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{subhead} Letter from Amiga's new CTO, Dr. Rick LeFaivre{def}{p}
Article by Rick LeFaivre
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I thought it would be appropriate for me to "introduce" myself to the
Amiga community, having joined the new Amiga in April as chief
technology officer and senior VP of R&D. Just as Jim Collas is
opening up communications channels as our new CEO, I'll try to
communicate as openly as I can about Amiga's technology vision and
directions.
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First, a little about my background, and why I'm at Amiga. I wrote
my first computer program (on an IBM 1620) in 1966, and got my first
job as a (student) programmer in 1967. Over the past 32 years, I've
been privileged to participate in the evolution of computing from the
mainframe to the minicomputer to the personal computer to the
Internet. I started my career as a computer science professor doing
research in artificial intelligence and advanced programming
environments (LISP, SmallTalk, and an AI language I developed in the
early 70's called FUZZY). I moved into industrial R&D in 1978, and
over the years have directed R&D organizations at companies such as
Tektronix, Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Silicon Graphics and
Borland International (now Inprise). At Apple, where I oversaw
advanced technology R&D, we pioneered technologies such as QuickTime,
PlainTalk, QuickTime-VR, and a host of other innovations that were
subsequently copied by our friends at a large software company
located in the Northw est corner of the United States (sigh). We
also provided funding for the world's first Internet browser, and set
up Apple's first Internet web site.
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I spent most of my career as a UNIX user and, later, a Macintosh
user. I managed to avoid having to use Microsoft DOS or Windows
prior to Windows 95, but for the past several years have had the, uh,
"pleasure" of being a Windows 95/98 user. I must confess that I have
never been an Amiga user, but I was well aware of what was going on
in the Amiga community as the Amiga and Video Toaster moved
multimedia into the mainstream. People at Apple had a great respect
for the Amiga, and the communities always seemed similar to me. I am
rapidly learning more about the spirit of innovation that has been at
the heart of the Amiga community since the first Amiga was shipped in
the mid-80's.
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Well, it is now 1999, and we find ourselves at the dawn of a new
millennium, and the dawn of the information age. The personal
computer, as represented by Windows PC's and Macintoshes, is now a
mature product category, with little true innovation occurring in the
PC industry. What's next? With the PC industry now in it's third
decade, what will be the next big "S-curve" that will dominate the
next 20 years of computing? Clearly, it will involve the emerging
global information infrastructure, which is creating a fundamental
transformation of business, communications and, indeed, human
culture. In many ways, we are transitioning from the era of
computing - building faster and faster computers that may,
incidentally, be networked - to the era of communications, with
powerful ubiquitous communications networks that connect a wide
variety of computing devices.
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We at Amiga feel that unleashing the full power of this emerging
information infrastructure requires much more than a PC with a
browser plugged into the Internet. What is needed is a complete home
computing environment that ties together powerful multimedia
convergence computers with easy-to-use information appliances, all
transparently accessing content and services on the Internet. As Jim
has told you, our vision and mission is to make computers a natural
part of everyday life by creating an industry-standard systems
architecture and operating environment for this new world. In
essence, we want to redefine the home computing experience for the
21st Century, combining awesome multimedia, transparent networking
and Internet access, and a user experience that makes a computer or
information appliance as easy to use as... a toaster!
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It's a very exciting time as the spirit of the Amiga starts building
again. Personally, I'm thrilled to be a part of the new Amiga team,
working with Jim, Petro, Jeff Schindler, Allan Havemose, and the
other top people who are being attracted to this opportunity. I look
forward to sharing more about our vision, technologies and products
in the months to come. Stay tuned...
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Rick LeFaivre{p}
CTO and SVP, R&D{p}
Amiga, Inc.