amiga-news.de - Bill Buck und Raquel Velasco Comment on Pegasos, MorphOS, AmigaOS4

13.Jun.2002
Christoph Gutjahr (ANF) Bill Buck und Raquel Velasco Comment on Pegasos, MorphOS, AmigaOS4
A few days ago Thendic-France (the distributor of Pegasos) issued a press release on ANN. A wideranging discussion on the theme of Pegasos followed, in which Bill Buck and Raquel Velasco (of Thendic) regularly took part. See also News message and comments on amiga-news.de from 6th June, 2002.

Martin Heine brought together the majority of the relevant comments from Bill und Raquel on morphos-news.de and we present them here in a minorly edited version.

Pegasos Production (Dates, Distribution), MorphOS

1) PRODUCTION RUN: "The next scheduled production run is for 50 boards. In July we will produce up to 500. This is what we have ordered/budgeted for components. The final amount will depend on demand and if all our component orders can be fulfilled. To date complete machines have been configured for the bplan/MorphOS/Thendic development team. We have also configured a small number of machines for a special shipment to an *outside* development group in the US. These computers were shipped prior to 1 June." "You can probably buy a Pegasos in August and maybe in July if you are lucky. In this case, you would have to contact TerraSoft Solutions (www.yellowdoglinux.com)."

"What we are selling *commercially* is the mainboard with the IBM G3 PPC indicated on our websites. This mainboard will be configured by resellers and packaged by them to meet the demands of their customers. At this point, neither Thendic nor bplan will configure complete machines for commercial release. For customers, the latest version of MorphOS will be available online as it is today and it will work on the machine. Of course, the MorphOS team will continue to enhance the features and flexibility of the OS and there will be new releases. We hope this will process will continue in the normal course of business for some time. Yellow Dog Linux can also be installed on the Pegasos, as well as other Linux PPC based operating systems -- they work too."

"for the record we want to repeat that MorphOS is and will be updated online. Ralph and the MorphOS team will release new versions and upgrades as they have. This will continue. There will be something there *on the net* when it is time for customers who purchase a desktop machine with "Pegasos inside"."

"The bplan team will use the production facilities of DCE and will produce the boards and operate the fabrication machines themselves." "We are working with DCE because we can do that there as if it was our own shop. Forget all the other BS. There is no conspiracy against anything...has anyone noticed that the official bplan/MorphOS team has been absent from all these discussions for months? That is because they are hard at work and they know what they have to do. They are working with a great deal of confidence and they should be! The Pegasos and MorphOS are both great products. Is DCE involved in those activities...no. When we are ready to make a board we go to DCE and bring everything we need with us. That is it..." "All the Pegasos machines we have shipped and the mainboards we will ship this week have Northbridges. I ask you how anyone would know this [that there were no northbridges available]? Did Mai tell him? I think not as we speak to them nearly three or four times a week."

2) PROCESSOR BOARDS: "We have the Motorola XPC7455RX1000SC and the XPC7445RX867LC now and are in the process of achieving PCB verification. Motorola is also assisting us in getting samples of the XPC7455RX867P. We have others and have tested them. We are working on it. Gerald and Thomas are very good, but there are many other things to do now too. Power consumption is our primary focus. All the machines are FAST." "Yes, those Motorola processors we referenced were G4s."

3) AmigaOS 4: "What we think of OS4 is irrelevant and has nothing to do with our business. We sell the Pegasos mainboard." "We do not need anything from Amiga Inc. The version of MorphOS that runs natively on a PPC does not need Amiga OS anything..." "It is true we have moved away from Amiga Inc. and we do not have the same level of interest in cooperating with them today as we did before. Time marches on and we simply don't want to waste any more effort." "We sell the Pegasos mainboard. Please speak to your preferred reseller about how you want this to be configured and then buy one from him. You want to load OS4 you are now free to figure out how to do this. That is up to you -- not us!" "The most important thing is this: we are not interested in doing anything to get OS4 running on the Pegasos. Someone else is welcome to and we will support them. The main reason is because we will not devote the resources or time to become "amiga" approved." "The Pegasos mainboard can be configured by resllers and if they are able to get Amiga "approval" then great!"

