KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 3rd April 1999

Number: 015

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: UML notation

Summary of debate: See: http://www.rational.com which details a notation called
                   UML (email to the ML was about the design diagrams that were
                   discussed).


b)

Subject: Closed KOSH?

Summary of debate: It was expressed that some may feel KOSH to be a closed
                   group, particularly with the website being down at the
                   moment.

                   Actions to remedy this situation include getting the web
                   site back up, issuing surveys asking what people want of
                   KOSH (and publishing the results) and promotion of the
                   surveying working group to do this.


c)

Subject: Standardised coding

Summary of debate: Without standards and things like Interface Control Drawings
                   could cause difficulties for programmers later on. Formal
                   specifications for any software created are a must.

                   It was mentioned that perhaps we should not start direct
                   coding for KOSH until standards, schematics, etc have been
                   designed and implemented. However there is no reason why
                   people should not try out their own ideas by coding them in
                   whatever language on whichever system they prefer with the
                   aim to be to port them to KOSH at some point in the future.

d)

Subject: Recursion

Summary of debate: A lot was said on how to implement and use recursion in KOSH
                   programming, including using it for sorting algorithms.
                   However it is not the quickest or most space-efficient
                   construct available.

                   It was mentioned that recursion could in fact be as fast as
                   the same function coded non-recursively. It depends on the
                   language and compiler.


e)

Subject: More on KOSH, Linux and Windows

Summary of debate: One argument against using Linux with KOSH-hosted is that it
                   is based on a 25-year old  OS technology. The same can be
                   said of Windows which is based on 15-year old OS technology.

                   However as has been suggested on numerous occasions these
                   two systems provide probably the best opportunities for
                   hosted versions of KOSH, at least to start with.


f)

Subject: Commercial Open Source Software (COSS)

Summary of debate: Details of how to reconcile the advantages of Open Source
                   Software with being paid for ones efforts at:
                   http://www.treetop.demon.co.uk/coss.html

                   The Slashdot discussion is at
                   http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/04/04/1544211.shtml

                   These approaches could be useful to KOSH which in part at
                   least seeks to combine Open Source with an ultimately
                   commercial venture.

                   A subscription to KOSH could be one way to gather revenue
                   while at the same time providing easy access to source
                   information.


g)

Subject: Planar into "Pixel Land"

Summary of debate: A long debate was had on the merits and possibilities of
                   taking Planar display modes and getting PC Chunky Pixel
                   graphics cards to use them, thus allowing both bitplane and
                   chunky pixel on one device.

                   MCGA, a graphics mode that came after VGA but before(?) SVGA
                   was mentioned. This could in part provide something of a
                   cross over but it may be limited on resolution.

h)

Subject: Fractal packing

Summary of debate: See the following for an introduction to the above:
    http://www.rasip.fer.hr/research/compress/algorithms/adv/fraccomp/index.htm

                   Two further resources on this are:
                   http://inls.ucsd.edu/y/Fractals/ or
                   http://links.uwaterloo.ca/fractals.home.html


i)

Subject: KOSH Birthday cake

Summary of debate: Joel Newkirk has pledged an awful lot of cookies and a
                   birthday cake for the release party of KOSH v1.0


j)

Subject: New ML -> kosh-programming-o

Summary of debate: A new open mailing list with the above title has been
                   created by Jason Radford. Subscribe at
                   kosh-programming-o@kosh.net - It is intended to be used to
                   discuss the majority of programming and language issues that
                   have been generated on the general mailing list as well as
                   more besides.


k)

Subject: Abbreviation reference source

Summary of debate: Suggested that a list of all abbreviations in common usage
                   on the internet (such as AFAIK, OFC< IMHO, etc) as well as
                   all the smileys and terms such as OOP and BOOPSI could be
                   written and hosted on the KOSH site. It would help KOSH to
                   be more inclusive.

                   Ruward F. Leenstra mentioned the suggestion to have a
                   Terminology Working Group who could be responsible for this.


l)

Subject: Request for permanent help with summaries

Summary of debate: The scribe of the General Mailing List (mois - Bridge Deady)
                   has asked for offers of assistance with summarising the KOSH
                   General Mailing List, preferably on a permanent basis (and
                   has received some offers to help already - much
                   appreciated). If you can help please email the scribe at
                   csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com




m)

Subject: Colour filters

Summary of debate: An inbuilt graphics filter that compares pixels side by side
                   could possibly help with some forms of colour blindness
                   and/or "colour fuzziness" (eg: red text on a green
                   background can often swim for a lot of people).


n)

Subject: Blinux and further Braille discussions

Summary of debate: While discussing the use of Braille terminals it was
                   mentioned that Blinux is at http://leb.net/blinux/

                   The mechanical complexity of a Braille terminal can mean
                   that they are prone to breaking down. It was suggested that
                   it could be replaced by heated spots - but they would have
                   to cool very quickly. A stereo speaker built into the device
                   would alert the user of a change in the device - this would
                   emulate the mechanical clicker. By being stereo it would
                   alert them as to whether the changes are to the left or the
                   right of the centre of the board.

Date: 12 Apr 99 19:50:21 +0100
Subject: Offener Brief
To: "Mag: Amiga News (Petra Struck)" petra.struck@online-club.de
From: Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)

Hallo Petra,

 zu dem offenen Brief bzgl. PPC/PCI erreichten mich
 bisher ueberwiegend Zuschriften bzw. Kommentare
 von Leuten, die offensichtlich ohnehin nichts
 von PPC-Karten halten.

 Da es mir nicht um die Diskussion des Fuer und Wider
 oder Sinn und Unsinn hiervon ging - worunter uebrigens
 auch Preisvergleiche mit PC-Hardware fallen - moechte
 ich gerne noch einmal oeffentlich und zusammenfassend
 auf Folgendes hinweisen.

 Meine Praemisse war:

  a) es gibt Leute, die einen neuen Rechner wollen
     (z.B. weil der alte A4000 irgendwann mal den Geist
      aufgibt oder "man" heute sowieso zusaetzlich auch
      einen PC braucht)

  b) dieselben Leute wollen auf diesem neuen Rechner
     alte Amiga 68k-Software ausfuehren lassen
     (wofuer sie auch UAE nehmen koennten)

  c) sie haben bereits eine PPC-Karte fuer ihren Amiga
     oder werden sich ohnehin noch eine kaufen

  d) sie moechten auch alte Amiga PPC-Software auf dem
     neuen Rechner ausfuehren koennen (was derzeit weder
     mit UAE noch irgendeiner anderen Software-Loesung
     moeglich ist oder Sinn machen wuerde), so dass
     ihnen b) nicht ausreicht

 Wer nicht wenigstens zu a, b und d zustimmt - und zur
 Haelfte auch zu c - der kann es sich eigentlich sparen,
 weiter zu diskutieren.

 Es geht naemlich einerseits um einen Brueckschlag zwischen
 "Amiga OS 3.5 mit PPC-Support" und AmigaNG bzw. andererseits
 um eine sinnvolle Alternative fuer ppc-interessierte Leute,
 die sich fuer AmigaNG nicht interessieren und stattdessen
 eher einen PC kaufen werden.

 Das Fazit der ganzen Emotionen und der ganzen Irrationalitaet,
 die bei der Diskussion herausgekommen sind, lautet fuer
 mich, dass es offensichtlich Leute gibt, die mit ihrem
 Amiga 68k voll und ganz zufrieden sind (oder doch nicht ?),
 sich statt einer PPC-Karte lieber gleich einen PC oder
 Mac kaufen wuerden (oder doch nicht ?), aber es den Leuten,
 die bereits eine solche Karte besitzen nicht zugestehen
 wollen (warum eigentlich ?) dass sie nicht nur 68k-Programme
 mit UAE & Co. sondern auch PPC-Programme - die in der Regel
 einiges gekostet haben - auf andere Rechner "mitnehmen" wollen ?

 Die ultimative Loesung waere natuerlich, wenn AInc sich
 fuer den PPC als neue AmigaNG-CPU entscheiden wuerden,
 und eine solche PCI-Karte, d.h. der Ausloeser dieser
 Diskussion, komplett ueberfluessig waere...

--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de  or via @gmx.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de
Or try good, old: FidoNet 2:2457/350.18 --- *SuperView* development
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
Visit http://wdo.de/ark/ for information, free downloads, registration

