====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 971128 R E P O R T F R O M C O L O G N E " C O M P U T E R 9 7 " I N D E X " A C C E S S " A V A I L A B L E N O W S P E E C H B Y N E W T E K ' S J E N N I S O N I C O A U S E R R E P N O M I N A T I O N S G R O U P B A C K S S T A N D A R D J A V A " O S N E W S " W I L L C O V E R A M I G A O S S I M M F O N I E T O P O W E R S O L U T I O N S M A S T E R I S O V 2 . 0 D E M O S T U D I O 2 A I F F V E R S I O N 2 . 1 T I G E R ' S B A N E F R O M L O N G B O W T H E A M I G A I N F O R M E R A N N E X ! Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Sometimes issues take on a focus all their own. Without planning it, this issue of "Amiga Update" developed a focus on the future of the Amiga. We have three interesting items from the important "Computer 97" show held recently in Cologne. First are two reports from attendees, who share their impressions with us. Then, in the "Amiga Informer Annex" we have an insider's summary of the speech to developers by Amiga Incorporated's top man, Jeff Schindler. If that isn't enough, we have items on the future direction of Java, which may prove very important to the Amiga down the road, and recognition from "OS News" that the Amiga is undergoing a rebirth. There's also a report on a key speech by "NewTek's" leader Tim Jennison. Maybe a second focus for this issue is speeches? To round things out, there are product announcements as well as reviews in the "Amiga Informer Annex" section. Oregon Research on the ropes: ============================= We received the latest edition of the "Oregon Research News" today. On reading it, we realized it could be the last. The company, which sells its own products and HiSoft products in the US, may not last past the new year according to owner Bob Luneski. Market downturns have forced them to shrink to a fraction of their former size. The frank and moving newsletter apologizes for past service problems caused by the downsizing, and asks for nothing more than people who want their products to order them now. The idea is to stay afloat until new Amiga sales can again bring in new customers. One way to look at it is like this - it may be your last chance to obtain the products they sell. Contact them at (503) 620-4919 or write to Oregon Research, 16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162, Tigard, OR 97224. Visit their web site at www.ores.com/~ores. Despite that unpleasant thought, things are looking up as this issue shows. Even the "Oregon Research News" notes the Amiga's future looks good. We hope they make it there to enjoy it with the rest of us. We also hope you have fun with this issue. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-MAIL TO THE E-DITOR: Hi Brad Thank you for putting my WipeWorks in your news letter {issue 971114}, I do appreciate it. For some reason I didn't see either one of my phone numbers or my E-Mail adress I sure did miss them them they were on the bottom under the We Take Requests section. 813-345-6283 813-384-9414 vtoaster@gte.net Is there anything we can do? The CD is Shipping Now. Thanks for all your help Dan Salafia ------ Happy to run them with this issue Dan. Good luck with your product! Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R E P O R T F R O M C O L O G N E " C O M P U T E R 9 7 " 17 Nov 1997 By Richard Koerber The most important booths are Amiga International, Phase 5 and Haage&Partner. Then there are also ProDAD, VillageTronic, Micronic and RBM. Else, there are only some retailer booths (more or less known). News ---- Phase 5 presented WildFire PPC, and some other PPC products. I was most impressed when they played some MPEG anims as Workbench backdrop! 8-) Also there is a pretty cool WYSIWYG LaTeX editor announced at the booth, but they have nothing to do with Phase 5. Haage&Partner showed the StormC and PageStream 3.3, and also announced their Java port on a poster (but there was no presentation). ProDAD: pOS is currently ported to other systems. VillageTronic presented the Picasso IV, which is really impressive. At the Micronik booth, an intelligent PC/Amiga switch was presented. So you will only need one monitor, one keyboard and one mouse for both systems. At the Reflections booth, they played a video sequence. It was a Star Trek against Star Wars fight. Funny, but the Enterprise was in a bad shape at the ending. ;-) Amiga International (yes, I know you were waiting for this one ;) presented MakeCD, Miami V3, Siamese, two new Amiga boards and some other items. The "new" boards are still the good old AGA machines, only new PCBs. One was in my opinion quite ready for a pizza box, with only one Zorro slot (even no CPU slot). The other one has the size of a 5,25" slot. It was fitted in a kind of tower where you usually only put four SCSI devices into. On Sunday, I found an Amiga 5000. It wasn't actually running, but the tower case was openend and layed to its side, so you could easily have a look into its guts. The Amiga 5000 and 6000 are both AGA based machines. The Amiga 5000 was designed to have a 68030/50 processor, but after the feedback DCE got at the fair, it will finally have a 68040/25 or 68040/40. The Amiga 6000 will use an 68060/50. There is a special expansion slot, which is prepared for Zorro II/Zorro III daugtherboards, but could also use PCI in future releases. I heard a rumour that DCE will also build an Amiga 7000, which will use an 68060/50 and a PowerPC. But AFAIK, there is no official statement from DCE, so it should really be considered as a rumour. There were also some Amiga based info kiosks shown at the Amiga booth. Unfortunately, they seemed to use a standard TV resolution. What I mean is: the picture flickered! It looked rather cheap compared to a PC based kiosk. ;-( The conference -------------- I finally managed