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1997-09-28
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@BEGIN_FILE_ID.DIZ GW2K Announce New Amigas!
OS3.5 within 6 months,
OS 4.0, New Machines Next year.
Read all about it!
Darreck Lisle (PR) Amiga Inc.
Answers some Questions
@END_FILE_ID.DIZ
(*Note!*: Taken from www.thesite.com, Part of the Ziff Davis Publishing
group, so this report is probably reliable!.. - Patrick. ;)
URL : http://www.thesite.com/news/newsjump2_092697.html
Title: thesite: Amiga Fans Rejoice: New Machines, OS On The Way
Amiga Fans Rejoice: New Machines, OS On The Way
Gateway 2000 bought the rights to the Amiga brand and its patents in a German
bankruptcy court in March, leading to feverish speculation among the
groundbreaking graphics computer's small but devoted core of users. The South
Dakota PC giant operates Amiga, Inc. as a separate division, but until now it
has kept mum about its plans for Amiga.
At a users' group meeting in Omaha on Sept. 16, Amiga Inc. public relations
and events coordinator Darreck Lisle said the new base model Amiga, running
the Amiga0S 4.0, should be about $1,000 cheaper than current Amiga 4000
models, and could include features like support for industry-standard
graphics cards, universal serial bus ports and the built-in ability to run
several operating systems.
Lisle also discussed the directions that Amiga research and development staff
is taking. He speculated that consumer electronics, which includes everything
from palmtop PDAs to home security systems to Gateway's existing line of
Destination PC/TV combos, would be a huge market for a small, stable
operating system like the AmigaOS. He also envisioned both a full desktop
system and a plugin card for "industry-standard" computers running other
operating systems.
Lisle said almost 400 companies asked for developers' licenses in the week
following the users' group meeting at which he revealed his plans for the
platform. He promised users and developers the new OS will come out six
months after he can assemble a full staff.
Lisle noted that no former Commodore Amiga employee has turned down his
offers of employment; even those not willing to leave their present jobs
agreed to do contract work. He also said that a new vice president should be
announced "soon."
The Amiga, originally developed as a possible game platform, became the
desktop leader in graphics, animation, 3D and video editing. It's still in
commercial use as a cheap alternative to SGI rendering engines and Avid
digital video editing systems. No reliable estimate on the size of the Amiga
community is available, but Lisle said, "I've heard everything from 10
million to 100,000 [users]."
The Amiga survived the 1994 bankruptcy of parent company Commodore, the 1996
bankruptcy of new owner (and, like Gateway, a PC clone maker) Escom and
failed bids by VisCorp in 1996 and QuikPak in 1997.
-- Karen Whitehouse
[Back to the feature...]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1996-97 Ziff-Davis TV Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer
More details from Amiga Omaha Homepage...
URL : http://www.nfinity.com/~amicom/auohsep97.html
Title: AUoH Meeting Highlights - September 16, 1997
AUoH Meeting Highlights - September 16, 1997
Special Guest!!
Darreck Lisle, Public Relations and Events Coordinator for Amiga, Inc., was
present at the September meeting. See below for full details.
Attendance
This month, the turnout was anywhere between 20 and 30 people. An exact count
was difficult as there was a lot of activity going on. At times I counted 24,
26 and 27 people present, but people were always coming in and out.
Newsletters
Newsletters were brought for sale at the meeting. One subscription was
renewed for 12 months. Back issues were given away to reduce the amount of
stuff I need to carry in my briefcase. A donation of $10 was made to the
club.
Topics
Normally, news is the first item of the meeting. However, this was not a
normal meeting.
The room opened up at a remarkably early 6:30. Many people started setting up
tables and chairs and started bringing in equipment for the semi-annual swap
meet at this time.
A lot of swap meet browsing was already going on by the time Mr. Lisle
arrived, approximately 7:15pm. He went around the room and chatted with many
interested Amiga users until 7:45pm when he started his discussion.
Before the discussion started, there were four or five Amiga systems on the
demonstration tables. Two were receiving AmigaOS 3.1 upgrades as the club
meeting is the only time some users receive support. There was already a lot
of merchandise and money trading hands by this time.
Keynote Speech by Darreck Lisle
Mr. Lisle started off by telling the club how he got his job at Amiga, Inc.
