NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/misc-part1/8169

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From: [e-mail] (John Kelly)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Dave Haynie CI$ Conf Xscript (LONG!!)
Date: 15 Mar 1996 01:48:27 GMT
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 This is posted at the request of Jon Guidry ..

This is a transcript of a Compuserve conference with Dave Haynie on
6-Mar-96 at 10PM EST until about 2 AM EST.  Thanks to Skal Loret for
helping get Dave in a conference, and thanks to our moderator, Asha
DeVelder.

Standard disclaimer is that this transcript is made for public consumption,
and that no profit can be obtained from it.  Permission was granted from
all the Compuserve posters to redistribute this in the public domain.
This transcript was edited by myself, Jon Guidry.  I can be netmailed at
1:3803/11 (within FIDOnet) or e-mailed at [e-mail].

Jon Guidry
03/14/96


This transcript is mostly the original thing, only minor editing was done
to it.  So, have fun! :)

- Begin Transcript -

(1-10,Asha) Hi Y'all! :)
(1-7,Agamotto (RHMIII)) /twiddle
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Asha!!!!!
(1-10,Asha) (giggle)
(1-10,Asha) Is that you Holly? Or are you Jeff?
(1-7,Agamotto (RHMIII)) Hey, ahsa, we get to chat live
(1-6,Jon Guidry) mixed identity crisis? :)
(1-4,Holly Sullivan) It's me, Jeff's on the 3, checking the fidomail. he just
 got home.
(1-4,Holly Sullivan) <snicker>
(1-7,Agamotto (RHMIII)) schizoid bisexual?
(1-4,Holly Sullivan) <SNICKER>
(1-10,Asha) Agamotto: Is that your real name?  If not, please change it
(1-7,Agamotto (RHMIII)) fido was light today, gave me a chance to catch up
(1-6,Jon Guidry) I just hop on the Internet and get my FIDOmail ;)
(1-4,Holly) Fido's never light when you read as many echos as I do. :)
(1-4,Holly) Jon: you're beinbg disgusting again. ;)
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III]) Asha: that better?
(1-10,Asha) Agamotto: Please change to your real name (/name Yourname)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Holly:  why?  It's just a standard ppp account :)
(1-4,Holly) Jon: I don't get my mail thru the net, I have to wait for Planet
 C. :p
(1-10,Asha) RH: Sure if you want to be called RH
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Holly:  there's a message explaining it that should be out
 RSN on the AMIGA echo
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) /name Randy Murdock III
(1-4,Holly) Jon: :)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) so who else is supposed to be here?  Where's Skal?
(1-4,Holly) Skal's on tour with Bob Seger.
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) I keep myself down to 12 echos, any more and my dog
 would starve
(1-4,Holly) I think he left his Amiga at home. :(
(1-10,Asha) Joyce is here!
(1-4,Holly) WHERE?
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) Not to mention having to empty the bit bucket
(1-6,Jon Guidry) yea, where?
(1-10,Asha) Holly in the forum, on her way!
(1-4,Holly) get a bigger bit bucket ;)
(1-13,Roy) Hello ALL :)
(1-14,Michael Webb) Could someone tell me how to pass commands to CIS in
 the conference room?
(1-4,Holly) Ahhhh.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) my bit bucket is full :)
(1-4,Holly) Jon: I can imagine. ;)
(1-13,Roy) Michael - Always us a back slash /
(1-4,Holly) Hiya Roy!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Roy? :)
(1-14,Michael Webb) That's a normal slash you typed: which?
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) I am still deciding on which 1
(1-4,Holly) Michael: the one by the right shift key.
(1-13,Roy) Michael the one I typed
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) Gig drive to get, then probably a zip drive
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) Anyone hear about peterK confirming that someone
 is working on AGA
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) for non machines
(1-14,Michael Webb) thanks for zee help
(1-13,Roy) Michael - Then if you need help type /help
(1-14,Michael Webb) No one else sees the output, do they?
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) not here at any rate
(1-10,Asha) Micheal: they shouldn't
(1-6,Jon Guidry) question:  when you do a /users, why do the numbers skip?
  I'm 6, there's a 7, but no 8 or 9
(1-14,Michael Webb) Ok. I'm properly oriented now. Thanks.
(1-4,Holly) Michael: nope, just you.
(1-13,Roy) Michael - NO the slash will stop the output
(1-10,Asha) Randy: When you last tried changing your name to Randy, it didn't
 take
(1-7,R.H. Murdock III) /name Randy Murdock III
(1-10,Asha) Jon: Cause those are the job numbers, people can be in other
 parts of the
(1-10,Asha) forums
(1-4,Holly) Jon: I guess as people login and out, their numbers change.
(1-13,Roy) Jon - try /user all
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Asha: ah okay
(1-6,Jon Guidry) there we go :)
(1-10,Asha) Randy: Still didn't work.. try /han Randy...etc.
(1-9,Joyce D.) Hello, All!
(1-10,Asha) Hiya Joyce! :)
(1-4,Holly) Hiya Joyce!!
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) /han Randy Murdock III
(1-14,Michael Webb) Hiya, Joyce!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Joyce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(1-15,Maria)  /name worked for me.
(1-13,Roy) Hi Joyce
(1-10,Asha) Randy, workeD!
(1-15,Maria) hi all
(1-10,Asha) Hi Maria!
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) oK, whew, I love learning new softs
(1-9,Joyce D.) ROY:  Is this a Roy I know?  ;)
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) /who roy
(1-15,Maria) hi Asha
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Joyce:  took time off ure hectic schedule?
(1-13,Roy) Joyce - Don't know - I was just figure you out too :)
(1-5,Eric Douglas) How many minutes to dave.
(1-9,Joyce D.) Holly:  So, do you have Jeff & Todd hanging over your
 shoulder?
(1-4,Holly) Bunch of lurkers tonight
(1-10,Asha) Eric: According to my clock, 3
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) not lurking...just treading water until Dave shows
 up :)
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) Any conferences coming up on the IRC anytime soon?
(1-4,Holly) Joyce: Can think of better places. (EG)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) it's 9pm on Terminus's clock :)
(1-9,Joyce D.) Jon:  Howdy!  Took a quick peek at the echo--no one's
 bashing any one too badly!
(1-4,Holly) It's 7:02 thanks. :)
(1-4,Holly) And almost Joyce's bedtime. ;)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) 6:59 by my watch
(1-6,Jon Guidry) it's only 9pm here :)
(1-10,Asha) When Dave does show up, I'd like this NOT to start a free for
 all
(1-15,Maria) Terminus? as in the First Foundation?
(1-20,tom) Hello, all.  I'm new to the forum - trying to setup AmiTCP on
 my 1200.
(1-20,tom) ideas?
