10.Jun.2004
Norman Walter (ANF)
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Amiga C Course for Beginners Newly Expanded
The Amiga C course for beginners has been expanded with a few exercises that are (hopefully) appropriate for beginners. These exercises are found in the current archive of the course. (snx) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 10. Jun. 2004, 18:12] [Comments: 0]
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10.Jun.2004
ANN (Website)
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MorphOS: CPU Monitor V1.3 Released
Christian Rosentreter has released an update to his CPU Monitor for MorphOS (screenshot).
Changes since version 1.0:
- fixed refresh bug (thx. to itix for solution)
- added vertical grid
- removed a small memory leak
- added DONOTACTIVATE tooltype
- added NOSIZEGADGET tooltype
- added BORDERLESS tooltype + additional required functionality
- internal cleanups and improvements
(snx) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 10. Jun. 2004, 18:10] [Comments: 0]
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10.Jun.2004
ANN (Website)
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English Pegasos Review by Prof. Peruggi Expanded / Italian Translation
The very comprehensive English language review of Pegasos and the MorphOS operating system by Prof. Fulvio Peruggi, From Genesi(s) to Revelation, (amiga-news.de reported has been reworked and expanded. The text is now also in Italian. Inquiries about translations into other languages are welcome, if anyone with the "soul of a martyr" feels up to it. (snx) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 10. Jun. 2004, 16:41] [Comments: 0]
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10.Jun.2004
Maxime Doyen (ANF)
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HomeBank: German Language Catalog Data Available
For the a-while-ago-released-as-freeware program HomeBank from Maxime Doyen there is now also german language catalog data (6 KB) available. The author is thankful to Andreas Mayer-Gürr for this translation. (snx) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 10. Jun. 2004, 09:06] [Comments: 0]
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10.Jun.2004
Amigaworld.net (Website)
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DvPlayer: Screenshot of an Upcoming Movie-Player for OS4 (Update)
RiVA author Stephen Fellner is now working on a movie output program for OS4 by the name of DvPlayer (screenshot). More information should follow shortly.
Update: (16:08, 10.06.04, snx)
As the author stated in a comment on Amigaworld.net, DvPlayer is not based on RiVA but is, on the other hand, a completely new project. MPEG1/2, Video-CD, SVCD and DVD are envisioned as output formats, but other formats will possibly be supported. (snx) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 10. Jun. 2004, 07:48] [Comments: 0]
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09.Jun.2004
Amiforce (ANF)
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Abakus-Design: New screenshots of Port Royal
There are new screenshots from the the currently being developed adventure game Port
Royal available at
Abakus-Design's
website.
(snx) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 09. Jun. 2004, 22:21] [Comments: 0]
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09.Jun.2004
Giancarlo Piscitello (ANF)
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PNG icons: AmiCrystal v1.1
Giancarlo Piscitello released a new version of his icon pack 'AmiCrystal' (Screenshot, low resolution / Screenshot, high resolution).
Direct download: Ami-Crystal.lha (1.7 MB) (cg)
[News message: 09. Jun. 2004, 21:34] [Comments: 0]
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09.Jun.2004
Thomas Steiding (ANF)
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Barkanoid 2 for MorphOS/AmigaOS?
In a joint press release, Magnussoft and e.p.i.c. interactive announce the availability of Barkanoid 2 for Linux and MacOS. Thomas Steiding (e.p.i.c.) asks for feedback regarding a potential MorphOS or AmigaOS version:
"e.p.i.c. interactive entertainment gmbh could port Barkanoid 2 to MorphOS and/or AmigaOS as well. As we are unable to estimate the size of the current market and the resulting demand, we would appreciate feedback regarding ports to the operating systems mentioned above."
(cg)
[News message: 09. Jun. 2004, 18:23] [Comments: 0]
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09.Jun.2004
ANN (website)
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SWAUG: Mounting an Amiga 1200 into a standard tower case
Under the title link
the South Wales Amiga User Group describes the mounting of an Amiga 1200 into a normal PC tower case. (snx) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 09. Jun. 2004, 13:40] [Comments: 0]
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09.Jun.2004
Hans-Jörg Frieden (ANF)
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AmigaOS 4: official status update
AmigaOS 4.0 status update
by Hans-Jörg Frieden, Hyperion Entertainment
With the Developer Pre-release finally out, the time is right for a status report on the current state of AmigaOS 4.0. The huge amount of work invested into the project by a lot of dedicated developers means that there has already been substantial progress since the pre-release.
