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1. phase 5 digital products introduces the Cyberstorm G3/G4 Project

»Oberursel March 19 1999: Once again phase 5 digital products is happy to announce a groundbreaking new development which will represent an extract of phase 5's leading-edge technologies and the many years of expertise in designing upgrade products for Amiga computers. After a long time of evaluating the market we have decided to support the existing Amiga user base and the new developments at Amiga Inc. with a next generation product which will offer highest performance future compatibility and a bridge to industry standards. This product will be a powerful PPC accelerator for A3000/A4000 systems (and other Amiga systems expanded with an A4000 compatible CPU slot) and the upcoming Amiga OS 3.5 as well as future versions of the Amiga OS.

The new accelerator the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 board is a pure PowerPC-based processor card. It will ship with a fast PowerPC750 or PowerPC7400 (G4 with Altivec) which is installed in a ZIF socket. This ZIF socket is fully compliant with the Interposer standard from IBM and Motorola which is also used in PowerMacs and other systems what will allow easy upgrading if required by the user in the future. In the base version with a 400MHz PowerPC750 processor and 1MB backside Cache @ 200MHz the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will provide an impressing peak performance of up to 19.2 SPECint95 and 13.1 SPECfp95 (source: IBM website 03/18/99). In real-world applications this allows incredible application performance which is estimated to reach 15 -20 times the performance of a 50MHz 68060 processor (with native PowerPC coded or PowerPC optimized applications). The CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will use standard SDRAM running at 100MHz providing a peak memory transfer rate of 582 MB/s and has two DIMM sockets which will support up to 1 GB main memory. An on-board PCI 2.1 interface will allow the connection of all kind of industry standard devices and cards. The on-board Flash ROM with 512kB size can be used to install software necessary for system-startup and other functionalities. By default this Flash ROM will only contain a basic boot-strap functionality (hardware write protected) which will allow to install any kind of system software from disks; this functionality will be fully documented and freely available to everybody.

By it's design concept the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is the perfect solution for running native PowerPC coded Operating Systems as well as emulated 68k OS segments. As a processor card which fits into the A4000 compatible fast slot it allows to run 100% native PowerPC code and has full access to all system hardware functionalities and interrupts which is not the case with add-ons that are not installed in the fast slot but e.g. in a Zorro slot. With it's ability to be the master system CPU the PowerPC on the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 does not need an additional 68k processor which is the case in other designs. Beside the technical advantages of this approach it offers the user the opportunity to e.g sell an existing 68060 processor card in the second-hand market thus lowering the cost of the upgrade to the PowerPC G3/G4 generation.

phase 5 digital products will NOT built or deliver any software or hardware add-ons for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4. The CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will be open to third party developers in a wide way:

Software support will be realized with the new developments from Amiga Inc. and Haage&Partner especially with the upcoming Amiga OS3.5 with PowerPC support and upcoming 68k emulator products. Additionally the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is perfectly suited for the implementation of other Operating Systems such as Linux which have already been realized on earlier PowerUp boards.
For hardware add-ons the implemented PCI 2.1 interface will allow third-party vendors to design PCI bus backplanes and write drivers for any common PCI card on the market. The interface is implemented as a single connector to which other vendors can connects e.g. PCI cards or PCI backplanes or design a physical link to PCI slots on bus expansion boards.

However due to the current market status we can only justify the realization of this project with a significant number of preorders. We will therefore have to collect a total of 1 000 orders from customers (end users dealers or distributors). For each of these orders we will also ask for a down-payment of DM 250 which will be collected on a notary account and will only be made available to us at the time we deliver the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 product to the customers. This gives security to all customers who want to support this exiting new project and get stunning G3/G4 performance for their Amiga and will give security to us when we make the necessary investments.

What will be the cost of this product and are benefits there benefits for preordering?

The regular list price for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 including

the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 mainboard with an Interposer ZIF socket for G3/G4 processor modules 2 SDRAM DIMM sockets for up to 1 GB memory 512 kB Flash ROM for system software (system software not provided with the board) a fully implemented PCI 2.1 interface with one connector (for PCI backplanes provided by third party vendors)
one G3 CPU module with a PowerPC750 processor with 400MHz and one Megabyte Backside Cache with 200MHz clock rate

will be DM 1 995 plus local taxes (in Germany: DM 2.299 - incl. MwSt). This price is based on the current price projections for components and parts for the 3rd quarter 1999 and will be updated whenever major components such as the CPUs fall in price.

A price for a CYBERSTORM G3/G4 model with the new XPC7400 (G4 with Altivec) processor is not yet determined and will depend on the pricing of these new processors. As soon as we have these pricings we will determine a list price for this product.

For those Amigans who are ready to support this major technological step forward by placing one of the necessary preorders we offer a special benefit: Customers who are ready to order this board in advance at the conditions mentioned herein will get this stunning product for a special discounted preorder price of DM 1 750 plus local taxes including world-wide free delivery by economy postal service. And even more: If the regular list price drops before the preordered CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards start to ship the discounted preorder price will be reduced by the same amount.

How will the whole project proceed and be finalized?

First of all we will now be looking forward to the response of the Amiga community to this project. The basic concepts of the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 as well as major parts of the design (such as the SDRAM controller and the PCI bridge) have been developed at phase 5 digital products during the past year as building blocks of other projects that we are working on; in other words most of the product is already "in the drawer". From the day we can make the decision to start the project finalization we estimate roughly four months until the product can be shipped to the customers. Therefore the shipping date will largely depend on the time which we need to collect the preorders.

The project has four stages:

Announcement and preorder phase.

We now collect preorders from customers all over the world. Please only place a preorder - which is not yet legally binding - if you are really ready to buy the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 and if you are ready to later pay the prepayment. If many users place preorders now but then cancel or refuse to prepay this will hurt the project flow significantly. If you are not definitely interested in this stunning new technology please don't place an order.
Notification phase.

Once we have received the necessary 1 000 preorders - the sooner the better of course - we will open the notary account and send notifications to all customers which will include a proforma invoice and the terms of the contract as well as information about the usage of the prepayments. At the same time we will also release updated product information and updated pricing if available. All customers will be asked to pay the prepayment with 3 weeks to the notary account.

Important: The prepaid amounts will not become available to phase 5 digital products before we actually ship the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards to the customers who have ordered. If we fail to deliver the product within a certain time from date of notification the prepaid money will be reimbursed. The prepaid money will not be reimbursed if the customer cancels his order for any reason.
Development phase
Design finalization and vericification including rapid prototyping and full in-system test will require appx. 3 months. During this time we will also work in close contact with other developers and support software development on the new boards.
Release & Shipment

Once the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is released for production we will go into the assembly and start to fullfill the preorders. The first boards will ship appx. 4 weeks after the start of the production. We will fullfill the preorders in the order we have received them. After the preorders are fullfilled we will decide if we continue to built CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards for the regular market what will depend on the market situation and the demand forecasts at this time.

If you want to take part in this stunning new development for the AMIGA which finally will bring the latest G3/G4 technology to the AMIGA and support the new developments by AMIGA Inc. and their partners then go ahead and
PLACE YOUR CYBERSTORM G3/G4 PREORDER NOW!«

(Source: Phase 5 digital products)