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*---== AM-REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Online Magazine of Choice!" from STR Publishing Inc. """""""""""""""""" January 27, 1992 Volume 2.01 ========================================================================= > 01/27/92: AM-Report #2.01 The Online Magazine of Choice! -AmiExpo Update -ENLAN/DFS -Lightwave 3D -Commodore CES Report -Stereo Images -Nintendo Sells 2 Million -HAME Stops Shipping -Northgate/A3000 fix -68040 RAM speed -A10 Laptop Price? -Atari paring down -* Commodore's Quarterlty Report *- TODAY'S NEWS ..TODAY! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > AMReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors! ================ Publisher - Editor ------------------ Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Robert Retelle Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON Contributing Correspondents --------------------------- Mike Todd (CIX) Jim Shaffer, Jr. (UseNet) 70117,634 on CompuServe amix.commodore.com!vanth!jms Andrew Farrell Australian Commodore and Amiga Review & Professional Amiga User Magazine Mike Ehlert, SysOp: PACIFIC COAST MICRO BBS -- FidoNet 1:102/1001 IMPORTANT NOTICE ================ Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 76370,3045 Internet/Usenet............... 76370.3045@compuserve.com **************************************************************************** EDITORIAL ~~~~~~~~~ No, I'm not dead and AM-Report is still alive and kicking. While I can no longer call AM-Report a "one-man operation", as I do get quite a bit of information submissions from a number of people, I am the only one that puts it all together and distributes it. For the last two weeks, my entire family has had a nasty case of the flu and I've been either too sick or too busy to even touch a computer. Some of the news you will read is going to be a bit old. Some of it isn't. This issue contains quite a bit of industry news. I've divided this issue into two parts -- one with all the news and one with the reviews. This was done to facilitate transfer over Internet via CompuServe, which accepts only messages of 50,000 characters or less and only takes ASCII transfer. Without dividing the issue, it is about 150,000 characters long! [That's what happens when I miss too much computer time.] The review section contains two full-blown reviews of commercial software -- ADPro 2.04 by ASDG, Inc. and Notebook by Black Belt Systems. I am releasing part one now (early morning 1/28/92) and will release the review section shortly (gotta send it email to ASDG and BBS first to have them check for factual accuracy!) I've also included a "Tidbits" section that has some one-line info on various products and companies. The news is there because only when lumped all together did it cover enough physical space as not to be over-looked. For those that wrote me and asked how to get a subscription to Amiga News, here's your answer: A one year subscription costs $9.97 ($10.97 for first class mail). This price is for U.S. subscriptions only. The price is $14.97 for Canada and Mexico, and $19.97 for other countries. All checks/money orders should be in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Send your name, address and check to: Amiga News P.O. Box 23 Peterborough, NH 03458 USA Please send a note along with your order that answers the following questions: 1. Which model Amiga do you own? 2. If you own another computer, what is it? 3. Do you run MSDOS or MAC software on your Amiga? 4. Do you use your Amiga for business, personal or both? AM-Report is not affiliated with Amiga News in any way. Thanks to all the people who emailed me and inquired after AM-Report -- to think that people actually bother to read what I write does the ego a wonderful service! :-) -Chas __ __/// \XX/ AM-Report International ============================================================================ COMMODORE QUARTERLY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commodore International Limited (NYSE: CBU) reported earnings of $40.1 million, or $1.18 per share on sales of $371.6 million for the second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, 1991. This compares with earnings of $36.5 million, or $1.12 per share on sales of $384.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share of $1.18 in the December quarter were based on diluted average outstanding shares of 34 million vs. 32.4 million in the prior year. For the six months ended Dec. 31, 1991, net income increased to $45.4 million, or $1.35 per share compared with $43.5 million, or $1.34 per share in the prior year. Sales for the six months were $575.7 million compared with $584.4 million in the year-ago period. Net sales declined 3 percent for the quarter, due entirely to the adverse impact of foreign currency fluctuations. Unit sales of the Amiga line increased 21 percent while C64 sales experienced nominal growth. Sales of the Professional PC line and CDTV combined to offset volume declines related to the discontinued low-end MS-DOS range. Gross profit for the quarter declined 