b3tPPC is not the waytKalfthpf2s1c01 PPC IS NOT THE WAY f1c03 by Kalf/Absolute! c02In c03Showtime#6c02, c03Kaosmaster/Darkage c02and other co-editors wrote about the greatness of the PowerPC chips/boards from c03Phase Vc02. They also say that everyone should buy these boards because they are the accelerators of the future. Well, I don't agree with this because of some facts! f2c01 INFLUENCE ON THE MARKET f1c02The first fact is that PPC from c03IBM c02and c03Motorola c02will not be a very powerful chip in the commercial business anymore. This PPC is only used by c03Apple c02in the computer world, in the new c03Power Macsc02. Now Apple have announced and verified that in the next year (or maybe in 1999) their new operating system will change. And guess what this change will mean for PPC owners? It will mean that the PPC chip will not be used anymore! Instead the whole operating system will be adjusted to work with the new c03Intel c02processors! c04(Rhapsody (MacOS 8) will be shipped in two versions: PPC and Intel based; comment ed.) c02Why is this? This is very simple. Intel has a bigger strength on the market and it's prices are very good, and they always come down by the day and get cheaper. On c03CNNc02, Intel have said that they have found out a breakthrough in their technology. Instead of making the core of the processors with silicon, they have found out how to connect the transistors with f2Copperf1! Now guess what! First, copper is much more cheaper to work with than silicon. The new Intel processors will cost less than $200-300. And the bigger news is that thanks to the copper, there is no more limit to the 266Mhz speed! Now there can be Pentiums with 500 or 600Mhz with that same prize of $300! This is really crazy, but if the prices are like this then Apple is not crazy at all to make this move. c04(Intel have by now announced a 1000Mhz processor for 2000, but not for the costumer market. DEC Alpha runs 500 Mhz since two years. PPC by now runs on 300 Mhz highest, 450 Mhz soon; comment ed.) c02Also Apple know that the users of Macs are complaining all the time because of the bad compatibilities with the PC. Macs are mostly used in companies/offices and schools and they want PCs compatability! So the choice of Apple is a very understandable one! f2c01 WHAT ABOUT AMIGA f1c02Now, the strange fact is that Amiga International reacted to this in a similar matter. Without Apple and the new MACs there is no one else who makes computers, and is using then PPC as the engine. So c03AI c02are worried. And in fact they have made some statements that most probably the new official next-generation Amiga will not be necessarily PPC based! So why this? I think that many people will be angry because they spoke about PPC all the time, and also some people have already bought a PPC from Phase 5! Well it looks like that AI is in competition with Phase V and does not like much to co-operate with them! Maybe not in the eyes of the Scene people, but inside the company the AI employees have this kind of attitude not to co-operate. By making a non-PPC Amiga they will go against Phase V. And what will most people that know the story buy? An official AI Amiga or a Phase V Amiga? Well the choice is that people will buy an official AI Amiga! f2c01 PHASE 5 VS HAAGE&PARTNER f1c02So Phase 5 must be under pressure these days! Phase 5 has already released PPC boards for the Amigas with a big box, and an adjusted operating system plus libraries to make it work straight away. Now another German company called c03Haage & Partner c02have released a software patch called the c03WARPupc02. This WARPup makes any programs compiled with their Storm C compiler run faster with the WARPup than with the Phase 5 libraries! But other programs not written with Storm C will not run any faster and will have no advantages. The problem is that the only development tools available for PPC on Amiga right now are the Storm C package! Phase V acted aggressive on this, because Haage & Partner had done all this unofficially without telling Phase 5! Also the WARPos is f2freef1! Phase 5 have said that they will drop the support to Haage & Partner! So the battle is on. Phase V is in the middle with Haage & Partner having the development monopoly (that is until c03SASC c02is released again) and Amiga International waiting for the November Amiga show in Germany to make their announcement! f2c01 CLOANTO & GATEWAY 2000 f1c02Also some other interesting news is that the Italian company c03Cloanto c02who makes c03Personal Paint c02will release a CD with an Amiga emulator in software for the PC, with the official Workbench disks also on the CD, plus many software! This is announced in the c03Amiga Web Directory c02also. AI have also agreed on this fact! This is incredible and a big shame! In the meantime, c03Gateway 2000c02, the mother company of AI has laid back 600 employees because their PC ranges of computers did not do very well in 1997! c04(Hardware dependancy is the surest step into oblivion as we can see from Sinclair, Schneider, Amstrad and Acorn. Apple also ran this policy and see where it lead them? Amiga emulators might be a first step into an all system Amiga-OS which by now is the only chance to keep our system alive!; comment ed.)