(1-9,Joyce D.) Holly:  What, one of my boytoys is here?  ;)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) 7pm here :)
(1-10,Asha) I'd like people to let me introduce him, and, when it's time,
 post a ? when
(1-10,Asha) you want to ask Dave a question
(1-13,RoyP.) Asha - are you going FORMAL CO rules
(1-9,Joyce D.) 8:59 PM here
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) Ok, I'll be polite, only 2000 questions >-]
(1-6,Jon Guidry) tom:  I have 4.2 registered.  Works nice.  A1200 too :)
(1-4,Holly) Joyce: YOu tell ME.  :)  The boytoys on this end are caressing
 the 'Miggys.
(1-18,Mr C) Hi everybody
(1-10,Asha) Roy: Semi-formal, I'd like to avoid chaos
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) Tom: I gave up o it after three months on my 3000
(1-20,tom) Jon:  I'm using a text file put out by Lothar Bartsch to set it
 up - what
(1-13,RoyP.) Hello Mr. C
(1-20,tom) did you do?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) tom:  4.2's setup was automated.. right down to ppp.device
(1-4,Holly) Folks, listen to Asha re: the conf rules!
(1-15,Maria) bummer....I have a A3000 should I just give up too?
(1-20,tom) Jon:  was that the commercial version?  I'm using the demo.
(1-10,Asha) Mr. C: Please change to your real name (first would be fine
 with us)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) tom:  yeah... $99 :)
(1-10,Asha)        ATTENTION!!!!
(1-12,Stuart) <velcroing lips>
(1-10,Asha) Thanks!
(1-4,Holly) AmiTCP is easy to setup. at least InterInstall worked great
 for me. :)
(1-4,Holly) .
(1-20,tom) Jon:  where did you pick it up (and does it give www graphics?)
(1-10,Asha) This is about to become a semi-formal conference.
(1-10,Asha) TOM!! Please!!
(1-10,Asha) I'd appreciate it, if, after Dave shows up, any other
 conversations go
(1-10,Asha) private or cease.
(1-5,Eric Douglas) can we make faces at him?
(1-10,Asha) I'd like this to be an orderly and polite conference.
 When someone is
(1-10,Asha) answering or asking a question, please let them finish before
 asking another.
(1-10,Asha) Eric: Yes you can as long as you don't type them in...:)
(1-10,Asha) Ok?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) <Jon bows in respect for Asha>
(1-18,Dave H) Yo!
(1-10,Asha) Dave's in the Conference room! :)
(1-21,Joanne Calhoun) Hello, how do I get a name
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) applause from all :)
(1-18,Dave H) I seem to have gotten telnet to work.
(1-12,Stuart) Yay Dave!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) you're the expert!
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) Isn't telnet fun?
(1-18,Dave H) Yup
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) asha, you start; we're all tongue tied :)
(1-9,Joyce D.) (in awe)
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) I was just being polite...
(1-10,Asha) I'd like to welcome Dave Haynie to our conference.  Words
 fail to say how we all appreciate his continued devotion to our computer
 of choice.  Perhaps Dave has something to say before we open the floor to
 questions?
(1-18,Dave H) I guess I should thank everyone for coming out tonight, and
 for sticking by the Amiga through some rought times. It hasn't been easy
 for any of us. In fact, the stress of these past few years did in both my
 car and my cat Iggy these past 6 months.  Maybe better times lie ahead. ga
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) ?
(1-9,Joyce D.) ?
(1-10,Asha) Randy: ga
(1-15,Maria) ?
(1-21,Joanne) Sorry bout Iggy.
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) Sorry to hear about Iggy.  How are things at SCALA?
(1-18,Dave H) Scala may actually turn a profit this year.  They certainly
 have had some lean times, but the AT bundle has certainly been a
 welcome surprise. They will have a PC product out in May, essentially the
 level of MM400 on the Amiga. There has been a port to one set-top box as
 well, but the folks behind that box have had technical problems unrelated
 to the Scala pieces, so that's delayed. For those who haven't been
 following Scala, the group I'm with, in Exton PA, was formed out of the
 ashes of Commodore to build a portable, Multimedia-capable OS to run
 Scala apps on top. This is because, aside fro the Amiga, nothing we looked
 at could do real multimedia. That was started over two years ago and is
 now just nearing completion. ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ?
(1-5,Eric Douglas) ?
(1-10,Asha) Joyce: ga
(1-21,Joanne) Excuse me, what about the rumors flying around about Escom?
(1-18,Dave H) Such as?
(1-9,Joyce D.) First of all I want to say I'm honored to share your
 ASCII!  :-)   (And invite you to the Fidonet AMIGA echo where people who
 love the Amiga like to hang out ::shameless plug::)  I'd like to know
 what projects you're currently working on and whether ESCOM has approached
 you about consulting.
(1-18,Dave H) Projects I'm working on...
(1-6,Jon Guidry) distribute this conf transcript.  Do we have your
 permission?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) oops.. :)
(1-18,Dave H) At Scala, I developed their class compiler, which is
 necessary to manage the Scala object model. It's a bit C++ program, useful
 as hell at Scala but not exactly as cool as "hey, come seem my new computer"
 type stuff I did at C=.  On my own, of course, there's has been DiskSalv 3,
 4, and the Deathbed Vigil.  I'm working on a music project, and possibly
 some audio software at some point ('040s aren't really fast enough). I have
 been in touch with Amiga Technologies, and I'm offering my input into the
 architecture of Power Amiga systems. They do have a group doing systems
 design under contract, so it' snot like I'm moving to Germany or anything.
 But I suppose I do have a long-term big picture view they can't get easily
 elsewhere. One of the big problems with the Amiga, and also the fun, is
 that "the mainstream" doesn't build systems that way. So if you want to
 make Amigas, you pretty much need Amiga people.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-21,Joanne) ?
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) ?
(1-23,Jon Eriquezzo) (Thank God for Disk Salve!)
(1-5,Eric Douglas) ?
(1-10,Asha) Jon Guidy: ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Dave:  has there ever been any other plans for the PCMCIA
 port other than memory?  I've been scrounging all over
(1-6,Jon Guidry) did my whole question get through? :)
(1-18,Dave H) The PCMCIA port is a general purpose 16-bit I/O port. It
 certainly will handle modems.  I don't know of any effort at C= or AT to
 write drivers for any specific modem card. That seems like something
 that's a good 3rd party project, since the cards are plentiful, getting
 cheap (they weren't back when the A600 came out), and a driver is the
 kind of thing a garage shop company could develop and sell along with a
 modem card for far, far less than a C= or At ever could have.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-26,Mr Challeron) ?
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-10,Asha) Eric Douglas: ga
(1-2,Frederic Ericksen) `s
(1-5,Eric Douglas) the foloowing I have is unforimed. Do you wish to hear it
 I would like to get your feedback on it.
(1-18,Dave H) It's your dime!
(1-5,Eric Douglas) The sam report I got came out of miami fl. It said that on
 march 3 escom stock trading was suspended. What do you see for the future
 of a this is unconfired, but would like any news you might have
(1-18,Dave H) I know absolutely nothing about Escom finances. I have enough
 trouble with my own.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry) heh
(1-23,Jon Eriquezzo) ?