11 percent, due entirely to the adverse impact of foreign exchange rates. Operating expenses were reduced by 18 percent vs. the prior year, more than offsetting the decline in gross profit. These factors resulted in net income for the quarter of $40.1 million. On Dec. 30, 1991, the company repaid a 100 million Deutsche Mark debenture issue, and maintained a year-end cash position at a level approximately equal to the prior year. Irving Gould, chairman and chief executive officer stated: "We are pleased with the sustained growth in the Amiga and Professional PC lines, along with the continued demand for the C64. The growth in profitability for the quarter was achieved despite the significant unfavorable effect of foreign exchange rates." [AP News Wire] Last week speculation on Commodore International stock drove the price up from the mid $16/share range to just over $19/share. Investors were hoping for a quarterly report that earnings for FY92Q2 would be greater than analysts expectations. Commodore reported second quarter earnings at $1.18/share vs $1.12/share in 1990, in line with market forecasts. On Monday, CBU stock dropped 2-1/8 to 16-7/8. "The stock is definitely down on disappointment that the numbers were not higher than they were," said Fechtor Detwiler analyst Ronald Opel. Opel said he reiterated a buy on Commodore after the earnings report, which exceeded his forecast of $1.10/share. "I am calling this a buying opportunity and we're encouraging people to buy the stock if they have a time horizon of three months. I think the company is going to have a very good year," he said. [COMPILED FROM REUTERS] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIEXPO UPDATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In addition to the AmiEXPO Art & Video Contest (see issue 1.18), the AmiEXPO people have a number of other contests and promotions geared at making this the best AmiEXPO ever! 1) The New Machine Promotion -- Any dealer who sells a new Amiga between now an February 1st can receive a free ticket for the purchasing customer for the Queen Mary AmiEXPO, Feb. 14-16. All the dealer has to do is register with the AmiEXPO group and they'll supplt point-of-sale support and informaiton as well as a card saying the ticket is courtesy of their store and AmiEXPO. 2) The User Group Contest -- User groups who register with AmiEXPO are eligible to win "One of Everything" if their group has the most members attending AmiEXPO at The Queen Mary. "One of Everything" means *ONE PRODUCT FROM EVERY DEVELOPER AT THE SHOW*. Pre-registration deadline is January 31, 1992. To pre-register (Visa or Mastercard) or for more information, call AmiEXPO shows at (800) 322-6442 or (914) 741-6500. AmiEXPO has begun an "Amiga Means Video" campaign to promote the Amiga in its strongest area. Ads will appear in VideoMaker, Camcorder, and in February on MTV, ESPN and CNN, locally in the L.A. area. Snappy looking buttons are available from the AmiEXPO office. Class Schedule: Novice Classes Taught by Jose Gallego, AmiKIT. $30 per 3 hour class - limited to 40 people. Morning classes are devoted to teaching Workbench and the afternoon to the Command Line Interface (CLI). Friday 9:30 - 12:30 & 1:30 - 4:30 (Workbench 1.3) Saturday 9:30 - 12:30 & 1:30 - 4:30 (Workbench 2.0) Sunday 9:30 - 12:30 & 1:30 - 4:30 (Workbench 2.0) Master Classes Taught by various instructors. $60 per 3 hour class or $100 for both classes in one category - limited to 40 people. Morning classes (9:30-12:30) are devoted to teaching Beginning classes and the afternoon (1:30-4:30) is for advanced or professional student. Class Instructor Schedule ********** ****************** ***************** Video Oran J. Sands III Friday & Saturday Animation Steve Segal Saturday & Sunday Graphics Jim Sachs Saturday Only ARexx Richard Stockton Sunday Only Spotlight Classes * NEW * Taught by various organizations and instructors. $60 per 3 hour class - limited to 40 people. Specific instruction in getting the most out of these Amiga products. (2 or more classes in this category are $50 each) Class Instructor Schedule ********** ****************** ***************** PageStream Soft-Logik Publishing Friday 1:30-4:30 CDTV Development Jim Sachs Friday 1:30-4:30 Professional Page Gold Disk Friday 1:30-4:30 CanDo Inovatronics Saturday 9:30-12:30 Imagine Victor Osaka Sat/Sun 9:30-12:30 Video Toaster TBA Saturday 1:30-4:30 Art Dept. Pro ASDG Saturday 1:30-4:30 Showmaker Gold Disk Sunday 1:30-4:30 You can pre-register for these classes by calling 1-800-32-AMIGA (1-800-322-6442) or 914-741-6500 with your Visa or MasterCard. You can also send check or money order to: AmiEXPO 465 Columbus Avenue, Ste. 285 Valhalla, NY 10595 You can also register on-site for classes during the show - however, seating is extremely limited. Here are some more details: CDTV Development Class - Instructor: Jim Sachs Mr. Sachs is just finishing his CDTV version of "Defender of the Crown" - a greatly enhanced release that features new scenes, all original music, and new gameplay. Mr. Sachs did all the work on this version including programming, graphics, animation