"No resellers have approached us with regard to the Amiga Inc. licensing issue, but all of the well know resellers have contacted us about getting product. The requirements are a ten board minimum purchase. For pricing you have to send us an email...:) "

4) PEGASOS MARKET / ECLIPSIS: "Again, the Pegasos is a DEVELOPMENT MACHINE for the eclipsis." "In the meanwhile, what is the market for the Pegasos (while the eclipsis is in development)? Probably: a) Linux users, b) embedded system developers, c) application developers that want to do rendering on stacked boards with dual processors or build something very special that has a huge amount of processing power... " "Will "Amiga" be a big market for us? We do not think so. First, because we are not an official Amiga piece of hardware, and secondly because we are using MorphOS. The two just don't go together."

"I did not mean to give you the impression we were not interested in the "Amiga market." I think you know our history with the (platform). We will be very happy -- all of us -- if you can buy the Pegasos as a "ready fitted desktop machine." [...] But, we all have to admit that the "Amiga market" has atrophied a bit. This will not be the *big* market for the Pegasos -- just realistically speaking. The Pegasos will create its own demand." "We never said the trademark [Amiga] was worthless! In Germany it is quite good. UK too. France, Italy, Spain, it is not quite as good, but it is still OK. But, it is not for us...maybe something else. The problem *for us* is what is it now? Is it something from before? Is it something for the future? What is it today? It is all to confusing. The biggest challenge the eclipsis will face is a marketing one. What is it? Its everything! That sounds way too positive. The marketing approach needs to be built around simple concepts. "It has to do what people do already just more easily and anywhere." This is a huge challenge. There is too much baggage in the "Amiga" name for this -- FOR US. The Pegasos is a piece of hardware and this we are convinced will stand on its own. It does not need the association. We build toward the eclipsis with the success of the Pegasos. That is phase one. MorphOS will ride the wave...:) These are our ambitions."

The key is to be unique as a package. Linux is what has created the big opportunity for the Pegasos. Hopefully, "amiga" can contribute to this success too. But, the next step is a combination of hardware and an OS that is dedicated and ready to do something new." "The Pegasos is a great desktop machine. We are going to sell plenty of them. But again, ultimately the idea is that you have something small and modular. This is the "mini-pegasos" or what we call today the eclipsis. The eclipsis is mobile and described on www.thendic-france.com. There is a docking station and here what is too cumbersome or power-demanding remains plugged into the wall (and connected by wire to the internet). Remember the duo dock from Apple? That is the basic idea. Of course, when the main board can be that small you could make a laptop, etc. All the features you referenced are planned."

"Well, we really do not feel like rebels, more like veterans. There are other similar products coming about the same time. The Oqo and Tiqit 83 are also mini-computers and have compatible interfaces for standard computer peripherals. Both are Windows platforms. Then, you have the Nokia 9290 and the Treo 270 which are more phones than computers, but clearly things are moving in that direction. The Nokia uses SymbianOS and supports JAVA. The Treo is kind of neat, but not as capable as the high end Nokia (PalmOS). The prices are high. The Oqo is targeted at $1000, the Tiqit at "laptop prices" and the Nokia and Treo at $599 and $699 *without* concessions from the mobile operator. There in the UK you can get one at Dixon's with a year long service agreement for significantly less. In any case, we think we can beat these prices without too much effort. The issue will be performance vs. power requirements and feature set.

We think with the efficiencies of MorphOS (with the JVM Allan Havemose is developing) and all the money and research being poured into low-power PPC processors (by two very large companies who are interested in the Pegasos) that we will be in the right place at the right time. Our "development platform" is ready and it will be stable well before the first "mini-pegasos" is released. This creates some big advantages for us and will we need them. We do not have any illusions about what a challenge this will be. We will seek strategic partnerships. The wireless operators in Europe are the ultimate target." "We are managing the distribution process. bplan has more important things to do now!" (ps) (Translation: dm)

[News message: 13. Jun. 2002, 20:09] [Comments: 0]
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