AMIGA

News from AMIGA

1. Fleecy Moss discloses details concerning plans for Amiga

With every new AMIGA management in the past the public relations of the Company have changed, be it to the better, be it to the worse.

The present management now and then releases statements for the press, but the most interesting informations come to broad light above all at internet chats and by usenet postings.

That is why Gernod Schomberg compiled the most important details concerning the plans of AMIGA, which Fleecy Moss, Vice-President, disclosed during the last weeks in two live chats in the chat circle of the internet service AmigaZone:

• AMIGA is busy with the developers system. A group is training at Tao, projects have already started. There are negotiations with hardware manufacturers under way.


• The developers box may be expected in a few months. There will be not so much of the new stuff in it, because this is still in the developing stage, but people will have something to work with.


• The developers system will be sold to anybody who wants it. Registered developers get special support. A date for the release cannot be announced yet.


• AMIGA will not be a hardware company. It will create software. OEMS cover different branches, that each has its special requirements. The nature of Tao gives hardware independence. The hardware companies may be as creative as they want.


• Consumer machines are certainly expected in this year. They will be x86 and PPC types. There are companies eager to cover all ranges. The first machines will range from US-$499 upwards.


• Some partners of Amiga are looking at SH4 and ARM in combination with PVR3s.
  • (SH4 - Hitachi embedded processor
  • ARM - ubiquitous embedded processor
  • PVR - NEC videologic graphics chip set - PVR2 is in Dreamcast - unique design allows for scaling from low to high end.)


• The new system will run due to its unique abilities on top of Linux, but as a native system. According to Bill McEwen Corel is quite interested!


• A virtual processor will run with the RTOS (Real Time OS), that means, that Tao binaries support any system the virtual processor runs with.


• If the ideas and provisions of Amiga Inc. come true, there will be a good possibility to walk into a local computer store and buy Amiga stuff. If they'd only write the drivers in Java, or Tao V(irtual)P(rocessor) code, this could be achieved.


• Tao's transparent multi-processor parallelism will care for speed. Some new technology Amiga is looking for could turn the internet from the recent slow-go to to full speed, being still fully interactive.


• Amiga hopes to find a solution for the necessary drivers. They do not want to spend more time writing drivers than they have for the core product. A unified driver model is indipensable. Amiga hopes, that HAVi will bring the solution. So finally there might be something that any program can use irrespective of what OS or which processor they were written for.


• Amiga aims to create a wonder emulator, which directly accesses the OS and the chips. An able team of programmers will hopefully do the job. In addition, Amiga and Haage & Partner are discussing further legacy releases to keep developers at HW tied APIs, and then finally move those APIs to the new machine. The BoXeR technology offers a good opportunity for both systems to run side by side. Amiga negotiates with a west coast company about just such a project.


• Haage & Partner are going to create products for the new Amiga and work with Amiga on creating a classic emulator.


• The development team of Amiga amounts now to appr. a dozen, a developer support manager with a team of 14 is on the job, the AAC (Amiga Advisory Council) has been restarted, Amiga is trying to get the ADN (Amiga Dealers Network) moving again, the new website is close to being ready, and obviously they are working on something nice.


• Names cannot be disclosed, until the new website comes up. The new Director of Developer Support is well known and quite popular. Everything will be found on the website.


• Amiga has moved into a new office, there is a new Vice President of Operations, a real cool and clever guy, Vince Pfeiffer. The latest round of training in Seattle has finished.


• Amiga now is hiring quite a few people, that will be well known to the community. But only Dean "DKB&quo; Brown is from the old days. Others have changed there carrier and are not at Amiga's disposal.


• A formal development pipeline is under construction, that will revolve around Design By Contract (DbC).


• There is a list of Amiga developers that should be prompted to help Amiga to move forward. Amiga is putting a package together to help them. The Developer Support Manager will get the support program up and running. He will soon contact the relevant people.


• Commercial Amiga developers will get the support free if they want, whereas it will cost for non Amiga companies, that want to come over. Amiga wants to help the Amiga companies get back on their feet.


• An Amiga IDE company is with help of Amiga Inc. in contact with Tao to start working on a decent compiler. Their VP language is very powerful. Amiga would also like to see a Blitz Basic type language, because they want to restart the private coders and the demo scene.


• Developers conferences will be held by Amiga Inc..


• As soon as a new product is ready for release, Amiga will start with a public relation campain. Plans are ready and many people in high places want to help. A slogan will be the definition of "digital life", when a product is about to be introduced. Amiga and the community are a quite creative bunch. They have lots of ideas. And a good job needs to be done to implement all those ideas.


• Bill McEwen is very concerned about the dealers. Amiga is working hard with Haage & Partners to ensure, that all existing software will run on the new Amiga. Money spent for programs right now is not wasted.


• Presently Amiga has no plans to port AmigaOS to PPC.


• Amiga plans to go public and offer stock.