CutNPaste33.lha      biz/dopus   20K+Adds Cut'n'Paste to DOpus5.5+ (Version 3
BurnIt_Driv113.lha   biz/titan  100K+BurnItMasterdrivers V1.13 (29.03.99)
AmIRC_HU.lha         comm/irc    14K+Unofficial hungarian catalog for AmIRC
life1_1.lha          comm/maxs   23K+Uncrashes Maxs/Paragon BBS Doors
Camedia.lha          comm/misc   36K+Transfers pictures from digital camera (
jl.lha               comm/tcp    26K+JustLinux dyndns server client (MUI)
term48_HU.lha        comm/term   17K+Hungarian translation for term v4.8
icr.lha              comm/www    11K+Restores IBrowse cached WWW pages for lo
Lynx282dev21.lha     comm/www   979K+Fast WWW browser - Fixed -
mapPlugv13.lha       comm/www    71K+HTML client side image map editor v1.3
pEditorv10.lha       comm/www    45K+Free MUI based text editor v1.0
bm-qapmoc.lha        demo/aga    74K+Qapmoc 40K by Black Monks, 3rd place at 
JP7.lha              demo/mag   1.8M+Jurassic Pack#7 - diskmag by Faith, Gods
MUICD_HU.lha         disk/cdrom   6K+Hungarian translation for MUI CD v1.13
OptyCD2_HU.lha       disk/cdrom   3K+Hungarian translation for OptyCD v2.1
agpg.lha             docs/hyper 108K+Amiga Games Patches Guide
agpg_txt.lha         docs/hyper 484K+Amiga Games Patches Guide -AddOn Textes
REDD_Gde.lha         docs/hyper  14K+Red Dwarf Episode Guide (52)
DevGuide.lha         docs/lists  75K+Guide about  303 Amiga Devices   -21-
DTypeGuide.lha       docs/lists  74K+Guide about  240 Amiga datatypes -23-
LibGuide.lha         docs/lists 228K+Guide about 2309 Amiga libraries -37-
ShopsMailbox.lha     docs/lists 307K+New Shops and Mailbox guide 12.04.1999
NintendoMag.lha      docs/mags   76K+New  Nintendo Magazin   12.04.1999
gm_backdrop12.lha    game/data  452K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
gm_backdrop13.lha    game/data  501K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
GuiCreator.lha       game/misc  162K+A program to make Gui s for commands/pro
civhack.lha          game/patch 196K+Saved game editor for Civilization
jst.lha              game/patch 142K+JOTD Startup for HD Installs & Degrader 
jst_dev.lha          game/patch 514K+JOTD Startup for HD Installs & Degrader 
Crazy8.lha           game/think 479K+Card game  you vs. computer
Crazy8.samps2.lha    game/think 277K+Another alternate sample set for Crazy 8
Crazy8.samps3.lha    game/think 252K+More samples for Crazy 8's
CrazyUPD.lha         game/think 172K+Update Crazy8 v2.7/v2.8 to v2.9c
CGraphX224u.lha      gfx/board  147K+CyberGraphX Extension Update 
CGraphX225u.lha      gfx/board  147K+CyberGraphX Extension Update 
VE-VCard.lha         gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Visual Card v1.50
card_prep.lha        gfx/ifx      3K+Prepare Reko or Soliton cardset pics
SvII-1.lha           gfx/misc   261K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 1/8
SvII-2.lha           gfx/misc   202K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 2/8
SvII-3a.lha          gfx/misc   135K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 3a/8
SvII-3b.lha          gfx/misc   213K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 3b/8
SvII-4.lha           gfx/misc    41K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 4/8
SvII-5.lha           gfx/misc    51K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 5/8
SvII-7.lha           gfx/misc   113K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 7/8 (opti
SvII-8.lha           gfx/misc   211K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 8/8 (opti
Upgrade40.lha        gfx/misc     2K+Run Photogenics 1.2aSE with OS release 3
TrueReality.lha      misc/emu   121K+Nintendo 64 emulator - Version 990322.2 
uae-app_014.lha      misc/emu    29K+UAE-ADF Mount+Unmount Workbench-Interfac
AmiKanji_beta.lha    misc/misc  4.6M+XJDic1.1 and other utils for japanese
TotoSei.lha          misc/misc   74K+TotoSei v2.0 DEMO (ITALIAN)
dachip.lha           mods/elbie   2K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
fog.lha              mods/elbie   3K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
happy.lha            mods/elbie   5K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
hidden.lha           mods/elbie   4K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
planet.lha           mods/elbie   1K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
crs_ast1.lha         mods/techn 2.0M+CRS00043: Atomic Shelter Tunes vol. 1
AmTagEdFR173p.lha    mus/misc     6K+Full french catalogs for AmTagEd V1.73
AmigaAMP.lha         mus/play   331K+MPEG audio player with GUI (68k/PPC)
Amoralplay1.1.lha    mus/play   105K+-*AMOREL*- No fuss multiformat(OSS etc.!
D-Shuttle.jpg        pix/mark   306K+A Shuttlecraft flying away
anc_fatality.lha     pix/misc   154K+[ANCOR] a new pic with Sandra
CatManGED.lha        text/edit    9K+Essential download for all translators
heddley120fr.lha     text/hyper  17K+French catalog for Heddley 1.20
HTML2Guide.lha       text/hyper  19K+HTML to AmigaGuide convertor v2.0
flshlib.lha          util/sys     1K+Flush a library from system (+ source E)
DCF77.lha            util/time  380K+Radio clock receiver, clock, time signal
Gurus99_15O4.lha     util/wb    469K+Shows infos about Gurus (German + Engl.)

Name: VirusChecker II v2.0 & Brain v2.16
Archive name: vht_vc2.lha
VC brain file: vhtvb215.lha
Archive size: 446.171 bytes
Released date: 11 April 1999
Programmer: Alex van Niel - Virus Help Team NL
System: OS 2.x or higher 

AmiPoint News

AUGDD und Panorama Computerclub User-Meeting

Am Sonntag, den 13.06.99, findet im Ladenlokal des AmiPoint von 11:00
bis 18:00 Uhr ein Amiga-User-Meeting statt.

Es soll gezeigt werden, daß der Amiga trotz PC-Dominanz noch nicht zum
alten Eisen gehört. Es werden mehrere Amigas zur Verfügung stehen, auf
denen die verschiedenen Einsatzmöglichkeiten aufgezeigt werden.

Dazu zählen:

- Audiobearbeitung
- Grafik- un Videobearbeitung
- Lokale und ferne Netzwerke (Ethernet-LAN und Internet)
- Raytracing (Andreas Weyrauch bekannt aus der A+ Bildergallerie)
- Büroanwendungen
- Web-Cam um das Meeting im Internet verfolgen zu können
- Ausserdem wird, mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Amiga Int. sowie
  Haage & Partner,ein Preview des neuen AmigaOS 3.5 gezeigt!!

Eingeladen sind alle die sich für das Thema Computer (und speziell
Amiga) interessieren.

---
Online Shop

Ab sofort ist unser Internetangebot für unsere Kunden deutlich
übersichtlicher.
Wir bemühten uns speziell um ein Shopsystem das auf allen Amiga-Browsern
lauffähig ist und sind fündig geworden.
Die Adresse lautet: http://www.amipoint.de/

---
Netzwerk

Ab sofort gehört eine spezielle Amiga-Lösung im Bereich LAN zu unserem
Angebot.
Wir sind stolz damit die günstigste! Amiga-Lösung anbieten zu können.
Unsere Fiberline PCMCIA-Ethernetlösung beinhaltet einen speziellen
Amiga-Treiber, einen Hardwareadapter (A1200 Tower), Sambapaket sowie
natürlich eine PCMCIA-Netzwerkkarte (10MBit/s) mit TwistedPair sowie BNC
Anschluß.
Der Verkaufspreis liegt bei 159,- DM



Wir bitten um freundliche Beachtung
--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

AmiPoint, Marc Gerlitzki
---------------------------------------*
Marc Gerlitzki         Tel. 0203-476890
Kampstrasse 71         Fax: 0203-477782
47166 Duisburg   E-Mail: mg@amipoint.de
               BBS: 02855-932112(Modem)
               BBS: 02855-850471(ISDN)
---------------------------------------*
       http://www.amipoint.de
---------------------------------------*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 9, 1999

NCAUG Cookout at Software Hut

Contacts:
Bill Borsari - tekmage@amiga.org
Mike Skov - skov@moon.jic.com
Software Hut - softhut@erols.com

The National Capital Amiga Users Group http://www.ncaug.org is happy to
announce in conjunction with Software Hut http://www.softhut.com a cookout
for their May meeting. The festivities begin at 12 noon on Saturday May 1st
at Software Hut's West Chester location. Come early, the fun ends at 3 p.m.
Aside from special deals for those who attend, there will be food, fun, and
a surprise or two.

Members of NCAUG will meet at predetermined locations to arrange car pools
to Software Hut. Please consult the NCAUG Web Page and newsletter, Amiga
Intuition, for more information. Amigans from New York, New Jersey, and
surrounding areas are also encouraged to attend, you do not need to be a
member.  It is asked that you either call (800-932-6442) or e-mail Trish at
Software Hut if you plan to attend.  A map of Software Hut's location is on
their web page.

The National Capital Amiga Users Group has been serving the DC Metro Amiga
user since 1985.  Home of the famous Blimp Cam, our group is world reknown
as one of the most active Amiga User Groups there is.  We offer the latest
in Amiga developments and informations.  SIGS supporting the Internet,
programming, and video production available to all members.  Please come by
for an afternoon of fun.

Fabian Jimenez

fabian@cais.com

--
Fabian Jimenez : fabian@cais.com : ICQ# 21377601
       Editor, Amiga Intuition Newsletter
National Capital Amiga Users Group, www.ncaug.org

======================================================================
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  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
         KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING         ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
990410

        P R E S I D E N T   C O L L A S   W R I T E S   . . .

            A M I G A   U P D A T E S   C O M M U N I T Y

             W H O   I S   R I C K   L E F A I V R E   ?

                 S A K U   9 9   I N   F I N L A N D

   D O W N U N D E R   9 9   I N   O Z   ( W H E R E   E L S E ? )

         A M I W E S T   9 9   P L A N S   A N N O U N C E D

                 W O R L D   O F   A M I G A   ' 9 9

  D E L S Y D   C O N S I D E R   S H O W   -   Y O U R   V O T E ?

