01.Jul.2001
Brad Webb (E-Mail)
|
Amiga Update Newsletter by Brad Webb
Brad Webb monthly publishes his newsletter 'Amiga Update' in which he writes
about the most important Amiga events:
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A M I G A |#010630 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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B I L L M C E W E N O N M I S - R E P R E S E N T A T I O N
T H I R D A N N U A L A M I G A F E S T
A M I G A I N C A N D M A T A Y D E A L
O T T A W A S H O W M O V E S T O N E W D A T E S
F I N N I S H S A K U 2 0 0 1 S H O W N E W S
A M I W E S T 2 0 0 1 N E W S
M E R L A N C I A / I N D I V I D U A L A L L I A N C E
M E R L A N C I A O P E N L E T T E R
A M I G A O N E T I M E T A B L E F R O M E Y E T E C H
E Y E T E C K C L A R I F I E S O S 4 A N D W A R P
A N O T H E R E L B O X C O N T R O V E R S Y , P A R T 1
A N O T H E R E L B O X C O N T R O V E R S Y , P A R T 2
D C E L I C E N S E S V O O D O O 3 W A R P 3 D
E Y E T E C H A N D M A T A Y D E A L
P U R E B A S I C V 1 . 3 2 R E L E A S E D
F R E E S C A N N E R C O L O R C A L I B R A T I O N
A M I G A W R I T E R - F I L T E R F O R P A G E S T R E A M
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
It's hard to believe it's already the end of June. This has been a
busy year, and there's lots more to come. We have a wide variety of
items in this issue, mostly positive. There is yet another
controversy involving the firm ElBox. We hope we present both sides of
the story below. As Editor, I'd rather not even include items such as
these but feel it necessary in order to present the news as it exists
in the Amiga community.
... and that brings up a question I'd like to ask the readers.
Recently, Amiga Inc. announced their "Party Pack" sale. This sale ran
for such a short time, it's now over. The only way we could have
gotten the news to the readers before it was no longer news would have
been to distribute a special issue. We have never done special issues
for sales. Many Amiga dealers have sales from time to time, and to
distribute these as news would really be to turn Amiga Update into
nothing more than a sales brochure. That's not our mission. But ...
should we in the future make exceptions for specials from Amiga Inc.?
I'd be interested in hearing from the readership on this one, as I'm
not really sure what the right approach is. If you have an opinion,
please drop a _short_ note to amigaupdate@globaldialog.com or
amigaupdate@theropod.org and share it with us.
On a personal note, I'd like to thank the group who took over
development of YAM. This is a great program and its passing would be a
tremendous loss to the Amiga community. Thanks much! You can find YAM
at http://www.yam.ch/, where the following notice gives the latest
good news:
o 08-Jun-2001: The YAM Open Source Team proudly presents YAM 2.3.
This new release fixes many bugs and adds some frequently requested
features like SMTP-AUTH and PGP multipart support. Source code is
included!
A suggestion? A feature to strip html out of incoming mail. Recent
changes in the way AOL handles mail has made it almost impossible to
deal with mail from people who use that service! Okay, I'll stop
dreaming now.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
Hi amigaupdate,
Where can I get the "Advanced PPP implementation".
Thanks a lot.
lan
N E W T C P / I P S T A C H A N N O U N C E D
12 Feb 1999
Active Technologies Announce Genesis, A New TCP/IP Stack for the
Amiga
Genesis is a state-of-the-art TCP/IP stack for the Amiga computer.
Combining ease of use with advanced features, Genesis offers built in
dialup Internet connectivity and/or local area networking.
---------------------->
o Advanced PPP implementation: (MS)CHAP, PAP, Callback (WinNT
compatible), VJ compression, protocol field compression, MTU
negotiation, magic number negotiation, async map negotiation, MSDNS1/2
IP address negotiation, WINS1/2 IP address negotiation, Compression
Control Protocol (modules include - BSD compress, deflate and MPPC).
Also,PPP events control allows you to create scripts to perform
actions when PPP has been put on or offline.
<------------------
~~~~~~
Hello Lan,
The story you included is quite old (and its headline contained a
typo, I see - shame on me!). A lot has happened to Genesis since
February of 1999. The last I recall hearing, the program had been sold
by the original developers. I thought, but am not certain, that it
stopped being available some time ago. Perhaps some of our readers
have current informaiton about Genesis and its PPP implementation and
can let us know.
Brad
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B I L L M C E W E N O N M I S - R E P R E S E N T A T I O N
21 June, 2001
Greetings To The Amiga Family:
There have been some recent mis-representations that I have recently
received about Amiga, Inc., and our office locations. Amiga is doing
very well, and we are excited about the future of Amiga. The Amiga
Family continues to grow with new partners, new products, and the very
near release of AmigaDE 1.0.
However with all of this activity there have been some out there who
have recently sent out false information about Amiga, and I need to
clarify this now.
Amiga Incorporated in headquartered in Snoqualmie, Washington USA.
Amiga Deutschland is still in business. We have only closed the
Langen office. There are going to be some new additions, and a new
office location announced in the next couple of weeks, but know now
that Amiga International was a Gateway company, and was not and has
not been associated with Amiga, Inc. since 1999. The dealer in Germany
that is making claims that they are Amiga International is completely
false, and Amiga Incorporated the parent company of Amiga Deutschland
is going to take legal action against those who make these false
claims.
There is another dealer in India who has started claiming that they
are Amiga in India. This again is also false. Amiga does NOT have any
official representation in India outside of the Amiga dealers who are
there. Amiga Incorporated is currently evaluating an office in India,
and other countries where we do business.
To those of you who continue to try and tear Amiga apart, it is time
to stop. Amiga is moving forward, there are great things ahead, and
for the first time in many years, the Amiga family will have new
products, and choices.
I look forward to a great year.
Kindest regards,
Bill McEwen
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T H I R D A N N U A L A M I G A F E S T
12 June, 2001
"Announcing: The Third Annual AmigaFest - The Show Within a Show at
the Dayton Computerfest."
Although summer has just begun, it's already time to plan for the
fall Dayton Computerfest. And once again we have been asked to host
the AmigaFest area of the show. The AmiTech-Dayton Amiga Users Group
want to bring you, the Amiga users and vendors, together for an end of
summer celebration of all things Amiga. Over the past two years, many
present and former Amiga users have stopped by our exibitors tables to
buy, sell, and trade Amiga hardware and software, as well as to swap
stories and experiences like only Amiga people can. We also we wil be
having a dinner get-together after closing on Saturday after the show
closes for the day. This pay-as-you-go gathering has proved to be
popular, and we will have exact arrangements to announce as we get
closer to the show date.
The setting for this festival is the Dayton ComputerFest, one of the
largest shows of it's kind in the world. Everything about his show is
BIG!
over 125,000 square feet of computers and supplies. nearly 900
exhibitors. over 35,000 people will attend during the two days of the
show. one of the most diverse assortments of hardware, software and
accessories to be found under one roof.
Won't you consider joining us? If you'd like to be an exhibitor, the
rates are as follows:
Tables are $55 if reserved by June 24th, each additional table will
be $75. After June 24th, table prices rise to $60 for the first, and
$90 for each additional.
Contact: Ron Schwartz - schwartr@gemair.com
or: Len Carsner - nard@erinet.com
we'll get the process rolling with the ComputerFest co-ordinators.
If you would like to conduct a seminar, please contact us to arrange
seminar room reservation at no cost to you.
The Dayton ComputerFest is a great place to introduce computer
products of all nature. Dayton has a rich computer community, with a
large computer user network, an organised IT association, and one of
the most active Linux groups in the nation. It makes sense to exhibit
in a location where you can reach so many for so little expense.
As we get closer to show time, we will update you on who you can
expect to see. Also we will post traveling instuctions and available
lodging for attendees.
Attention Amiga Vendors: while we hope you will choose to join us, we
understand that many are unable to attend due to distance. We hope you
will chose to show your support by making a donation to our prize
drawing. With the retirement of Petro Tyschtschenko earlier this year,
we cannot count on Amiga Inc. for support this year. Anything you
could do for us would be apperciated and acknowledged to the crowd.
Don't delay! Contact us NOW! The only Amiga get-together in the
Midwest is less than 90 Days away! Make plans now to join in on a
great time at a great show! AmigaFest - The Show Within A Show is THE
place to be in August!
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A M I G A I N C A N D M A T A Y D E A L
Snoqualmie, 16 June, 2001 - Amiga Inc and Matay company are pleased
to announce they are co-operating on a series of initiatives that will
see the AmigaOS4 family of operating systems running on Matay's
existing and future products.
At the St Louis show in April, Amiga announced the continued
development of AmigaOS, with AmigaOS4 moving AmigaOS3 to modern
hardware and preparing the way for AmigaOS5. AmigaOS5 will be targeted
at both the home server and the desktop/workstation markets.
"In developing AmigaOS4.0, we have been making extensive use of the
Prometheus PCI bridge board, to get a head start on developing drivers
for the various sub systems whilst we wait for the Eyetech AmigaOne to
be completed," said Fleecy Moss, CTO of Amiga Inc. "The quality of
both their product and support, and their commitment to the future of
the Amiga has made working with them a pleasure, and we look forward
to this co-operation intensifying over the next few years."
"We are very excited to work with Amiga Inc., the company that leads
our community into the new technological revolution. In the incoming
years, we will witness a breakthrough in digital home appliances, a
trend to abandon a single computer workstation in favour of several
smaller, yet more user-friendly devices. The revolution is coming,
though we need to prepare for it, like the Amiga market needs
transition from our classic computers to new technologies and
standards. Amiga Inc. is the company that foresees these trends and
enters the digital future today. We are proud that our Prometheus
board, the first Zorro III PCI bridge for Amiga, helps them in making
these plans come true," said Filip Dab- Mirowski, CEO of Matay
company. "We will continue co-operation with Amiga Inc., not only
providing them with hardware solutions for today Amiga market but also
working together on products for the future digital market."
About Amiga:
Amiga Inc is a privately held Seattle based digital solutions company
that revolutionised computing in 1984 with the introduction of the
A1000, and has consistently been at the cutting edge of the digital
revolution ever since. Currently it offers a complete solution for
digital living, the AmigaDE (Digital Environment) which provide a
device and OS (host) agnostic, universal, scalable content platform
for OEMs and IHVs, consumers, producers and brokers of digital
content, and the AmigaOS, a 68k and PPC based desktop, workstation and
digital server platform for the most demanding of activities. The
AmigaDE is currently being deployed on a variety of major cell phone,
PDA, Set Top Box, Console, Digital Appliance and existing personal
computer platforms. AmigaOS4 is expected to be launched in 3Q2001,
running on the new AmigaOne computer. For further information, please
email press@amiga.com, support@amiga.com or telephone (US) 425 396
5660.
About Matay:
Matay company is a privately held computer business oriented company.
It was founded in 2000 as an Amiga-only software dealer and in a very
short time earned trust of Polish Amiga users. With the introduction
of Prometheus PCI bridge for Zorro III equipped Amigas, Matay has
extended its offer with hardware solutions for the Amiga platform and
professional electronic design of printed-circuitboards. Now, with the
announcement of close co-operation with Amiga Inc., Matay enters a
domain of digital appliances, which is predicted to be the future of
home and business computing around the world. For more information,
please email info@matay.pl, fei@matay.pl or telephone (+48) 609 394
778 or (+48) 603 785 100.
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O T T A W A S H O W M O V E S T O N E W D A T E S
May 30, 2001
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
After speaking to the friendly organizers of AmiWest and receiving
many e-mails regarding our Ottawa Amiga Show dates of July 28 and 29,
we have decided to move the Amiga show, despite the overwhelming
majority of users who voted in favour of the show on those dates. Once
we have confirmed a date for the Ottawa Amiga Show we will let every
one know (likely September 8 and 9, 2001). We would love to hear from
everyone with suggestions for the show. As information becomes
available, it will be posted on the show's website
(http://www.technomages.net/amigashow/).
Many Amiga users expressed their concerns of forcing people and
vendors to choose which show to attend. This was not our intention. We
initially projected that only people who lived within a few hours
drive to Ottawa would attend our show, with everyone else attending
AmiWest. We apologize for any inconvenience and confusion this may
have caused.
If you would like to be kept up to date on show announcements, send
an email to oas-subscribe@technomages.net and you will be subscribed
to the show's mailing list.
On the weekend of July 28-29 we may have a BBQ for Amiga users who
are interested in doing something. No vendors vending, just users
around the BBQ talking about our favorite computer, and perhaps about
the Ottawa Amiga Show. Keep an eye on the Amiga.info
(http://www.technomages.net/amiga.info/) website for more information
regarding the BBQ.
Please attend the AmiWest 2001 show and have a great time. For more
information regarding AmiWest, point your browser to
http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/.
We wish to thank everyone for their comments regarding the show
dates. We hope to see many of you at the Ottawa Amiga Show.
Sincerely,
The Amiga Ottawa Show Team
(amigashow@technomages.net)
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F I N N I S H S A K U 2 0 0 1 S H O W N E W S
ESPOO, FINLAND - June 27, 2001
The tradition of quality guests at the Finnish Amiga Users Group's
Saku events continues as Mr. Fleecy Moss, Vice President of
Development of Amiga Inc., has agreed to attend Saku 2001. Preliminary
plans include demonstrations of Amiga's new products.
Saku 2001 will be held on Saturday September 1st 2001 at the Science
Centre Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki. The event will open at 12:00
and end at 18:00. Admission will be free of charge. Finnish speaking
audience can join Saku 2001 discussion on our Web discussion forum at
http://saku.amigafin.org/keskustelu. Please stay tuned for more
details as the planning progresses.
For further information, visit Finnish Amiga Users Group's Web Site
at http://saku.amigafin.org or http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/.
E-mail inquiries may be sent to Terho Henriksson
(terho.henriksson@kopteri.net). Please also contact Terho if you or
your company have products that you would like to demonstrate or
advertise in Saku 2001.
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 its e-zine, the group is trying to accomplish its goals by
organizing meetings and by publishing an e-zine. Since 1993 the
Finnish Amiga Users Group and its predecessors have released over
thirty issues of the 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.
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A M I W E S T 2 0 0 1 N E W S
19 Jun 2001
Some of you have been asking us who is going to be at AmiWest 2001.
Perhaps the following information will BLAST YOU OUT OF YOUR SEATS and
get you going on travel reservations.
*****************THIS IS AN AMIWEST 2001 EXCLUSIVE:******************
After 11 minutes and 58 seconds worth of conversation with CEO Bill
McEwen of Amiga Inc., the following NEWS FLASH was created:
FRIDAY NIGHT, JULY 27, 2001
BILL McEWEN WILL BE AT AMIWEST 2001 IN PERSON, doing the keynote
address ON FRIDAY NIGHT so that all who desire can attend the
address!! Hear the latest buzz on what's happening at Amiga Inc.. Come
one, come all and hear it FOR FREE!
If you're thinking ahead, you'll buy your show and banquet tickets
NOW when the price is low instead of waiting until July 27 and paying
full price. You can see the Amiga One in action on SATURDAY, not
Friday; same with the Sharp handheld. So get those cards and letters
coming in with banquet and show ticket checks! You really don't want
to be on the outside looking in!!
*********************************************************************
SATURDAY, JULY 28, 2001
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1)
THE AMIGA ONE WILL BE AT AMIWEST 2001. At least one example of the
Amiga One 1200 will be there and perhaps two, running the new Amiga OS
4.0!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) THE SHARP HANDHELD DEVICE running the Amiga DE will also be at
AmiWest 2001!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3) AMIGA ONE 1200 BOARDS will go into production at the END OF JULY,
appearing at the dealers by MID-AUGUST!! ORDER YOURS AT AMIWEST 2001!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4) THE AMIWEST 2001 SATURDAY NIGHT BANQUET will feature A JOINT
PRESENTATION by Dr. Alan Havemose and Bill McEwen speaking on "Amiga
and Gateway - What REALLY Happened"!!
AND REMEMBER . . .
The only all-Amiga show on the U.S. West Coast is gearing up for July
28-29, 2001 in Sacramento California. So make your plans to attend
now. THERE ARE NOW THREE LESS ROOMS AVAILABLE, TAKEN BY AMIGA INC.
RESERVE YOUR ROOM NOW!! Favorable room rates are STILL available, as
always, so contact the Holiday Inn Northeast at 1-916-338-5800 or,
toll-free direct to the hotel, 1-800-388-9284 to reserve your rooms.
And keep checking our website for all the latest updates at
www.sacc.org/amiwest. Don't be left out. This should be the biggest
and best AmiWest show yet!
If you're thinking ahead, you'll buy your show and banquet tickets
NOW when the price is low instead of waiting until July 27, Friday
night, and paying full price. You can see the Amiga One in action on
SATURDAY, not Friday; same with the Sharp handheld. So get those cards
and letters coming in with banquet and show ticket checks! You really
don't want to be on the outside looking in!!
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M E R L A N C I A / I N D I V I D U A L A L L I A N C E
29th June 2001
Merlancia Industries is pleased to announce a strategic relationship
with 'individual Computers'; to design a controller device that will
be utilised on our Torro series systems.
The device, a custom chip controller, named 'CLeo' will be available
as an add-on kit for the Pilot release systems (to be included with
all systems shipping after it's release, and to be sent to all
developer systems sold before-hand).
The 'CLeo" custom device is based on technology first implemented in
individual Computers' 'CatWeasel' disc controller, and will allow the
reading and writing of Amiga native disc formats (880k and 1760k) on
our Tsunami system as well as future directives. Other formats will be
supported as well including PC-DOS, and Macintosh-HFS.
We expect to have a prototype of this design at AmiWest Conference
(28th to 29th July 2001- Sacramento, CA; USA) as well as our prototype
Pilot system.
http://www.merlancia.com | merlancia@merlancia.com
--
individual Computers -Jens Schönfeld
http://www.jschoenfeld.de | jens@jschoenfeld.de
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M E R L A N C I A O P E N L E T T E R
29th June 2001
Merlancia Open letter to the Amiga Community by Ryan E. A.
Czerwinski, CEO of Merlancia Industries
Greetings to all. We are happy that the Amiga community is taking a
deep and serious interest in our products and what we are working on
in the background! We will be releasing some more critical information
to answer your questions soon, however, we are currently gagged until
some other contracts are completed.
I assure you all that welcomed good news is ahead...in fact, look
forward to a feature article about us in an upcoming issue of
AmigaActive magazine, where we hope to answer many of your questions.
We are currently looking for those that are interested in developing
for our system(s). (As the Tsunami will only be the *first* system we
are releasing.)
To answer some common questions that have been asked:
Re bPlan:
Yes, we are working with bPlan on the Tsunami design. The details of
this partnership are due out soon. Let it be said that we are
designing hardware, not just sitting idle and waiting for others to do
our work for us. We have very talented people on staff, both software
and hardware (not to mention press relations and marketing) and we are
spending our $$$ wisely.
Release dates:
The Tsunami system is expected to be released in it's final consumer
form in November to December 2001. We are working very hard to meet
this deadline, though we cannot foresee any problems that may arise.
The Pilot release will most likely be after the AmiWest conference,
not at as we had hoped, as we are currently having a slight fault in
the gfx display; We will have a demonstration system at the show. We
plan to have a press conference as well as other 'events' at AmiWest,
and we hope that there is a large amount of Amigans that think it wise
to attend. ;)
We need your talents!:
We are looking for both software and hardware developers. A platform
like this cannot succeed without a full range of software to run on
it. Sure, the current software will run on our system, but we need a
full library of up-to-date software, both multimedia and business
applications, to be able to achieve our place in the market.
We have already received orders for developer systems from some very
impressive firms and individuals. We hope to grab up as much talent as
possible, as it makes sense to have PowerPC software for new PowerPC
hardware. We are looking for both the absurdly simple (tiny games or
utilities) to the fairly complex (graphics packages, office suites)
software titles. AN option will be available to have your software
included with each unit sold, or special unit packages.
AmigaOS 4/5:
We are unfortunately unable to release details on this currently,
however, we hope to do so shortly; most likely at the AmiWest
conference.
Let it be said currently that our system both meets and exceeds the
Zico specification,as do all of our 'in development' systems.
Our market:
We are designing our Torro systems to be a natural complete system
solution upgrade path for current Amiga users (see examples of how/why
below) but we are not limiting our products to the current Amiga
market or community. We anticipate high sales volumes to the consumer
and industrial multimedia markets; Our systems are designed to be as
CHRP resembling as possible. We are pitting them against the big names
like Apple and SGI.
Our partnership with Blittersoft was only the first step in this
process- Working together on the iFusion project will allow us to
migrate iFusion to our systems easily, allowing full Macintosh
compatibility on our products, both under AmigaOS and stand-alone
(later). We are also planning on offering other OS solutions as
separate packages including QNX, Linux, Solaris, BeOS (hopefully), and
others. We cannot provide MacOS ourselves, but the user will have the
option of installing it, and we will also be working on an x86
emulator so that if the user desires he/she can use x86 operating
systems including UNiX, Linux-x86, BeOs-x86, and (gasp!) even MS
Windows (though we won't support it directly).
We are also working on a firmware OS (think what Exec is to Amiga)
that allows not only selection of startup devices via an 'early
startup' screen, but also setting up multiple machine states that can
be launched with ease and switched between instantly. (Thus allowing
multiple OSs to be run at once.) This may not be included with the
first launch, but an updater will be available to patch the firmware,
which is flash updatable. Speaking of which, your machine state
setting will be able to be saved, as well as your other setting,
including screen mode and startup volume (individual to each machine
state), thus allowing you to start up with those options each time you
reboot.
Why is it a natural upgrade path?:
Unlike other machines promised in the past, and other projects in the
works, we are working on something that will be completely natural to
the Amiga user of today. Features like the ability to read and write
to floppy discs and other media in native Amiga formats (880k and
1760k on floppy discs) as well as simple things like the layout of the
keyboard and the look and feel of the design of the system all around
all total up to Amiga-like. We are trying to make a product that is
impressive from the inside and out, not just another `box'. Not to say
that all offerings that are currently being made are bad. in fact, i
look forward to the EyeTech AmigaOne. I know I will buy one
personally, and our retail division will carry them. (We have the
world's largest stock of A1200 NTSC systems; other dealers are now
ordering them from us.)
The future and beyond:
What lies in store for us, the Amiga community? I can't say for sure,
but I feel that the future is brighter than ever due both to the
commitment from Amiga ( a lively bunch of bright and intelligent
individuals) as well as out commitment to you, the Amiga community. As
always, you come first in our thinking and our product design. This
product is designed for you; We wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't.
As always, best wishes to everyone. Thank you for being a customer,
current, or future.
Cheers,
Ryan E. A. Czerwinski
CEO - Merlancia Industries
http://www.merlancia.com | merlancia@merlancia.com
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A M I G A O N E T I M E T A B L E F R O M E Y E T E C H
Updated 27 June 2001
It's now several months since this timeline was last updated as most
of the day-to-day news items have been posted to the
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/amigaone mailing list. However lots
of things have happened since we launched the AmigaOne project which
have had an influence on the specification of the final product and
therefore the timetable leading up to delivery.
The main change has undoubtedly been the decision by Amiga to use the
current Amiga OS as the basis for a home server solution and as an
alternative (to Windows and Linux) hosting environment for the Amiga
DE.
This has meant that when it is first launched the AmigaOne 1200 will
be a substantially improved product to what was originally envisaged.
The majority of the improvements come from Amiga's commitment to
develop OS4.0 specifically to run on the AmigaOne-1200 at launch. This
is far more than the 'fixed' version of OS3.9 that was originally
envisaged (pending the development of the native PPC Amiga DE
implementation that was originally planned). The new OS4.0 will come
with a high performance file system, virtual memory, high performance
PPC-native TCP/IP stack, 1GB main memory support, UDMA IDE and SCSI
and ethernet drivers and Picasso96 2D retargetable drivers for VooDoo3
PCI/AGP and Matrox G450 PCI/AGP & G550 AGP only graphics cards.
Warp3D/Mesa 3D drivers will also be shipped with the first release of
OS4.0.
Sound card (with Paula emulation), USB (keyboard and mouse) drivers
will follow as downloadable updates - ie you wont have to wait until
OS4.2 (which we don't expect to ship until mid 2002) for these
facilities.
The whole AmigaOne-1200 project is suddenly much bigger and very much
better as a result. The small downside however is that during the
several weeks leading up to the OS4.x announcement (at St Louis at the
beginning of April) and more particularly since then, we and Amiga Inc
have had to redirect much of our efforts to carefully defining,
planning and allocating tasks and responsibilities to OS4.0
development and integration with the A1-1200. The extra work involved
has also, inevitably, meant that timeframes have slipped. Although
this has also meant that the end time for hardware delivery has moved
back actual progress has, so far, been ahead of plan with the
development currently looking like it will come in at less than the
estimate for elapsed engineering time. As reported earlier in the
AmigaOne FAQ's, beta testers will not now be needed for the hardware
which is being independantly tested/validated as development
progresses.
As most people probably know, Continental Europe (where most of the
AmigaOne and OS4.0 development is being carried out) closes in August,
making it a bad time for beta testing and the associated feedback. As
you'll see below, application software/OS4.0 beta test boards are
therefore now scheduled for release at the beginning of September.
Manufacture of production AmigaOne1200 boards will now start in mid
September, and be released for distribution as soon as OS4.0 is signed
off for release in early October.
Timeline summary:
Item & Date
Mk 2 PCB production and testing Complete
All major custom chip logic building block development and testing
Complete
CPU module design Complete
Custom chip PCI development Complete
Custom chip memory and CPU controller integration June/July
Bootstrap, flashrom maintenance and basic drivers implementation
July/August
OS4.0 build and 68K emulator porting/testing July/August
Application software beta tester systems shipped End August/Start
September
AmigaOne 1200 boards into production Mid September
Application software & OS4.0 beta test sign off End September
AmigaOne-1200 boards and OS4.0 available to dealers 1st week October
http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/timeframe.php
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E Y E T E C K C L A R I F I E S O S 4 A N D W A R P
{Found on the net. Brad.}
From: "Eyetech Group Ltd"
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 10:02:49 +0100
Subject: Re: [amigaone] Re: Upgrade?
> Show me an official statement (i.e. a posting, web page, IRC log)
> where an Amiga, H&P or Eyetech employee states that AOS 4.0 won't run
> existing WarpOS software. You won't find any.
>
> Of course AOS 4.0 will be able to run WarpOS software, anything else
> would be quite stupid.
>
OK time to kill some wasted bandwidth here
Heres an official statement.
"OS4.0 will run existing WarpOS apps"
Alan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A N O T H E R E L B O X C O N T R O V E R S Y , P A R T 1
{Note: we have removed some e-mail addresses from these items. Brad}
Krakow, 30 May 2001
Warp 3D for ELBOX
Please note our explanations in reference to comments appearing in
various news lists and concerning the date of sending a Warp3D offer
to Elbox Computer. Someone is spreading false information on behalf of
Hyperion in this reference.
As we have informed, the FIRST Warp 3D V4 offer was sent to Elbox
Computer on Friday 25 May 2001 at 22:29 CET.
On Tuesday 22 May 2001, Elbox Computer was informed ONLY about the
change in the Warp3D status. The following text was included in the
end of this statement:
"In the upcoming weeks we will be approaching all hardware developers
with concrete and fair proposals which allow for very moderate
compensation for Warp 3D V4 support."
After 3 days, on Friday 25 May night, the announced offer was sent to
Elbox Computer. However, there were no contract details in it, only
the suggested price was given.
Since Monday, 28 May 2001, Elbox Computer is in touch with Hyperion
and discussing the offer.
I hope to have dispelled all the fog concerning the date when we
received the offer in question.
Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
http://www.elbox.com
PS. Please find the full text of the first message from Hyperion of 22 May;
as the facts have already been made public, this is no longer a business
secret.
-------- Original Message --------
Hi!
Hyperion Entertainment has decided to change the Status of Warp3D
slightly because of the current market situation. Please find attached
to this mail an explanation of these changes.
For further questions, please contact Ben Hermans
(mailto:LegendConsulting@netscape.net), Managing partner of Hyperion
Entertainment.
Thanks for your time.
Best regards,
Hans-Joerg Frieden
Senior Software Developer, Hyperion Entertainment
--------------Boundary-00=_9SFQGR0TN2SA0J1DHNKL
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Warp3D.rtf"
--------
We want to inform you that after extensive deliberation, Hyperion
Entertainment has decided to upgrade the status of Warp 3D V4 from a
freeware product to a commercial OEM product which will offered to
Amiga hardware developers.
This decision was prompted by two major reasons:
1. Hyperion Entertainment has reached an agreement with Amiga Inc. to
incorporate Warp3D V4 into Amiga OS 4.x on a per unit royalty basis.
Producers of zico compliant hardware (Amiga One etc.) will be required
to license Amiga OS 4.x and will as such be paying indirectly for Warp
3D V4 drivers. It is unacceptable to both Amiga Inc. and these
hardware producers that they would be required to pay royalties for a
product which other hardware producers would receive free of charge.
2. Warp 3D started out as a freeware product developed by
non-commercial developers to support the Virge and Permedia 2
chipsets. Compared to current chipsets the Virge and Permedia 2 are
extremely primitive and feature-poor. The effort and time needed to
adequately support modern chipsets such as the Voodoo 3 and Matrox
G450 with their rich and advanced feature-set is far greater than the
effort required to support the Virge and Permedia 2 chipsets.
As the original Warp 3D developers have now moved on to commercial
development, maintaining Warp 3D as a freeware product would entail
that development of new Warp 3D drivers and extension of the Warp 3D
API would be very slow as development could only take place "after
hours".
This is not only not in the interest of Amiga users but it is also
not in the interest of hardware producers and resellers who rely on
the availability of Warp 3D drivers to successfully sell their Amiga
hardware.
Hyperion Entertainment fully understands that the company has a
responsibility towards the Amiga community including the hardware
producers because of its control over the Warp 3D API and no attempt
has ever been made or will be made to exploit this position unfairly.
In the upcoming weeks we will be approaching all hardware developers
with concrete and fair proposals which allow for very moderate
compensation for Warp 3D V4 support.
As we know that market conditions in the Amiga market have been hard
for everyone including hardware producers, Hyperion Entertainment is
even willing to accept payment in kind (hardware).
Best regards,
{Note: the document as we obtained it stopped at this point, without a
name. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A N O T H E R E L B O X C O N T R O V E R S Y , P A R T 2
June 27, 2001
"Elbox and Hyperion did NOT come to an agreement about licensing
Voodoo 3drivers because Elbox insisted that the Mediator 1200 would be
the very first PCI solution to be supported (of all PCI boards on the
market regardless for which machine A1200 or A4000).
There never was discussion about delivery dates.
The fact of the matter was that Elbox wanted us to do something which
was clearly impossible both practically and legally.
Practically: we can't "unsupport" the Matay Prometheus PCI solution.
Drivers are shipping with the Prometheus for some time now and it's
impossible to turn back the hands of time and allow the Mediator 1200
drivers to be shipped first.
Legally: We entered into a legally binding contract with Matay for
driver support. They paid us, Elbox didn't. We cannot legally delay
release of the Prometheus drivers (which are already released anyway)
just because Elbox wants us to. This is a clear breach of contract and
runs contrary to the requirement of good faith which is a general
principle of contract law.
In short, Elbox was trying to impose an impossible condition on us
and as a result we failed to reach agreement about Voodoo 3 drivers.
I have e-mails from several staff members of Elbox to back up these
claims.
Despite numerous attempts we could not convince Elbox that Mediator
1200 users really could care less about the fact that the Voodoo 3
drivers for an A4000 solution were shipping first.
The result is apparently that there won't be any 3D drivers for the
Elbox products unless Elbox drops this ridiculous condition. Or
somebody could invent a time-machine.
As anybody could see at the Benelux show, the Voodoo 3 drivers are
quite ready and could be adapted to the Mediator 1200 in a relatively
short time.
Mediator 1200 users interested in Voodoo 3 drivers should e-mail
Elbox explaining that they don't care if an A4000 PCI busboard is
supported first as long as they can finally get their Mediator 1200
drivers.
The ball is clearly in Elbox's court."
--
Ben Hermans
Managing partner Hyperion Entertainment"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
D C E L I C E N S E S V O O D O O 3 W A R P 3 D
25-June-2001
Hyperion Entertainment is pleased to announce that it has entered
into a license agreement with DCE, producers of the G-REX line of PCI
hardware for the Amiga.
Under the agreement Hyperion will support DCE's G-REX 1200 and G-REX
4000 products with fully featured Warp 3D Voodoo 3 drivers for both
68K and PPC.
« We're very pleased that DCE has decided to respond to demand by its
customers for Warp3D drivers for Voodoo 3 », says Ben Hermans,
managing partner of Hyperion Entertainment . « Amiga users currently
have quite a number of PCI solutions to chose from and the
manufacturers offering the widest range of drivers for their PCI
solutions will clearly have a competitive advantage. From the large
number of e-mails we have received, we can only conclude that the
availability of 3D drivers is a key consideration for users when they
make their decision to purchase a specific PCI solution. To avoid
disappointment, we once again urge users interested in 3D graphics to
investigate the availability of Warp3D drivers before purchasing a
specific PCI solution. »
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E Y E T E C H A N D M A T A Y D E A L
19 June, 2001
Prometheus PCI expansion for Zorro3 Amigas will be in stock by 25th
June - orders now being taken
For immediate release
We're particularly pleased to have struck a deal with Matay, the
Polish makers of the Prometheus board as it enables A3000/A4000 (both
desktop and tower systems) to gain 4 PCI slots for trading in just one
Zorro slot. The board is shipped with 2D & 3D drivers for VooDoo
graphics cards (also in stock), together with drivers for ethernet and
sound cards, and an complete royalty-free SDK.
It is an incredibly well designed and manufactured board, (guaranteed
for 5 years) and is the first PCI expansion board on any Amiga to get
Hyperion's seal of approval for its 3-D support. A PPC add-in card is
in the pipeline giving a PPC-based forward path for those users who
want to retain Zorro 3 compatibility in their big-box Amigas.
The UK price inc VAT is £199.95 (or 269 euros/239USD, both excluding
VAT).
Specifications are as follows:
General
o Works with any Zorro III equipped Amiga, regardless of the
accelerator/CPU board installed in the system.
o Four 32-bit PCI slots clocked at 33 MHz.
o Fits any tower case and also works with desktop A3000/4000s when
open.
o Works with other Zorro III cards, supports AutoConfig (TM).
o Real transfer rates between Amiga and PCI cards - up to 12 MB/s (a
limitation of the 'Buster' chip)
o Real transfer rates between PCI cards - up to 120 MB/s.
o Additional on-board connector for the power supply.
o Professionally designed four-layer printed circuit board with
gold-plated contacts - complies with the PCI standard specifications.
Drivers
The Prometheus card comes with a CDROM containing:
o Drivers for the Voodoo3 graphics card, developed in close
co-operation with Hyperion and the authors of Picasso96. 2D drivers
work under the P96 system, 3D functions are available through Warp3D.
o Drivers for the the network card. (Sound card drivers will be
available for free download shortly)
o A royalty-free, NDA-free software development kit for programmers.
This is designed to make the Prometheus card the most open PCI bridge
solution as far as the driver development goes.
o Demo versions of games using the 3D functions of the Voodoo3
graphics card: Heretic 2, Shogo, Wipeout 2097.
The package also contains a reference manual (in English, German &
Polish), brackets for the Prometheus and PCI cards and an extension
cable for a graphics card.
Mechanical issues
Due to the wide variety of tower solutions available for Amiga
computers, it was not possible to design the Prometheus to be
mechanically compatible with the card slots of all of them. The
solution was therefore to design the Prometheus as the smallest
possible Zorro 3 card and to provide brackets which hold the PCI cards
to the Prometheus itself. Short cables (supplied) connect the PCI
cards' I/O connectors to the rear panel of the computer case. This
makes the card compatible with all Z3 tower cases that we are aware
of.
It also means that the Prometheus can be used in desktop A3000's an
A4000's, although for these however the case lid cannot be closed with
PCI cards installed.
Other benefits of the Prometheus design approach
o Suitable for 'riser' and 'motherboard' Zorro 3 slots
o Works in conjuction with all CPU daughterboard/accelerator cards
o Where mechanical layout allows, two Prometheus boards (8 PCI slots
in total) can be used simultaneously
o Future use with an be used with an G3/G4 card including 'off-the
shelf' Macintosh types for running OS4.2 and higher.
Prometheus driver CD list
Graphics cards drivers
o Voodoo3 2000
o Voodoo3 3000
o 2D drivers for Picasso96 graphics system
o 3D drivers for Warp3D (full OpenGL support)
Network cards drivers
The prometheus NE2000 device driver should work with all NE2000
compatible PCI network cards, including the following:
Producer Chipset Manufacturer ID Product ID
Realtek RTL8029 $10EC $8029
Compex RL2000 $11F6 $1401
Winbond 89C940F $1050 $0940
Holtek HT80232 $12C3 $0058
Surecom NE34 $10BD $0E34
Holtek HT80229 $12C3 $5598
Tested network cards
Genius GE2500-III SE, RTL8029 chipset
TV card drivers
Work in progress
Sound card drivers
Work in progress. It will be available for free download as soon as
it is finished.
Some independent developers have also started work on writing
soundcard drivers for the Prometheus.
No obligation pre-orders are being taken now to secure a card. Place
your order by calling +44 1642 713185, emailing us at
sales@eyetech.co.uk or through our website.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P U R E B A S I C V 1 . 3 2 R E L E A S E D
11 June 2001
PureBasic V2.32 Released (AmigaOS) :
- Added: ReadMemory(), WriteMemory(), SetWindowTagList()
- Added: Async palette fade
- Added: New commands for Chunky library
- Added: Procedures can now returns strings
- Added: WaitWindowEvent()
- Added: CompilerIf, CompilerElse, CompilerEndIf, CompilerSelect...
- Added: FileSystem library
- Added: Picasso96 library
- Added: Path change when running a program from the editor (no need
to put absolute path anymore)
- Added: Editor: Auto-casing and contextual online help.
- Added: Data support (new commands: Data, DataSection,
EndDataSection, Read, Restore)
- Changed: PokeS(), now returns the number of characters 'poked'
(handy)
- Changed: OpenWindow() (to be compatiable with other OSes)
- Changed: The whole gadget library (to be compatiable with other
OSes)
- Fixed: A compiler bug (Structure can't be redeclared a second
time..)
- Fixed: A member in a structure used but not initialized
- Fixed: Sprite lib (debugger and priority to the end)
- Fixed: a Picture bug
- Fixed: Screen/FontRequester(): now returns 0 when cancelled.
- Fixed: ReadString(), Str()
- Fixed: A lot of editor bugs
http://www.purebasic.com/news10.html
support@purebasic.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F R E E S C A N N E R C O L O R C A L I B R A T I O N
9 June, 2001
ICS
The Free AmigaOS Scanner Color Calibration Software
ICS allows color calibrating basicly any scanner using scanner
calibration photos (targets). Standard IT 8.7 (ISO 12641), various
Corel and Epson targets are supported. The software can work
independent of any Amiga scanner drivers, but works best with scanner
software directly calling ICS for you (ScanQuix V4 or V5, ScanTrax,
ImageFX, FXScan).
Using the ICS software is fairly easy. Install using the provided
standard Installer program. Scan the calibration photo with your
scanner and generate a scanner profile. The profile can than be
selected in the ICS preferences program and defines the color
correction performed. Also, you can adjust the type of display the
color correction is made for. Once done, further scans with the ICS
enabled scanner driver will automaticly result in perfect scans.
The system requirements of ICS are: Amiga with OS 2.04 or higher.
Next you need a calibration target. For best results, use a
calibration target according to the ANSI IT 8.7/2 (ISO 12641)
standard. These are available from Kodak, Agfa, Fuji or for a very low
price from www.targets.coloraid.de. In case you don't have a target,
you can find generic profiles for various scanners in the
ICSProfiles.lha file listed below. Use them only as last resort until
you do have a real target photo for scanning. Despite the same
brand/model, these generic profiles might not work with your scanner
as each scanner is different!
Following new features have been added to V2 of ICS:
o Now all ICS image reading and writing is done using the new IRW
library
o ICSConvert can now write JPEG, IFF, and TIFF
o ICSConvert and ScanTarget now support 16 bit/channel image data.
o ICSConvert can now read/write embeded ICC color and IPTC/NAA
editorial information
o Now includes tools to extract ICC and IPTC information from images
(IFF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG)
o Spanish localization added
o ICSConvert can now be used as tool for image format conversion.
o IRW does offer improved and localized error handling. Error
requesters now offer detailed information, hints and often also a
Retry function.
o Major speed improvement for loading certain file formats. Also,
memory requirement was reduced.
For further questions contact the author Wolf Faust.
http://www.ics.coloraid.de/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A W R I T E R - F I L T E R F O R P A G E S T R E A M
3 June, 2001
AmigaWriter-Filter for PageStream 1.1
Written and Copyright ©2000-2001 by Rüdiger Hanke
AmigaWriter-Filter is a new import filter for Soft-Logik's DTP
program PageStream. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see a
screenshot of what it can do!
It consists of two parts:
o The text filter inserts the main flowtext of your AmigaWriter
documents into the current PageStream article with most of its text
formattings.
o The document filter loads your AmigaWriter documents as if they
were native PageStream documents, retaining as much of your original
document as possible.
Applications
AmigaWriter-Filter was designed to
o print AmigaWriter documents to PostScript
o export AmigaWriter documents to PDF
o use AmigaWriter as a WYSIWYG replacement for PageLiner
o ... and anything else you can think of :-))
The filter comes with the usual options you would expect from a
PageStream import filter: it performs typographical conversions for
quotes, dashes and ellipses. In addition, it allows you to choose the
quote format (available are US, French, German and German-French). The
text filter has another option called Apply Styles Only which can be a
great help to achieve consistent layout, especially when several
authors are working on one text.
Download
The AmigaWriter-Filter archive is now available in version 1.1. Minor
and major updates will be available from the website from time to
time, major updates will be uploaded to Aminet.
Download: AW-Filter11.lha (55.3 kByte)
http://www.muenster.de/~tomjoad/awfilter.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2001 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
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[News message: 01. Jul. 2001, 01:59] [Comments: 0]
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