inputs can be mixed together. Simultaneous recording
from all the inputs is possible. The volume and balance can be changed
independently for each input and output.
TV tuner drivers:
o Drivers for TV tuner cards provide support for tuner cards based on
the Bt878 Video Decoder.
o The TV screen is rendered in the graphic card screen in a
user-scalable window (PIP).
o The TV tuner cards make use of the PCI bus in the Mediator busboard
as a busmaster performing DMA operations to the graphic card memory.
o TV tuner card running in the Mediator PCI busboard does not enforce
any load whatsoever on the Amiga's processor.
o When full-screen TV image is generated, data transfer over the PCI
bus between the TV tuner card and the graphic card is executed at
44MB/s.
Graphic drivers:
o Enhanced drivers for the Voodoo graphic card family.
o In the case of Mediator PCI 1200, the package allows using the
memory window jumper set to 8MB independently of the Mediator PCI 1200
busboard series.
Suggested Retail Price (VAT and local taxes excluded): EUR 24.95
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PCI SOUND & TV IN AMIGA
Mariusz Wloczysiak ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
http://www.elbox.com/
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R E D H O U S E O N A M I G A E M U L A T O R S
{Obtained from the Czech Amiga News site, http://amiga.realdreams.cz/}
Alan Redhouse (Eyetech UK) Comments On A1, OS4PPC and Amithlon
"Well apart from unduly cluttering up the *AmigaOne* mailing list I
think Gary has handled the points raised admirably. Of course a lagre
proportion of posters appear to have completely ignored his answers
and have started indulging in even greater realms of virtual computing
fantasy. I dont really see it as a particularly good use of my time or
the lists bandwith to comment until the party atmosphere has died down
a little.
However, since you ask, this is how I see things, (having first
discussed it with Bill, Fleecy & Gary):
There are currently 4 Amiga-on-PC emulators in existence/under
development.: UAE(Linux/windows); Amiga Forever; Amithlon; and 'x' (as
previewed in AmigaActive but shortly to be released)
All use the same basic 68K emulation process, but have different
trade-offs in terms of speed, chipset emulation (and therefore
compatibility), windows integration and other features. All only run
68K (not PPC) code so cannot run modern software with PPC code.
All can only run os3.x (for which development has been capped) and
will not be able to run any version of OS4.x , all of which are PPC
coded. All will be irrelevant with OS5.0 (sometime) as this will run
native on PPC and x86 (plus possibly some other) hardware.
From Amiga Inc's point of view all these products have a potential
benefit in increasing the overall Amiga user base. The theory is that
they will act as a taster to get old PC-owning Amigans excited again
and to give ex Amiga (who are now PC) dealers a low cost way of
re-evaluating the Amiga. The ultimate goal (in Amiga Inc's eyes) is to
get more people to purchase/stock the new PPC-based Amigas.
I am personally unsure whether this will be successful as:
Virtually all new software will be written to OS4.x and PPC
interfaces. Showing PC users an old unsupported operating system and
its associated 68K applications does not - to me - seem the best way
to impress them and get them to change platforms.
(As Ben Hermans from Hyperion says) these emulators will inevitably
be installed on an existing windows machine where more functional -
but mainly more familiar - productivity and games software already
exists for these users.
I personally feel that we have the best chance of winning back old
Amigans with an all new hardware (including case - details available
in a couple of weeks), OS and application software bundle. That is we
need a stand-alone fully functioning solution with sufficient native
applications and performance to impress existing independant PC
dealers. Of course this means that we need some of these new
applications ready when os4.2 arrives and that means that we need
sufficient sales of the AmigaOne with OS4.0 to make it financially
attractive for software developers to port their games and
applications. Careful timing is everything - we (Amigans) will only
get one chance to get it right.