(1-10,Asha) Joanne: ga
(1-12,Stuart) <g>
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) ?
(1-21,Joanne) Hi, The rumors about Escom and AT are flying. Any concerns?
(1-18,Dave H) Rumors have been flying in the Amiga industry since 1985.
 Sometimes bad ones proved to be true, and when that happens, it's bad for
 the Amiga. Most of the rumors in the past were not true, and I don't
 really expect that to change either. My best advice is to regard rumors
 as noise -- you can't really learn anything from them, good or bad. ga
(1-13,RoyP) ?
(1-10,Asha) Bronwen Pitchford: ga
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) do we have permission to distribute this to our
 friendswho weren't lucky enough to be here tonight? to repeat Jon's
 question...
(1-18,Dave H) That's up to CI$
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) er, asha?
(1-4,Holly) ?
(1-5,Eric Douglas) ?
(1-18,Dave H) (eg, it's fine with me)
(1-10,Asha) For those interested, to repost, you'll need to get permission
 form each person who posts here in the conference.  You can do this by
 typing it
(1-9,Joyce D.) <Joyce waves all rights to distribute her post>
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) I freely give my permission now
(1-10,Asha) privately /# message
(1-6,Jon Guidry) to me
(1-21,Joanne) Joanne Calhoun gives permission.
(1-10,Asha) Asha DeVelder gives permission
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) bronwen pitchford gives permission
(1-14,Mike Webb) Mike Webb gives permission
(1-13,RoyP) Roy Pahnke gives permission
(1-4,Holly) the one and only Holly Sullivan gives her permission. :)
(1-5,Eric Douglas) eric douglas no problem.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) (maybe we should save this for the end...?)
(1-10,Asha) Ok....the rest in private please!
(1-18,Dave H) Dave Haynie gives permission, and needs another beer...
(1-19,bruce) bruce cooke gives permission.
(1-4,Holly) ?
(1-10,Asha) Mr Challeron: ga
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Dave: How do you view AT's efforts to "mainstream" the
 Amiga, i.e., with PPC chip, OS porting, etc?
(1-18,Dave H) AT is doing the right things.
(1-18,Dave H) Before C= folded, I was looking into using more standard
 parts, going to RISC for extra performance, PCI bus for standard cards,
 etc. These are all good and necessary moves. At the high end at least,
 a Power Amiga can be PPCP compliant, so you can run any PPC OS on it.
 That's extra security for Amiga fans who are nervous about buying a new
 system. That will let Escom sell systems to people who would never buy
 AmigaOS systems, and perhaps turn a few on to the AmigaOS in the process.
 That will make it easier for Amigaoids to get Amigas past the corporate
 system-censors. And it'll allow 3rd parties like Macrosystems, Phase 5,
 etc. to make real Amiga clones if they like. Everyone wins. ga
(1-10,Asha) ?
(1-10,Asha) Mike Webb: ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) typing...
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) I would like to say, that as a "visually challenged"
 person, the Amiga is the only OS that has been very friendly at all.
(1-14,Mike Webb) In reference to the consultation with AT, what do you think
 they should do with the next generation of Amigas as far as
 graphics/video/sound hardware (custom chipset vs. graphics board, etc.)
 are concerned?
(1-18,Dave H) Strangely enough, the next generation "multimedia subsystem"
 is one of the things they're asking me to look into. I have plenty of
 ideas; there are things being done now at both established chip companies
 and startups that are as far beyond the Amiga chipsets (even AAA) as the
 original Amiga was above PClone stuff at the time. These things will
 show up from time to time on PClones, but no one's really going to take
 advantage of anything on a PC that doesn't fall neatly into a Windows API.
 The Amiga has no such constraints -- it's whatever its designers say it
 is, in HW and SW. ga
(1-10,Asha) Jon Eriquezzo: ga
(1-23,Jon Eriquezzo) I've recently joined TEAM AMIGA <G>, and I fill out
 every question card that comes my way. my question is can you recommend
 a good way to let AT know what AMIGA users want and need? ga
(1-18,Dave H) Skal told me the Team Amiga story...
(1-18,Dave H) The AT folks are on the nets. Dr. Peter, Mick, and others
 will see what you write, at least in the newsgroups on the Internet. And
 you could certainly write them, though having been in that position, I'll
 tell you that too much of that kind of thing results in most of it being
 chucked. There's just not enough time in the day to look at what everyone
 has to say. Also, users not experienced in the art of computer design have
 a tendency to ask for a trip to the moon at trip-to-Hoboken prices.  There
 will be some program, administered by AT, to actually (hold your breathe)
 do some research into this. They are meeting with users and developers.
 Most of this action is in Europe, going on during CeBit, and I don't know
 all the details. But it's progress, more than C= generally did, and
 blessed all the way up to the top. ga
(1-12,Stuart) <mumbles> Super-cooled hypercube for $299
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) cool beans...
(1-10,Asha) RoyP: ga
(1-13,RoyP) A question -- and then a follow up Please...
(1-13,RoyP) With the announcement by Orical (sp?) of the NETBox (or whatever
 itis call)... How do you see AT Surfer Pac competing and have you seen
 the Browser. ga
(1-18,Dave H) Oracle, for those who don't know, has announced a thing they
 call the Network Computer.  This puppy is based on a ARM CPU, 8MB of RAM,
 4MB or so of Flash ROM, television display, and a V34 modem (cable modems
 to follow). It runs a browser and perhaps Java code. Sun is working on a
 similar thing, and Apple has been scrambling to reposition their "Pippin"
 architecture (which they don't plan to release themselves) as a similar
 thing.  The target price for these guys is $500. That's a bit more than
 the Surfer Pac of today sure, and I suspect right out of the box a Network
 Computer might make a slightly better network system than the Surfer. And
 yet, is that really what you want? Especially in Europe or South Jersey,
 where you pay for connect time from the phone company to get to your ISP,
 even if he's giving you a flat rate, you're going to find the crossover
 point quickly. I had a $140 phone bill last month; I pretty much hit that
 crossover point monthly. Not to mention ISP storage. Today, most ISPs
 don't charge for storage, since after all, you don't put much more than
 a Web page and your pending mail up there, except for a few dinosaurs
 still using shell-only accounts. But just wait until the whole schemmeggie
 is sold in terms of on-line storage. You can bet they start to charge for
 it.  I pretty much pegged the mainframe concept as a dead end 17 years
 ago when I started playing with microcomputers. I don't see it as
 realistic that it comes back. Plus, I think a low-end PowerAmiga will be
 a whole lot more competitive with these Network Computers. And they'll
 also play kick-ass stand-alone games, they'll let you edit text, record
 MIDI, program, etc. Maybe NC's will be a fad, maybe they'll catch on in
 corporations. But the Amiga will kick their butts as long as AT hangs in
 there and gets the job done.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-21,Joanne) ?