and music. In his class, he will develop a full CDTV application from start to finish, demonstrating every step of the process. AmiEXPO will feature the AVID Video Center aboard The Queen Mary. Centered around AVID Magazine, this exhibit will showcase the hottest in Amiga Video developments with the latest from JEK Graphics, LA Software, Texture City, Virtual Reality Laboratories and more. AmiEXPO is announcing the implementation of The Upgrade Path, a new service for exhibitors and attendees. With The Upgrade Path, Amigans can upgrade on-site to the newest versions available for many of today's leading software titles. Call 800-32-AMIGA to check if your upgrade is available. Show Hours are Friday and Sunday from 12 to 5 and Saturday from 10 to 5. =========================================================================== ---------------------- LightWave3D Mail-List ---------------------- -- WHAT IS LIGHTWAVE? -- Lightwave3D is part of a suite of programs that come bundled with a device called the "Toaster" (from NewTek, Inc.) that operates on an Amiga platform. The Lightwave software (Lightwave=Lightwave3D and Lightwave Modeler) allows and artist to create three dimensional photo-realistic images for a variety of purposes. -- WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? -- This mailing list is for those interested in the Lightwave software, how it operates and in ideas on how to obtain the best quality images available to them. The list is for those who own the Toaster and Lightwave as well as those just interested in what can be done with the package. We hope to share information, tips, procedures and to bond as a group. -- WHAT ARE THE RULES? -- Since Lightwave/Modeler are just a part of the Newtek Video Toaster software, I'm sure we will discuss a few items related to the operation of the Toaster. However, we will strive to keep the subject revolving specifically around the 3D software, related tools and products. You do NOT have to own a Toaster to join this list! -- OK! HOW DO I JOIN? -- To become a member of the Lightwave3D mailing list you must send a mail message to the address: lightwave-request@bobsbox.rent.com Ask to be signed up and I will sign you up to the list. At this point in time the process is manual but I hope to get an automated script based system in place soon. There shouldn't be too much of a delay in joining. Expect a "welcome" message within 5 days after you send your request. Then, expect the mail to start flowing in! -- HOW DO I POST TO THE LIST? -- Contributing to the list is simple. Just mail your articles to the following address: lightwave@bobsbox.rent.com Your article will be processed by the system and distributed to all others joined to the list. Your articles will also be sent to you so you know that your article has made it to the list. However, those addresses that are either no good or no longer active will bounce back to you. So, if you post an article and another members address is no longer valid, your original article will be returned to you. This doesn't mean it hasn't been posted to the list. In fact, just the opposite is true. It means that your article WAS posted and that it couldn't be sent to one or more of the members of the list due to a bad address. NOTE: I hope to have a fix for this behavior soon. -- HOW DO I QUIT THE LIST? -- Simply mail a request to be removed from the list to the same address you used to sign up: lightwave-request@bobsbox.rent.com I will remove your name from the list of members. PLEASE, if you join the list and your account is going to be closed or if you will not be able to receive mail for a while, send a request to be removed from the list! If you are just going to lose access for a short while still send a request for a suspension of your membership and I will suspend forwarding of the articles to you. -- WHAT ABOUT OLD ARTICLES? -- I am currently archiving all the articles posted to the list at the originating site (bobsbox). However, I can not continue to do this due to lack of disk space. What we need is a volunteer that will maintain a compendium of articles sent to the list. They can compress and store them in archives on their system. They can then periodically post an index of the contents of the compendium and any other information that relates. If there are no volunteers then maybe someone can donate a large SCSI hard drive to me for archival purposes. <grin -- NOW WHAT DO I DO? -- Well, sit back and enjoy the pouring out of information. If you have something to offer, please feel free to contribute that information to the list. Every little bit helps. Questions are welcomed! It makes some of us feel important when we can answer them. <grin If you have any questions or comments regarding the list, please contact me at the address: lightwave-admin@bobsbox.rent.com Cheers, Bob Lindabury ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. (ST-Report) -- Low and Mid-Level Mac's Have a Successful Christmas Season Because of their popularity, the prices for the low and mid-level Mac's climbed during the Christmas season. The two most popular