        B E S T   P O W E R   T O   S U P P O R T   A M I G A

                     M O R E   O N   A M I J O E

       T W I S T E R   -   A N O T H E R   P P C   C H O I C E

     U P D A T E   O N   P H A S E   5 ' S   N E W   B O A R D S

     G R O U P   P R O M O T E S   D I S C O U N T S   I N   U K

               S T A R G A T E   2 . 0   B O W S   I N

    S C A N N I N G   S Y S T E M S   F R O M   R A N D O M I Z E

                S I A M E S E   3 - P A C K   C A S E

                   A M I D O G   I S   N O   D O G

                  Y I K E S ,   I T ' S   J I K E S

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 Interesting news from Amiga in this issue. There's an open letter to
the Community from new President Jim Collas and an update on major
activities, both on the Amiga website. We run them here for the
benefit of those who can't or haven't had a chance to see them.
There's also a very interesting addition to Amiga's staff. A new Chief
Technology Officer has been hired - some information on him is below.
 April is "Amiga Update"'s birthday. We got our start about the time
Commodore's suicide was complete in '94. Since those early days, we've
grown into a publication read world wide - our thanks to all our loyal
readers! Give yourselves a pat on the back for keeping us going.
 A recent check of our subscribers' list turned up about 20 different
countries. That amazed even me. The one thing I'd dearly like to do is
publish this newsletter in the native languages of all our readers.
It's an impossible task, so we thank you for reading us in English.
 For the fun of it, here's a list of the top level domains in our
subscribers' list. How many are you familiar with? They're not in any
special order other than being almost in the order we got subscribers
from them. (No, we don't yet have a comprehensive list of where all of
them point, so we can't publish an answer to this little quiz.)
 "Amiga Update" goes to the following domains:
.com, .us, .edu, .gov, .mil, .se, .jp, .uk, .au, .es, .no, .nz, .fi,
.ch, .il, .fr, .it, .uy, .hk, .yu, .mx, .de, .ar, .ca - and we might
have missed some - if so, please let us know.
 We hope you enjoy this issue, where ever you are.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

9 Apr 1999
Hi Brad,

Further gen on that A2000 batt problem, hope it helps.

Reference:

URL  : http://www.amiga.com/diary/developers/y2k.html

Title: The Year 2000 problem and the Amiga

6.2 Leaking clock batteries

 A battery provides the necessary power to keep the battery backed up
clock hardware ticking while the Amiga computer is switched off. As
time passes and the clock hardware keeps ticking, the batteries age:
some must be more than ten years old by now. Old batteries can leak
acid, causing great damage to the Amiga motherboard hardware. Often
such leakages go unnoticed until critical parts of the Amiga hardware
begin to fail. Of course, once you notice it, it is probably already
too late...

 It has been recommended to replace the clock batteries on every Amiga
main board that is more than three years old. The batteries are small,
barrel-shaped objects about 18mm long and 15mm in diameter. They look
as if they were being held between two clamps (they are not; the
batteries are soldered) and have a blue or red plastic covering. The
covering is often labeled with the name of the manufacturer (e.g. GP
or Varta) and the battery properties (3.6V, 60mAh). Also, the anode
("plus pole") should be marked clearly.

 Where is that battery? Try looking for it: the battery may look like
a capacitor on first glance, but it is unique in that it appears to be
held between clamps. It is larger than any capacitor on the main board
and the labeling should be unique. Here are some hints on finding the
battery:

 o Amiga 2000: under the drive bridge, where the floppy disk drives
are mounted
 o Amiga 3000: near the left edge, right in the middle of the main
board
 o Amiga 3000T: right below the power supply, next to the two
Kickstart ROM chips
 o Amiga 4000: left side of the main board, near the mouse ports; note
that only older Amiga 4000 boards use the barrel-shaped nickel cadmium
 storage batteries, the newer boards use disk-shaped lithium batteries

 You should really start worrying if corrosive salts are covering the
metal casing of the battery: it should be replaced as soon as
possible. Do not attempt to replace the battery on your own. You
should consult a specialist, such as your nearest Amiga technical
support centre.
            Written by Olaf Barthel

 mikdom
~~~~~~
This note was in response to a recent reader question.
Thanks "mikdom" for the information.
 Brad
======

 Recently we spotted discussion on the Net about supposed plans to
drop the snapshot feature from Amiga OS 3.5. We contacted Mr. Juergen
Haage, of Haage & Partner for further information. Here's his note to
us.

5 Apr 99

Hello Brad,

 We don't remove the snapshot function. This was maybe a
misunderstanding of Mr. Raukamp. What we tried to do is to find a
automatism to remove the manual snapshot. On the current point of work
we can say that this will not be possible.

 Please be sure we never try to remove the snapshot function we only
try to make it a little bit easier.

Kind regards

Juergen Haage
======

6 Apr 1999

Dear Brad,

 I enjoy receiving your periodic bulletins filled with the information
so vital to the survival of the Amiga and its users.

 Recently I have been unable to connect with the SoftLogik
Publishing(PageStream) Co. website and the phone is no longer working.
 With all of your contacts in the Amiga forest, I wondered if you had
heard anything about what happened at SoftLogik. A lot of users may be
left high and dry if they have left the Amiga scene. It would have
been nice to hear from them (a la Oregon Research) if they have closed
shop. If not, where are they?

 If you could find something out by your next publishing date, I along
with many others would certainly appreciate it.

 Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sheldon
~~~~~~

Hello Sheldon,
 I don't know for certain, but Haage & Partner also provide a clue for
this question. The following item was in a recent H&P newsletter, and
can also be found on their website:

"31 Mar 99: SoftLogik is moving

SoftLogik is moving to a new location and even their domain
www.softlogik.com is not available for about 2 weeks."

 At this point, we don't really know what that means. Once we do know,
we'll pass the information along.
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        P R E S I D E N T   C O L L A S   W R I T E S   . . .

 · · OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
----------

April 1999

 This is my first open letter to the Amiga community. In many ways, I
am honored by the opportunity to address such a great community of
people and represent such a unique brand as Amiga. There are many
remarkable Amigans, both former and current, that are responsible for
Amiga's impressive products and its spirit of revolutionary
innovation. These are the people that created the Amiga phenomena and
the people that persevered through these tough times. Amiga
communities from across the world have kept the Amiga spirit alive. I
can't claim any responsibility for the early success of Amiga or the
current endurance. I can only praise the people responsible and hope
that I can help bring a new era of greatness to Amiga and fulfill the
hopes of the Amiga community.

 The St. Louis show a few weeks ago was the first Amiga show I
attended as president of Amiga. From the feedback I have received, the
show was a great success. The show was well organized with good
attendance and was also a lot of fun. The number of people who
attended was approximately 1,200 but more important is the fact that
there was a 14% increase in attendance from last year. I made my debut
as president of Amiga and I want to thank everyone who welcomed me to
the community. I especially want to thank those who welcomed me until
3:00 a.m. in the morning and taught me that Amigans really know how to
have fun. You know who you are.

 In St. Louis, I had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of
time with people in the Amiga community. Several times during the
show, I publicly made the statement that the Amiga community is the
greatest community in the computer industry. I am now more convinced
of this than ever. The Amiga community is the most innovative,
dedicated, heroic and enduring community in the computer industry. I
am amazed at what the community has done with little or no support
from a corporate entity. You have endured through extremely tough
times and kept the spirit of Amiga alive and strong.

 Unfortunately, some of the difficulties the Amiga community has
endured in the last two years stem from some misguided decisions made
by Amiga Inc. It is now obvious to me that some very big mistakes were
made in defining a path for Amiga in the last two years. The low
priority and support given to Amiga by our parent company, Gateway,
aggravated this situation. Gateway was preoccupied during this period
with significant internal restructuring to strengthen its core
business for the future. The intentions relative to Amiga were good
but the situation was mismanaged. Some people have told me that I
should stop talking about past mistakes and only look toward the
future. I agree with this but I also want people to clearly understand
that I realize how much our past mistakes have hurt the community and
delayed progress. This is important because I do not want to repeat
these mistakes so be patient as I discuss this one last time.

 In my opinion, the biggest mistake was the decision not to evolve the
current Amiga architecture as we developed the next generation. This
hurt the current Amiga community the most. The right decision would
have been to overlap product generations just as Apple did during the
Apple II to Macintosh transition. Apple evolved the Apple II
architecture by introducing the Apple III even after Apple came out
with the Mac. The Apple III wasn't a big seller but it helped Apple II
hardware and software companies and allowed them time to transition
their products to the new Mac platform.

 In hindsight and from the vantage of the Amiga community, not
evolving the current architecture may look like an incredibly stupid
mistake but it was not as obvious to people coming from the PC
industry. I am not trying to justify this flawed decision but to give
some insight as to how such a decision could be made. Living in a
computer industry dominated by Wintel PCs skewed the thinking of
people making this decision. In a computer industry dominated by
Wintel PCs, computers are obsolete within six to twelve months. The
inefficiency of the architecture requires a continuous upgrading of
CPUs, graphics, and storage devices in order to deliver acceptable
improvements in features and functions. This is what happens in an
industry where revolutionary innovation has been replaced by
constrained evolution. From this PC centric view, no one could imagine
that a computer architecture that stopped evolving in the early '90s
could have any life left in it. Obviously this view was very limited
and flawed as the Amiga community has proven over-and-over again how
much life was left in the current Amiga architecture.

 It is obvious that the community would currently be stronger if we
had made the decision two years ago to evolve the current Amiga
architecture. Two years have now passed and we are faced with a tough
question. Is there still life left in the current architecture? I
believe that there is. The release of O/S 3.5 in late July or early
August will allow the current architecture to live on for a few more
years. In addition to O/S 3.5 we are looking at supporting companies
that are looking at hardware enhancements to the current architecture.
We will also support emulation of the current Amiga architecture on
the next generation Amiga so that people can use most of their old
software. I am spending time with key people in the Amiga community to
finalize transition plans between the current Amiga and the next
generation.

 Now, it's time to talk about the future! I know this has been an
extremely difficult and painful period for the Amiga community but I
would like to put that chapter of the Amiga story behind us and look
toward the future. We have a difficult road ahead of us with many
important decisions to be made on our future plans. I will not make
the mistake again of not understanding the Amiga community, its
requirements, and its dynamics. St Louis was a good start for me but I
require even more input to better understand the situation. As all of
you know, the Amiga community is very strong in Europe with many Amiga
companies and extremely impressive individuals. I am planning a trip
to Germany and the U.K. in late April to meet with more leaders in the
Amiga community. The objective of my trip is partially to communicate
our current thinking but mostly to listen and understand. I want to
understand the opinions of prominent people in the Amiga community. I
will use this input to finalize our future architecture and plans. I
especially need help in planning out how we will transition from the
old architecture to the new architecture in such a way that keeps the
Amiga community healthy.

 One thing clearly requested by the Amiga community was BETTER
COMMUNICATION on the activities at Amiga. I promise to improve our
communication starting with this letter and continuing with frequent
postings on our Web site as well as increased interaction with the
community. Our participation in the St. Louis show and my upcoming
trip to Germany and the U.K. are good examples of our efforts in this
area. The letter you are currently reading is posted on our Web site
in the new "Executive Update" section that I will personally be
updating on a monthly basis. In this section you will also find an
update on major activities listed after the monthly letter to the
community. I think this is a good start and we will continue improving
our communication as we go forward. If you have any input on my
executive update web page or on how to improve our communication
please send your suggestions via email to executive@amiga.com. You can
also send email to me directly at jim.collas@amiga.com but I get
significant amounts of email so it may take me a few days to respond.
The executive@amiga.com email address goes to my assistant who in turn
directs the email to the Amiga executive that can most effectively
reply.

 I know that I have yet to prove my dedication or win your confidence
but I hope to do so over the coming months. As many of you already
know, I stepped out of a senior executive position with Gateway that
was a very prominent position in the PC industry to lead Amiga. I did
this because I believe strongly in what Amiga stands for. I believe in
the Amiga spirit of revolutionary innovation. I believe that the PC
revolution is over because innovative revolution has been replaced by
constrained evolution. I believe that there is a new computer
revolution on the horizon, one that will fulfill the promise of
bringing the power of computing to the masses. Most importantly, I
believe that Amiga will play a significant role in this new computer
revolution. But Amiga can't do this without the full support of the
Amiga community. The Amiga community is one of the greatest and most
innovative communities in the computer industry. It is a revolutionary
army waiting to strike and reclaim its prominent position in the
computer industry. I truly believe this from the depths of my heart
and I promise to use all of my experience, resources, industry
contacts, and energy to give Amiga a strong and aggressive push. I
hope I will not let you down.

 Let's keep the momentum going as we come back for the future.

Sincerely,
Jim Collas
President, Amiga
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           A M I G A   U P D A T E S   C O M M U N I T Y

 · · UPDATE ON MAJOR ACTIVITIES

April 1999


Operations/Planning:

 1) We have combined Amiga, Inc and Amiga Intl under a single
corporate entity. The name of the new company is simply Amiga. Amiga
Intl is a subsidiary of Amiga and will remain in Germany under Petro's
leadership. As part of this we have combined our Web sites into a
single Web site.

 2) We have secured funding for a significant budget to drive our
plans.

 3) Our executive headquarters have been moved to San Diego.

 4) We are opening up San Jose engineering facilities to support our
rapid engineering expansion.

New Staff:

 1) In February we officially hired Dr. Allan Havemose as VP of S/W
engineering.

 2) In February we also hired Jim Von Holle as VP of OEM Sales and
marketing.

 3) Allan has hired Richard Lipes from Silicon Graphics as a director
of S/W engineering for graphics and A/V.

 4) Within 2 weeks I will announce a new Chief Technology Officer
(CTO) and VP of advanced technology (you will be impressed) as well as
a new VP of finance and operations (you will be impressed again).

 5) In the next few weeks we will begin advertising in major
newspapers to recruit engineering resources for our San Jose facility.

Major Development Programs:

 1) O/S 3.5 - This product is being developed by Haage & Partner under
contract from Amiga. The target release date is late July or early
August. We will also be talking to Amiga hardware development
companies about possibilities for hardware products targeted at the
O/S 3.5 release.

 2) AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) - We are developing our
next generation operating environment including operating system, user
interface, and some revolutionary software structures to be disclosed
at a later date. Target beta version is 3Q99 with final in late 4Q99.

 3) Next generation hardware architecture - Being developed as a
foundation for all next generation Amiga products.

 4) AmigaSoftTM development system - This is planned in 3Q99 along
with the beta release of the new AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment.

 5) Initial next generation computer - We are developing the next
generation computer that will be used to launch the next generation
systems architecture and operating environment. Target release date is
late 4Q99.

Shows and Community Activities:

 1) Amiga had a strong presence at the St. Louis show. We also spent a
significant amount of time talking to leaders in the Amiga community.

 2) I am planning a trip to Germany and the U.K. in late April in
order to discuss future Amiga plans with leaders of the Amiga
community in Europe. Petro is coordinating this.

 3) We are working on supporting and getting finalized plans for a
1999 World of Amiga show in London.

 4) We are planning for the Cologne show in November.

 5) We are planning for the Las Vegas Comdex in November.

 6) Petro is developing reseller, distributor, and magazine support
programs to help the Amiga community.

 7) We are also working on some user group support programs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             W H O   I S   R I C K   L E F A I V R E   ?

8 April, '99

 {Rick LeFaivre, PhD, has recently been named Chief Technology Officer
of Amiga. While no announcement has been made as yet, here's what some
enterprising folk have turned up in searches on the Web. Brad}

 "LeFaivre has held R&D management positions at Sun Microsystems and
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, in addition to Apple Computer and
Viacom. He is also a former professor of computer science at Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey. LeFaivre holds his B.A. in
mathematics from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and his M.S.
and Ph.D. in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison."

 "Dr. Rick LeFaivre, has returned to the company as vice president of
the newly formed Apple Technology Group and Human Interface Design
Center. LeFaivre was formerly vice president of Apple's Advanced
Technology Group, and most recently was senior vice president and
chief technology officer at Computer Curriculum Corporation, a
subsidiary of Viacom, Inc."

 "Borland International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BORL) CTO Rick LeFaivre"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                S A K U   9 9   I N   F I N L A N D

 ESPOO, FINLAND - April 4, 1999 - Finnish Amiga Users Group is pleased
to announce its third annual Amiga event, Saku 99. Following the
success of Saku 98, which was visited by some 500 Amiga enthusiasts,
Saku 99 is aimed to be bigger and better than the previous events. Mr.
Petro Tyschtschenko of Amiga has already confirmed his presence and
other great highlights are planned.

 Saku 99 will be held on Saturday September 4th 1999 at the Science
Centre Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki. The venue is the same as last
year and available floor space has been increased by reserving an
extra hall for the event. The event is expected to open at 12:00 and
end at 18:00. Admission will be free of charge. Please stay tuned for
more details as the planning progresses.

 For further information, visit Finnish Amiga Users Group's Web Site
at http://batman.jytol.fi/~saku/ or http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/.
E-mail inquiries may be sent to Janne Sirén (siren@mikrobitti.fi).

 About Finnish Amiga Users Group

 Finnish Amiga Users Group (Suomen Amiga-käyttäjät ry.) is a
non-profit organization for promoting Amiga computing and helping
Amiga users in Finland. Also known as Saku, after it's disk magazine,
the group is trying to accomplish it's goals by organizing meetings
and by publishing a disk magazine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users
Group and it's predecessors have released almost thirty issues of the
disk magazine and held several public gatherings. Other
accomplishments include the Web site and Sakunet, a national Fidonet
style network of Amiga related bulletin board systems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   D O W N U N D E R   9 9   I N   O Z   ( W H E R E   E L S E ? )

6 April, '99

 The Amiga Downunder 99 show will be run at the Hotel Heritage, in
Canberra, the Australian National Capital, on August 21st and 22nd
1999. The show will run from 10 am to 4 pm on both Saturday and Sunday
with a dinner and trivia night on Saturday evening.

 Further details, including a list of invited guests and stallholders,
will appear on our website as we receive acceptances. An application
form will be available through the web site.

 As our permanent domain address is not available at the moment,
pointers will be available at http://www2.dynamite.net.au/krash/ or
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jamesm/CAUSe.html at the moment the web page
is located at http://www2.dynamite.com.au/krash/amigadu/index.html but
this WILL change.

 We intend to update the web page frequently so please check back
often.

 Please use the addresses on the web page to contact us. Suggestions
would be appreciated.

James McPhee for
Amiga Downunder 99
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          A M I W E S T   9 9   P L A N S   A N N O U N C E D

10 Apr 1999

---------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
---------------------

                           AmiWest '99
                           -----------

The Amiga West Coast Convention, Amiwest '99 is shaping up!

Where: Holiday Inn, Sacramento Northeast
       5321 Date Avenue,
       Sacramento, California

When:  Friday, July 23, 1999 through
       Sunday, July 25, 1999

That's right!

 Thanks to the 700+ Amiga fans that visited Amiwest '98 last year,
their fantastic support makes this years convention a reality.

 The AmiWest committee is proud to annouce we are again hosting this
year's show in Sacramento, California, and, because of need for MORE
ROOM we will hold AmiWest '99 at a new location; the newly remodeled
Holiday Inn in Northeast Sacramento, California, nearly doubling the
available exhibition area of last year.

 AmiWest '99 will run from Friday, July 23th, through Sunday, July
25th. Classes and seminars will be held Friday through Sunday with the
exhibit hall being open on Saturday, July 24th from 10a.m. - 5p.m. and
Sunday, July 25, 10 A.M. - 4 P.M.

 Space is available for rent to companies, clubs, organizations, and
individuals producing Amiga related products and services. This three
day weekend event will showcase the progress that IS the Amiga
Community.

Booth pricing is available on our web page:

    http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/

Admission to the event is as follows:

    $8  (One day Pass - Paid by July 5, 1999
    $10 (One day Pass - Paid at the door)

    $12 (Two day pass - Paid by July 5, 1999
    $15 (Two day pass - Paid at the door)

 There will also be a banquet on Saturday evening, July 24th, with
guest speakers to be announced. Price is $35 per plate.