Some of the 68k components of the pre-release have in the meantime been ported to PowerPC code. The most prominent of these are Picasso96 and MUI. While Picasso96 is still in alpha test among the developers, the PPC version of MUI is being beta-tested right now, and is expected to be stabilized soon.
The kernel has also seen some updates. Among other things, it now supports a special resource called the performance monitor. The performance monitor is a hardware profiler within the CPU that allows the programmer extremely fine-tuned profiling of code, even including counting cache hits and misses, instruction timing, pipeline stalls, number of instructions patched, instruction throughput, and a lot of other factors. The performance monitor is controlled via performancemonitor.resource, which offers an easy-to-use API that wraps all this functionality into a few functions.
Further improvements of the kernel include support for the Altivec unit. The Altivec unit is a SIMD vector processing unit. SIMD stands for "single instruction multiple data", meaning that a series of instructions is executed in parallel on multiple streams of data items. Altivec has a lot of uses, most prominently in 3D graphics, but also in image processing, signal processing, compression/decompression, and all general computing applications that inherently work by executing the same instructions on large datasets. Altivec support in the kernel isn't 100% stable yet, but is expected to be fully functional very soon.
Moovid, the well-known media player, has now also been ported to PowerPC, and the results are quite spectacular. An Altivec-enabled version is also in the works. Moovid plays a wide range of movie codecs, including DivX.
A lot of progress has also been made on the shared C library, newlib, and the static C library, clib2.
Subsequently, there is now a new gcc compiler suite that runs up to six times faster than the compiler included in the SDK. Furthermore, since the final release of GNU C 3.4.0 has emerged, it has also been successfully ported to AmigaOS 4.0, and is now used for most components and programs. GCC 3.4.0 features a much better code generator than previous versions, much better support for ANSI C++, and implements the Motorola 'vector' extension for Altivec (meaning you can use types like 'vector unsigned char x' in your program to signify a vector for Altivec).
One program that has seen a tremendous speed boost is AmiPDF. The new PowerPC version of AmiPDF is, depending on input, up to 60 times faster than the original version on the prerelease.
Furthermore we expect a working serial device and floppy support soon.
The USB stack is shaping up as well. It now supports HID devices like keyboards and mice as well as HID joysticks and steering wheels, and USB mass storage devices like USB sticks, flash card readers, 7-in-1 card readers and cameras.
The A1 IDE device now has working UDMA support. Also, interrupts are no longer polled but delivered properly. This means that the device does not require any CPU time for transfers.
Currently, work concentrates on performance optimization. Results look quite good already, and stress tests have shown the device to be 100% reliable - no data corruption occurs.
This material will in due course be released for download to registered users of the Developer Pre-release on our web site at:
http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz (cg) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 09. Jun. 2004, 00:51] [Comments: 0]
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08.Jun.2004
amigaworld.net (Website)
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Download archive: os4depot.net
Björn Hagström & Amigaworld.net present OS4Depot.net. This is a File Depot portal dedicated to providing and hosting AmigaOS 4 files and related resources. (cg)
[News message: 08. Jun. 2004, 23:03] [Comments: 0]
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08.Jun.2004
ANN (Website)
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AmigaOne: Beta tester for "PegXMac" port wanted
The author of PegXMac is searching for beta testers willing to test the AmigaOne version of his distribution.
PegXMac is a 'LiveCD' that uses 'MacOnLinux' to enable booting MacOS X from CD - without the need to install Linux first.
If you want to test the beta image of PegXMac, use the following boot args:
root=/dev/ram rw init=linuxrc video=tdfx:1024x768-8@60 lang=uk
(adjust the parameters "lang=" and "video=" to your personal configuration).
Direct download: boot (5.2 MB) (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 08. Jun. 2004, 22:41] [Comments: 0]
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08.Jun.2004
ANN (Website)
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MorphOS: IRC bouncer "Miau"
"Miau" is a small but powerful IRC bouncer for MorphOS.
A bouncer can be used to keep the connection to the IRC server after exiting your IRC client. This way your nickname will be protected against abuse from other users.
