Aminet 1 (Walnut Creek)/Aminet - June 1993 [Walnut Creek].iso/aminet/text/anno/woc_happenings/WOCHappenings

Text File | 1992-09-21 | 13KB | 274 lines

A


Message #9 "Amiga Discussion" (Read: 11)
Date: 13 Sep 92 14:45:55
From: Matt Davidian
  To: All
Subj: Happens at WoC!!!

These are some of my impressions, observations and comments about the
World of Commodore show in Pasadena on 9/12.  These aren't rumors,
this is for real, except where I might comment or speculate on
something. (I hope those places are clear)  If there are any factual
errors its probably my fault (due to bad memory/notetaking)

First off, the Keynote Address by Commodore.  I think Commodore
shocked a lot of people (at least they did me) by having the V.P. of
Engineering handle most of this.  Basically, he outlined where they
were (briefly), where they are now, and where they are going.  In
some detail, which is what is shocking given how open (NOT!)
Commodore has been in the past about their future plans.

First the AA (Double A) or AGA (what marketing likes to call it).  It
has 4 times the bandwidth of ECS, due to a 32-bit memory path and
page-mode DRAMs.  256 colors are available in all resolutions, out of
a 24-bit palette. The new eight bit HAM mode uses 64 base colors and
is also available in all resolutions according to an AmigaWorld
preview that was distributed at the show. Sprites may be 16, 32 or 64
bits wide.  The audio is still the same. The new chips are named Lisa
and Alice, replacing Agnus and Denise.  These are downward compatible
with the ECS chip set.  Plug in upgrade will not be possible, as have
past upgrades, since these new chips are apparenly using surface
mount technology.  At least part of the reason is that the socket
degrade and slow signals.  In any event, with a 32-bit data path and
page mode DRAMs, I don't really see how an upgrade is possible short
of a motherboard swap.  For the A3000, it *ought* to be possible to
make a video board with the new chips, and simply not use the old
graphics chips on the motherboard, but no mention was made of this.

For the future, Commodore is defining a low end and a high end chipset.
The AA graphics chip seem to form a core on which both sets will build
on.  First, some features of the low end chip set:
  * To be comprised of two chips.
  * 32 bit DRAM
  * 57 Mhz pixel clock
  * ECS/AA compatible
  * Support for 4 Mb floppy with hardware CRC
  * 32 bit processor support
    (Apparently there will be some kind of direct interface to couple the
     chips with the processor.)
  * 8x bandwith increase
  * 2x blitter performance
  * 800x600 256 color mode at 72Hz
  * 16 bit "true color" graphics mode
  * FIFO buffer on serial port
  * Larger chip RAM address space

That's the low end.  Here are the high end features:
  * 4 custom chips
  * 32/64 bit wide VRAM (allow simultaneous access, increasing bandwidth)
  * 57/114 Mhz pixel clock
  * Support for "Chunky" pixels
    --Bitplanes are not being done away with here, but chunky pixels will
      be supported because there are some things they do better.
  * Support for 24 bit planes
  * CD-ROM ready
  * Frame Grabber built in (don't know how fast it will operate)
  * 1K x 1K screen resolutions
  * 16 bit audio, samples up to 100kHz
  * On demand DMA--instead of the synchronus DMA that is currently used,
    asynchronus DMA will be done, but it will be backwards compatible.
  * 12-20x bandwidth increase over AA chipset
  * 32 bit blitter, 8x performance
    Possibility of having a separate blitter for each bit plane
  * Decompression modes for video (coming in from a CD-ROM presumably)
  * ECS/AA compatible
  * Improved genlock support
  * 72 Hz refresh rate
  * Processor indepedant (they are thinking ahead to RISC machines)

He expected to have the high end chips in silicon in 3-6 months.  After
that, a lot of testing is needed to determine flaws, how compatible the
chips are with the old set, etc.  I would guess any machine with these
specs is well over a year away.