choices were the Mac SE Model 40 and the Mac Plus. Prices on both climbed $50-$60 during the Christmas season due to their popularity. The Apple IIgs gained $45, while the Mac SE/30 jumped $100 in comparison to their pre-Christmas prices. -- Super Nintendo Nearing the 2 Million Mark According to Nintendo of America, the Super Nintendo Entertainment Sys- tem, in four months of retail sales, is set to break the 2 million unit mark. It is reported that Nintendo had set a goal of selling 2.2 million units this year and according to the company, "The Super NES will outsell all competitors close to 2-to-1 by the end of 1991,". -- Analysts Say Sega's Genesis Beat Nintendo in Christmas Sales Analyst John Taylor of L.H. Alton & Co said that Sega's $150 unit out- sold Nintendo's $190 unit by a 2-to-1 margin in the final week before Christmas. Sega said it sold 1.6 million Genesis systems this year and that the company was sold out of product just prior to Christmas after having to air ship extra units in from Japan to meet demand. Sega President Tom Kalinske estimates Genesis has 56% of the smaller 16- bit market now while Nintendo holds 31%. Some analysts feel that Nintendo made a mistake in not making the system compatible with the existing 8-bit game unit. -- Nintendo Gets Monopoly Parker Brothers' Monopoly has introduced a version for Nintendo's Game Boy system. It will be demonstrated Jan. 9 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The $29.99 game can be played by one to four people and the players can take on up to eight computer opponents, each with a different skill level. -- New Chip Speeds Battery Charging QuickSaver, a rapid charge battery controller chip from Integrated Cir- cuit Systems, is designed to recharge nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries safely in 20 minutes rather than a couple of hours. Nickel cadmium batteries are popular not only in portable computers but in cellular telephone, cordless power tools, and other devices. According to Integrated Circuit Systems, QuickSaver also enhances NiCad reliability, prolongs battery life, and ensures a full charge every time. -- "Stoned III" Virus Only on Novell 5.25" Disks According to a statement issued by Novell Inc., the "Stoned III" virus was accidently shipped on some of its Network Support Encyclopedia disks. The encyclopedia provides technical reference information directly to network service organizations on a subscription basis and is not resold through distribution channels. It is available on CD ROM, 5.25- and 3.5-inch disks. However, only the 5.25-inch disks were affected. -- Cray Computer Looses Initial Contract Due to Cray Computer Corporation missing a December 9th demonstration milestone, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cancelled its order for the initial Cray 3 supercomputer with Cray Computer Company and excercised its option to buy a Cray C-90 from Cray Research Inc. Because of this action, Cray Computer Corp. will not realize the appr. $30 million revenue on this 1992 contract and will be seeking another purchaser. Cray Computer Corporation was spun off of Cray Research to develop the Cray 3 supercomputer with the parent company supplying the initial $98.6 million funding. -- For the Man that Has Everything, a $54,000 Clock Hewlett-Packard's (HP) new HP 5071A, a $54,000 atomic clock, is being heralded as the most precise time piece in the world. HP says the clock will only lose a single second in a time span of 1.6 million years. The new clock is not totally foolproof. HP estimates one failure every ten years, and only warranties the clock for five years. Atomic clocks provide the accuracy necessary for astronomy, the space program, radio and television signals, and communication companies. -- Healthline Settles with SPA After a surprise audit by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) on August 6th, Healthline Systems has agreed to pay a cash settlement to Lotus Development, Microsoft, Symantec, Wordperfect, and Wordstar International, all SPA members. Healthline also agreed to accept a consent decree barring illegal copying of copyrighted software. -- SPA Involved in Divorce Action After a divorce judge recently ruled that a man give copies of his soft- ware to his wife, the man contacted SPA for help in convincing the judge that this would be illegal, immoral, and unethical. SPA intervened and got the ruling vacated. However, the man is probably not too happy with the results, as the Judge changed his ruling so that the man had to turn over the originals of the software to his wife instead of the illegal copies. -- Computer Sales Revenues Dip; 1st Time Since 1983 Buying a new computer isn't as popular as it used to be. Sales dropped last year for the first time since 1983, according to a study released by the market research firm Dataquest. Price wars and the recession were blamed for the 7.8% drop in sales revenues. -- IBM Aims at Education Market with new PS/2 Model IBM has unveiled a PS/2 Model 25 SX personal computer designed for use as a teacher and student workstation. The computer, which will be