Basically, he got the job by continually offering his services until Gateway
2000 finally gave in.
He stated he has an Amiga 1200 on his desk for work purposes, and an Amiga
4000T for home use. The A4000T at home has an 060 card, a Catweasel
controller with two HD floppies, and additional expansion equipment.
He also talked about why we haven't heard any press releases from Amiga, Inc.
License disputes and liquidator disputes need to be resolved before a press
release can be approved. The Vice President hiring process is nearing
completion, so barring any further delays, we should be hearing a press
release soon.
Darreck then went on to talk about Amiga, Inc.'s approach to marketing. Open
licensing will be utilized to speed up development while Amiga, Inc.
completes its start-up cycle. One application for this open licensing could
be in the area of Consumer Electronics where a small, highly-stable OS is
critical. Some applications he speculated on include a palmtop Amiga, an
Amiga-based security system, Amiga-based smart homes and Amiga-based cable TV
boxes. A comment was made how it would be bad for the system running your
house to crash because you would have to reboot your house.
Companies are coming to Amiga, Inc. with requests to receive licenses so they
may pursue development on Amiga-based consumer electronics applications. It
is Darreck's opinion that Amiga has a bright future because Amiga
International and Amiga, Inc. are starting a cycle of slowly gaining momentum
which will build in the upcoming months.
Another possible use of the Amiga technology may be into the existing Gateway
Destination market. This technology incorporates a TV into the computer so
regular TV viewing is done on a 31" screen, but as a task on the computer.
The current use of PCs for this task has led to many families having to
reboot their TV often due to crashes.
Cooperation with third-party developers is also a priority as they are the
driving force behind research and development at the present time.
Darreck also said that he thinks the time frame for the release of AmigaOS
3.5 will be sometime within the next six months. AmigaOS 4.0 should be
available before this time next year. AmigaOS 3.5 will use the existing 3.1
ROMs.
Amiga, Inc. is currently trying to collect all pertinent Amiga archives and
technology. They are also attempting to assemble a comprehensive Amiga
library of Amiga books, service manuals, technical manuals, and any other
writings pertinent to the Amiga's technology.
Amiga International is the marketing arm of Amiga and is based in Germany.
Amiga, Inc. is the R&D arm of Amiga and is based in North Sioux City, South
Dakota.
Interaction with user groups is moving along. A user group network is in the
works. (Editor's note: Just today I received an email from an Amiga user
group coordination effort. They plan on compiling information on all Amiga
user group meetings and asking Amiga resellers to include a flyer with each
package shipped.)
The purpose of the Developer Network is to assemble and motivate developers.
The Amiga, Inc. sponsored Developer Network should be getting underway
sometime around March or April of 1998. Backward compatibility to 3.0, 2.0
and 1.3 (if possible) is a priority for new software, as is standardization
on a set of issues. Autoconfiguration and plug-and-play software is also a
priority.
Question and Answer Session
The Q's and A's are not word-for-word, but are taken from my notes.
One of the people who had just purchased AmigaOS 3.1 (it was being installed
during the club meeting) asked the following:
Q: Should we buy AmigaOS 3.1?
A: Yes--you will need the ROMs for the updated AmigaOS anyway.
Q: Is Amiga, Inc. interested in the educational software market?
A: Yes--we feel the Amiga is ideally suited to educational uses.
Q: Is graphics card compatibility going to be built into the next OS release?
A: Yes--some type of RTG standard should be included as well as an AHI-type
of standard.
Q: How long should we expect to wait before we see new systems?
A: Probably around a year.
Q: How many old Commodore employees are working for Amiga, Inc.?
A: A rough estimate would be around 15 to 20. However, no former Commodore
employee has turned us down and has said they will contract out to Amiga,
Inc. if necessary to keep their present positions.
Q: Are there any other enhancements to the Amiga you foresee?
A: Possibly support for the Universal Serial Bus (USB).
Q: Do you know how much Gateway 2000 bought the Amiga for?
A: I wish I did, but I have no clue.
Q: What is Amiga, Inc.'s position on UAE, the Amiga emulator available for
Microsoft and UNIX?
A: The current practice of pirating Amiga ROMs will be cracked down on
shortly.