(1-7,Randy Murdock III) I'll take my 3000, thank you...  Have to go, thanks
 Asha, Dave for being here!
(1-10,Asha) Roy: did you have a followup?
(1-13,RoyP) Speaking of "low-end".  Have you ever heard talk of developing,
 possibly...a "Mid-Range" PowerAmiga like a new A2000 size box.
(1-4,Holly) ?
(1-18,Dave H) I don' know that an A2000-sized box is necessarily
 "mid-range". In the traditional C= terms, a low-end system is clearly a
 highly integrated, A1200-type thing with some machine-specific expansion.
 Any box-with-slots-and-external-keyboard thing in the A2000 mold I would
 peg at "mid-to-high", but I really don't see multiple systems to start
 with, just different bundles. You put a slower CPU in there, you have
 your midrange system. Put in a 604 and some cache, you're high-end, but
 still cheaper than today's high-end.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Eric Douglas: ga
(1-5,Eric Douglas) What is your idea on what the amiga will be like in 2
 years, and what is the most promising news you have heard about anything.
(1-18,Dave H) I would hope that in early 1998, AT has sold their first
 million Power Amigas, the OS is now totally PowerPC code (at least as much
 as that matters, legacy stuff might stay in 68K code as it does on the
 Mac), etc. Your low end machine goes for about $500on the street, while
 mid and high end systems start at $1200 or so. Two companies so far have
 entered the "Amiga Clone" market, shipping the PPCP version of AmigaOS
 as standard on their systems. The basic Power Amiga of the time does at
 least 1280x1024 noninterlaced graphics, 24-bit if you spring for the
 graphics memory. It can also do NTSC and PAL, and it can do MPEG playback,
 full screen at 30fps. It has some 3D support hardware as standard for
 graphics, as well as the fast blitter. General MIDI and 16-bit digital
 audio I/O are also standard.  That's what I can hope, and none of that
 is impossible. I guess the most encouraging news so far has been that
 AT asked me about this stuff, so I have some idea that this might
 actually happen. ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-10,Asha) Holly: ga
(1-4,Holly) Thanks. Dave, you mentioned you were working on music.. What
 I was wondering, what is it, something Scala-related or ?? (nosy me)
(1-4,Holly) ga
(1-18,Dave H) No, the music stuff is just one of my many personal projects.
 I've been into music, listening and writing for years, but never had the
 time or equipoment to get anything done.
(1-4,Holly) Ahh.. Hmmm, what's up with projects at Scala? (looking at a
 Scala box on my shelf.) :)
(1-18,Dave H) Like I said before, the Scala MM100 for the PC is supposed to
 be out in May.  This was a total redesign, which gives you a somewhat
 more refined MM400-class program on standard PC hardware. The way this
 works is that Scala wrote their own portable 32-bit, multimedia friendly,
 object-oriented OS to host Scala stuff on, and they put as much of that
 as necessary on the target system. The bottom line was that, once you left
 the Amiga, multimedia support pretty much went away, at least the way we
 rekon "multimedia" on the Amiga. There's another port currently on a major
 digital television set-top box, and more on the way in '96. This is
 good in some ways, though the extra layers make the system slower than the
 finely tuned Amiga versions. But it's very portable, so they could do a
 Power Amiga version no problem, should The Management decide that's a
 good target to support (eg, in becoming a "real company", this isn't a
 decision in Engineering's hands, though virtually everyone in Engineering
 is  from the Amiga industry). ga
(1-10,Asha) Asha: ga <g>
(1-10,Asha) Dave: A couple of related questions
(1-10,Asha) Have you seen the Surfer software?  And do you like it?
(1-10,Asha) Also, do you know anything about an Amiga port/licence for Java?
 ga
(1-13,RoyP) ?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ? too :)
(1-18,Dave H) I haven't seen it all. I played with the VooDoo mail program,
 and it's by far the best mail program I have seen on any platform, IMHO.
 I haven't used the browser yet; my Amiga to internet is fairly low
 bandwidth right now, no one supports Telebit modems anymore. I have a
 fast modem on the PC, and ethernet, so I may eventually have a router
 set up so I can use this stuff. Or I'll break down and buy a real V34
 modem -- thing having just bought a car that's a problem (free cash),
 and in the next year I may have a much better internet hookup...
 As far as Java, I've heard from a few folks on the net who claim to be
 actively involved in an Amiga port. While I'm from Jersey, not Missouri,
 I'll still fell better when they can show me, but it does sound like
 something is happening.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Thanks!
(1-10,Asha) Joanne: ga
(1-21,Joanne) Anything about P'jami and 4.0 OS, are they due out soon? ga
(1-18,Dave H) I don't know; I assume 4.0 is being kept for the PowerAmiga
 OS. Pieces may show up from Phase 5 before then (Phase 5 and AT are
 trying to estabish some dialog, so efforts aren't duplicated). They're
 still making software decisions, some of which pertains to the
 distribution model of the OS in its early days. The official goalfar as
 I know is Power Amiga in 1Q97, which implies an offical OS release. There
 could be developer stuff long before then (the BeBox model).
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Mike Webb: ga
(1-5,Eric Douglas) ?
(1-14,Mike Webb) Is there any chance you could tell us any general
 information about the specifications of the AAA chipset?
(1-21,Joanne) Thanks gotta go. A real pleasure. :)
(1-18,Dave H) Sure. First of all, the AAA chipset was never finished. We had
 prototypes that were flawed, but did some real stuff, though they weren't
 functional enough to run the OS.  New revisions of each of the four chips
 had been taped out.  The AAA chipset was a 32/64-bit implementation of
 the Amiga architecture. It maintained as much register-level compatibility
 as possible with the OCS chipset, while adding zillions of 32-bit
 registers. It consists of four chips: Andrea, Linda, Monica, and Mary.
 Andrea is the Agnus analog, Monica the new Denise, and Mary replace Paula.
 Linda is a double-buffered line buffer, which makes it possible to run
 pixels and the chip bus at differen clock rates, and also does some neat
 compression tricks. There are two AAA system configurations. A 32-bit
 systems consists of one of each chip. A 64-bit system is made using two
 Linda and two Monica chips. Chip RAM can be DRAM or VRAM; VRAM runs pixels
 twice as fast and eliminates display DMA from the chip bus proper. A 64-bit
 VRAM system can run 1280x1024 at around 11-12 bits/pixel at  60Hz, and
 many other resolutions are possible, including all your AA favorites.