Contrary to what many may expect, I actually believe it would be
helpful if OS 4.0 could be made to run on some of the existing PPC
platforms (eg on the Cyberstorm PPC) - albeit at lower performance -
to rapidly increase the OS4.0 user base that application developers
can write for. As I understand it this would be possible but would
need the cyberstormPPC's flash ROM to be updated and made available by
its author (Ralph Schmidt I believe).
BTW I do think Bills statement at AmiWest that three products
(AmigaOne, OS4.0, and Amithlon) are all to be launched simultaneously
in November is a bit of orator's licence. As far as we are concerned
we will be sticking to the (October) timetable for the AmigaOne and
OS4.0 as announced in Rotterdam in June
Hope this helps"
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A M I G A F E S T U P D A T E
August 21, 2001
AmigaFest 2001 - The Show Within a Show at Dayton's Fall
Computerfest®. This will be the third year that AmiTech-Dayton has
sponsored an Amiga section within Dayton's fall Computerfest®.
Computerfest® is Saturday, August 25 & Sunday August 26 at the Hara
Arena and Convention Center Complex, northwest of Dayton, OH.
We currently have six Amiga vendors and exhibitors already committed
and we are still working on increasing that number. The current list
includes Compuquick, FWD Computing, E. S. Productions, Amiga Cafe,
GrasshopperILC (Pagestream) and AmiTech-Dayton.
In addition, this year AmigaFest will have its own presentation area,
within the AmigaFest space. We will have something going on
continuously in this area; demos, presentations, or, sometimes, just
discussion groups.
In addition to the Amiga specific exhibitors there will be
approximately 150 other vendors and exhibitors with all kinds of
general equipment and gear you can use on your Amiga at spectacular
prices. If you need printers, drives, memory, you name it, this is the
place to be. If you live anywhere in the midwest don't miss this show.
AmiTech-Dayton will also be having a dinner and social get together
at a Cocktail Lounge and Restaurant after the show closes on Saturday
the 25. All Amigans are invited. Stop by the AmiTech booth and pick up
a flyer with the location and directions.
Seminar Schedule for AmigaFest 2001 - A Gathering for Amiga Users
Contributed by lcarsner on Tuesday, August 21 @ 01:32:04 CDT
AmiTech-Dayton Amiga Users Group has released the following schedule of
events for the upcoming AmigaFest 2001 Show.
Saturday, August 25th, 2001
9:00am - Show opens
11:00am - MP3s, Digital Cameras, and your Amiga
12:00pm - PhotoFolio vs ArtStudio (photo file organizers)
1:00pm - *TBD*
2:00pm - Photgenics
3:00pm - DPaint 5 animations
4:00pm - *TBD*
6:00pm - Show closes
7:00pm - After Show get-together at Bullies Sports Bar and Grille
*TBD* = To Be Determined. We have people committed to these time but
subject matter was unavailable.
Sunday, August 26th, 2001
10:00am - Show opens
12:00pm - CD Burning - MakeCD vs MasterISO
1:00pm - PPC Games on the Amiga
2:00pm - EMail Programs - Yam and AEMail
5:00pm - Show closes
We will also have discussions during the weekend concerning the past
and future of the Amiga, plus a museum of Amiga computers and products
courtesy of Eric Schwartz.
AmigaFest 2001 is held in conjunction with the Dayton ComputerFest,
one of the largest shows of it type in the United States.
If you would like further information you can visit our website at:
www.coax.net/people/erics/amitech.htm (updated 8/20/01)
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A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y U P D A T E D
August 4, 2001
OK. We've done quite a bit of work since the last update, and while
that was too long ago (mid May, blame too much work travel! :) we've
got some cool stuff up there now for you!
1) New Pages. Not only have we gone back and re-verified links
throughout the site (we are up to ~2,000 links, probably only about
15% of those are 'within site') we have added new AmigaDE, Draco, and
TVPaint pages as well as a huge slew of REBOL links to the 'rebol on
the web' page in our programming section. There are many other new
links throughout the site in its various sections as well, please let
us know if we missed *your* site. If it has to do with Amigas and
especially learning how to use them, enjoy them, etc., we're all ears.