available in April, features increased processing speed and memory, better graphics presentation and built-in networking capabilities. Prices range from $1,249 to $1,899, depending on configuration. -- NeXT Introduces NeXTstep 486 After three years of struggle, workstation maker NeXT Computer Inc is moving aggressively to link up to the mainstream computer market. The company headed by computer pioneer Steve Jobs unveiled the NeXTstep 486, advanced software that can be used by computers equipped with Intel Corp.'s newest and most powerful microprocessors. According to reports, the NeXTstep, which is the same system found in NeXT workstations, is object-oriented software that lets users build programs more quickly, block by block, instead of line by line. "NeXTstep 486 is a customer- driven product. Several of our key customers and many industry pundits strongly urged us to port NeXTstep," Jobs said. "This move extends the benefits of the industry- standard NeXTstep to the huge installed base of 486 users, and instantly explodes the potential market for NeXTstep applications." Admitting that one of NeXT's early problems was that not enough software developers were writing programs for what was seen as a limited market compared to PCs, Jobs said the number of third-party applications shipping programs to run on the NeXTstep operating system grew from 63 to 247 in 1991 and is expected to grow more with the Intel porting capability. The new software will be available in the second quarter of 1992. Jobs also disclosed that his privately held company's revenues rose in 1991 to $127 million from about $30 million in 1990. He would not discuss the firm's earnings. -- MicroSoft Profits Soar Microsoft Corp. profits rose 55% in the quarter ended Dec. 31 on stronger sales of the Windows operating system for personal computers. The company reported profit of $175.2 million, or 90 cents a share, on sales of $681.9 million in the second quarter of the company's fiscal year. Sales of Windows 3.0 have surpassed 9 million copies since that version went on the market May, 22, 1990. -- Logic Bomb Programmer Fined Michael John Lauffenburger, a 31-year-old programmer formerly with General Dynamics, pleaded guilty Nov. 4 to attempted computer tampering. He has been fined $5,000, handed three years' probation and was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for attempting to sabotage computers with a "logic bomb" that prosecutors say could have erased national security data. According to reports, Lauffenburger set up the logic bomb, then resigned, intending to get hired on as high-priced consultant to help reconstruct the data lost from the billion-dollar Atlas Missile Space Program when the virus was unleashed. A co-worker accidentally discovered the rogue program in early May. It had been set to go off May 24. Investigators said at the time the bomb would have caused about $100,000 in damage to computer systems at the Kearny Mesa plant. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMODORE CES REPORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >From CES Trade News Daily: Commodore International, West Chester announced a joint effort to form "CDTV Consortium Japan" with Mitsui & Co. for the purpose of promoting and developing CDTV players and titles in Japan. Commodore and Mitsui began inviting other companies to join the Consortium prior to the opening of the Tokyo International Multimedia Expo '91. The consortium will develop new software techniques including motion pictures....ASCII and a number of other japanese companies have expressed an interest in joining the consortium, and a full list of members will be announced in the near future. Commodore's new print ad campaing for CDTV has the unit sitting beside a Phillips CD-I with a giant word CAN under the CDTV and a giant CAN'T under the CD-I. Below it says, the CDTV CAN be expanded into a full 1mb AMIGA 500 with thousands of software titles, CAN become a home video editing system, CAN be connectected to a parallel printer for hard copy print out, CAN utilize a modem and existing software to become a home telecommunication system, CAN become a home music composition center through the build-in MIDI interface, CAN utilize 64k and 256K personal memory cards, CAN offer customers a 24hr help line for questions, and CAN give free Groliers Encyclopedia and Lemmings game. Under the Phillips CD-I, the word Can't is repeated. Tandy Corp. is close to becoming the third major player to enter the inter- active CD market.....Tandy is planning to introduce a CD-ROM based system that will work with the consumer's television set. Dubbed Gryphon, the device is expected to sell for $699.00, a full $200.00 less than other players from Phillips and Commodore..... Reportedly Tandy is also trying to beat out Apple Computer, which is expected to introduce a Sony-made Macintosh edutainment machine by Summer CES.... The president of CBM US announced at the Commodore press party, that the price of the CDTV is expected to drop down to about $500 by the end of 1992. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SID 2.0 ~~~~~~~ 1/25/92 I've got some good news and some bad news... The good news is SID2 is done. The bad news is I'm not going to ship today. The reason is a little technical, but here goes: After completing my button bank format requester, I crossed over the dreaded 64K data segment limit. That forced me to begin using the large data model, which increased the size of SID from 280K to 403K. This wasn't a problem for my 6MB A3000, but anyone using a 512K or even 1MB Amiga would be in for a tight fit. I sought the opinion of some of my more knowledgeable users. The question they had for me was could I eliminate some of the data segment? I thought about it for a while and came up with a pretty ambitious plan. Last weekend I started working on a dynamic memory manager that would reside within SID and allocate requester and menu memory on an as-needed basis. Everything-gadgets, borders, menus, text--would be allocated on the fly. And if things got tight, you could free the memory from within SID. This means that not only will I be able to return to the small data model, I will also reduce the program size and memory requirements even more. This also means that SID's release will be delayed a couple weeks. It took me 34 hours to write the memory manager and all supporting routines. Plus SID2 has over 20 requesters and each requester takes 2-4 hours to retrofit. I've been working like a madman to 1AM every night and have even taken a few days off work to get a jump on this. I'm just hoping all this effort (and use of my vacation days!) is worth it. As far as the administrative duties, my girlfriend came to town last weekend and helped me get caught up with those. She helped me go though all my mail, register everybody who sent money, collect all expired checks, and prepare upgrade and expired check letters (thanks, Vicki!!). I will mail those this week, as well as order the diskettes, labels, and mailers for all registered users who are due free updates. As an interesting tidbit, she was amazed at the wide range of letters I received. They ranged from lavish praise to vicious attacks. She said "you must have written one heck of a program for people to get so upset about a $25 check that you never even cashed." She became impatient with some of the more vicious letters and created an additional field in my registered user database. Entries in this field include: "Wonderful", "Supportive", "Indifferent", "Jerk", and "Complete a**hole." What a woman! Anyway, I'm sure you didn't want to hear that SID2 would be delayed even more. It surely isn't for lack of effort. I'm working as hard as I can and hope to have SID2 in your hands very soon. As always, thanks for your patience. --Timm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * "Rumors - Tidbits - Predictions - Observations - Hot Tips" * ======================================================== RE: Atari Computer Corp......rumors coming out of Europe are not very complimentary of Sunnyvale. It seems the German subsidiary is down to a very lean crew. This move seems to have sent shock waves throughout the European Community. How extensive? Time will tell. Beginning January 1, LZ 1.92 gives extracted files dates one day ahead of what they should be. AmigaMan, a mail-order house, is advertising a price of $1,999 for an A-10 Amiga compatible laptop from Newer Technologies. AM-Report thinks that this price is pure speculation as the specs given match the specs of the stripped-down model that Newer Tech gave and also match the price approximation of Newer Tech's "under $2,000". The following is a quote from Ben Williams of Black Bely Systems. "We are no longer manufacturing the HAM-E, or the HAM-E Plus. Before you ask for reasons, I have to tell you that because of a non- disclosure we have signed with Commodore, I cannot go into details why. I can tell you that we are quite pleased. We will continue to support the devices 100%, and will continue to enhance the technology which we invented. Ben" For those of you with NorthGate OmniKey Ultra keyboards, they work great with the A2xxx series machines, but have problems with the A3000. It seems that upon rebooting, the keyboard will be "dead" for about three minutes when connected to an A3000. There is a file floating around called TCKNGTE.LZH that supposedly fixes this problem with the A3000. It is 948 bytes long, so not much of a download. The actual executable is only 96 bytes long and the source is only 673 bytes (assembly). I haven't tried it myself (my Northgate is on the A2000 at the office) but others have vouched for its success. Author = J. Moulton Okay, here's the info I have on how to speed up an 040 based A3000. Motorola's pride-n-joy checks for data from RAM every 40ns. The 80ns RAM on an A3000 motherboard forces 2 wait states because of its slow speed. Switching to 70ns RAM kicks that down to 1 wait state. From what I understand, RAM speed has to be BELOW 40ns to get true 0 wait state. However, when in BURST mode, the 040 checks for data from RAM every 25ns, so to get true 0 wait states under 99% of circumstances, you'd need 25ns or less 32-bit RAM. While I've seen claims of 20ns RAM in manufacture, I've never seen an ad for anything faster than 35ns RAM. And THAT was EXPENSIVE! The following message was posted on a local BBS (Moonlighter, in Orlando, FL). I have discovered (with the help of a few hints) how to display the hidden messages in the 2.0 ROMs. Stop reading now if you want to figure it out yourself............ Hold down Cntrl, BOTH Shift keys and BOTH Alt keys and then use the mouse to make selections from the WBench menus. Each menu item you select displays a different message rather than perform its usual function when the above keys are held down. This only works if you have no drawers open on your WorkBench and it might be best to reset your machinbe before trying this to make sure everything is in its default state. Have fun.... - Chris Wolf Rumor has it that AmigaBASIC was dropped not because of any incompatibility with the A3000. The agreement with Microsoft just plain ran out. Fm: Clint H. Woeltjen @ VRLI 72470,104 The Los Angeles Times had an article that mentioned and showed the Amiga 3000 on Friday Jan 24 on the front page of the View section. The article was about Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001) and his current attempts to Terraform Mars using his Amiga 3000, Firecracker24, and an unnamed product from Virtual Reality Laboratories. (VistaPro 2.0) There was a color picture of Arthur with his Amiga and Firecracker. Commodore Amiga now shipping the Iomega Floptical with its Unix packages. [RUMOR] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIGA NETWORK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ENLAN-DFS network solution by Interworks is currently in the late Beta-test stage and reports are encouraging. The following is an edited thread taken from CompuServe's AmigaUser forum. Fm: Black Belt Systems 76004,1771 (ENLAN-DFS) is fast - extremely so; it allows you to reference any number of volumes, or "rooted directories" on an extremely large number of other Amiga systems, and (if you need it) will also connect you to VAX systems. It's based upon Ethernet, a 10 mbps single inexpensive coaxial cable network. The network drives show up on your WorkBench, with icons and etc. You can export things like your serial device(s) and parallel device(s) and even the printer device. Our laser is now doing multiple duty, it's truly wonderful. You can even use your own preferences to control the remote printer, though it's a little tricky (and I mean only a little). We've experienced ZERO problems with the net; the installation is smooth and easy, though you'll want a reasonably computer-savvy person to choose the machine node names (at least with the current state of the manual). For a network, I'd have to say the installation was trivially easy. You don't need to know any non-native commands like "netcopy" or "netdir"; the AmigaDOS commands just see networked drives as normal devices and volumes. I really don't think it could be done much better; this is the way the Amiga is _supposed_ to be expanded. :^)))) You can have as many servers and as many clients as you like; and clients can be servers as well. :^) We're using inexpensive CBM 2065 Ethernet cards; they work out of the box. This thing allows your Amiga's to net directly into each other's filesystems. It "feels" like your machine suddenly grew more drives and peripherals... something you can't get from the "other" solutions, which access other system resources only indirectly. You can also print on the remote machine, using YOUR printer device but the remote parallel port for your printer device to talk to using the same syntax, but with a different setup. --> We are not associated with Interworks - we're just happy. :^) Fm: Nick Frabotta/Interworks 73320,3545 ENLAN-DFS (that's the name, DFS means "Distributed File System") is targetted at the Amiga-only workgroup. It works somewhat like Novell - you add the servers' drives and devices and it looks like you suddenly have extra harddrives, printers, etc. in your Amiga. Unlike Novell's mainstream product any Amiga can serve it's drives and devices _and_ you can use it as an Amiga at the same time! IF you need Novell support specifically, you should be able to save yourself a bit of money by installing that new Novell client software (or even Commodore's NFS client for that matter) on only _one_ machine and serve the Novell resources around the rest of the workgroup with ENLAN-DFS. I say SHOULD because I haven't tried (or seen) it. The DECnet solution we have (ENLAN) is a different animal. It works with VMS, Ultrix and PC's (running Pathworks/DECnet-DOS). And, of course, the two (ENLAN and ENLAN-DFS) work together beautifully should you need it. Overhead is not bad at all. DiskSpeed on a machine here yields 7 to 15% less CPU for network access v. local access (A2000/30 w GVP S-II) over the entire range (512 -> 256KB buffers). As far as memory, the base network takes up ~120KB which includes a decent-sized chunk for network buffers. Each Imported drive takes up a tad less than 45KB on the client, but that sounds a little high (could be all the debugging stuff). Access to remote ports is through Handler-level devices. Simply "Export" PRT:, SPEAK:, SER:, etc., on the server and "Import" them on the client. If a client crashes, the server will notice and clean up its end. It doesn't affect any other clients at all, even if they're sharing the same drive. If the server crashes, the clients' networked devices become "dismounted". You would then re-Import them on the client to reactivate the drives. The client <-> server protocol for ENLAN-DFS is truely a 'remote procedure call', and is very close Sun's RPC when run over TCP/IP (not confused with RPC over UDP/IP, like NFS) - all that says is we're connection oriented rather than connection-less. It even uses an "XDR" External Data Representation layer which provides standard encodings of messages to make going to different machine architectures much easier. ;-) Down the road I'm looking to make the libraries and tools available so users can write their own networked applications. No, it's not SANA-II compatible. Once I can get through to somebody with the network group at Commodore, we might see a SANA-II interface for it. Either they're _real_ independent out there or they don't care. I imagine one might see a performance hit using SANA-II; though I can't say for sure. Two A2000/30's with ENLAN-DFS will meet or beat two EISA 486/33's with 32 bit disk and Ethernet controllers with Novell. Very informal, albeit reproduceable, testing - your mileage may vary. Also, being SANA-II compatible is worthless if other packages you may want to work with are not. Like, ooohhhh, maybe Commodore's TCP/IP? The network package ENLAN-DFS is based on is a year and a half old. It's solid as a rock. The design was pretty much cast in concrete by the time SANA got going (enough for me to hear about it). Besides, I like my interface better! ;-) But, nevertheless, we are interested in compliance. I would worry about being the first commercial implementation, though. System requirements: - A2065 Ethernet card per machine - AmigaDOS 2.04 (V37) or later - ~300KB disk space - 1.5MB RAM; more recommended if a single machine is serving multiple Amigas. Exact price is not set yet. It will be < $350 per workgroup, where workgroup is defined as some modest number of Amigas, probably <= 10. Includes one set of software and documentation. Additional manuals, if required, are extra. Aim is begin shipping 2nd half of next month, or whenever we get the go-ahead from our beta test group. Interworks 195 East Main Street, Suite 230 Milford, MA 01757 (800) 321-3893 (508) 476-3893 ============================================================================ MAKE 3D IMAGES ON AMIGA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following was a message on CompuServe's AmigaUser forum. Fm: Robert Trelease 75066,1624 Thanks to a "partially documented" feature in the new ADPro, Amiga users can now make stereoscopic 3D images that can be used with almost any Amiga authoring environment. Briefly, Haitex original 3D file format was a modified ILBM format with left and right eye images "stacked" one atop the other. This was SUPPOSED to make some animation and drawing operations easier/faster, but it could not be used with standard Amiga IFF/ILBM-using programs. With the new ADpro, the user acquires separate left and right eye images (up to 736 X 241 non-interlace) stacks them up (composites them; right image uppermost for recording use--see below) then executes the INTERLACE operator. Even better, this image can be put out as a "24 bit" DCTV file using the ADPro DCTV operator. DCTV images, properly handled, are much brighter than IFF images displayed on an RGB monitor--believe it or not! The resulting standard IFF or DCTV images can be used with programs like CanDo, AmigaVision, and The Director to produce interactive 3D programs that virturally jump out of the screen. To toggle the LCD glasses when viewing the program, the Haitex mouse/interface box can be used with their ON3D utility or an external synch driver can be used. I prefer to use the StereoDriver 2001 from 3DTV Corp. (P.O. Box 13059 San Rafael CA 214/479-3516). This needs a video signal source (I use the A2000 video out, the DCTV video out, or the genlock out) but it's worth using because it also allows recording and playback with standard video tape (assuming a genlock or DCTV goes to the VCR video in). These wonderful features in ADPro allow virtually any Amiga user to experiment with or make practical use of stereo 3D images! DCTV can be used, by the way, with a standard camcorder and a "swing-arm" to acquire right and left images. [Ed. -- Ben Williams of Black Belt System's claims that Imagamaster can also perform this trick.] ============================================================================ """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" AMReport International Online Magazine Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" AMReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" January 27, 1992 16/32bit Magazine copyright 1992 Volume 2.01 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""