@database FuturePhase5.html
@remark Converted with HTML2Guide ©1997 Mark Harman
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@node MAIN "FuturePhase5.html"
@{"b"}The Amiga's Future@{"ub"} 
	@{"i"}...Phase 5!@{"ui"}  

Without a doubt, Phase 5 are leading the way in the Amiga world! PowerPC accelerator boards have been released. Graphics cards based around their Caipirinha chipset will be released later this year. And early 1998 - A\BOX.  

For the A1500/2000/3000/4000, there are 604e cards from 150MHz to 200MHz, with a slot for 040/060. For the A1200, there's either a 603e at 175MHz, with 030 socket, or 603e at 200MHz, with 040/060 socket.  

These boards look to be excellent value! Let's take the 'bottom' of the range. 603e at 175MHz for  £300. As it is, this would be good, but all the cards have SCSI 2 as standard, which makes it amazing value, considering normally you would have to pay around  £70- £100 to get SCSI 2.  

You have to add an 030, but they can't be that expensive. One think I am wondering - they seem to be suggesting that you use the processor in your existing board. So okay, I whip my 030 from my Blizzard 1230 board, and the what? Chuck the CPU-less board in the bin!? I'm sure I could sell it complete with 030 second hand for  £50, or maybe more. Hopefully, we'll see retailers selling 030s with it also (as well as 040s/060s for the other boards).  

So now PowerAmiga is no longer an elusive mythical theoretical wonder - it's reality. Gone are the shackles of 680x0. We can have speeds which whip MMX to a pulp. Even the lowest of the PowerUp range is over three times as fast as a Playstation. PowerMacs no longer have PPC all to themselves. [Incidentally, I'd really love it for Phase 5 to release faster 604 boards, after all 200MHz is great, but I think the fastest is currently 300MHz! It'll be good if only to stop Apple from claiming Macs as the fastest personal computers in the world, because then they won't only be!]  

Before now, a 50MHz '060 was top whack for Amigas. Roughly a P100 - fast, but not good for a maximum speed these days. But the biggest problem was price - a P100 is a lot cheaper than an 060. What would you do a few months ago if you had  £300 to spend on a board? Probably a 40MHz '040 for your A1200. If you wanted a SCSI 2, you'd have to drop to 25MHz, or spend more. Although way faster than a basic A1200, let's translate that into PC specs - very roughly a 486 at 33-66MHz, ie, not considered very fast at all in 1997. But now, you can buy that 175MHz 603e, and then laugh at your mate who's just spent over a grand on a P166.  

Just to be sure, let's compare directly - Amiga accelerator boards versus PC boards+processors (NOT just the bare processors, of course!) Again, recently a P100 would be the price of a 50MHz 030, or something. Oh dear. But now, looking through a few adverts, I see  £235 for a board with an Intel Pentium 133 (Sorry, I am blessed not to be able to find to many PC adverts, so I couldn't get a direct match), so the prices look fairly in line with each other (and don't forget that SCSI 2!)  

So the PC no longer has the advantage of speed over the Amiga. The next thing to sort out is graphics (PCI slots? The Caipirinha chipset?)  

So what next? We undoubtably need software, and we've heard how lots of software is being ported. The PowerPC version of StormC will be great, as lots of shareware/etc-ware C programmers  can get in on the act. ClickBOOM's decision to support PPC is excellent news (and they may be going PPC @{"i"}only@{"ui"}???) Games are just as important, in fact, possibly more so in the short term.  

I have no idea if any of the Amiga's traditional 'Killer' applications will be ported, in particular, Lightwave. Anyone using Amigas commercially with Lightwave is not going to have difficulty choosing between an 060 and a 604, but if there isn't a PPC version of Lightwave, there's no choice (and the PC version looks ever more attractive). Remember the days when a toaster far  full of A4000s with 25MHz '040s was more cost effective than using Alphas? There's no way that that can be the case now with '060s, but 604s would be a different matter.  

And the rather important bit of software that could do with a porting - AmigaOS. Apparantly, the boards come with various libraries, but not a complete port at all. We shouldn't worry too much - the MacOS initially ran through emulation on the first PowerMacs, and I hear that the soon to be released System 8 will be the first to be entirely in PPC code. But I'm sure Phase 5 have said they've got AmigaOS 3.1 in PPC native code. So where is it? Are they lying?  
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 Phase 5 won't be stopping at PPC cards. The A\BOX is due for release early 1998 (like, didn't they once say early 1997? Did they miss a year out on their calender, or something?) The AmigaOS should be ported by then, in fact, radically updated to do justice to the A\BOX's features, which should be pretty interesting. (A thought - A lot of people seem to think that because Phase 5 are updating the AmigaOS, their new machine won't be an Amiga. I fail to see the reasoning here - would they rather they kept old version 3.1?)  

It's good that the Caipirinha chipset will be availale on Amigas - presumably it means you could run A\BOX software on existing (upgraded) Amigas. One thing I've wondered - is Caipirinha backwardly compatible with AGA, like AGA was with OCS/ECS? I've heard that there will be some form of 680x0 Amiga emulation, even if it's only software emulation.  

The attitudes of Phase 5 are clearly different from PIOS. PIOS are supporting PowerPC rather than just the Amiga. Although pOS is very Amiga like and very Amiga compatible, I have no idea what form of backwards compatiblility a PIOS ONE would give you. It's quite likely that if you buy a PIOS ONE, the only hope you'll have of running @{"i"}any@{"ui"} Amiga software is through UAE (and that's assuming there's a pOS - or BeOS - port of it!)  

But with Phase 5, you can get a PPC card for your existing Amiga, and later maybe the Caipirinha chipset, and have 100% compatibility thanks to the real 680x0 chip and a real AGA chipset. Hopefully companies like Direct (and of course - Amiga International?) will provide complete existing setups with PPC that will be cheaper than upgrading an A1200 yourself. And when the A\BOX comes, then hopefully there will be a decent amount of 680x0/AGA Amiga emulation (and even-more-hopefully, it won't be needed due to plenty of PowerAmiga software).  

@{"b"}Mark Harman@{"ub"}   
 
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