to get an invitation to the Amiga Developer Conference which was held Friday at 7PM. After some introducing words of Mr. Tyschtschenko, Jeff Schindler presented something they called "road map". In fact, he only presented the survey results from the last conference, and told the audience about the visions they have about the Amiga. The only announcement was that an AmigaOS 3.5 will be sold somewhen in 1998 (Jeff intentionally didn't mention a certain month). It will have Internet functions, support big HDD and also have some bugs fixed. A positive thing was that the financing of Amiga is secured up to the year 2000, including all advertisements. :-) After the announcements of Petro at the Italian fair, I expected by far more from it. >>RELATED STORY<< {We found this item posted to the Amiga newsgroups. It provides another point of view and adds a few items. Brad} First Report from the Cologne Computer '97 Show By Joachim Sondermann-Bieker Hi all! I was able to have a little chat with Petro Tyschtschenko during the Computer 97 Amiga fair in Cologne. Here's what he said in brief: * New Amigas shall be aggressively priced to broaden the user base, both in the home sector and the professional sector. T. gave a figure of 400 Mark (around $230) for an entry level Amiga to 1500 Mark (approx. $870) for the top machine. (Rem: I'm not sure how complete such a machine can be. T. remained vague about whether you would have to add some components to get a really decent Amiga, e.g. HD, Gfx board or so) * New Amigas shall be developed by Amiga Inc., USA, but not necessarily manufactured by Amiga itself. Instead, Amiga International is supposed to licence new developed items to whoever. Under a "powered by Amiga" label there shall be a variety of manufacturers that actually build Amigas. Amiga Intl.will see that certain standards and compatibility is maintained. * There is no decision yet which CPU shall be used in the new Amiga line.Tyschtschenko made a pretty surprising statement: He would like most a Motorola 68060 or 68080 at 200 MHz in a new Amiga. He pointed out the advantage of being able to use a simple OS upgrade from 3.x instead of a complete rewrite. He didn't elaborate whether Motorola would be willing to build such a beast. Another option, processor-wise, would be some sort of cooperation with Phase5 (and the PPC board). Besides, Tyschtschenko said pretty good about the work with Gateway executives. Amiga sales were going up. All in all he displayed lots of optimism though he didn't disregard possible dangers. AI stated earlier that new Amigas were not to be expected before sometime late in 1998. Maybe OS 3.5 will be out in the middle of the year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I N D E X " A C C E S S " A V A I L A B L E N O W HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND -- 24 November 1997 -- Index Information Ltd is proud to announce that the first production Access computer successfully powered into life on 12 November 1997. Index Information Ltd have been developing a new range of computer designs based around the Amiga AGA Chip Set and AmigaOS V3.1 Operating System for over 2 years. After extensive research and development, prototyping, pre-production and user trials we are now shipping the "Access", the first all new Licensed Amiga in volume production in the Western World. Mick Tinker, Managing Director of Index Information Ltd; "We have been concentrating on corporate applications for the Amiga for many years. Corporate applications cover a wide range of fields such as kiosks, training & education, presentations, advertising, video production, embedded machine controllers with interactive control interfaces, Scala script players, etc. In general the wide range of applications and the often-substantial volumes they achieve are not well known to the general public, the producers preferring to concentrate on their solution, rather than the underlying technology. The Access is the first product to be specifically designed to address this market." Those able to attend the Computer '97 exhibition will have had the opportunity to see a production Access working on the Amiga International Inc., stand. The Access is a completely new design from the ground up, not a repackaged A1200 or A4000. It incorporates the core Amiga Chips; Alice, Paula and Denise, and 8520 CIA's. Many other chips seen in older Amiga designs, such as the Gayle, Budgie, Akiko, Bridgette and Gary chips have been replaced by a fresh new chip design which offers the benefits of modern techniques and technological advances. An example of the benefits this bestows on the product is a 30 percent increase in processor access speed to CHIP memory. The production Revision 1.3 motherboard has additional features that will broaden its appeal and satisfy a wider range of application needs. The most obvious is the introduction of an option for the 68EC030 processor running at 28MHz to fitted at manufacture, boosting the performance of the base machine. Support has also been added for a combined MPEG1/Genlock unit that is currently at the prototype stage. Full details about the product can be found at the company's web site at http://www.cix.co.uk/~index ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S P E E C H B Y N E W T E K ' S J E N N I S O N As reported by Joe Tracy, Editor in Chief "NewTekniques" Magazine This is a detailed report on the speech given by Tim Jenison at The Lively Computer in San Diego for the San Diego Professional Video Toaster Users Group. Date of speech: Thursday, November 13, 1997 --- Mr. Jenison began the evening by talking about NewTek's move to Topeka. One of his opening remarks was: "Yeah, we just moved from Topeka to San Antonio. Now I don't want to be one of these 'Topeka Sucks' ya know guys, but let me tell you something... Topeka