 For more information contact John Zacharias at jzachar@calweb.com or
write to us at:

    AmiWest99
    c/o Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
    P.O. Box 19784
    Sacramento, CA 95819-0784

Come visit us at our web site!  http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/

Watch for these future announcements:

    Guests        (?????????????)
    Raffle prizes (Grand and Door)
    Hotel Rates   (Special AmiWest prices)

And don't be shy, drop us a line!

John Zacharias, chairperson
AmiWest99

jzachar@calweb.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 W O R L D   O F   A M I G A   9 9

28/03/1999

By SEAL

 Yes, we toddled off to the centre of London on saturday at the
bequest of AmigaSoc, to help brainstorm WoA '99. World of Amiga '99
will definitely be on the weekend of the 24th/25th of July. The venue
is still to be finalised between the two front contenders, both in
London. WoA is definitely going ahead this year though, and Amiga are
desperate for it to be on, as they want the opportunity to make some
rather important announcements and show off a couple of things (not
least of which will probably be the unveiling and selling of os3.5).
WoA '99 is going to be the best yet! In a better venue, and a lot more
going on, such as...

Seminars (like last years on Photogenics and ImageFX, but better...)
Videos played everywhere.
Competitions (so hone up your Sensi Soccer and Quake skills)
Cyber-Cafe
Tutorials and demonstrations
Your questions to Amiga Inc
Annex!

 And of course all your favourite (and more) Amiga stores doing good
business. As I said, the venue and pricing (tickets may be cheaper
than normal...there's no way it's going to be more expensive) are
still to be decided, but it looks like it's going to be the best one
ever! And that's just because we're going to be there with a booth of
our own! You lucky people! :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  D E L S Y D   C O N S I D E R   S H O W   -   Y O U R   V O T E ?


28th March 1999

 After hearing about the demise of Midwest Amiga Expo, we at Delsyd
Software have decided to see if anyone would be interested in
attending a different show. The show would be held in Burlington,NC
around the same time that MAE would have been held. If there is anyone
who would be interested in attending this show or setting up a
booth,we would like to hear from you. We've set up a special email
address for this purpose. You can contact us about this show at:
delsyd99@yahoo.com

 NOTE:We will only hold this show if enough people or companies are
interested in attending the show. This could be a very large event,if
people from the right companies set up booths.

Send us your mail now!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       B E S T   P O W E R   T O   S U P P O R T   A M I G A

 7 Apr 1999

 {The following letter from Best Power was posted to the net by Mark
A. Loyd. Thanks, Mark, for making this public! Brad}

This is not just a rumor, but fact!

 Best Power WILL be supporting the EXISTING Amiga line with the next
release of our UPS monitoring and control software, CheckUPS II v3.3.
We will also be supporting the next generation of Amiga machines as
they become available. I recently attended the Amiga '99 show in St.
Louis, where I made the announcement at the ICOA Developers meeting,
that Best Power was going to support the Amiga. I was very pleased
with the overwhelmingly positive response I received.

 While at the show, I opened a dialog with Amiga Inc.'s new president
Jim Collas, as well as Juergan Haage (H&P's Managing Director of the
AmigaOS 3.5 project), about adding direct UPS (Operating System
Shutdown) support into AmigaOS 3.x as well as the new AmigaSoft 5.x
Operating Environment. Working with Amiga Inc., I believe that Best
Power can provide a greater level of UPS connectivity for the Amiga,
then has been achieved on any other OS to date.

 In addition to providing UPS support for the Amiga, Best Power will
be making another first in the UPS industry by releasing it's in-house
UPS driver API as OPEN SOURCE!

 The CheckUPS SDK, a full Software Development Kit for writing serial
and network based UPS monitoring software. Based around the "Best
Power UPS Driver API", it will provide a very easy means of writing
custom software that communicates with any Best Power model UPS,
without having to know anything about the specific UPS communication
protocol. Also, as Best releases new UPS models, it will continue to
update the SDK, thereby making adding support for a new UPS to any
software written using the CheckUPS SDK, as easy as recompiling or
downloading the latest shared library.

 Considering the fact that the UPS Driver API was delevoped excluively
on an Amiga A4000T, (the same machine that creates our CDROM masters),
it seemed only fair to directly support the Amiga :-).

Regards,

Jamie Krueger
Software Engineer - AmigaOS / UNIX
Best Power - http://www.bestpower.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------

                     M O R E   O N   A M I J O E

31 Mar 99

What "stuns" me ....

 We are very glad to see that our recent announcement of the AmiJOE G3
processor upgrade for the AMIGA contributes not only to the ongoing
discussion about the future of AMIGA, but also to the design efforts
of other companies. Even in their approach towards potential customers
and users of such products these people have started to think a little
more customer-friendly. So, maybe it´s time to release some more
educational stuff.

 Our AmiJOE 1200 is certainly meant for the majority of loyal Amigans
still using one of the most exciting sub-500-$ computers worldwide.
But please note, that we do not provide the G3 solution to owners of a
customized A1200 built into a big tower case. Our AmiJOE will fit into
the regular keyboard-style case of the original A 1200. How do we do
that? Engineering!

 The AmiJOE 1200 will have an expansion socket for a module also
fitting into the regular A 1200, offering either USB or, without any
difference in price, a Fast-SCSII 2 - connector. This module is part
of the AmiJOE 1200 product and included in the price of 599 EURO.

 AmiJOE 2000/3000/4000 will obviously be a little bigger in size, so
it has USB on board. The PCI 2.1 - compliant connector will be ready
to connect to another expansion card, the MultiJOE. At this stage, we
don´t want to disclose too much information about the MultiJOE, since
others should think up their own ideas. We are only going to let you
know that MultiJOE will offer Ultra-SCSII and a complete grafics
system, which includes 2D/3D, video-in and digitizing, alpha blending,
genlock and flicker-reduction and AC-97- sound.

 In the last couple of months, we have learned a lot from our
microprocessor partners about G4 and Altivec. The major benefit of the
G4 (PPC 7400) will be to handle up to 2 Mbyte of Backside Cache. It´s
some waste of time making 1 MB BSC solutions with the G4, so we will
stick to the G3 for now. One important thing to understand is that
this next generation of PowerPC isn´t ready to ship by the time we
will start to deliver the AmiJOE to the market. As it becomes
available, there will be another product, too.

 Firewire maybe of interest for digital video editors, but it´s our
clear vision that USB will bring a broad range of modern peripherals
into the Amiga world. On the other hand, video work will bring much
fun and productivity with the MultiJOE, and this will be a turn-key-
solution without paying a fortune.

 EURO pricing is rather new, but makes it very easy for all customers
in Europe and the US to figure out their ticket into the G3 sphere. We
appreciate that others will join these practices, adding also more
transparency to the competition.

 As we still don´t ask for prepayments, it´s good to support people
who need this type of financials. And in this case, it´s very customer
friendly to accept orders even without the prepayment, although they
will have to pay a huge interest charge on top.

 Time will tell about reality.

 Yours sincerely


 Stefan Domeyer President & CEO met@box AG
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      T W I S T E R   -   A N O T H E R   P P C   C H O I C E

                  TITAN COMPUTER proudly presents

                 the new Twister G3/G4 PPC Project

The Story so far....

 There never existed a Viper project. A user has got these
informations and release this name.

 The Twister G3/G4 project for Amiga 1200 is a cooperation between ACT
(Apollo), Haage&Partner and Titan Computers.

 The new Motorala G3/G4 PPC-Cpu`s open a new world of speed and
creativty for A1200 users. With a Twister PPC board the Amiga 1200
will play again in champions-league of power- ful computer systems.
Old 68k times are over a new RISC-CPU era has begun.

 Due to Haage&Partners 68k emulation which is fit in a 2MB Flashrom
the Twister-PPC board reaches a 100% compatiblity to old 68xxx CPU`s.

 The emulation is powerful enough to reach the speed of an 68060 CPU
on a 300MHz G3 turbo board. Furthermore the Twister PPC-board has 2
local PCI-Slots with each 100 MHz bus clock The Slots are suitable for
a 2D/3D graphic board on RivaTnT2 basis and for Ultra-Wide-
SCSI-controller

 The Twister boards will need a lot of space therefore it could only
fit in a Amiga 1200 tower system

Specifications:
- G3/G4 PPC-board with 300 - 450 MHz
- 2 local PCI-Slots with each 100 MHz Bus clock
- 2 Ram slot for upto 512MB SD-Ram, also clocked with 100MHz
- 512 KB 2nd Level Cache
- 2MB Flashrom for BIOS and 68k emulation

 suggested retail price for G3 300MHz version DM 1100.- (incl. 16%
local taxes)

Expansion boards:

Twister-Vision

- 2D/3D graphic board with 8MB SG-Ram, upgradable to 16MB
- Riva TNT2 graphic chip
- Amigasignal will be passed through the gfx-board. No Monitor
  switcher or something else needed

suggested retail price DM 349.- (incl. 16% local taxes)


Twister-SCSI

- UW-SCSI-controller
- upto 40MB/sec transfer rate
- DVD-Support
suggested retail price DM 249.- (incl. 16% local taxes)

Release date 4. quarter 1999
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     U P D A T E   O N   P H A S E   5 ' S   N E W   B O A R D S

