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{subhead} AMIGA: Dead or alive? Will it survive? II{def}{p}
Article by David Falksen
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Continued....
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SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
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The typical catch 22 situation: Companies or individuals will buy
hardware or software so long as it is available, but developers do not
program unless there is a demand. A typical person may way, "I would buy
an AMIGA, but there's not much software for it," while the potential
developer says, "I would create a program, but few people own AMIGA
computers." I have found myself in the later category.
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No easy solution for this problem really exists. However, there are few
ideas and thoughts that should be considered. In order to break the
Catch-22 dilemma, Amiga, Inc. and Gateway could create a software
development company. This company could develop a wide range of
products, initially focusing on productivity and packages that users and
businesses need. Why create such an organization? Well, have you ever
been at birthday party where no one wants to go first? Everyone stands
around looking at each other despite everyone's eagerness to get some
cake? Then finally some insist that the birthday boy/girl goes first,
and once the main attraction cuts the cake and gets a piece, other
people follow. Once the developer or possessor of the technology creates
software for its own product, other developers may follow suit.
Developers may see commitment and dedication of Amiga, Inc. to their own
product when quality products are released and be motivated to do the
same.
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In order to prevent the technology company (Amiga, Inc. or whomever) and
the software company from unfair developer advantages, safeguards should
be in place to prevent such an occurrence. Designate a point in time
when the software company will become completely independent from the
parent company and become financially and managerially independent.
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An alternative to creating a software development company would be to
co-partner with another firm for a specified period of time. The parent
company can contribute funds, ideas, projects, and even manpower for
software development.
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Individual software companies may have to develop for an additional
computer platform in order to help supplement AMIGA development. Many
developers have decided to support the AMIGA along with other Operating
Systems. Some dedicated AMIGA enthusiasts may not support such an idea,
but it is the only practical way. Companies have to pay for expenses and
turn a profit, and families must be fed; take the opportunity to compare
an AMIGA version of a game with a different version, and send positive
criticism to the authors. Using common cross-platform development tools
and libraries such as C/C++ and OpenGL/CyberGL can make such development
easier.
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SUPPORTING MULTIPLE DATATYPES
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Adopt every known computer software datatype and make software to modify
it, allow software to use it for filtering, let developers and users
know about it, continuously provide new datatypes. Periodically I will
tell people that it rarely matters what software you use to create a
file because most software packages can read files from other software
programs.
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One of the programs I like on the AMIGA is MULTIVIEW. This program can
read many different file types in many different forms, so I can go to
one place and view a wide variety of files without having to open a lot
of different programs. Creating a central program that would be able to
filter datatypes and allow other software packages to utilize that
filter would enable many people to use the AMIGA without worrying about
compatibility problems.
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FASTER BARGAINS
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Many times I have wondered why technology that is a few years old costs
more than technology that is only a few months old. An Amiga 1200 costs
around $500 new without a monitor and runs on an 68020, but a new IBM-PC
computer with an AMD or Cyrix processor can be purchased for about $900
with a monitor; building one's own PC is even less expensive. The IBM is
a faster machine and can perform many functions the A1200 can do, and
even more. Some claim that the AMIGA tends to be more expensive because
it is of higher quality. Though this may or may not be true, the cost
for AMIGA end products need to become more reasonable and competitive
with other computer products. Providing a new product similar to the
A1200 at a faster speed, maybe 060, for about $500 would be a great
bargain.
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On the other hand, one also needs to consider what the average computer
user will do with his or her new AMIGA. Most users use a computer for
basic needs such as word processing, accounting, graphics, internet
browsing, and playing a few games. As the average user becomes more
familiar with his/her new computer, expanding the computer becomes
simple and easy. Adding an accelerator card is much easier than swapping
out a motherboard. On the Amiga 1200, simply open the bottom door with a
key, slide in the new accelerator, install software, and you have a
PowerPC-G3 computer; no new computer to buy, no hassles of ripping out
the components to swap a motherboard then piecing all the parts back
together hoping that the new motherboard or components won't be damaged.