sucks." He stated NewTek moved to Texas because they could not hire more people in Topeka with NewTek's strong growth. "Ever since the early days of NewTek, we've been trying to get the hell out of Topeka," he stated. California wasn't an option, he stated, because it is an expensive place to live. Jenison also stated that NewTek is saving almost one million dollars in taxes by moving from Topeka to Texas. --- Next, Jenison stated that up until LightWave 5.0, almost all of the work was done by Allen Hastings and Stuart Ferguson. "They're amazing people," he said. "Now LightWave has a development team of almost a dozen people." --- When packing to move, Jenison stated that he came across a number of old tapes that he wanted to show the group. He started it off by showing the NAB '89 Penn & Teller's Guide to Video Toaster Etiquette. The next tape he played was two of the first computer animations that Allen Hastings did [well prior to LightWave]. The first was titled "Infinite Loop" and the second was "Verx". He then showed another animation by Hastings titled "Rush Hour" that was done on one of NewTek's experimental animation/playback systems, "Chroma Dongle", that never shipped. Before showing the videos, he said he came across some rare business cards that NewTek use to hand out called "Cool Friends of NewTek". He found a box of them left and proceeded to hand one card to everyone who was in attendance. --- Next, Jenison asked how many people were familiar with Calibar or owned one [about a dozen or so people raised their hands]. He then proceeded to state he had brought one that was a "little different". He stated that the Calibar out now has a red light. But this "new" one also has a "green light". "Thank you very much," he stated to the laughs of those in attendance. He then proceeded to demonstrate how the green light was significant. It was a PAL version of Calibar. So the unit can now be bought as a COMBINATION NTSC AND PAL tester. "Our policy was to get the people [overseas] to convert to NTSC. It's not working," he jokingly stated as he showed the PAL version. He then stated that NewTek was almost finished with a Serial-Digital Calibar with imbedded audio. --- Jenison opened the floor to questions and answers. The first question was in regards to NewTek's "on-hold" announcement [made at the dealer meeting at NewTek Expo] about Flyer development on the Amiga platform. Tim was not at the meeting where and when the announcement was made and was not happy with the perceptions that the announcement left [i.e. the way the announcement could be interpreted by some as abandoning the Amiga platform]. "...I told Dwight to write a clarification and put it on the Toaster mailing list," said Jenison. "I believe it's out there now... well, Dwight just tried to basically clear the air. It was probably, more than anything, a really unfortunate choice of words because Dwight was going through, Dwight and Steve Herrmann, were going through a list of products and their status with NewTek. And when Dwight got to Flyer 5.0 he said 'this one is on hold pending what happens at Gateway' or something to that effect. And, you know, there is I guess an element of truth to that because the Flyer team, having just completed 4.2, their working on a little side project that has nothing to do with the Flyer and were accumulating a bug list on 4.2. And we are actively talking to Gateway." He further stated that NewTek was very encouraged that Gateway bought the assets of the Amiga. At the same time, he said, NewTek needs to know what they have/had in mind with the purchase of the Amiga so that they could plan accordingly. "Through these roller-coaster up and downs, it has been remarkably consistent - our sales [Toaster/Flyer sales]," said Jenison adding that such a fact had been an astounding surprise to NewTek. "Gateway buying the computer is yet another roll on the roller coaster," stated Jenison. "We are encouraged because Gateway is a very small company... we had no idea what they had in mind. We heard rumors that they were really hoping to acquire an operating system for their TV system [Destination]... so we put in calls to Gateway immediately and said 'we'd like meet with you, we'd like to talk to you' and, ya know, just nothing happened. And people write me these flames on e-mail going, ya know, 'why don't you come out and make a statement, why don't you come out and say that you're pleased that Gateway and NewTek are going to do some awesome and amazing things'. But, you know, I wrote back to the guy and said 'I can't just can't make stuff up'... Well since then, we have met with them. Dwight went out there and he came back very discouraged..." He went on to state that when Dwight flew to Gateway for a meeting, the gentleman who had encouraged the purchase of the Amiga and could make the decisions was not at that meeting. There were three guys in his place and none of them had the authority to make any decisions. That was the status when Dwight had to give an update to the dealers at NewTek Expo. "There is not a day that goes by when Dwight and I and the marketing people, and some of the engineering people, don't discuss what we can do with new Amiga technology," says Jenison. "... We have done a lot of stuff with the Amiga this year. Most of which would be a surprise to you. We look at the Gateway thing as just an opportunity to possibly get in control of our destiny for the first time with the Amiga." What Gateway does affects NewTek's choices for future developments, said Jenison. "Nobody has stuck around with the Amiga longer than NewTek," he said. "... we just keep charging along supporting this machine because it is an extremely good machine. Now a lot of people say 'why the hell are you even doing that?' I have really no culturistic goal of going