:)
2) Site Mirrors and Archives. We are pleased to announce that thanks
to Bob Maple, Paul R. Santa-Maria and Marc Albrecht we have been able
to 'preserve' three Amiga sites otherwise having been taken down,
namely 'Zip Drives and the Amiga', 'Motorola 68000 Resources' and the
former Amiga-software.com website. Take a look from the 'site
archives' link off the home page.
Even cooler is the generosity of David McMinn, who is allowing us to
mirror his 'Blitz Basic 2000' site. This is still an active and
growing site, even though at the moment he's changing servers on the
home site in the UK, thus not all his content is online at the moment
but that will soon change. Check it out!
3) Downloads. As you may or may not already know, we've had Bars &
Pipes available for download for a long time, probably almost a year
now. But we are pleased to announce that due to the generosity of
NewTek, (who released Amiga TVPaint a while back as freeware), TVPaint
is also now free to be distributed by other sites as well. We have
created a ~4MB zip archive containing all you'll need to install this
premier Amiga paint package (you'll need UnZip from Aminet as well as
a graphics card, however, to use TVPaint - UAE/Amiga Forever users can
also use it because they employ Picasso96 within the emulation). To
help thank NewTek for their continued support of the Amiga community,
if you use a PC, buy a copy of Aura, their newest and incredibly
powerful paint/graphics package - you won't be disappointed.
In sum, come on back and check us out, we've got lots to offer and
hopefully will have another large site update next month to announce.
In the meantime, enjoy!
Kevin Orme, webmaster
amiga university
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S A K U 2 0 0 1 T H E M E
Finnish Amiga Users Group Announces Saku 2001 Theme
VANTAA, FINLAND - August 14, 2001 - Finnish Amiga Users Group is
proud to announce the theme song for its Saku 2001 event. Bass Cadet's
"Saku 2001 Theme" is available for download as 128 kbps and 192 kbps
versions from the official web site at
http://saku.amigafin.org/saku2001/. A special audio CD will be
available for purchase at the venue with extended mixes of the theme.
Fleecy Moss, Vice President of Amiga Inc., will attend the show and
demonstrate the latest Amiga products such as the AmigaDE. A
representative of Matay company will present their new PCI bridge, the
Prometheus. The Mediator PCI bridge will also be demonstrated with a
Voodoo3 graphics card. Latest versions of Nova Design's ImageFX and
Aladdin4D are available for testing. Cloanto's president Michael C.
Battilana demonstrates newest versions of Amiga Forever and Amiga
Explorer. Finnish Amiga retailer Gentle Eye Ky offers a variety of
Amiga products to buy at the venue. Other highlights and competitions
are planned.
Saku 2001 will be held on Saturday September 1st 2001 at the Science
Centre Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki. The event will open at 12:00
and end at 18:00. Admission will be free of charge. The Saku 2001 Web
site features highlights, directions and other vital information for
interested visitors and exhibitors from Finland and abroad. Two
webcams will be available from the venue. We are also planning an IRC
channel.
Please stay tuned for more details as the planning progresses. For
further information, visit Finnish Amiga Users Group's Web Site at
http://saku.amigafin.org or http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/. E-mail
inquiries may be sent to Terho Henriksson
(terho.henriksson@kopteri.net). Please also contact Terho if you or
your company have products that you would like to demonstrate or
advertise in Saku 2001.
About Finnish Amiga Users Group
Finnish Amiga Users Group (Suomen Amiga-käyttäjät ry.) is a
non-profit organization for promoting Amiga computing and helping
Amiga users in Finland. Also known as Saku, after its e-zine, the
group is trying to accomplish its goals by organizing meetings and by
publishing an e-zine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users Group and its
predecessors have released over thirty issues of the magazine and held
several public gatherings. Other accomplishments include the Web site
and Sakunet, a national Fidonet style network of Amiga related
bulletin board systems.
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
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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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