------------------------------------ The King is Dead, Long Live the King By Matthew Leeds ------------------------------------ (c) 1986 In medieval times, life was hard. The only stability the general population had derived from a strong leader, with a long and secure rule. The death of a king brought uncertainity, instability, and the possibility that the transfer of rule would be contested, resulting in warfare and hard times for the peasants. In November, Commodore Business Machines sponsored the second Amiga developers' conference in Monterey, California. During the conference a few select developers were told of the end of the Amiga as we know it. A new Amiga was shown and described, and a second, although not shown, was widely discussed. At the same time it was made known that CBM is planning to discontinue manufacturing the Amiga 1000, and that once the current inventory is sold, no new 1000's will be available. All of this is unofficial, as any information CBM made available was done so under non-disclosure agreements. All who got it from the horse's mouth cannot openly discuss what they were told. You should consider everything in this article hearsay and rumor until it comes true. The new Amiga that was shown under wraps is known as the 2500. It will have several expansion slots, some of which will accept Amiga expansion cards, and some of which will accept IBM expansion cards. The Amiga expansion slots will be different than the current Zorro configuration. When CBM published the specifications for the Zorro card, one element of that spec was the physical size and connectors for the card. This element is known as the form factor. The current form factor for the Zorro is much larger than the IBM form factor. The new form factor is closer to the IBM form factor, and may allow the use of one slot for both cards with an adapter or DIP switch settings (though I doubt this). The main reason for the change was to make the 2500 smaller while allowing internal card slots. The power supply has been beefed up to handle the expansion cards. Other possible additions to the 2500 that have been discussed include space for a 3.5 hard disk drive, 68020/68881 sockets on the motherboard, 1 or 2 MByte RAM on the motherboard and Kickstart in ROM. The pricing has not been set on this new machine, but it will obviously be much higher than the current pricing on the 1000. CBM will also market a long persistence monitor for the new Amiga. It's possible, but not very likely that the new chip set will be ready in time for inclusion in the 2500. The main advantage would be the increased chip memory (2 MByte). The second new machine, long discussed but still not shown, is known as the B52. Some have called it the Amiga 500, and this indeed may be its name when it is marketed. It is CBM's answer to the Atari 1040. It will feature an attached keyboard, disk drive and expansion moved to the opposite sides of the machine they now opccupy. built-in 512K RAM, Kickstart in ROM, and possibly modified serial and parallel ports. The repositioning of the expansion buss has several consequences. First, the buss connector has been turned upside down. This allows the use of some buss connecting peripherals, but leaves them hanging in mid-air. Some existing peripherals will not be usable on the B52 at all. Possible changes to the output ports would remove the extra lines, including the audio outputs on the serial connector and the +5 volts on the parallel connector. Many current or planned peripherals depend on the current configuration of the ports and would not work on the new machine. The main reason for the B52 seems to be the introduction of a low-cost home/game computer to follow the 64C. CBM best understands this end of the market and has floundered in trying to position the Amiga. By producing a mass market Amiga (planned to be priced in the $500-$700 range) and a high-end "business" Amiga, CBM hopes to cover the two major markets as they see them. Will current owners of the 1000 get left behind? Remember the Plus 4 and the 16. Both of those low-end machines were orphaned as soon as they were introduced. There are several problems that could result from this new strategy. Confusion and withdrawal from the market by expansion product manufacturers is just one. Would you continue to make current form factor boards while knowing the maximum installed base of potential customers would never exceed 150,000 at best? Uncertainity regarding CBM's commitment to the high-end marketplace is another. Some rumors have placed the initial manufacturing run of 2500's at less than 2,000, which may limit production of high-end software. Should software be written that expects 2 MBytes of RAM to be available, or a particular hardware peripheral? All of these problems and more have occurred with other computers that have been part of a divided product line. Remember the PCjr, the first PC with 64 KBytes of RAM, and the current confusion over which graphics cards are needed for some applications. So far a standard has been evolving for the Amiga with 512K RAM, two disk drives, and a color monitor. Will this continue? Please remember, none of this is written in stone as yet. CBM has not gone public with any of these plans, and they are all subject to change before they become reality. I've based this article on discussions with developers, employees of CBM, and knowledgeable insiders. Much of this information has been floating around the industry for months, and may have developed a life of its own, a self- perpetuating myth. Only time will tell. DO NOT MAKE DECISIONS THAT MAY HAVE A FINANCIAL IMPACT ON YOURSELF OR YOUR COMPANY ON THE BASIS OF THIS INFORMATION. Remember, currently it's only rumor. ---------- One last subject. There have been rumors (yes, more of those) regarding the possibility of Jack Tramiel of Atari purchasing control of CBM. Most of these rumors revolve around the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stock from Atari made in recent months. For those who take such things seriously, I suggest you write Atari for a copy of the IPO, calculate the possible cash result of the successful completion of the IPO, and then obtain an annual report from CBM. Then try and calculate how many shares of stock it would take to gain control of CBM, and what those shares would cost in today's market. I'll leave the math up to you, but any way you slice it, it's still a big hunk of bread. END OF TEXT