out and making sure the Amiga is a wonderful thing that goes on forever. You know I like the computer, but it's just not my role in life to do that. I have my own very personal reasons for why using that computer. That computer, by sort of bizarre sets of circumstances ended up being perfect for desktop video... The computer, as it ended up, had all this amazing video circuitry in it. It was exactly NTSC frequencies and it had a genlock input. And it had a real-time operating system... The technical aspects did not change and they have not changed till this day. It is still the only computer that can scan an image using NTSC time... It is the only computer with a real-time operating system that is closing keyed in to video time... In short, you could not make a Video Toaster that would run on a Mac or on a Pentium. It would be impossible. The only way you can do it would be to have your own processor on board that would have a real-time operating system that was fast on switching on video clips." Back to the announcement, Jenison states that what should have been said was: "There are all sorts of different scenarios we can go through and they all kind of hinge on what we learn from Gateway. Now if we hear from Gateway 'screw you guys, we don't want anything to do with NewTek', that is a scenario. We can deal with that. We're use to that as a matter of fact [laughter from audience]. Even in that case we would not drop support. We would not stop working on it. We would not stop thinking about it. When he said 'on hold' that is what he really meant." --- In wrapping up his comments on the Amiga and the 'on-hold' announcement, Jenison stated, "On the sixth floor [NewTek's Research and Development Lab] there is a hardcore Amiga contingent that everyday they look at me funny if I don't have them work on Amiga stuff. Again, it is a mature product, it is a good product that can hold it's own with any other system out there. We think it has an incredibly long life ahead of it and we'd like to just keep our hands in it because as a finished product it is a thing of great beauty. The perception that came out of that meeting was the wrong perception." When asked where Gateway is now with the Amiga, Jenison stated that he is "guardedly optimistic" and that the licensing of QuikPak was a good thing for the providing of a short term Amiga source in the United States. "That was a big change for us," he said. --- Jenison then commented on the PlayableTV article that appeared in "The Amiga Informer". He stated that a guy approached him at NewTek Expo who was upset at what NewTek was doing to Mark Stross and PlayableTV as mentioned in the article. Jenison hadn't seen the article yet, so he read it. "So I read this article. I was very perplexed at what this was about because nothing could be further from the truth." Jenison stated that NewTek has gone out of it's way to help Stross solve any problems that came up to make PlayableTV a reality [like getting Scala running with the Flyer]. He then took a brief moment to describe PlayableTV: "It's really cool because you're seeing this full motion animation on the screen and it's trying to get your attention. You can just walk up and touch things on the screen. Instantly, without a hitch, without a glitch, it dissolves into what you want to watch or transitions into it or the animation spins around and becomes what you want to watch. And then from that point you can touch other things. There is this incredible feeling of power that you can just touch the screen and this amazing video image just morphs and does what you want... it's a very cool thing." After reading the article, Jenison pulled Stross aside to discuss the article. Says Jenison, "It turns out that it was kind of third hand information they got on a day Mark was very frustrated... In the article they talk about a license that Mark was needing. Mark does not need a license... the license you get with the Toaster and Flyer is exactly what Mark needs. What Mark needs for the clients he is going after, he needs an assured supply of product... Dwight and I have always told Mark that we will make those things as long as the sun shines. As long as we can get parts for them and we'll give him a contract to that effect." --- Jenison briefly spoke about digital video and the Flyer. "Tape noise is the Flyer's worse enemy," he said. "When you use digital tape, there is no tape noise. So the Flyer is just tickled to death with that signal..." --- About firewire, Jenison stated "I hear from guys occasionally who are working on a firewire connection to the Toaster." He further stated that the benefit to using it with the Flyer is very little. --- Jenison was asked to comment on the Trinity and their delays/technology. However, Jenison stated that he has been asked not to make any comments on the system as anything he says could have future implications. --- About HQ6, Jenison stated, "there is an HQ6 mode that we have at NewTek. It is experimental. We're not sure that it is working right or that it will work on all Flyer boards." He stated it is about to go into beta testing. --- About a Toaster for Windows, Jenison stated that it is still in development. --- MY THOUGHTS It was very obvious to everyone there that Jenison was very "laid back" and sincere in everything he said and did [he spoke for nearly an hour and a half]. He mentioned that at NewTek Expo they got hit with a "one-two punch" [the "on hold" announcement and PlayableTV article] that allowed the wrong perceptions to form about their dedication to current Toaster/Flyer users and the Amiga. The meeting confirmed NewTek's dedication to the video market on both the Amiga and other platforms in the future. Most obvious was the fact that what happens with their continued development on the Amiga depends on what Gateway