miga Hoover, AmiVac 5000, Vader's helmet, you name it and it's been said about Amiga Technologies' radical new Amiga prototype unveiled at CeBIT, Hannover earlier this year. Since this prototype, Amiga Technologies has been essentially sold off to VIScorp so it's future remains uncertain. The philosophy of it's design (the move away from the native chip-set) may not be in keeping with VIScorp's set-top box mandate. Only time will tell but in the mean time it serves as an example of what could be done with further Amiga development. You could, of course, demand that VIScorp construct the Walker.

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The Amiga should not be chasing after the PC. The Amiga is, and I hope will always be as special computer bought and used by the discerning customer. If it looks like a PC then people will assume that's what it is, only a lesser variant because it doesn't bow to the PC's buzzword agenda. If the new Amiga looks different, then maybe it will catch the eye of those who are looking for something a bit different the bonnet.
Tony Horgan - Technical Editor, CU Amiga Magazine.
This baby was designed to be fully expanded to a Power PC processor with an Official AT uprade in early '97. It's a great low-end Amiga now and yet miraculously it can be expanded to the highest levels of modern computing capability - all housed in a 1950's-style juke-box-radio-cum-vacuum cleaner case (which, incidentally, I love).
Mat Bettinson - Technical Writer, CU Amiga Magazine.

Project Walker specifications

• CPU
  68EC030 40Mhz. FPU space provided, socket or as standard not decided.
  
• MEMORY
  2MB Chip memory and 4MB of Fast memory as standard. Two SIMM sockets on the motherboard (proto shown here has only one). Expandable to 128MB of RAM.
  
• EXTRAS
  
  • Quad speed CD-ROM as standard.
  • HD floppy drive using new internal controller.
  • Hard drive as standard. (size not determined)
  • Real Time close as standard.
• PORTS
  
  • High speed serial port.
  • High speed EPP Parallel port.
  • E-IDE controller for CD-ROM and hard drive.
• EXPANSION
  One slot located dead center to the motherboard. However, it's split into two secxtions so that it may house 2 cards if needs be. The exact details on the signals and purposes of each half of the slot weren't finalised but the basic idea is that one is a CPU slot and the other a general IO/Video slot. The port was designed with the idea of implementing a Zorro and/or PCI daughterboard to go into this slot.
  

There you have it; Project "Walker" as it was planned by Amiga Technologies. More news to follow when it becomes available. Stay tuned for news of the May 19th VIScorp conference in Toulouse, France.

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Created by Mat Bettinson - Staff Writer, CD Editor and Web Master - mat@cu-amiga.co.uk