=============================================================================  HARDWARE REPORT ============================================================================= Below you can find a list of several hardware suppliers who released or are going to release a new product on the compu- ter market. I hope you'll enjoy the selection I made. * Hewlett Packard has a new inkjet printer, the Deskjet 500 C, where C stands for Color. The resolution of this printer is for both modes (color and black & white) 300 dots per inch. For color printing it is needed, besides several color inkt reservoirs, to switch the inktreservoirs with the color needed at that moment. Printing time : Black & White : 20 sec. Color : 4 min. Price : about 800 UK pounds. * Macro Systems in Germany has made a new audio card. It is called the Meastro and it has the possibility to connect a CD-player with digital output straight into the card. Data will be read as 16-bit data and the output will be 14-bit quality. Though it is possible to save data as 8-bit data for use with most common Amiga programs. Several software suppliers have already promised to convert their software for 16-bit sound! It is only available for the Amiga 2000/ 3000. Memory consumption : at least 3Mb. Price : about 100 UK pounds. * Progressive Periphals & Software from United States will finally release its 68040 turbo card. It is called the "Progressive 040" and the clock speed of the card is 25 MHz. The card is about 25 times faster than the standard 68000, compared with the Amiga 3000 25 MHz it is around 6 times faster. In Mips (millions intructions per second) the card reaches 19,2 Mips. The card uses 1Mb & 4Mb Simm (single inline memorymodule) modules for memory expansion. Maximum memory capacity is 32Mb. Essential is that you need Amigados 2.0 to work with this card. It comes with 4Mb ram & price will be 1700 UK pounds. * Great Valley Products goes in graphics! Thats the conclusion we draw when we saw the GVP Impact Vision. This card can be used for 24-bit graphics (16.7 million colors) as well in NTSC standard as in PAL standard. The card must be put into the Zorro/Video slot of an Amiga 3000. The card can be connected to an Amiga 2000 via an optional adaptercable into the 86 pin Amiga-slot. It has a 24-bit framebuffer, picture in picture and for animations and Video-overcan it works with a resolution of 768*625 pixels. Switching between NTSC and PAL works via the supplied software. When a multisync or a VGA monitor is used, the images will be flicker-free. It comes with the following : # Macro Paint IV-24 ; which is a 24-bit paintprogram. The program can import almost every Amiga image format. # Caligari IV-24 ; a 3D rendering an animationsprogram. Converts a 3D-model into a 24-bit graphic. # Scala IV-24 ; for multimedia purposes like presentations and video-editing with lots of possibilities. Price of this piece : 1700 UK pounds. * Rumour or .....? Commodore has not officially announced yet, but it seems that Commodore is going to release a console!! The console will get the following "shocking" name : Amiga 300. It will keep most Amiga 500 specifications, but on expansion area, there will be some cut-offs like the expansion port at the leftside from the Amiga. It also hasn't a keyboard. Commodore will release it when the PC & console sales will affect the Amiga-sales, otherwise it will be shipped somewhere in 1992. * For the new Amiga 500 Plus : memory expansion modules. The first one is made by ICD, the Adram 510+. It gives your A 500+ 2 Mb of memory and plugs straight into the trapdoor. Prices are not yet available, but it is thought that this will be 70 UK pounds. * The upgrade kit for AmigaDos 2.0 from Commodore is now available. With this kit it's easy to jump to from your old version into the new one. The upgrade kit comes will the following : # 1 Manual writtem in English. It tells you about WB 2.0, AmigaDos & Arexx. # 4 diskettes; 1 diskette with Amigafonts, 1 Install disk, Amiga extras 2.04, Amiga Workbench 2.0. # 1 Kickstart 2.0 Rom with installation desription. # 1 Introduction course. The above described was made for the Amiga 500 & 2000. The pricetag will be 80 UK pounds. There is also going to be a kickstart 2.0 for the Amiga 1000. It has 2 Mb ram kickstart 2.0 of course and will be available in the beginning of 1992. Price for this upgrade is 225 UK pounds. * Commodore is still busy with its CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM drive carries the name A690. The realese of this product is expect in February 1992, and although the prices are not yet available at this moment, the price should be around 275 UK pounds. The current version only works on kickstart 2.0; but Commodore is going to manage this before it is going to be released. * PC-emulator for the new A 500+. Because of the new configuration of the trapdoor slot, The German firm Vortex has made a PC- emulator for the Amiga 500+. It's a complete PC-emulator running as a task under DOS. The board is running at 16 MHz clockspeed, it comes with 512 Kb fastram and has a socket for an optional 287 coprocessor. The price will be +/- 200 UK pounds. See you next time, Martin Jansen =============================================================================  HARDWARE REPORT =============================================================================