does or doesn't do. NewTek has taken the steps to communicate with Gateway and it seems that every time Gateway has shown very little interest. Most important, in this entire situation, is the fact that Dwight Parscale took the time to write a public note on NewTek's position and Tim Jenison took valuable time to fly to San Diego to speak to Toaster/Flyer users on this subject. They took the time to communicate [after the fact] which not only puts rumors to rest, but also shows that they are very much dedicated to addressing the concerns of users. Kudos to them for that. With improved Flyer marketing and commitments from Gateway, the Flyer could yet be recognized for the powerful machine that it is. Sincerely, Joe Tracy, Editor in Chief NewTekniques ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I C O A U S E R R E P N O M I N A T I O N S 20 Nov 1997 Press release from the ICOA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 20 November 1997 ICOA Announces the Commencement of Nominations for the User Representative Seat With the imminent legal incorporation of the ICOA, the recruitment of members and the start of the nomination and election procedure to select the first Steering Commitee, the matter of the User Representative now needs attention. In accordance with the by-laws of the ICOA, the TSC is now asking for submissions by individuals, organisations, magazines and/or companies as to how the user representative can be selected, nominated and elected by the user community. The TSC is looking for the following in each submission. The method by which the user community will be consulted The method by which potential candidates will be selected The method by which a final candidate will be selected The methods by which the selected candidate will pass information from the user community into the ICOA and pass information from the ICOA to the user community at large The TSC is looking for submissions to be in our hands by 05 Dec 97. The TSC will announce the selected submission on the 11 Dec 97. The individual, organisation, company or magazine having made the selected submission will then be responsible for carrying out its plan so that a User Rep is available to take his or her seat by 11Jan98 on the Steering Committee. The post will be for 12 months. All expenses incurred by the User Representative will be paid for by the ICOA. The User Representative will become a full member of the ICOA for the 12 month period, with all that that entails. ------ For more information, contact Fleecy Moss at fleecy@netreach.net or visit the ICOA's web site at http://www.netreach.net/~fleecy/icoa/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G R O U P B A C K S S T A N D A R D J A V A {We found the following item in the November 7 issue of "First Strike", an online newsletter published by Sunsoft, a Sun Microcomputers subsidiairy. It's important to Amigans as Java is being developed for use on the Amiga by serveral companies. There has been some concern in the industry that moves by Microsoft could weaken the cross platform viability of Java, something that would hurt the Amiga especially. It seems to us this story offers hope that the standards may hold up. Brad.} IBM, Lotus, Oracle and Sun Announce Java Spec NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 1997 -- IBM Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced a cooperative development initiative to bring the first unified network computing desktop environment to the industry. As a result, network computers and personal computers will be able to run consistently any application built to a single set of specifications, to be called the "Webtop Specification." In an industry first, a team of software developers from each company will create this next-generation network computing desktop standard. Built upon open Internet standards, the new specification is planned to provide developers and hardware manufacturers a consistent environment and APIs to build and deploy applications for Java-based network computers (NCs), personal computers and other network computing clients. This approach is designed to ensure that customers will be able to select the most appropriate network device for a given application and be presented with a consistent user interface. http://www.fdds.com/smi/Press/sunflash/9711/sunflash.971103.3.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- " O S N E W S " W I L L C O V E R A M I G A O S 24 Nov 1997 http://www.osnews.com In light of Gateway's purchase and the subsequent rekindling of the Amiga fire in the public consciousness, OS News recently published an article about the Amiga. OS News will continue to cover happenings in the Amiga world. also new: the launch of a regular column on Linux. This week, an introduction to Linux and its adherents. Also, check out our daily news for all the happenings on the OS front. Power PC fans might also be interested in several articles from last month's focus on Rhapsody, Apple's UNIX-based next generation OS. OS News is an online magazine dedicated to alternative operating systems and computing environments, and the technology driven by them. Other major high tech news sources are constrained by the mainstream, and can give only scanty coverage to the most exciting aspect of computing: the leading edge, but OS News explores the future of computing, and since the future is ours to create, we want our readers, the architects of that future, to take part in the editorial process. Recently OS News has been covering Rhapsody, Java, both as a language and an OS, the Be OS, Newton, UNIX and Linux, Lucent's Inferno, Network Computers, information appliances, even OS/2 and DOS. We also cover emerging technologies and do hardware and software reviews. Feature articles: http://www.osnews.com/features.html Daily News: http://www.osnews.com/news.html For more information, or to submit Amiga news or complete articles, email david@osnews.com David Adams OS News http://www.osnews.