amiga-news.de - Eyetech Group: AmigaOne Update from 30th May 2002

30.May.2002
Eyetech Group Eyetech Group: AmigaOne Update from 30th May 2002
Press release:
The AmigaOneG3-SE

The first model in our AmigaOne range is the AmigaOneG3-SE. This is in effect a 600Mhz G3 Amiga accelerator with built in 10/100 ethernet, USB, PCI/AGP interface and memory slots for up to 2GB of SDRAM. As well as being many times more powerful and at (UKP350/USD500/Euro600*) around half the price of the previously most powerful Amiga PPC accelerator (the phase 5 Cyberstorm PPC 604 240MHz).

In fact you can regard the AmigaOneG3-SE as a high performance accelerator that comes with a free, built in computer! This means that you no longer need an attached A1200 or special tower case if you only intend to run retargetable Amiga applications. (For hardware-hitting applications an interface card to connect an Amiga 1200 motherboard to the A1G3-SE a PCI card interface will be available from Escena). The A1G3-SE also comes with a full range of legacy peripherals, and will run PPC Linux (and PPC UAE) in addition to running the new PPC-only OS4 natively.

The AmigaOneG3-SE will not be shipped to end users until OS4 is ready, but boards for OS4 developers and beta testers are already out in the field.

Amiga Inc, Hyperion and ourselves have also decided to bundle OS4 directly with the boards which we ship to dealers, mainly to reduce shipping and handling costs - and that has resulted in a small overall price reduction to end users of the A1G3-SE + OS4 bundle to ukp 382.94*. There will be equivalent reductions on the dollar and euro prices of the bundle to usd550* and euro652.50*.

Finally it is important to note that the AmigaOneG3-SE is fully quality-validated and licensed by Amiga Inc to run OS4, with all licence fees/royalties paid. AI's licence terms also stipulate that all boards capable of running OS4 must ship with an OEM version of OS4 and must have built-in hardware protection to keep OS4 piracy to a minimum, and this has been built into the AmigaOneG3-SE from the outset.

A list of dealers who have already ordered demonstration / familiarisation boards is posted on our web site (www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/dealers.php). Don't worry if your favourite dealer is not listed - several have either missed the ordering window or decided to wait until the end user boards and OS4 is shipping. These dealers will be added to the list on our website at the time they order end user boards from us.

Although we are advertising the A1G3-SE as an entry-level machine, have no doubt with OS4 installed it will really fly. The 600Mhz 750CXe cpu that is shipped with it is effectively that fastest G3 cpu generally available and some PPC experts reckon it is likely to deliver several hundred times the performance of an '030/50 with many applications.

Planning for the next AmigaOne - the AmigaOne-XE

We have always said that the AmigaOneG3-SE was to be the first, entry level, board in a range of AmigaOne boards which we have planned to produce. Many people have asked us to give some outline details of what we have planned for later boards in the series. So here is a taster.

The next AmigaOne board we have planned is for an up-market (read more flexible but more expensive) addition to the range. Further details will be published here and on the AmigaOne mailing list at Yahoogroups at the appropriate time (but not before!).

One of the prime requirements is to provide a socketed cpu module so that user-upgradable performance enhancements can be made as and when faster and more complex chips - and operating system enhancements that use them - become available. Our engineers do not believe that the Intel Slot-1 socket (as planned for the original AmigaOne-1200) is really suitable because of the need to minimise trace lengths between cpu and SDRAM memory at higher clock speeds. In addition both the Intel Slot-1 socket and the Apple ZIF cpu socket are now obsolete and therefore not a sensible choice for a new product not yet launched.

So for the next version of the AmigaOne, the AmigaOne-XE, we have borrowed the latest cpu socket technology from Apple in the form of the purpose-designed ´Megarray´ socket. This means that we can make low cost, tightly coupled cpu modules using either G3, G4, dual G4, (and possibly G5 - but information on the G5 is still very sparce) technology - for use on the same AmigaOne-XE motherboard. Upgrading cpu power therefore only needs a simple module exchange. The prototype socketed AmigaOne-XE board and the associated plug-in G3 and G4 modules have already been built and tested.

But before you rush off and cancel your pending AmigaOneG3-SE orders to buy the AmigaOne-XE instead, bear in mind that this extra flexibility will come at a price, and until OS4 supports the G4´s Altivec coprocessor, without much performance benefit either. And at the moment, unless you are Apple, G4 cpu´s are on very tight allocation, which means that it will be several months before they are available to anyone other than Apple at a reasonable price. At the moment the target price for the AmigaOne-XE board with the single G4 700MHz cpu module is around UKP200/USD300/Euro350* more than the AmigaOneG3-SE - and possibly less if Apple´s demand for these cpu´s drops significantly when the G5 starts shipping.

So does this mean you should cancel your existing AmigaOne-G3 order and wait a few more months? Not at all. We anticipate a high private resale value of used AmigaOneG3-SE boards, but to take the uncertainty out of the process, we, and the majority of other AmigaOne dealers, will underwrite a trade-in value of your AmigaOneG3-SE during a period of 6 and 12 months after its purchase against the purchase of a new AmigaOne-XE with single G4 cpu module. (You are of course still at liberty to sell the board privately for a higher price!).

This trade-in will be at 75% of the current retail price of an A1G3-SE 6 months after its purchase falling by 1% per month (to 69%) at 12 months after its purchase. The board must be traded in to the original dealer where it was purchased, by the original purchaser, be in full working condition and be used as part payment against an AmigaOne-XE with a single G4 cpu module. Individual dealers may also opt to have their own trade-up scheme instead, so please check with them when making your original purchase. Finally this offer does not apply in conjunction with any other discount offer, such as that applied to the A1G3-SE developer boards.

If you´ve been sitting on the fence wondering whether to buy an A1G3-SE or to wait until an upgradable G4 AmigaOne is available, you can now have the best of both worlds. Order a new, low cost AmigaOneG3-SE now and upgrade within 12 months. What are you waiting for?

* Prices quoted exclude local taxes and shipping charges. (ps)

[News message: 30. May. 2002, 12:23] [Comments: 0]
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