IRC bouncers can also hide your real IP address - though this requires running the bouncer on a remote computer. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 08. Jun. 2004, 22:04] [Comments: 0]
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08.Jun.2004
amigaworld.net (Website)
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AmigaOS 4: Status of missing bits
H.-J. Frieden is giving on amigaworld.net
a short overview of the missing bits of the prerelease.
Altivec, IDE DMA: Yes.
USB: Supports mice, keyboards, mass storage (USB sticks, flash card readers, most modern cameras), HID devices (joysticks, pads, steering wheels, AmigaInput driver in the works).
SNAP: The system already runs on LinuxPPC and the AmigaOS 4.0 port has already begun.
Floppy: Almost finished.
Warp3D: Ported and functional. The reason it isn't released yet is mostly a crash when flushing the library, and the fact that old 68k programs cannot use it yet due to the lack of a 68k jump table.
Native graphics system: In alpha testing for the developers. Mostly done, but needs a bit of polish to go off into beta test.
JIT: Mostly functional using the apprunner. What doesn't work is automatic starting of applications. Going to be tackled soonish.
(cg) (Translation: gf)
[News message: 08. Jun. 2004, 21:42] [Comments: 0]
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08.Jun.2004
ANN (Website)
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MiniShowPicture: NewIcons and Italian local file
For the picture viewer MiniShowPicture now NewIcons
and an Italian local
file are available.
(snx) (Translation: gf)
[News message: 08. Jun. 2004, 13:45] [Comments: 0]
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06.Jun.2004
Genesi (e-mail)
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Genesi: Status report / First Open Desktop Workstations assembled in Las Vegas
Today, Genesi published a press release and a status report (Watts Happening!) which we are quoting below:
Press release: Genesi completes first production in Las Vegas
7-June-2004 Genesi completed its first major US production of Open Desktop Workstations during the first week of June. The systems were built at the Easter Seals facility in North Las Vegas. This assembly operation involved training developmentally disabled adults in computer assembly procedures under the guidance of an Easter Seals supervisor and Genesi-USA General Manager Paul Adams (photo 1, photo 2).
An important part of this process was the Genesi Operational Method Sheet (PDF file, 1.8 MB), which is a Pegasos assembly procedure picture book. During the production, Easter Seals supervisors conducted an assembly time study to determine the terms of the contract to be completed for future assembly operations. Genesi will continue to build systems at the Easter Seals facility until the assembly crew is fully trained and comfortable with the process.
Watts Happening!
We figured it was time for an update as a long time Genesi/bplan supporter responded to an email we sent out this morning to the Image Installer Team and suggested we make some of the information public. The email was primarily sent to thank Michael Heider, Christian Geier and Erhard Bruse for their continued support. Here are some details included in the email:
We wanted to let you know that Sven [Luther, Genesi's Linux coordinator]will be arriving here in Austin, Texas with us tonight. Sven will be here this week to teach the Freescale/Motorola Applications Engineering Team everything they need to know and generally assist them so that they can conduct a four hour class on the Pegasos for the 200+ Freescale Global Field Application Engineers that gather here this week for the Global FAE Conference. Sven will train the trainers. At the end of the week, every Freescale office in the world will have at least one person who knows how to do all the basic things on the Pegasos that they need to do to be able to use and prepare the machine as a solution to customers.
We also wanted you to know that every Pegasos that we produced two weeks ago for commercial release has been shipped to the USA and assembled here into Open Desktop Workstations. [...] They will begin to arrive at their intended destinations starting tomorrow.
We explain all this to you because we want you to understand (as mentioned in the post yesterday) that we have been delivering units to a large customer since March. As you you will understand, these invoices requires us to layout 13-16 weeks in ADVANCE of production the funds for many components required to produce ALL the boards to be delivered before the FIRST boards are made. We cannot order components for just what we need when we need it. These boards are then built into cases with memory, hard drives, power supplies and graphics cards at a further expense to satisfy the ultimate purchase order. Once they are delivered to this customer, the customer pays at a minimum of 60 days later AS THEY ARE DELIVERED. Our first delivery in March will not be settled by them until early JULY as we had to get into their financial management and accounting system. This is the reason there are no boards available for any one else at the moment. We can only make so many and they all go to the same customer, who already wants more than we can provide.
When we have enough boards to spare the Image Installer Team is HIGH on the list to get them. We appreciate your work.
We have to leave out some secret sauce stuff...
We went on to explain in some things that will be happening at Smart Networks Developer Forum, Europe. The details will be found here when they are announced HERE. