| WarpUP Release 4 with PowerUP Emulation |

WarpUP Release 4 with PowerUP emulation

Version 4 of WarpUP - the Amiga power PC kernel from Haage & Partner, has finally appeared. It can be readily obtained from their home page. At the center of WarpUP release 4 are countless extensions asked for by developers so that they could bring their projects more simply and efficiently into reality. Accordingly, it should only be a short wait before software appears that makes the installation of WarpUP 4 an absolute necessity.

WarpUP 4 also impresses us with a bridge. It is delivered with the PowerUP emulation from Frank Wille. This allows PowerUP only applications to not only run under WarpUP but to profit from the improved multitasking capabilities of the WarpOS. The bundled version of the emulator already supports the new functions of WarpUP 4.

The new features

Download WarpUP 4

Voyager and IBrowse Updates

Oliver Wagner offers us a quick over view of what we can appreciate in Voyager 3:

Java Script 1.2 Support

CSS1 style Sheets

new GUI (configurable)

reworked Cache System

Flash/Shockwave support

reworked Image decoder.

as well as IBrowse 2, among the new features are:

Java Script 1.2 Support

Up todate HTML including HTML 4

improved GUI

improved preferences

improved Cache

AmigaOS 3.5 News direct from AUGS meeting

Haage & Partner gave us a first look preview into the development of Amiga OS 3.5. A few of the interesting points:

Miami will be the TCP/IP stack

A more comfortable Workbench

New Icon Library

New Boopsi set with name reaction

PowerPC coprocessor support

Expanded Installer program with new capabilities.

Improved printer support

reworked datatypes

HTML style documentation in both English and German.

ICS Color management System now available

After almost two years of development, Wolf Faust - well known for the "Studio" print system - has now published ICS, the first color management system for the Amiga. In the current version of ICS it is possible with built in targets to calibrate your own scanner. Thereby the scanned pictures conform to a predefined color space either in reference to the picture displayed on the monitor or in a preselected standard such as PAL, NTSC or sRGB. This opens up the possibility for additional processing of the image data in a professional manner. ScanQuix 4 automatically recognizes and supports ICS. ICS is available from Aminet (hard/misc/ICS101.lha). Of course a reference module (after the IT 8.7 standard) is required to actually calibrate your own scanner. The directions, as before, are provided only in English. ICS is available for free it is only requested that you register the software so that the interest in such software for the Amiga can better be gauged.

IBM and Motorola agree on the 64-Bit-PowerPC

At least as far as the so called embedded CPU market IBM and Motorola appear again to be on the same page. In the so called "Book E" they have laid down the future PowerPC architectural specifications for the embedded chip family, particularly of note is the expansion to 64 bit. Current PowerPC software should continue to function on the new architecture without change. Particular details of "Book E" remain unpublished, and so the question remains if the Altivec extension will continue to be supported. This particular expansion of the PowerPC architecture was put forth by Motorola and at least to date has not been supported by IBM. (as/c't)

Microsoft attacks the Linux Slogan

Microsoft has required the German Linux website to remove the Linux motto "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" The slogan was felt to be too much like the copy righted Microsoft Slogan "Where do you want to go today?" As to whether an actual legal claim exists is in dispute. At this time the American Cybernet Systems Corp. holds the rights to "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" and appear to be headed to court with Microsoft. Because of this Linux.de has removed the slogan until a definitive decision is reached and requested that Linux supporters come up with a new slogan. (odi/c't)

Before this year is out look for yet another performance jump from 3D graphic chips.

At the Microsoft sponsored WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), Graphic chip manufacturer nVidia (Riva 128, Riva TNT, etc.) announced a drastic performance increase in 3D graphics capability. nVidia plans to be the first to release a cost effective graphic chip that will take over some of the functions that now require special software routines. Specifically the new chip will handle geometric and lighting calculations that are now the bottleneck in the 3D instruction series pipeline model as exemplified by AMDs 3D now! and Intels ISSE lack of adequate acceleration. This is made possible through technological advances from the chip manufacture and further chip miniaturization. While today with a standard separation of .25 um in the processor design one can integrate the function of more than nine million transistors with .21 um or even .18 um separation the functions of up to fifteen million transistors can be integrated. Extra functional capabilities included within the graphic chip five to ten times more detailed output are thereby possible. The next version of the Windows gamemakers tool DirectX 7.0 supports the 3D instruction set with the required software functions. One can assume that the new nVidia chip with the internal designation of "NV10" will be demonstrated before the year is out.

The expansion of graphic capabilities improves video games in two ways. It not only improves the realism of the scenery it also allows for more complex game play. The calculations for the geometry and lighting can take up to 70% of the available CPU capacity; therefore the remaining functions of the game must, by necessity, be relatively simple. But customized graphic chips with an improved geometric engine could reverse this relationship leaving over 70% of the CPU capacity for such things as the opponents intelligence, or the simulation of effects such as gravity, collisions, explosions, smoke and particle systems (snow, fountains, etc.) The steps announced by nVidia have been mentioned by other chip developers. ATI has stated that they also expect to announce, within the next month, a new generation of drastically improved and more capable graphic chips. ATI would not verify If included within this group will be a new chip with geometric acceleration, it is, however, very probable. S3 and the UMC group, a group of chip manufactures in Taiwan, have already, since December 1998, successfully produced chips with a part separation of .18 um. S3 will use this technology for the production of accelerated graphic chips with a complexity of two million gates. This translates into something like 8 million transistor functions. Details should be available before the start of chip production which is expected before the end of the first half of this year.

UMC announced that they could be producing chips with .18 um separation with copper connections before the end of the year. Internal connections of copper instead of aluminium means less generated heat and would therefore allow for higher oscillator speeds. (Manfred Bertuch) (ea/c't)

Robert Niessner
Tom Lively