Future goals:
  * Incorporate AA chipset across product line
  * Modular system designs to ease upgrading
    (The Amiga 4000 has the 68040 on a plug in card.  I would expect to see
    68030 and/or 68020 versions)
  * More timely introductions of newer & faster processors
  * Add DSP technology
  * SCSI-II Zorro III 32 bit bus master controller, to be introduced
    possibly by the end of the year (This will incorporated into the
    motherboard of future machines)
  * Move CD-ROM across product line
  * Full motion video (biggest obstacle here appears to be software)
  * Cost reduce and enhance CDTV (he empasized that CDTV is still
    important to Commodore, although it seems that they have
    repositioned it since it hasn't exactly taken off in the
    consumer market.)
  * Upgrade multimedia software
  * Accelerate VLSI development

With regard to the operating system:

OS 2
Rework of operating system
Scalable fonts
3D Look

OS 2.1
Localization (18 countries)
CrossDOS
Hard Drive Install Utility
Enhanced Printer Drivers, including a Postscript Driver

OS 3.0
AA support
Multimedia utilities

OS 3.1
Network API Extensions
File & Printer Sharing
DSP support

OS 4
Retargetable graphics
Full Postscript support

The upgrades to the operating system are apparently going to happen over the
next year.  A priority has been to get the engineering department in the
position to effectively get new technology developed and out the door.

Jim Dionne answered some questions at the Keynote Address.  When asked why
PrintShop wasn't available for the Amiga, he said this type of question
comes up a lot.  He would like to see all software run on the Amiga,
except Windows, which drew a round of applause from the audience.
One way to get software ported is to pay the developer a lot of money to
do it, which Commodore isn't in the position to do.  Also said the
software that's available is a reflection of what the installed user
base wants...On the C64, it's still selling around 700,000 in Europe,
so Commodore is still making them.  Will the A500 be phased out with
the new A600?  Sales figures will tell them what to do, Dionne said.
Why did Commodore let the education market get away from them and
let Apple and IBM get it?  Commodore wasn't in the position to give
millions of dollars in hardware and discounts away like the others did.
Now with price wars, and margins getting smaller, the three companies
are more on an equal footing, Apple and IBM can't do that any longer.
(Although Apple and IBM do have the installed base, and C= doesn't)
Dionne said that he would love to have the 65% education market share
in the US that he saw when he worked in Canadian Commodore...Trade Up
programs to new AA computers?  Dionne says they have had success with
these programs in the past, so given Commodore's "whatever sells"
philosophy...

Why no Amiga laptops?  Basically, the old chips use too much power to
make a laptop feasable.  Newer chips will use NMOS technology and
consume less power.  Also these new chips will not be made by
Commodore (but they are designed by Commodore)  The Lisa and Alice
chips are being made by three different companies.  Three sources
should prevent supply problems.  That about wraps up the keynote
address.

I talked a bit with Ed Green, who teaches a high school algebra,
geometry and chemistry class using CDTVs networked into an A3000. He
had a demo setup in the Commodore area.  The system is amazing, and
could revolutionize teaching.  His enthusiam for this system is very
catching.  He goes on about his "five dollar network" (the cost of
the MIDI cable used to network the machines) and fifty cent textbook
(since such a large part of the instruction is on computer, the
"textbook" is photocopied) and he complains of sometimes not being
able to spend all of the $750,000 in grant money from Nabisco that is
funding this three year project because the hardware is so cheap.
Commodore had a press release in June on him, but this is the first
I've heard of this program.  This is exactly the kind of PR stuff
that Commodore needs to improve its image.

I didn't get a chance to take a good look at AmigaVision Professional,
but from the spec sheet here are two highlights:  Several CDTV
support features and a freely distributable runtime.

Final Copy II on the AA chipset looks fantastic.  According to one
of the guys who wrote it, an upgrade mailing should be going out
next week.  It seems to be working its way towards the type of high
end word processor the Amiga needs.  From my experience with the
original Final Copy and Softwood's support of their products, I
highly recommend FC II.