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S I M M F O N I E T O P O W E R S O L U T I O N S 17 Nov 1997 Power Solutions acquires North American distribution rights for Simmfonie. Winnipeg, MB, November 1, 1997-Power Solutions has reached agreement with Gruner Buerotechnik to acquire N.A. distribution rights for Simmfonie. Simmfonie is a new SIMM adapter for the Amiga 3000 Desktop. Tower versions are available on request. More detailed information is included below. Simmfonie is aggressively priced at $80 CAD: that is about $60 USD at the latest exchange rate. Power Solutions is a new, Amiga only, Canadian company working towards better distribution of Amiga products. www.PowerSolutions.mb.ca Info@PowerSolutions.MB.CA 1-204-453-0527 * detailed information follows * TITLE SimmfonieA3000 (SIMMinA3000) VERSION 1.1 MANUFACTURER Kato Development Group http://home.pages.de/~kato katodev@usa.net COMMERCIAL/Distribution Germany: Gruner Buerotechnik, Hamburg gruner@usa.net Tel: 49 (0)40 72910478 Fax: 49 (0)40 72910477 US/CA : Power Solutions Inf@PowerSolutions.MB.CA www.PowerSolutions.mb.ca Tel/Fax: 1-204-453-0527 You may even contact the developers directly by writing to mailto:katodev@usa.net (Torsten or Joern) or calling me by phone: +49 (0)4152 841391 at 18.00-xx.xx CET DESCRIPTION As you may know the A3000 and the Tower make use of ZIP-type Memory which was inexpensive in the past but now is highly overpriced. Simmfonie simply implements the SIMM sockets in the A3000. Ofcourse you could still pay somewhere between $10 to $15 USD per meg for SC ZIP Ram. The ZIP Ram only provides a slight speed advantage, about 15%. That is hardly worth paying the extra money. Simmfonie can use EDO ram but there are no speed benefits. This is a limitation of the chipset used in the A3000(T) not Simmfonie. Faster SIMMs are recommended because there is hardly any price difference at all. As well, faster SIMMs would be more usefull when upgrading to a CPU board that has on board SIMM sockets. You could use 4MB or 8MB modules. The 8MB module is recommended because there are only two SIMM slots available on the SIMMfonie for a maximum of 16MB fast ram. Simmfonie uses an industrial HQ board and golden steel connectors which are placed in the ZIP sockets on the mainboard of the A3000(T). INSTALLATION The installation is more difficult than it is for a Zorro board. If you follow the step by step instructions outlined in the manual it is no problem. None of the Simmfonie adaptors have been returned due to a defect in the product. No machine or memory problems have been reported after installation. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Make sure to request the proper model of Simmfonie. There is a different version for the A3000T. It's not possible to use the adapter together with a CPU board, but since most have on-board sockets, this doesn't really matter. AVAILABILITY - Immediately in Europe - November 1, 1997 in North America PRICE * price insertion by Power Solutions Simmfonie for Amiga 3000 Desktop $80 CAD about $60 USD * end of price insertion ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M A S T E R I S O V 2 . 0 D E M O 22 Nov 1997 Asimware Innovations Inc. Releases MasterISO v2.0 Demonstration Version November 21st, 1997 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Richard Giannini Asimware Innovations Inc. 600 Upper Wellington Street, Unit #D Hamilton, Ontario L9A 3P9 Canada (905)575-1042 Asimware is proud to announce the availability of the demo version of our forthcoming MasterISO v2.0; our next generation CD-R/RW writing software program. Building upon our years of experience in CD-ROM and CD-R software with AsimCDFS and MasterISO v1, we have re-designed MasterISO v2.0 from the ground up to provide an extremely stable CD-R/RW writing program. MasterISO v2.0 represents the input of hundreds of our users in both the design and testing phases. MasterISO v2.0 includes the features users have requested, organized in a logical and easy-to-use fashion. Some new features in MasterISO include: * Disc-At-Once writing; * CD to CD-R/RW copying; * Full File Manager for editing directory structures; * On-the-fly writing from hard drive to CD-R/RW; * Rock Ridge and Joliet file system support; * Incremental multisession; * Jukebox support for the Elms DVL (optional). We believe that MasterISO represents the future of CD-R/RW mastering software for the Amiga platform. But don't take our word for it - download our demonstration version, from either Aminet or our WWW site, and give it a try yourself. MasterISO v2.0 is scheduled for an end-of-November 1997 release. Asimware Innovations Inc. is an Amiga software development house specializing in CD-ROM , CD-R and CD-RW technologies. Our current product line includes AsimCDFS, MasterISO, Texture Heaven 1 & 2, PhotoCD Manager and Audio Thunder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T U D I O 2 A I F F V E R S I O N 2 . 1 24 Nov 1997 TITLE Studio2AIFF VERSION 2.1 (public release) AUTHOR Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/ Digital Surface EMail: kenny@bgnett.no URL: http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/ DESCRIPTION This tool is capable of converting Studio 16_2.0 files to AIFF files. Since the Sunrize company went down a few years ago there has been very little development for the Sunrize audio cards (I only know of about one program (commercial) that is developed afterwards, that can handle Studio 16 files). More information on the Studio 16 file format will be uploaded to Aminet in the near future. FEATURES - Converts Studio 16_2.0 files to AIFF in 16-bit - Uses sample rate from studio file - Dumps studio file info - FAAAST converting - Assembler with big load/convert buffer - Small in size SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required: - OS 2.0 or better - Sunrize AD516/AD1012 and Studio 16 v3.0 is recommended, but not needed to use the tool. AVAILABILITY Aminet ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/mus/misc/Studio2AIFF.lha Also look for the co-tool: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/mus/misc/AIFF2Studio.lha PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Distributed as freeware. Studio2AIFF is Copyright (c)1997 by Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/ Digital Surface. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T I G E R ' S B A N E F R O M L O N G B O W 24 Nov 1997 TITLE Tiger's Bane VERSION 1.0 COMPANY Longbow Digital Arts General Delivery, Providence Bay, Ontario, P0P 1T0, Canada (705) 377-4500 http://www.kanservu.ca/~longbow/ longbow@sympatico.ca AUTHOR Seumas McNally DESCRIPTION Tiger's Bane is a combination of side-view action game and flight simulation. Using the keyboard, joystick, or a CD32 pad, you fly one of 7 different real-world combat helicopters (along with up to two computer controlled wingmen) through over 80 missions in 5 Operations, in addition to randomly generated missions. There are over 25 different allied and enemy ground and air units, and 5 configurable weapon systems to use to blow them up. Missions take place in cities, island chains, and deserts, and include weather effects such as rain, wind, fog, thunder storms, and variable time of the day and night. The game also features multiple skill levels, and big, flashy explosions. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Any Amiga with a hard drive, 1 Meg Chip, and 1 Meg Fast. AVAILABILITY Tiger's Bane is available from the Longbow Digital Arts web site: http://www.kanservu.ca/~longbow/TigersBane.lha (866051) And from AmiNet: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/shoot/TigersBane.lha (866051) PRICE The registration fee is $10 U.S. Dollars, or the equivelent in other major currencies. DISTRIBUTABILITY Tiger's Bane is Shareware, Copyright 1997 by Longbow Digital Arts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _ __ _ __ _ ____ _ _ The AMIGA /\\ |\ || |\ || || \\ / I N F O R M E R /__\\ | \ || | \ || ||-- \\ / \\__| \||_ | \||_ ||___ _/\\_ Section ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker Summary ======================================= Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker from Virgin Games is a billiards game. It is programmed by Archer Maclean who did Archer Maclean's Pool. The two programs share many similarities and both are amazing feats of programming. Archer Maclean is very talented and has managed to make pool games that work as well on a 68000 CPU as they do on a 68030. The smooth animation in this game is breathtaking and it's a joy just to watch the demo. Although basic, the graphics are very realistic and come complete with ball shadows. Everything has been taken into consideration; you can control the power, spin in any direction, view in any direction, and you can even chalk your cue stick. You can play against a friend or against up to 4 com- puter opponents at a skill level of your choice. The crowd even applauds when one of you does well. Whirlwind Snooker comes with a keyboard explanation card but it's really not necessary since you can perform all of the functions with the mouse. The box claims that it will run on anything from an A500 to an A4000 but I found that I had to disable my 68060 and revert to the 68020 to get it going on my A1200. The game runs from floppy only, but loading time is minimal. It has on-disk copy protection as well as manual copy protection, but includes a short cut adden- dum. The manual is in-depth but it assumes you already know how to play Snooker. I found that the best way to learn is to watch the computer play itself a couple of times then just start playing it yourself. Although this game is in re-release and is most likely a good value I really cannot recommend it unless you're just a die hard billiards lover. Archer Maclean's Pool would be the more fun choice. By Jerimy Campbell © Jerimy Campbell and Eldritch Enterprises. Because of space availability, this summary never made it into a print issue of The Informer. P.OS Pre-release Preview p.OS Preview ============ This is a preview of the pre-release version p.OS, the new Amiga OS from ProDAD (Pro Digital Animation Develop- ment). ProDAD are the German creators of such notable programs as ClasriSSA, Adorage and, Monument Designer. P.OS stands for "portable Operating System". ProDAD claims p.OS will be released for all major platforms (Amiga, PowerPC Amiga, Apple Macintosh, Intel/Windows, PIOS transAM, and others. This pre-release of p.OS comes on a CD-ROM and documentation is contained both on the packaging and the disk itself. The printed directions simply tell you how to either install p.OS over your existing Amiga OS or how to run it from the CD-ROM. You will find both a readme file on the CD as well as a hypertext browser in the OS which allows you to read further documentation from within the OS. When p.OS is run you will find it provides a feature laden OS. It has a configurable task bar, icon docks, a full p.OS shell, an DirectoryOpus 4-like directory utility, an HTML AmigaGuide equivalent, a built-in image viewer, a number of games and demos, as well as StormC for p.OS. There is also the capability of transparently using drag and drop features in most areas and it has a wide array of sounds that play when you make selections. Another interesting aspect of this OS is that graphics are calculated to a 24 bit (full 16.7 million colors) depth, and then dithered and displayed at the depth you have chosen. The icon