29 Mar 1999

 {This following item from phase 5 is certainly a salesman's piece. It
does however offer details on their upcoming accelerator boards. The
articles we run from suppliers and developers are often sales pitches,
but every once in a while one makes us smile a bit more than the
others. This is one such. If we didn't think it was probably a very
good product despite the article's "wow, we're great!" tone, we
wouldn't run it. Brad}

 phase 5 digital products is excited to announce that the next step in
ground-breaking technological progress will take place soon. Since we
first announced the Cyberstorm G3/G4 project just 10 days ago, the
overwhelming response by the Amiga Community has not only convinced us
to extend the original Cyberstorm G3/G4 project to an extended Amiga
G3/G4 product line. Driven by the excitement of so many Amiga users,
we have spent many hours of additional consideration meanwhile,
discussing the requests and demands by the user community, and going
into technical details and cost optimization. Today we can present
some exciting news, which also make some of the statements of the
original announcement and the update obsolete already. However, if you
had not informed yourself about this development before, please read
these original announcements which contain information about
conditions and time frames for this new product generation. Following
the history of world's most established processor upgrade technology
for Amiga computers, and implementing the experience of the innovator
who made the PowerPC technology for the Amiga a reality, we at phase 5
digital products have also decided to make this new technology
available to a much larger user base, and doing what we always did in
the past years with our stunning products: Offer more value for less
money! And that's what we will be doing again - so go ahead and read
about the new additional features at the new lower prices! New models:
By introducing a second product, the Blizzard G3/G4, we will also
provide the stunning G3/G4 technology and performance to the users of
A1200 Tower systems. Two models - one with G3 and one with G4
processors - can be ordered now. We are also now taking orders for the
300MHz G4 version of the Cyberstorm G3/G4. New features: All G3/G4
boards from

 phase 5 digital products come with SCSI on board - UltraSCSI on the
A1200 versions, UltraWide SCSI on the A3000/A4000 version. Our proven
SCSI technology, which has been providing unmatched performance since
seven years, will provide full backwards compatibility with existing
SCSI devices. But even more than that: With the integration of
400Mbit/s FireWire ports, all our G3/G4 boards open the door to this
future industry standard, including the world of digital video devices
New prices: By proceeding with the related projections and
calculations, and going into the details, we have been able to
determine new and improved pricings which will make these stunning
products even more attractive.

 Plus, we have changed the pricing to EURO (for Europe) and US$ (for
outside Europe). New Order & Prepayment conditions: In order to
proceed quickly with the finalization and production of this new
product line, we still require the originally announced quantity of
back orders with a prepayment deposit. All customers who support our
development will receive a major discount, as announced before (please
see below for the new prices and discounts for the different models).
But phase 5 digital products is also ready to take orders now without
prepayment, for the suggested retail prices listed for the different
products. These orders will not be shipped by phase 5 digital products
directly, butforwarded to local dealers and distributors. So far the
overview of the major changes in the project. Now here comes the list
of the extended and updated new G3/G4 product line for the AMIGA by
phase 5 digital products. Right now, users can choose out of the
following four models:

 BLIZZARD G3/300 for A1200 Tower systems
 300 MHz PowerPC750 processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number
of existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 669.00 (Europe) or US$ 729.00 (outside
Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 589.00
or US$ 639.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board!

 BLIZZARD G4/300 for A1200 Tower systems 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor
(G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
which are optimized on the G4 chip

 Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number
of existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 749.00 (Europe) or US$ 829.00 (outside
Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 659.00
or US$ 729.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board!

 CYBERSTORM G3/400 for A3000/A4000 systems 400 MHz PowerPC750
processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s
andbackwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI
devices

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 949.00 (Europe) or US$ 1049.00
(outside Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 829.00
or US$ 919.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G3 board!

 CYBERSTORM G4/300 for A3000/A4000 systems

 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor (G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast
Backside-Cache

 The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
which are optimized on the G4 chip

 UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s and
backwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI devices
Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products suggested retail price of EURO
899.00 (Europe) or US$ 989.00 (outside Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 779.00
or US$ 859.00 and worldwide free postal delivery - and, of course,
will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board! All
prices do not include VAT / MwSt. or any other local taxes or duties
which may apply. Specifications and prices are subject to change. A
note about Software:

 For the add-on features such as the SCSI interfaces or the FireWire
ports, phase 5 digital products will provide the necessary software
tools and drivers, and also cooperate with other developers.
Additionally, we are in negotiations about licensing useful software
to ship with our G3/G4 boards, and will take care that support of the
upcoming AmigaOS developments is realized. Another note on the
prepayment & discount: Remember, the prepayment which enables you to
take advantage of the discounted price, will go on a special notary
account as announced earlier. The amounts collected there will not
become available to us before we actually ship the products; they are
a deposit which support our efforts to bring out the new products for
the Amiga which the users have been asking for, thus representing a
partnership between the Amiga community and us in realizing this
stunning new technology for the Amiga. If this new list of stunning
product offerings includes the G3/G4 model which you want for your
Amiga 1200 Tower/3000 (T)/4000(T), then donot hesitate but go ahead
and support us in supporting the future of the Amiga by placing Your
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 or BLIZZARD G3/G4 preorder NOW!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     G R O U P   P R O M O T E S   D I S C O U N T S   I N   U K

1 Apr 1999

Discounts available for UK user groups

 As part of AmigaSoc's drive to get more people to join their local
user group, we have been working closely with UK user groups in order
to secure a discount from Amiga dealers in the UK. We hope that these
discounts will entice Amiga users to join up and support their local
user group whilst making some considerable savings. There's never been
a better time to join a user group! To find your nearest user group,
see our user groups page at http://uk.amigasoc.org/usergroups for an
up-to-date list of user groups around the UK.

 Note: The discounts will only be offered to representatives of user
groups who have registered the name of their representative with
AmigaSoc.

 If you're an Amiga dealer and wish to offer discounts to user groups
in the UK, or are from a user group and would like to register your
group for the discount scheme then contact Chris Livermore (E-Mail:
chrisl@uk.amigasoc.org).

 The following companies have already agreed to participate in the
scheme:

     * Fore-Matt Home Computing

     * HiSoft Systems

     * White Knight Technologies

     * Amiga Survivor magazine

...and more are on the way!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              S T A R G A T E   2 . 0   B O W S   I N

April 2, 1999

 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to annouce the release of
StarGate v2.0 MUI. The same developer who released the first true GUI
email client "Air Mail" for the Amiga computers. {Note: while we
appreciate Danny's enthusiasm, a good argument can be made that there
were GUI based mailers before "Air Mail". Brad}

 StarGate is an integrated e-mail and news client with multiple user
interfaces, multiple email accounts, intuitive design, easy to use,
highly configurable, designed for novice to expert users and no learn
curve.

 Version 2.0 includes custom formating of messages such as bold,
underling, italics and text coloring. StarGate is only Amiga e-mail
client that offers multiple message formats such as plaintext,
StarGate (custom) and HTML and Forms.

 An added feature in v2.0 is NNTP news support. With StarGate you can
post, read, reply and forward new articles. Posting article with files
is also supported and the same as decoding articles with files. With
the Helper database you can view pictures, play AVIs/MOV/MPEG etc...
Articles can be selected for batch download for offline reading.
Downloaded articles can be archived to user defined folders.

 StarGate is highly integrated with the three most popluar Web
Browsers (AWeb, iBrowse and Voyager). When reading mail or news
article you can double click on a URL or FTP link and StarGate will
direct your designated browser to the URL.

 StarGate is the only commerical e-mail client for the Amiga that
offers unprecedented features and user support.

 Toysoft Development is 100% Amiga developer and will continue to
bring innovative products for the Classic and the new NG Amiga.

 For more information about StarGate or to learn more about Toysoft
Development Inc. please visit our web site at
http://www.toysoft-dev.com or email danny@toysoft-dev.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    S C A N N I N G   S Y S T E M S   F R O M   R A N D O M I Z E

 Randomize, Toronto, Canada, brings affordable flatbed scanning to the
Amiga in North America by introducing ScanQuix Amiga Scanner and its
ScanQuix/Umax Scanner Bundle.

 ScanQuix 4 works with a number of popular scanners and provides a
universal scanner interface for the Amiga.

 The ScanQuix/Umax Scanner Bundle provides ScanQuix 4 bundles with the
Umax Astra 610S, 1200S and 1220S scanners giving the cost effective
flatbed scanning solution.

 Simply connect the Umax Astra Scanner to your Amiga's SCSI port (we
offer the DKB Spitfire as a bundle options for those needing as SCSI
controller) and install ScanQuix 4 and your ready to scan.

Umax Astra 610S Bundle - $224.95 US, $349.95 CDN
Umax Astra 1200S Bundle - $289.95 US, $449.95 CDN
Umax Astra 1220S Bundle - $319.95 US, $499.95 CDN
ScanQuix 4 Software (sold separately) - $99.95 US, $149.95 CDN
DKB Spitfire - $89.95 US, 139.95 CDN

Additional information can be found at
http://www.randomize.com/scannerbundle.html

Randomize, Inc.
R.R. #2,
Tottenham, Ont.
L0G 1W0

Phone: 905-939-8371
Fax: 905-939-8745
email: sales@randomize.com
WWW: http://www.randomize.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               S I A M E S E   3 - P A C K   C A S E

30th March 1999

 Siamese Systems wish to announce the new 3-Pack multi-board computer
system case. This case is designed with our Multi-OS platform in mind
and combines up to three complete computer motherboards in one strong,
space efficient and good looking case. Giving the ability to run
AmigaOS, Linux and Windows all at the same time.

 We have designed this system to combine the Newtek Video Toaster 4000
based Toaster/Flyer system with a commodity Windows or maybe Linux
powered PC/Alpha. The Video Toaster will be controllable from the
Windows display. Both of these can be fitted into the 3-Pack case and
still have room for an Alpha or another PC as a rendering system or
whatever you want from it. Any Amiga 4000 motherboard will fit
including any 68k/PPC card and we will produce an A1200 adapter if
there is a demand.

 It is made from the same high quality and strong steel constructions
as the Siamese 8-Pack case and is designed to run very cool
internally. The case should appeal to all those computer users like us
who have two or three systems in use at once and would like them all
in one place, and controllable from one Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor.
Add to this the cool design and colours and we believe it looks good
too.

