====================================================================== ________ _________ ____ _|__ __ __|_______ _________ __\ _____ \\\\ \_ _/ //___// _____//______\ _____ \\ // \\\\ /. \\\\__ \/ __// \\ \\____. /// \\\\ /. \\ \\___\¯ /___///___\ /___\ \\_________//\\___\¯ /___// ¯ \/ ¯ ¯ \/. |¯ ¯|z!o ¯ ¯ \/ ¯ A M I G A |#010422 | U P D A T E |________| "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================