I was also very impressed by GVP's Phone Pak VFS.  Not only can you
have it record messages and faxes (in separate, password protected
mailboxes if you want) but the system can be programmed to send a
fax to a caller based on a number they put in.  The caller has to
call from a fax with a built in phone, since callback isn't
supported (long distance calls are an issue here, cause it would be
your dime on the callback).  Now compare this to a high end fax
information service on the PC:  The GammaFax MLCP-4/AEB supports
four dial-in lines.  It lists at $3995.  You also have to add a
voice board, $1150.  If you want to be able to have broadcast fax
capability, also add in a $995 GammaFax Programmer's Interface.
(This is from September 92 Byte)  List total:  $6140.  No voice
mail, no incoming fax, but it has callback.

Now compare this to Phone Pak. You can put four Phone Paks in a A2000
to handle four lines, have voice mail, incoming faxes stored, send
faxes (as well as broadcast send faxes), and have a fax information
service for callers to request documents--although without callback
capability, and an ARexx interface so you can integrate Phone Pak
with anything, all of this for well under $2000 total!  GVP has really
got something here, and they seem poised to establish another niche
market for the Amiga.

Sending a fax is as easy as printing a document from your word
processor--because that's exactly what you do with their fax printer
driver.  One caveat--due to a bug in the Zorro III bus
implementation, the board won't DMA correctly to 32 bit memory.
Commodore developed a workaround for GVP, but isn't fixing the A3000
bus (the A4000 is supposed to have this fixed).  GVP is apparently
modifying their board per Commodore's fix.  In the meantime, A3000
owners need a Zorro II 16 bit memory board so that DMA can happen.

ICD was showing their new Trifecta hard drive.  It was running 4.5
minutes of Star Wars (where they escape from the Death Star)  Full
screen lores nolace HAM at 30 fps & audio on a stock Amiga 500 w/1Mb
of chip RAM.  The drive was transferring data at 1.9Mb/sec, total
size of video was 350K.  I honestly though they had a VCR plugged
into the monitor when I first saw it.  I had to walk around behind to
check if there was a composite connection.  I'd heard about these
kinds of demos before, but I don't think it really sinks in until you
see it in person.

The new computers--the A600 was doing what it was purposed to do, it
seems, playing games (although one was running one of the star gazing
programs).  Reaction seemed mixed; some complained about lack of
features/expandibility, others thought it could be a very hot machine.
If the price comes down, I think it will be a big seller.  Right now,
it may be too close to the price range of the A500.  There were some
hints that a more powerful low end computer would be introduced,
but nothing concrete.

The A4000--it looked great, but it seemed besides Final Copy II the
only thing to do on them is play with the preferences.  The AmigaWorld
preview said they will have a list of software that has been designed
to work on the new graphics modes in the November issue.  The
prefences are still quite impressive, especially the pallete editor
(which now uses a color wheel) and the Workbench pattern editor,
which now supports an IFF file to take the place of the patterns
(I don't know if this is a 3.0 only feature or not)

Version 3 of the operating system apprarently is the same as version
2.1, with support for the AA chips and multimedia.  According to the
2.1 information, multiple parallel and serial prefences are
supported, 68040 support, spline screen blanker, enhanced
reliability, improved icon editor.

SAS was there, and although most Amiga owners probably don't have
their C compiler, in the end everyone will benefit from their
continued enhancements--better tools make program development faster
and easier. For those who don't know, Commodore has a new hypertext
system that SAS C 6.0 uses.  I've heard this will become a standard
part of the operating system, but I don't know which revision.

There was a lot of other stuff there, but other people will probably
cover it.  I've just tried to go over some of the stuff that
impressed me the most.  If the next World of Commodore is near where
you live (or even if it isn't) go to it!

Matt Davidian
GEnie:     M.DAVIDIAN1
Internet:  [e-mail]

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