 The system supports planar displays to 16-bit, as well as chunky displays,
 HAM8, HAM10, and HAM8-chunky.  The 8 sprites still exist, and can go up to
 128-bits wide. There's also a single bit overlay, and you can have dual
 8-bit playfields too. 24-bits/pixel is supported as "byte-planes", which
 we called "hybrid" pixels (a little chunky, a little planar).  The blitter
 and copper do 32-bit as well as the old 16-bit stuff.  32-bit blits are
 pixel addressed, and there are new blitter operations, like add, add with
 saturation, sort, and tally. Blits can use long bursts, so you get 32-bits
 moved in 70ns, rather than today's 16-bits moved in 280ns. The copper has
 a move multiple instruction, and a blitter interrupt (eg, copper lists can
 very cleanly feed the blitter new instructions).  The audio supports 8
 channels, 16-bits/sample with rates up to some 100kHz. Channels don't pan,
 but can be assigned left or right.  No synthesis is available on-chip.
 Audio output can be divided by 2 or 4 to avoid clipping in the mix, and an
 18-bit digital ouput is also available.  Floppy handles standard 1MB, 2MB,
 and 4MB discs with or without real sectors. It also handles the CD-ROM
 encoding, RLL, and some digital radio format. It's technically fast enough
 for 1x CD-ROM or ST-506 hard disks.  There are two buffered serial ports.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) Well, you said just about everything. Thanks. I've been
 wanting to know for awhile.
(1-10,Asha) RoyP: ga
(1-13,RoyP) This is a question for JimDoc, who couldn't be here...
(1-13,RoyP) He asks about Development on a DiskSalv for AFS...
(1-13,RoyP) Wants to go for the AFS-Pro but is waiting for a DiskSalv to
 work with it. ga
(1-18,Dave H) Well, there's a provisional DiskSalv 4 release, in the hands of
 Fourth Level Development for about two months now. It does Salvage only on
 AFS partitions, and that Salvage in all honesty could be better (much of
 the problem is finding good stuff under AFS, the traditional Amiga file
 systems' use of a distributed directory structure may annoy you with the
 99.99% of use for directory listings and all,but it's a beautiful thing
 for that 0.01% of the time you're recovering failed stuff).  I do intend
 to improve the Salvage and add fix-in-place. Other things, like a trip or
 two to Germany for example, have made my time on DS4 kind of scarce
 recently, so some of these things haven't happened yet. I do intent to
 get to them as time permits. ga
(1-10,Asha) Jon Guidry: ga
(1-13,RoyP) Thank u Dave.  Keep up the good (no GREAT) work that you do.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Two semi-related questinos:
(1-6,Jon Guidry) 1)  What kind of other Amiga's were there when CBM went
 bankrupt (in development) ... and
(1-6,Jon Guidry) 2) What are all the saying you know of on the Amigas'
 motherboards? :)
(1-18,Dave H) 1) By the time C= went under, development had really been
 stymied for some time (it's a related issue, refer to "The Deathbed Vigil
 and other tales of digital angst" for one view on some these factors).
 Things had been humming along on the A3000+ in the first half of 1991
 (the A3000+ being the best of the A3000 and A4000 combined with a DSP3210
 and kick-ass audio subsystem), then a new management came in and killed
 all the projects currently in the works. The A3000+ was reduced to a
 "development vehicle" for AA, AA was intentionally delayed for 6 months
 so Mehdi Ali would think the previous engineeing management has been
 screwing it up (they weren't), etc. During the next year or so, I launched
 a number of "future projects", some asked for, some obvious bandaids,
 and some just to keep me from leaving C=. There was a DSP board, a
 spinoff of the A3000+, which did actually see life after a 3rd party
 licensed the design (the design itself was done by two engineers
 assigned the project after Lew Eggebrecht took over Engineering, in itself
 at the least a local maximum).  I had a new architecture pretty much done,
 on paper, by the Summer of 1992. For a short time I actually had a guy
 designing some of it (I was too busy with A4091 and AAA prototype), but he
 was yanked to help out on CD32. This architecture, called "Acutiator", was
 the next generation mid-to-high end architecture, designed to replace
 the A3000 architecture.  It was highly integrated (to lower cost),
 highly modular (to let us make a number of well designed motherboards
 from the same chips, rather than a kludge like parts of the A4000), and
 ready to support '040, '060, and RISC. Very little of this was ever even
 designed, unfortunately.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry) what bout part 2? :-)
(1-18,Dave H) Whoop!
(1-18,Dave H) 2) Well, there weren't that many "sayings" on my motherboards,
 we generally stuck to code names. The best saying was on the A2000
 prototype, Rev 2 or 3. This was something I did in 1986. In '85 and '86,
 we had a devistating round of layoffs at C=, based on the fact that the
 C64/C128 were aging and C= had paid buckets of money for Amiga.  So on the
 bottom of the A2000 PCB was inscribed "The Few, The Proud, The Remaining",
 and below that, the initials of everyone left in Engineering. Henri Rubin
 made us take it off, so all you see is the "HAYNIE/FISHER" on the top of
 that corner (Terry Fisher did the PCB layout). Every motherboard has a
 code name. Everything George Robbins worked on was some reference to the
 B-52's. I had "The Boss" (A2000), "The Edge" (A2630), "B2" (A3000, Hedley
 named it), "Gemini" (an experimental multiprocessing Zorro III card),
 "Nyx" (the AAA prototype), and others I can't think of at the moment.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) thanks Dave!
(1-10,Asha)        It's getting late
(1-10,Asha) So I'd like to just do the last remaining (two) questions
(1-10,Asha) Eric Douglas: ga
(1-18,Dave H) Late is a relative term I usually crash around 4AM.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) a true Amigan :)
(1-5,Eric Douglas) skip me my question was answered.
(1-10,Asha) Well, Dave, if you want to continue, that's fine with me!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) ok, let's keep going! :)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) YEA!
(1-10,Asha) Mike Webb: ga
(1-18,Dave H) I don't mind going a bit longer. \
(1-14,Mike Webb) typing...
(1-13,RoyP) ?
(1-1,The Man) ??
(1-14,Mike Webb) I hope this isn't too vague; in the January 1995 issue of
 Amiga World
(1-18,Dave H) New CD, New Beer, I'm here.
(1-14,Mike Webb) (moment of silence) in which there is a sort of a
 chronology about the Amiga, there are a few pictures that show the Amiga
 design team doing strange things, like wearing white bags with green wigs,
 or you wielding a sword. Is there any explanation for that (just wondering,
 seemed kind of interesting) :-) (end of question)
(1-18,Dave H) Yes!
(1-18,Dave H) The sword shot was from a Halloween party. AW had asked for
 any weird Amiga-related photos they could use, and I guess that made the
 cut.  I still have that Claymore, but I use Japanese style swords these
 days.  The green wigs were from a DevCon, I think it was Colorado. The
 story: C= management had hired Jeff Scherb as VP of Developer Support
 (before this, CATS was led by a Director I guess). Scherb was an ok guy,
 but wanted to show a professional face at DevCons.  Clearly this has to be
 remedied, and so a bunch of the CATS and Software folks got together and
 decide to pull a prank. What you see there is a live re-enactment of
 "Lemmings"... ga
(1-10,Asha) RoyP: ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) Lol respectfully
(1-13,RoyP) Typing....