 Please take a look at our web site at http://www.siamese.co.uk/ and
then email us for more details at steve@siamese.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                    A M I D O G   I S   N O   D O G

6 April, '99
                            AmiDog's Movie Player

 - The worlds fastest Movie Player for your PPC equiped AGA Amiga!

 Version 1.00 is here! Full CGFX support, 8bit/16bit/32bit uses direct
gfx memory access and is therefore very fast. Sound is also here, it's
however very slow currently, but I'll work on that now when the CGFX
support has been added. Please report any strange behavior to me!

   o New features:

 o Full CGFX support (8bit/16bit/32bit uses direct gfx memory access).
 o Sound using AUDIO: and AHI.
 o If AMP quits for some reason, it will never ever leave any
   screen/window/requester/library open!


   o Removed bugs:

 o AMP always closes every screen/window/requester/library when
   quiting.



   o Known bugs:

 o Of some reason the prefs file wont get closed when read/written, I
   don't know why yet.


   o Features to be added (in no particular order):

 o Frameskip.
 o Custom playback size.
 o Window playback.
 o More speed.
 o Preloading of small MPEGs.
 o AVI/QT/ANIM/FLI/FLC... support.

 Please don't contact me about problems that are described above!
Thanks!

http://www.amidog.com/amp/news.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               Y I K E S ,   I T ' S   J I K E S

April 4, '99
                     Amiga Java Software

 This is just the first of a number of Java related programs we intend
to release for the Amiga. Just how soon we release others depends
largely on how much interest there is - so let us know if you want to
use Java on the Amiga! Please send comments to
support@ramjam.u-net.com

                           Jikes

 Jikes is an Open Source Java compiler from IBM. It compiles Java
source files into Java byte-code class files, which can then be run on
a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

 Jikes strictly implements the Java language as specified by The Java
Language Specification, with no extensions or variations. The Java
byte-code generated conforms strictly to The Java Virtual Machine
Specification.

 Jikes can be used in place of Sun's javac or the GNU guavac compiler.
Jikes is faster (although this Amiga version hasn't been accurately
benchmarked yet), produces optimised byte-code, and has a
sophisticated make feature. It can also be used in an incremental way
- we plan to release tools which make good use of this feature later
this year!

 In order to use Jikes you will also need the standard Java classes -
these are not provided at our web site,
http://www.ramjam.u-net.com/software/jikes/index.htm. A good source of
the standard class files is Sun's own JDK.

 A very brief usage summary is produced if Jikes is invoked with no
parameters. No documentation is currently provided with the Amiga
version.

 Note that when specifying source files to be compiled, that Jikes is
case sensitive - unlike most other Amiga programs.

 Note that this Amiga version requires ixemul.

jikes 0.41 (01 Dec 98) (463KB).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
                 _    __      _     <>_   __      _
   A M I G A    /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\      A M I G A
  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E
              /    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_
                    amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
======================================================================

The Year 2000 problem and the Amiga

Written by Olaf Barthel

To make a long story short, the Amiga in general does not suffer from the Year 2000 problem in the context known to the PC world. Still, the Amiga faces three distinct date problems and a single, specific Year 2000 problem with limited scope which will be described in this paper.

This document will show you how to find out if your Amiga might have a Year 2000 problem and will then go into detail, explaining the technical aspects of the problems and how they may be addressed.

(This is a revised version of the document of the same name which appeared on September 20, 1998, on the Amiga, Inc. web site).

1. How to tell if an Amiga is Year 2000 compliant?

The Amiga runs under control of an operating system called AmigaOS which, depending on the operating system version, is either fully Year 2000 compliant or may have a problem in the Year 2000. To tell which operating system an Amiga is running you can perform a simple test. The test works by invoking an operating system feature that is unavailable in the operating system versions that may have a problem in the Year 2000.

For this test, hold down both the leftmost and the rightmost mouse buttons before you switch on the computer and keep holding down both buttons until a picture appears on your monitor.

The picture to appear should look like one of the three illustrations shown below. Please see the description for each illustration to find out what the pictures mean.

Figure 1: The Amiga 3000 Kickstart menu

This is a picture of the Amiga 3000 computer prompting you to choose the operating system to use. Two principal choices are possible, you can either use the older Kickstart version 1.3 or the newer version 2.x. On this machine, either choice will pick an operating system version that is Year 2000 compliant (the Amiga 3000 is not vulnerable to the SetClock problem described in this paper since it uses a special version of that utility). If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 1.

Figure 2: The AmigaOS 2.0/2.1 boot menu

This picture shows an Amiga prompting you to choose the device to bootstrap from. If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 2.

Figure 3: The AmigaOS 3.0/3.1 boot menu

This picture shows an Amiga prompting you to choose an early startup option to change. If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 3.

If the picture to appear does not look like any of the three illustrations shown above, then your Amiga is probably not entirely Year 2000 compliant. To find out how to address the problems, see section 5 of this document.

1.1 Is the software written for the Amiga Year 2000 compliant?

Software written for the Amiga computer is not automatically Year 2000 compliant. While the Amiga operating system provides time and date keeping services which are Year 2000 compliant, it was always left to the individual software developers to use them properly. Amiga, Inc. neither supports nor maintains 3^rd party application software.

2. Scope of this document

The following text refers to Amiga desktop computers built between 1986 and 1997. It covers only computer hardware configurations designed and built by Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Amiga Technologies GmbH and Amiga, Inc. This specifically excludes 3^rd party hardware extensions, such as the Microbotics "StarBoard" which among other features offered a battery backed up clock.

It should be noted that, as far as the ROM operating system and Amiga software is concerned, this document only covers the features and/or shortcomings of the Amiga operating system as designed and implemented by Commodore-Amiga, Inc. 3^rd party application software designed to run under control of the Amiga operating system may not show the same behaviour as the operating system itself. It may show bugs which AmigaOS does not exhibit, and the other way round.

3. How the Amiga handles date and time

The Amiga operating system has always followed the Unix model in measuring time as the number of seconds that have elapsed since a fixed point of time. Under AmigaOS that fixed point of time (also known as 'epoch') is 00:00:00 of January 1, 1978 (Unix uses 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970). The operating system manages time and date through a module known as timer.device. This module reads and stores date and time information using a data structure known as timeval which, in 'C' language notation, is shown below:

   struct timeval
   {
      ULONG tv_secs;
      ULONG tv_micro;
   };

In this context an ULONG refers to an unsigned 32 bit quantity. The tv_secs structure member holds the number of seconds that have elapsed since the AmigaOS epoch. The tv_micro member denotes the number of microseconds (the 10^-6th part of a second) that have elapsed since the last second has passed.

3.1 The AmigaDOS date and time handling is special

"AmigaDOS" and "AmigaOS" are not two names for the same thing. AmigaDOS is (in a nutshell) the name of the AmigaOS layer which implements filing systems and their actions, the command line interpreter, and the means to load and relocate executable binary files. AmigaDOS is more or less a port of the Cambridge University TRIPOS 32 bit kernel. It has its own peculiar data structures, including its own version of the timeval structure described above. The AmigaDOS variant is known as DateStamp, as shown below:

   struct DateStamp
   {
      LONG ds_Days;
      LONG ds_Minute;
      LONG ds_Tick;
   };

In this context a LONG refers to a signed 32 bit quantity. The ds_Days member contains the number of days (each day consists of exactly 24 hours) that have passed since the AmigaOS epoch. The ds_Minute member denotes the number of minutes that have passed since midnight (00:00:00) of the given day. The ds_Tick member contains the number of "ticks" that have passed since the last minute. A minute consist of 3,000 "ticks", i.e. there are exactly 50 ticks in a second.

The term "tick" is often confused with the "tick" signals which the Amiga hardware can generate either through the power supply or the custom chip set. The frequency at which the hardware generates "tick" signals is controlled by the power supply frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) or the jumper settings on the main board (PAL = 50 Hz, NTSC = 60 Hz). There is no relation between the hardware "tick" signals and the "tick" quantities used in the context of the DateStamp data structure. For the DateStamp ds_Tick member, there are always 50 ticks in a second, regardless of the power supply frequency or the main board jumper settings.

AmigaDOS uses DateStamps to describe file and volume creation dates. All shell commands follow the same model, i.e. if the system date is set through the shell Date command, it will calculate time and date in DateStamp format.

3.2 Local time vs GMT

The Amiga operating system never knew the concept of local and global time. While the AmigaOS 2.1 update (1992) introduced a locale preferences editor that allowed for the time zone to be selected, the operating system itself never put this feature to use or encouraged application software developers to use it. One might argue that with this background, the AmigaOS was always tuned to local time.

3.3 How the Amiga maintains its system time

The early Amiga computer models did not support a battery backed up real time clock that would keep ticking and maintaining local time even until after the machine was switched off. For example, the first Amiga computer ever (later christened the Amiga 1000) did not offer a battery backed up clock. For the Amiga 500 the battery backed up clock was an extra hardware feature one could buy separately with a memory expansion.

Amiga computer models without battery backed up clock hardware include:

• Amiga 500
• Amiga 600
• Amiga 1000
• Amiga 1200 (note: only a few early machines were built with battery backed up clock hardware)

Amiga computer models with battery backed up clock hardware include:

• Amiga 500+ (this is a variant of the Amiga 500)
• Amiga 2000
• Amiga 2500 (this is a variant of the Amiga 2000)
• Amiga 3000
• Amiga 3000T; also known as "Amiga 3000 Tower" or "Amiga 3000, floor standing model" (this is a variant of the Amiga 3000)
• Amiga 3500 (this is the precursor of the Amiga 3000T; only few of these machines were built)
• Amiga 4000
• Amiga 4000T; also known as "Amiga 4000 Tower" or "Amiga 4000, floor standing model" (this is a variant of the Amiga 4000)

These two lists do not mention the CDTV and CD³² devices since these machine types do not really count as desktop computers.