set used is both colorful and informative. There are numerous little touches throughout the OS that add handsomely to the environment. There also seems to be a good deal of support for the fledgling Operating System. Aside from the version of StormC for p.OS which comes on the CD, Finale development's browser­Web Cruiser­is being developed for p.OS as well as the Amiga OS. ProDAD has also started a developers program for development on p.OS called EpOS. The ProDAD p.OS news page reports that 170 developer agree- ments have been signed, so there should be a good flow of software coming out for the system once it has been released. There are some problems though. Currently, p.OS runs in cooperation with the Amiga OS rather than on its own. This creates the impression that it is more of an OS enhancement. It could currently be considered an OS enhancement similar to the way DOpus Magellan integrates with Amiga OS rather than a full fledged OS. They have a great deal of work ahead of them in order to turn it into a truly independent OS. There is also the news that version 3.5 of the Amiga OS will be coming out soon and we have no idea of what its improvements will be, meaning we could see improvements that rival those of p.OS. ProDAD seem to have done a good job implementing well throughout items to p.OS, and the CD comes with the promise that it will be fully upgradable in the future to the full OS for only the difference in price. The CD gives you a good feel for what the completed OS should be like - and overall it is quite nice. I look forward to seeing the complete version in the future based on what I see in this pre-release. P.OS is commercially available from Schatzruhe, the same outfit that creates the Aminet CD-ROMs and others, and is available from many Amiga retailers. It was tested under ver- sion Amiga OS 3.1 on an A3000 030/ 25 MHz, with 2 Mb of chip RAM, 12 Mb of fast RAM, a 6X CD-ROM drive, and a Picasso IV graphics card. The minimum system requirements are Kickstart 2.0 (for in- stallation) or greater, a 68020 with 4 Mb of fast RAM, a hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive. The recommended minimum is a 68040, 8 Mb of fast RAM and a graphics card as well as the mentioned hard drive and CD-ROM drive. It can be pur- chased for around US $30. For further information Email: ad- ver@prodad.de; or visit URL: http://www.prodad.de By Bill Schuck ©Bill Schuck and Eldritch Enterprises Because of space availability, this summary never made it into a print issue of The Informer. Insider Report from Cologne =========================== Jeff Schindler, General Manager of Amiga Incorporated, made a major speech to Amiga developers at the recent Computer '97 show in Cologne. We were able to obtain some insider insights on what he said. Please note that none of what follows is confirmed by Gateway or either Amiga company, and should therefor be considered rumors. Shindler stated the "vision" of the new Amiga companies is to become a worldwide standard technology for convergence products; technology that's recognised throughout the world. The visison will be realised by making Amiga Incorporated a research and development company, concentrating on determining the future for Amiga. Timing is important. The last thing Amiga Inc. needs to do is rush something out the door only to find they went down the wrong path and cut off future growth. It's important to carry the legacy of the past forward, and also be at or above industry standards and state of the art. A three year roadmap is being developed. The Amiga companies are not in the product business. They'll develop the core architecture and move the technology forward, while other companies build whatever products they wish from the Amiga technology. This technology needs to be updated. It's four years old now. While updating it, Amiga will keep in mind there can be several interfaces - a sophisticated one for enthusiasts, and a simpler one for the sort of person who's uneasy about getting a computer for the house. Already Amiga Inc. is going back to some of the Amiga originators to see what they think should happen next. Most have have been very willing to help define the future. Much good information came from the surveys of developers conducted during the MAE show in Ohio. Mentioned often were the need to support more than one processor; retargetable graphics with support for more than one format; 3D; genlocks; add a good tcp/ip stack to the operating system; networking; a built in web browser; keep the Zorro expansion slots but don't ignore PCI; memory protection is needed, and more. Nothing is established at this point but all the input is being considered carefully. One thing being considered is moving to digital video rather than NTSC and PAL video standards as currently. This is important as the video world itself moves to digital standards. Products being looked at include a consumer internet appliance, and all-in-one TV, VCR and Computer, and even a small computer for children, along the lines of current LCD based units. Already a goal is to have releases of Amiga technolgy upgrades on at least a yearly basis. The new operating system upgrade, 3.5, will build on what's been done by third party developers. It will be a bridge to future operating system releases. Advertising budgets exist both for Amiga Inc. and Amiga International. No numbers were mentioned beyond saying "millions of dollars for advertising". Plans are to build up an entire engineering staff, including hardware and software engineers at Amiga Inc. The new company's business plan has been approved, the money has been approved, and it's just down to creating the execution plan and then doing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || ======================================================================