Q: Will Amiga, Inc. use UAE to sway Microsoft and UNIX users to the Amiga?
A: Probably not--the speed of the emulation on even the fastest Pentiums is
only roughly equivalent to an unexpanded Amiga 500.
Q: What does Amiga, Inc. think about Java?
A: We would like to see Java in the next OS, but there is still a lot to be
done in this area.
Q: Is Amiga, Inc. considering a "Power Up" style program like they had when
the A3000 was released?
A: That will most likely fall into the hands of the licensed Amiga-compatible
makers to decide, but there are many uses for older Amiga systems. For
instance, many technical schools modify Amiga systems for test equipment.
Also, many cable channels use Amigas for the Prevue Guide and also Public
Service stations.
Q: Are we going to see any of the current operating system hacks, such as
MUI, built into a future AmigaOS?
A: Possibly--however, MUI is too large and bulky to consider making it an
integral part of the OS. A TCP stack is a definite possibility, though. Using
Shareware and Public Domain OS software which is currently available is
probably not an option, because programmers of competing software may claim
Amiga, Inc. is showing favoritism by their choices. For instance, Amiga, Inc.
currently buys most of its test equipment from many different Amiga
mail-order houses for this very reason.
Q: Will the prices of existing systems be dropped, like say $1000 off the
existing A4000T prices?
A: Yes--Amiga motherboards are quite simple in design so cost should reduce,
especially after improvements are made to the current design, such as
optimization of the existing custom chip set. Today's technology allows chip
makers to reduce the size of the Amiga's custom chips.
Q: Is Amiga, Inc. investigating the possibility of giving the Amiga the
ability to run software written for other OSes?
A: Yes--I believe there is some work involving making the Amiga a
multi-platform machine. There is also the possibility of an Amiga-on-a-card
which would effectively take over the processing of an industry-standard
system making it essentially an Amiga.
Q: Has Amiga, Inc. discovered a lot of reverse engineering of the Amiga
technology?
A: Yes--especially overseas.
Q: Will Amiga, Inc. be coordinating with third parties?
A: Yes--that is one of the main goals of Amiga, Inc.
Intermission
During intermission, more swapping was going on, people engaged in one-on-one
conversations with Mr. Lisle, and the restrooms were visited by many.
Demos
Wyatt Drew and Michael Groshart demonstrated AsimCDFS, I believe. I was
barraged by questions and people looking to buy some of the remaining Amicom
inventory, so I was unable to observe for a full report.
Darreck said his goodbyes around 9:00 as he had to be up for a 7:00am
appointment, and he had two hours of driving ahead of him.
The meeting was still going strong when I packed up at 9:15, so I'm not sure
how late it ran.
Here is the schedule for the rest of the year.
Exec Meeting: Oct 7
Club Meeting: Oct 21
Exec Meeting: Nov 4
Club Meeting: Nov 18
Exec Meeting: Dec 2
Club Meeting: Dec 16
Here is information on how to contact Mr. Lisle:
Darreck Lisle
Public Relations and Events Coordinator
Amiga Inc.
1-888-23-AMIGA
1-888-252-6442 Voice
1-605-232-6442 Voice
1-605-235-1002 Fax
Back to Amiga Omaha's Home Page
__ _ ___________________________________ _ __
_:__\ /__:_
| Connect Yourself to the Uks Hottest bbs |
: :
| (÷) dIGITAl CANdY (÷) |
_ ____ _ ___ _ ______ _ ___ ______ _ _ ________. _ _____
.___\\\_ \_._\\\__|_._\\\ ___/__._\\\__|_| ///_._\\\__ |_\\\ /___.
| / | | \__ | \_ | _/ | / |
| / | | / | | | \_ | / |
|___________|________|___________|________|_________|_____|_____|____/______|
_ _______ _ ________. _ ______. _ ____ _ ___.__
._\\\_ /_._\\\__ |___\\\_ |___\\\_ \_._\\\ | \_.
| _/___/ | _/ | / | / | \__ |
| \ | \_ |_____/ | / | | |
|___________|_____|_____| /______|___________|___________|tGø
o 1 7 8 5 6 o 7 2 o 7 - 5 Node Ringdown For Easy Access.
The uks funkiest Scene BBS, kicking ass on a big A4ooo / o4o