(1-13,RoyP) Dave AT has had problems getting HD drives for the A4000...
(1-13,RoyP) how do you see that situation and do you know of a solution for
 them... Also - why did it take so long for C= to even think about CD Rom
 drives. ga
(1-18,Dave H) The real problem is the custom nature of the Amiga HD drive.
 These were specified by C=, made only by Chinon. Now Chinon, being a big
 old supplier of C= parts, was apprently owed buckets of money by C=. You
 would think that AT coming along, offering to take any inventory of these
 drives off their hands would be a good thing for all involved, but
 apparently Chinon didn't want any part of it. That's what I heard, anyway.
 So AT is left with no manufacturer of Amiga HD drives (the trick being
 primarily the drive going 1/2 speed when you insert an HD disk, and
 transmitting Amiga disk code for the appropriate floppy format).  The only
 viable solution for existing machines is to make this kind of drive, but
 AT doesn't have enough volumes to interest drive makers. The best solution
 for new systems is to use off-the-shelf floppy controllers; even if that's
 going to limit them to 1.44MB rather than 1.76MB, it's the only
 cost-effective solution.  C= never worried about CD-ROM drives because,
 until the latter days, they had been considered too expensive for low-end
 machines. Custom designs like those in CDTV and CD32 could be done cheaply,
 but when off-the-shelf solutions for A500s wound up being more than 1/2
 the cost of the A500, I guess C= didn't see it as a viable market.  Maybe
 that was wrong of them -- the old C64 and C128 floppy drives were similarly
 priced. It wasn't an issue on the highend machines, you just bought a SCSI
 CD-ROM.  That's what I did. An extra $10 in the A500 for cheap-ass
 Mac-style SCSI and it might have been a different world, eh. ga
(1-13,RoyP) CD's still aren't standard equipment.  -- Sorry :(
(1-5,Eric Douglas) Been very nice. Good night dave. Good luck and I hope to
 meet you one day! If you ever come to vegas look me up. Nite all!
(1-10,Asha) I have no more  people on my question list.  If anyone has any
 more questions, please type ? now.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) !
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-26,Mr Challeron) ?
(1-1,Greg) ?
(1-10,Asha) Mike Webb: ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) Something you said earlier brought me to this thought: how
 and why did Commodore end up with the Amiga, anyway, and did all the people
 who designed it end up working with Commodore later?
(1-18,Dave H) Amiga was, of course, a CA startup company. It was originally
 funded by some private group (some doctors in Florida, I've heard), but as
 they needed more funds, they got a loan from Atari. By 1985 Atari was run
 by the ruthless Jack Tramiel. Atari was negotiating to buy the Amiga rights,
 but as anyone who's dealt with Jack knows, you're better off making a deal
 with the devil. He knew, given the loan, he could get Amiga cheap if they
 went into bankruptcy, and he didn't think anyone else was watching. C= was,
 and I really don't know how they came to be watching. But C= came through
 with a very good (for Amiga; they could have probably paid half what they
 did) offer, and Atari was paid off on the last day of the loan. Jack was
 very pissed.  What's not so well known, if at all known, is that in the
 fall of '83 Jack started a "secret 68000 project" at an undisclosed
 "offsite location". C= at the time was already working on the C128 (you
 all know it) and the C900 (a megapixel UNIX workstation, for cheap back in
 1983 -- go figure). It's fairly clear this became the ST, after Atari
 didn't get the Amiga. I don't know the C900 or ST very well, but they're
 said to bear more than a passing resembalance.  Initally, C= maintained
 the whole Amiga group out in Los Gatos. This lasted through the A1000, but
 around the A2000 time, things began to fall apart. Management liked the
 proposal for the A2000 from Germany, including the BridgeBoard concept (at
 the time, C='s German group did all PClone designs, including the SideCar).
 Los Gatos folks felt their Ranger design, by all accounts superior, was
 politically slighted.  Round the same time, Bob Welland and George Robbins
 (of the C900 project) were advancing their "fat" architecture, which
 eventually became the A500. Management decided that they wanted all
 Engineering in West Chester, PA. People don't leave Los Gatos for West
 Chester, as a rule.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Jon Guidry: ga
(1-10,Asha) No question? Jon?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) This is a statement.. thanks for showing up in here, Dave.
 We all really appreciate it.
(1-10,Asha) Mr. Challeron: ga
(1-26,Mr Challeron) With all the current interest in Portable (if expensive)
 Multimedia, what are the odds we'll see a PowerAmiga Laptop (Imagine! Now
 your Amiga can also be your PAL!), along the order of the PPC PowerBook,
 if nothing else? ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry)
(1-18,Dave H) I figure its inevitable. Simply because, if nothing else, the
 Amiga OS will become PPCP compliant, and there will be PPCP laptops. It's
 also a reasonable guess that any new low end Power Amiga design could
 translate fairly well to the laptop.  I don't know if AT is interested,
 and in fact, the question of an AT branded laptop will undoubtedly be
 dependent on more mass market success.\
(1-10,Asha) ?
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Asha: ga
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Thnx
(1-10,Asha) Dave, is PPCP the new acrynym (sp?) for CHRP?
(1-18,Dave H) Yup. I bitched to Motorola about this. After all, you can
 pronounce CHRP (chirp), but PPCP is awkward. They Motorolaeans tend to peg
 CHRP/PPCP as "PReP with Apple stuff added", like for the most part, you
 don't need to worry about the Apple stuff unless you're doing Macs. We'll
 need the PowerShapeShifter to be happy with Mac stuff anyway; the multiple
 boot schemes they have pretty much blow (I have it on my PC, but there's no
 OS I really want fulltime there anyway).
(1-18,Dave H) [B
(1-18,Dave H) [B
(1-18,Dave H) [B
(1-18,Dave H) [B
(1-10,Asha) (can't backspace without a chat window)
(1-26,Mr Challeron) /send 6 yes
(1-10,Asha) Dave? Are you finished?
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Are there any more questions? (type ?)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) ?
(1-10,Asha) Bronwen: ga
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) do you have any general advice or messages of good
 cheer for us amiga faithful?
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) :)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) we have to stay positive!
(1-18,Dave H) I believe the Power Amiga is possible, even in this day of
 Wintel dominance. If I didn't, I wouldn't waste my time, or AT's. I'm not
 at AT, and not in a position to say just what will happen, but if they do
 what I'm suggesting, I think they have a good shot at an Amiga Renissance.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-13,RoyP) ?
(1-10,Asha) Roy: ga
(1-13,RoyP) Do you see them having any really great announcements at CeBit
 or maybe Demos that we aren't already expecting.  ga
(1-18,Dave H) They have a concept I think they're showing at CeBit, which
 I really liked. Since I don't know if it's showing public, I can't fill
 in the details.  But I can say they have a different machine idea than
 anything you've seen before from C=.
(1-18,Dave H) .
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Anyone else?
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-26,Mr Challeron) ?
