We enthusiastically accepted Alan Redhouse's invitation to see the
AmigaOne prototype. (Alan Redhouse is the managing director of
Eyetech). As he was on a business-trip in the south of France he had
the idea of calling us just in case we were interested in meeting
him. What a great idea indeed! We immediately told our friend Ben
Yoris, from Hyperion, who met us there as well. Thanks a lot to Alan
and his wife for a day we'll never forget. The following pictures
have immortalized that day. Pictures of the 1st prototype of AmigaOne as held by APS and detailed
pictures of the mother card. We were told some interesting things: Sound and Firewire will be on PCI cards to allow for future
flexibility and upgradability. Amiga will develop the drivers as
part of OS4.x. There will be several user-interchangeable CPU cards,
including adapter boards which can take a variety of different, user
supplied CPU modules, including ex. Macintosh ZIF types. Eyetech
recommend that users let authorised dealers fit and test CPU modules
to the relevant adapter card. CPU cards specifications will be open
to any company wishing to develop them. The end user price of the mother card remains unknown for the time
being due to changes in the price of electronic components and in
currencies as well (Euro, Sterling pound, Yen). These will be
published when the board goes into production. All dealers will be
able to purchase the boards at the same price, so there will be no
advantage in purchasing the AmigaOne from dealers in other countries.
The ATA & USB chips are not on the photo of the prototype as they are
not needed at this stage of the board's development. These chips
have been chosen to allow the best compromise between price and
performance. Because much of the operating system testing will now
be undertaken by Amiga Inc. and their contractors, the Beta version
will not have to be shipped until later in the development cycle, and
then only for compatibility testing of classic Amiga applications.
Dealers, such as APS, will be offered the opportunity to become
application software beta testers. Production boards are scheduled to
ship (along with OS4.0) this summer.