It make the company technician's job much easier, and would not put a
burden on the accounting department.
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Gateway and Amiga, Inc. have mentioned a faster AMIGA in the future. At
the World of Amiga show in 1998, Gateway presented information on new
processing capabilities. The Intel processor is not supposed to be the
next microprocessor. The new chip could be the Alpha chip, but there is
a new chipset that Motorola is developing that I believe will be the
next processor. AltiVec, according to Motorola's web site, will be
available in 1999. According to their web site,
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PowerPC microprocessors incorporating AltiVec technology are expected to{p}
provide a tenfold performance increase over standard PowerPC{p}
microprocessors.
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During the WOA '98 show, Gateway also mentioned that the new
microprocessors are to be 5-10 times faster than today's PC's. The
combination of AltiVec capabilities, Gateway's announcement, the current
development of PowerPC accelerators on AMIGA computers, and the support
for PowerPC in AmigaOS 3.5 make the PowerPC AltiVec technology seem to
be a very probable candidate. Currently, the PowerPC 750 366 Mhz
processor runs at 671 MIPS; when AltiVec is implemented, then
theoretically the new processors will run at 6710 MIPS or 6.7 BIPS. The
DEC Alpha 21164 600 Mhz processor only runs at 2.4 BIPS.
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Though the PowerPC with AltiVec technology would be a great processor,
what processor Amiga, Inc. decides to put under the hood should offer
consumers a great deal for the money, and it should cause the industry
to ask, "How do they do that?"
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FLOPPING AMIGA COMPUTER NICHES
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The worse case scenario: the computer hardware itself may flop or become
a small unnoticeable niche, but the technology will live on. Gateway
will find a way to make it pay off. A Corporation does not spend
millions of dollars on a technology without finding a way to may the
investment pay off. Companies can buy technology in order to get them
out of the marketplace for a variety of reasons. Gateway has no reason
to do this. If it doesn't pay of in a computer, then they will find some
other way.
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Some may have been surprised when the news broke that Gateway had bought
the AMIGA patents and technologies. It should be noticed and remembered
that Gateway has the Destination PC product line. With this line of
merchandise it is obvious that they are trying to merge computer and
television technologies. The management team is smart enough and open
minded enough to see a technology that could enable them to adopt a few
patents to implement into their Destination PC. The technology will
enable them to lower the price of the product, provide x86 and Windows
computability, and output to television.
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I have also heard of cable boxes that utilize AMIGA technology. I am not
too familiar with this, but it is a great idea. Once the boxes are in
the homes, they could be converted into AMIGA computers in a similar way
that the CD32 could be converted.
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WebTV or AmiTV? The AMIGA technology could easily be used in a way
similar to that of Microsoft's WebTV. Place the motherboard in a chassis
and add a modem, keyboard, and a mouse. An embedded QNX OS and its
Voyager web browser on a 2MB ROM will provide users with hours of fast,
entertaining surfing.
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NEW FRONTIER
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A great many individuals have written the AMIGA off. They hold to a view
that the Computer has found its final resting place among other
technologies that have served their time. The lack of support for the
AMIGA is sometimes seen as proof that the computer is dead.
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Despite such viewpoints, the AMIGA still has great potential. Old and
new technologies, new management, new and old ideas, new innovations for
the AMIGA technologies present the possibility of a great future for the
AMIGA. There have been many ideas and technologies that have found their
place in the scrap pile, but the AMIGA and its technical capabilities
has great potential. Whether it be in cable boxes, hand held devices,
robotic circuitry, computers, or wherever, the technology will more than
likely survive. Analysts may say otherwise, but analysts are wrong most
of the time and biased all the time anyways, so don't believe everything
they say.
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Copyright © 1999 David Falksen. All Rights Reserved.{p}
Email: {bold}dfalksen@flash.net{nobold}{p}
Home Page: {link http://www.flash.net/~dfalksen/}http://www.flash.net/~dfalksen/{end}