

As for the CyberStorm, I thought to make you read directly the announcement.

Oberursel, February 25, 1997: phase 5 digital products is proud
to announce the upcoming BLIZZARD 603e Power Board, a PowerPC-based
accelerators for Amiga 1200 and A1200-based Tower Systems. With this
innovative and powerful new accelerator a new dimension of performance is
brought to the Amiga 1200, with performance increases of multiple times
beyond the performance of the fastest 68k based accelerators available
today, for a sensationally low price that is perfectly targeted at the A1200
upgrade market.
Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga
systems, the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board incorporates phase 5's innovative
dual-processor technologie, where a fast PowerPC RISC processor is combined
with a 68k processor, in case of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board a 68030 CPU.
Both CPUs dynamically share the memory and system busses, what is necessary
for a true multiprocessor behaviour. While the original AmigaOS 3.x
continues to run on the 68030 CPU - as well as all existing applications do,
what provides 100% compatibility - the PowerPC 603e CPU is supported by a
comprehensive PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all
functionality to integrate the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking
environment. Software developers can easily optimze their programs step by
step by porting single tasks to PowerPC code, which then can run parallel
with 68k tasks. Many important Amiga software vendors are preparing ported
or optimized versions of their software packages already, so it is expected
that a large quantity of software products supporting the PowerPC will be
available soon.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be availabe with the fast
PowerPC603e processor at a clock speed of 120 MHz; a socket is provided for
the 68030 companion processor in a PGA housing. It provides a fast memory
expansion option which uses standard PS/2 type SIMMs. The memory is
dynamically shared by the two CPUs on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board . As an
option, as very inexpensive Fast SCSI-II controller will be available for
the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board, which combines transfer rates of up to 10
MB/s with the flexibility and expandability of the SCSI standard.
With it's 120 MHz 603e processor the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board provides
- only on the PPC side - a raw performance of approximately 170 MIPS or
approximately 3.5 SPECint95 and 2.8 SPECfp95 (estimations based on
Motorola/IBM manufacturer specifications) - a blistering performance that
can compete with most of the fastest PC systems available today. with this
performance the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is ready for the most demanding
applications such as 3D rendering and high-speed 3D gameplaying, image
manipulation, animation, video applications, and many other demanding
applications that depend on fast CPU performance.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be delivered with a comprehensive
software package, which includes the PPC library as well as tools for
creative users, among them a Public Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC
(including sourcecode) and many demo programs and utilities with sourcecode;
in addition to this software free developer support is available via the
phase 5 FTP site. Last not least a PowerPC-optimized version of CyberGraphX
V3 with RISC-optimized CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions and libraries is
included (with a special GGX driver to support the AGA chipset) - of course
with comprehensive documentation.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be selling for a price that can be
called sensational, offering a superior price/performance relation. The
suggested retail prices are as follows:
BLIZZARD 603e Power Board w/ 120 MHz 603e processor
DM 699,- /
GBP 279.00 / USD 399.00
Note: All prices are recommended retail prices. English and german price
include local VAT, the recommended US price does not include local taxes.
The prices are without the 68030 CPU which is necessary to operate the
BLIZZARD 603e Power Board. 68030 processors from existing processor boards
can be used on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board by pluging these into the
provided socket. If you don't own a 68030 CPU already, ask you local dealer
for an attractive bundle offer.
Registered owners of a Blizzard 68030 board will - within the PowerUp
upgrade program - receive special, attractive upgrade offers by mail during
March 97. The handling of these upgrades will be done via local appointed
representatives.
The delivery of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is scheduled for late May
1997. Availability for the A1200 desktop system is depending on the
finalization of the CE approvals until that date.

As you can see we are getting almost there. However I would like to point out that this board seems more a prototype than the final solution for the A1200 users. Without doubt the 030 is not that powerful, even if it has only to handle the OS functions, and unless there will a port of most of the more CPU intensive functions of the OS to the PPC, I think this solution is targeted more to the "player" than the professional user (who still need a fast 68K).
However I'm sure phase5 will soon release other Blizzard board which have 040 and 060 sockets and possibly faster PPC603 (why not also a 604 for those who can afford it?). I would like to remind that now PowerPC CPU are able to run till 240MHz, so maybe we'll see one of them on a future board for the "smallest" Amiga still alive. (Hey, I have put this A1200 in the desktop, so give me hot CPU!!! 8) ).
If this kind of board is going to be supported by some of software house that produce games, we can be sure we'll enjoy lot's of new good games that can finally use a decent CPU also on the Amiga (but, please, stop the Doom-like cloning! Why not a Descent clone instead?).