On machines without battery backed up clock hardware, the Amiga sets its system time according to the modification date of the boot volume. In other words, the point of time the last file was modified or created on a disk would determine the system time. As this was by no means accurate, the AmigaOS boot process would suggest and prompt you to adjust the system date once the system had booted (as pictured below).

Figure 4: The shell window prompting you to adjust the date

On machines equipped with battery backed up clock hardware the system time was read during the boot process. As of AmigaOS versions 1.2 and 1.3 a special program, called SetClock, was responsible for reading the current clock settings and setting the system time accordingly. Starting with AmigaOS version 2.0 that functionality was integrated into the ROM operating system, making the SetClock utility at least in part redundant.

If the system starts up without being able to set its system time, it defaults to 00:00:00 January 1, 1978.

4. Setting and reading the time

The Amiga offers both a command line interface and a graphical user interface. Both went through a number of changes over the years as will be described below.

4.1 The command line interface

There are two shell commands which deal with the system date, these being SetClock and Date. The Date command is for reading and setting the current system date whereas the SetClock command deals with the battery backed up clock: it reads and stores the current system time from/in it. The Date command is of particular interest due to the human readable date format it uses by default. Today you might invoke the Date command and receive the following output:

   19-Sep-98

As one can see the year number is limited to two digits only. Even if a different locale is used (e.g. french), the year will always be displayed with its two last decimals only. Luckily, this numbering is consistent with the following rule:

• If the number is greater than or equal to 78, the year number is 1900 plus the number given (i.e. numbers 78..99 indicate years 1978..1999).
• If the number is less than 78, the year number is 2000 plus the number given (i.e. numbers 00..77 indicate years 2000..2077).

To set the system time to any year beyond 1999, you reverse the rule, i.e. entering date 01-jan-01 will set the time to 1 January, 2001.

All versions of the AmigaDOS Date command (version 1.1 through version 37.1) display and parse the data format in the same fashion. They behave consistently and predictably throughout all Amiga operating system revisions. The same holds true for the other two Shell commands that deal with dates, namely SetDate and List (the List command can list files and drawers created/modified since a specific date).

4.2 The graphical user interface

The system time is set through the preferences editor which in AmigaOS versions 1.0-1.3 used to be a single, monolithic program as pictured below:

Figure 5: The Workbench 1.1 Preferences editor

The controls for setting the system time are located in the top left corner of the window. They allow the last two digits of the year to be adjusted; the model follows the AmigaDOS Date command in that a year number less than 78 denotes a year in the range 2000..2077 and all other settings refer to a year in the range 1978..1999.

With the introduction of AmigaOS 2.0, the time preferences editor was moved into a single program named Time, as pictured below:

Figure 6: The Workbench 2.0 Time Preferences editor

In this editor, the year can be entered as a four digit number. However, the range is limited to the years 1978..2113.

When the AmigaOS 2.1 update was released, the time preferences editor was revised, as can be seen below:

Figure 7: The Workbench 2.1 Time Preferences editor

Just like with the previous version of the Time Preferences editor, the year can be entered as a four digit number. In this case, the range is limited to the years 1991..2099.

5. The problems

As far as is known today, the Amiga faces four date problems. Two are design problems caused by numeric overflow, one is caused by hardware limitations and one is a real bug that will strike in the year 2000.

5.1 SetClock stops working in the year 2000

The Amiga Workbench disk revisions 1.2 and 1.3 would ship with a program by the name of SetClock which was responsible for reading the battery backed up clock time upon system startup. The SetClock program suffers from a bug which causes it to miscalculate the battery backed up clock time starting with the year 2000. It is accurate only for the years 1978..1999. Once the year counter rolls over to 00, SetClock will believe that the year is 1978 until the year 2079 is reached; that's when it will believe that the year is 1979 -- which is not necessarily an improvement.

Please note that only the SetClock program found on the AmigaOS 1.2 and 1.3 Workbench disks suffers from this problem. Several versions of this program were distributed, each between 4,000 and 7,000 bytes in size. To tell whether you have a version that works or not, check the file size; if it is less than 1,000 bytes in size you will probably have the properly working version (and not one of the older versions). If it is larger than 4,000 bytes, you probably have the faulty version. Size isn't everything, though. Some 3^rd party hardware extensions would use their own versions of the SetClock program. They went by the same name, but read the system time from a different hardware location. Do not replace these custom versions. You will probably be using such a custom version if your real time clock is hooked up to a mouse port or the keyboard connector.

A fix for this problem is provided in this archive. Download it and unpack it, then read the enclosed SetClock_ReadMe file!

5.2 Negative time

As was outlined above, the Amiga measures time in seconds. As it turns out, the number of seconds to accumulate until 19 January, 2046, 03:14:07 will form the largest value a signed 32 bit integer number can hold. This is not a problem for the time keeping module (timer.device). However, application software and other operating system components which treat the number of seconds as a signed quantity will get into trouble one second later: the number of seconds will rise to 2,147,483,648 which in two's complement format represents the negative number -2,147,483,648. AmigaDOS, which always treats time as a signed quantity, will consider this date to be invalid because it is "negative". Worse, the ROM date conversion routines exhibit a bug which, once the date is later than 19 January, 2046, 03:14:07, causes all subsequent date operations to be inaccurate. The immediate effect this has is that calculations on dates can be off by more than two years.

This behaviour is consistent through all AmigaOS versions. A fix is not available yet, but research is in progress to investigate whether this bug could be fixed by updating several AmigaOS modules (locale.library, dos.library). After all, this bug is "just" a side-effect of treating an unsigned quantity as signed.

5.3 Time rolling over

An unsigned 32 bit integer can hold a maximum value of 4,294,967,295. When the Amiga has accumulated that many seconds, it will be 7 February, 2114, 06:28:15. One second later the seconds counter will roll over and restart at 0. In other words, on 7 February, 2114, 06:28:16 the Amiga will believe that it is midnight on 1 January, 1978.

No fix for this problem is available yet.

5.4 The battery backed up clock can count only to 99

Amiga computers equipped with battery backed up real time clock hardware use one of two different hardware designs: either the Oki MSM6242RS (A500, A2000) or the Ricoh RP5C01 (A3000, A1200, A4000) chip. As is common with clock chips of that type, the year counter is implemented as a two digit BCD number. Once it reaches the year 99, the counter will roll over and start again at 00.

Starting with Amiga operating system version 2.0, the boot process will read the battery backed up clock time and set the system time accordingly. This takes place every time the Amiga is reset. Because the year number covers only two digits, the same algorithm as used by the AmigaDOS Date command is employed. Consequently, the Amiga system date set at system startup time will always be in the range 1978..2077. While the system clock will keep ticking beyond 31 December, 2077 a system reset will set the clock back to 1 January, 1978.

No fix for this problem is available yet.

6. Other hazards

The following section covers topics which are related to time keeping, but not quite in the same context as was discussed in the previous sections.

6.1 In a version tag a year only has two digits

The AmigaDOS Version command (which was introduced in AmigaOS 2.0) can extract the version and revision numbers and the creation time of any file which includes a string like this:

   $VER: version 40.1 (9.2.93)

A string like this is called a "version tag". The date, as it appears in brackets, consist of a day, a month and a year number (exactly in that order), none of which may contain more than two digits. This was not such a big problem with versions 37 and 38 of the Version command, which extracted the string and printed it verbatim. However, starting with version 39 of the Version command, the date extracted was converted and printed using the default locale. The conversion process involved has a major flaw in that it always takes the year number, adds 1900 and prints the date. This is not consistent with how the Date command treats year numbers beyond 99. In fact, in order to print properly, the year 2000 would have to show up as the year 100 in a version tag (which is guaranteed to cause some confusion).

The problem described above exists only in version 39.1 and 40.1 of the Version command. To find out which version of this command you have, open a Shell window and enter the following command:

   version c:version full

A fix for the date parsing problem in the Version program is provided in this archive. Download it and unpack it, then read the enclosed Version_ReadMe file!

6.2 Leaking clock batteries

A battery provides the necessary power to keep the battery backed up clock hardware ticking while the Amiga computer is switched off. As time passes and the clock hardware keeps ticking, the batteries age: some must be more than ten years old by now. Old batteries can leak acid, causing great damage to the Amiga motherboard hardware. Often such leakages go unnoticed until critical parts of the Amiga hardware begin to fail. Of course, once you notice it, it is probably already too late...

It has been recommended to replace the clock batteries on every Amiga main board that is more than three years old. The batteries are small, barrel-shaped objects about 18mm long and 15mm in diameter. They look as if they were being held between two clamps (they are not; the batteries are soldered) and have a blue or red plastic covering. The covering is often labeled with the name of the manufacturer (e.g. GP or Varta) and the battery properties (3.6V, 60mAh). Also, the anode ("plus pole") should be marked clearly.

Where is that battery? Try looking for it: the battery may look like a capacitor on first glance, but it is unique in that it appears to be held between clamps. It is larger than any capacitor on the main board and the labeling should be unique. Here are some hints on finding the battery:

• Amiga 2000: under the drive bridge, where the floppy disk drives are mounted
• Amiga 3000: near the left edge, right in the middle of the main board
• Amiga 3000T: right below the power supply, next to the two Kickstart ROM chips
• Amiga 4000: left side of the main board, near the mouse ports; note that only older Amiga 4000 boards use the barrel-shaped nickel cadmium storage batteries, the newer boards use disk-shaped lithium batteries

You should really start worrying if corrosive salts are covering the metal casing of the battery: it should be replaced as soon as possible. Do not attempt to replace the battery on your own. You should consult a specialist, such as your nearest Amiga technical support centre.

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