(1-13,RoyP) Thanks Dave.  Good answer (g)
(1-10,Asha) Mike ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) I realize it's been almost two years since his death, but
do you have anything to say about Jay Miner? (it's strange how little I know
about him, considering how instrumental he was in the Amiga's development)
(1-18,Dave H) Back in sec, Kira Baby is crying...
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Kira Baby?
(1-10,Asha) (Jon: Dave's daughter)
(1-14,Mike Webb) Has anyone truly written a fitting epilogue to that story?
(1-14,Mike Webb) ga whenever you return
(1-10,Asha) Mike: Give Dave a few minutes to rock the baby...:)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) sha :)
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Asha, I'll ask you in the event that this came up while
 I was crashing OS2CIM: What ever happened to the AAA chipset? ga
(1-10,Asha) Mr. Challeron: It was never finished.  Last I heard AmigaTech
 has abandoned it as there are better chips off the shelf.
(1-14,Mike Webb) If I may comment on that...
(1-10,Asha) You can ask Dave when he gets back though...
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) this is sooooo coool what a guy, rocking babies
 and all! :)
(1-26,Mr Challeron) It seems like a shame, from what Dave talked about
 tonight.
(1-18,Dave H) Back
(1-10,Asha) Bronwen: He's a real sweetie!
(1-10,Asha) Ok... Mike, want to repost your question?
(1-14,Mike Webb) I will retype it now...
(1-18,Dave H) I sing Kira to sleep almost every night.
(1-14,Mike Webb) I realize it's been almost two years since his death, but
 do you have anything to say about Jay Miner? (it's strange how little I
 know about him, considering how instrumental he was in the Amiga's
 development) Has anyone truly written a fitting epilogue to that story?
(1-14,Mike Webb) ga
(1-18,Dave H) I didn't know Jay all that either, unfortunately. Perhaps
 better than many in West Chester; we talked at DevCons, occasionally went
 out for dinner when we
(1-14,Mike Webb) (bye the way, could you indicate how to pronounce his last
 name? I'm not sure)  pardon the interruption :-)
(1-18,Dave H) were in the same town. But I'm not the one to have a deep and
 meaningful comment. Though I think it's a great thing to be able to have a
 positive effect on lots of people, and Jay's vision did this in spades.
(1-18,Dave H) (Kira's back to sleep, she just wanted hot milk and covers).
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) we all want that!
(1-4,Holly S.) and warm Amigas. :)
(1-10,Asha) (I don't know about the "hot milk" part)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) yikes
(1-18,Dave H) You pronounces it like you would when referring to a guy who
 digs mines.
(1-14,Mike Webb) I was wondering, with all the Spanish influence on the
 Amiga and the nickname "Padre" if it had a Spanish pronunciation.
(1-18,Dave H) Well, they did work in Los Gatos. But as I heard the story,
 their original name was something lexically similar to Amiga, but already
 copyrighted (I guess the name here would be a 10 point Amiga Trivia answer).
 So they changed a letter or so, Amiga sounded cool. The Spanish stuff came
 as a result.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Mr Challeron: ga
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Thanks.
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Dave: I'm a little unclear on the AAA chipset, and your
 discussion of it earlier, because you started using "past tense", and ended
 up talking about what it "is".  Has the whole project been dropped, or is
 AT working on "off-the-shelf-close-enough", and going to tweak the rest in
 software? ga
(1-18,Dave H) Well, there's what AAA does today, on two existing machines.
 But AAA itself is no more.  That's the right decision, it's just too late,
 there's too much left undone on it, and it would cost a fortune to complete
 it. I can buy $15 SVGA chip with better graphics specs and faster blitters.
 That's a function of the way the compuyter industry has gone. Back in the
 Amiga's early days, no one did systej specific ASICs of any kind, except C=
 and a few other mass marketers.  C= was a good match for the Amiga becuse
 of this, and the Amiga chips really were something special. You got
 roughly 68020 class performance on the A1000 thanks to the blitter, at a
 time when the '020 was a workstation CPU. And having something like an '020
 doing your graphics freed up the 68000, so the system was just that much
 better than anything else. Over time, the PC Clone industry spawned a new
 class of chip makers. These guys made glue chips for PC Clones, at first,
 basicallyt making the "Gary" and "Buster" equivalents for PCs. Gradually,
 they started cloning IBM's graphics chips, and that led up to today.
 The companies that specialized in graphics chips were rewarded. A good
 systems house of today, IBM, Compaq, Apple, etc. might ship 5 million
 systems a year, if it's a good year. But these graphics chip companies are
 shipping 10's of millions of chips. They're getting expertise and volume
 unavailable to systems houses.  Add the growth of multimedia concerns
 (if not good OSs to drive real MM), and you find that it's going to be
 very difficult to make a decent graphics chip today. If you don't have
 3 years, 3 million buck, and a practiced  team of 10-20 chip designers
 handy, you don't even step up to the plate.
(1-18,Dave H) [B
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) Asha: permission to make pertinent comment?
(1-10,Asha) Mike: ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) I don't know if this means anything, but I was over on AT's
 web page, reading one of their press releases, and I saw a line that said
 something to ... never mind, I probably am about to say something stupid :-)
(1-14,Mike Webb) ?
(1-10,Asha) Mike Webb: ga
(1-14,Mike Webb) typing...
(1-14,Mike Webb) Please clear this up if I have a serious misunderstanding,
 but I've seen a number of fairly modern PC's in recent years, and not one
 of them has been able to keep up with my 68030 ECS machine in animation --
 would these cheap SVGA chips, for all their high resolutions and more
 colors, really have a dream of keeping up with a newer, more powerful
 Amiga chipset at animation?
(1-14,Mike Webb) ga
(1-10,Asha) Do we have any more questions?
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) mighty quiet in the room! :)
(1-13,RoyP) I don't, Asha
(1-6,Jon Guidry) moi non plus
(1-18,Dave H) Sure. A good SVGA chip of today has a CPU to "chipram"
 bandwidth of 50MB/s-100MB/s. The best you get on an Amiga is 7MB/s.
 Similarly with the blitter.  What you don't have on the PC, plain and
 simple, is the AmigaOS. SVGA chips can double buffer, they can give you a
 vertical blanking interrupt, and they're wicked fast in their modern
 incarnations. But what do you run, Windows or MS-DOS?  It's like letting
 a monkey drive that hot new Porsche you just bought (well, I didn't, but
 you get the picture).
(1-14,Mike Webb) So is the AmigaOS really the Amiga's only remaining
 advantage?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ! (statement)
(1-18,Dave H) Look at it this way: the PC has graphics 10x-50x faster, it
 has CPUs 5x-20x faster, and it costs less. And yet, the Amiga is doing
 stuff you can't do on the PC. Plain and simple. How else would you explain
 this? Scala has spent the last 2.5 years writing their own OS to allow
 Amiga-like things to happen on the PC.  Software really is the key factor
 these days. Hardware evolution, if anything, was hastened by the PClone
 busines.  Software evolution, on the other hand, has been hampered.
(1-14,Mike Webb) (comment) So I guess the AmigaOS is probably the basket in
 which to put the eggs.
(1-18,Dave H) a
(1-18,Dave H) gha
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Jon Guidry: ga
(1-6,Jon Guidry) It's still obvious that the UAE (Useless Amiga Emulator)
 on DOS and UNIX stations is pretty darn slow... 10% the speed of an A500..
 but disproves the theory that an Amiga can't be emulated ;)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) send 10 I just read Fido from my local bbs, there
 are actually two here which support ami!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) oops! sorry
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ga :-)
(1-10,Asha) Any more questions? Comments?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) tell Skal thanks
(1-10,Asha) Will do!
(1-18,Dave H) Anything can be emulated.
(1-18,Dave H) The conditions under which something can be accurately
 emulated in realtime are a different story.  No chip is released without
 being simulated to death. But running at 1/100th (or worse) the speed
 of actual hardware doesn't an emulator make. If they're getting 1/10th the
 speed of an A500 on some PC, wait awhile, eventually it'll be full speed.
 And I hear you're supposed to call the latest release "Unix Amiga
 Emulator"; I guess some authority has pronounced it usable. But don't
 expect it to do clean animations no matter how "useful" it gets;
 emulations are always at the mercy of their host environments.
(1-18,Dave H) ga
(1-10,Asha) Does anyone have any more questions?
(1-10,Asha) Well, it looks like we've run out of questions
(1-10,Asha) I'd like to thank Dave for coming to visit with us tonight and
 for all of his wonderfully detailed and patient answers to our questions.
(1-14,Mike Webb) Comment: I've gone well over my CompuServe free time, but
 it's been well worth it.  Thanks, Dave!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) standing ovation begins!
(1-10,Asha) Thanks Dave!  And I hope we can invite you back again soon!
(1-26,Mr Challeron) Thanks Asha for hosting and thanks Dave for being here.
(1-13,RoyP) Thanks Dave.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ditto.  thanks, Dave!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) it's worth it even if it's not free, Mike :)
(1-14,Mike Webb) Absolutely.
(1-18,Dave H) And I've been typing with a sore thumb.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) should be sorer now!
(1-18,Dave H) Did I have anything else here.... Let's see.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) a song?
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) warm milk?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) a pitcher of beer?
(1-3,Gracia M. Littauer) Super CO...Asha, you run a tight ship! Dave is the
 most articulate techie
(1-3,Gracia M. Littauer) I've heard yet <VBG>
(1-10,Asha) Gracia: Thanks!
(1-18,Dave H) RJ sez "Keep the Faith" (RJ and Dale made it out to the Amiga
 Atlanta 10th anniversary dinner).
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) hey, let's all run to the virtual bar!
(1-14,Mike Webb) lol
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) i'll buy the first round :)
(1-18,Dave H) Explorer: Ford 1, Microsoft 0
(1-13,RoyP) Dave - I'd like to ask you back, sometime after the CeBit
 show <G>
(1-14,Mike Webb) laughing again ;)
(1-18,Dave H) If you're looking for a beat-to-hell, tow-it-home kind of
 Eagle Talon AWD TSi, lemme know.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) tsi?
(1-10,Asha) Dave: You're selling your car?
(1-18,Dave H) My car kind of died.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) what died in it? :-)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) brains and a car to boot, the man's a god!
(1-10,Asha) Ooops....
(1-10,Asha) Dave: Tow it to a dealer and trade it in! :)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) oh, tow-it-home! send it back to Greg Kinear! :)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) I need a car, but I need one that works :)
(1-18,Dave H) But, being dead, I couldn't get anything reasonable on
 trade-in, so I kept it.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) ...to park in? :)
(1-10,Asha) Dave: You could turn it into a planter!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) great minds think alike, asha!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) how old is the talon?
(1-18,Dave H) Hey, you never know when there's a mechanical wiz, or an
 idiot with lots of patience, in the audience.
(1-18,Dave H) It's a '91 with 94,000 miles.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) that's ami in a nutshell LOL
(1-6,Jon Guidry) ... in Louisiana :-)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) whew, where have you been driving to and fro?
(1-13,RoyP) Dave - You did DRIVE back and forth to Germany - Did you.
(1-10,Asha) LOL!!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Hehe!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) he can drive on water as well as walk on it? HO HO
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Interstate 4000? :-)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) keeping all those ami fires burning!
(1-13,RoyP) Dave - BTW, will you be going to CeBit?
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Asha:  I uuencoded Jeff Grimmett a Cajun Stew.. want
 some? :)
(1-10,Asha) Jon: Sure, send it here as uuencoding tends to get garbled on
 Fido.
(1-18,Dave H) its 64 miles round trip to Scala.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) Asha:  okay.  Jeff ducked when I sent him the uuencoded
 Tabasco though.
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) how do you pronounce that word...uuen...
(1-6,Jon Guidry) you you encode I think
(1-10,Asha) U U encoded
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) thanks, i feel so newbie!
(1-10,Asha) Bronwen: Then I guess you don't want to hear about MIME...
 (giggle)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) isn't mime silent like the p in bath?
(1-10,Asha) Bronwen: Hee hee!! On the Amiga, almost ALL files are silent
(1-1,Dana) Not formal now? Hi.
(1-10,Asha) (you're not going to "get" me with that 'p' stuff)
(1-10,Asha) Not formal now....
(1-1,Dana) Jon: Yes
(1-13,RoyP) Dave - BTW, will you be going to CeBit?
(1-1,Dana) I was in and out briefly, sorry I missed most of this..
(1-1,Dana) I'll definitely DL the transcript
(1-10,Asha) Dana: I'll be posting the transcript when I get it edited
 (posted here on CIS)
(1-6,Jon Guidry) I'll post the transcript on FIDO's AMIGA echo and Aminet
 when I'm done.
(1-1,Dana) Cool
(1-10,Asha) GREAT conference Dave!! :)
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) waves of applause and gratitude!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) is everyone done? :)  I'm about to turn transcript
 recording off and go to sleep :)
(1-13,RoyP) Asha: It was a wonderful CO.
(1-10,Asha) Jon: I think we're done ......
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) yes thanks ASHA and CIS!
(1-10,Asha) Roy: You're all welcome, and thanks to all of you for coming!
 Couldn't have done it without you!
(1-13,RoyP) Good Night everyone.
(1-14,Mike Webb) Thanks CIS, Asha, Dave, etc., it's been great
(1-10,Asha) G'night Roy!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) where'd Dave go? :)
(1-10,Asha) Mike: You're welcome!
(1-11,Bronwen Pitchford) kiss the baby for us!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) he left.
(1-6,Jon Guidry) night people!
(1-10,Asha) Dave has left the CO!
(1-6,Jon Guidry) bye Asha!
(1-10,Asha) G'night all

- End Transcript -


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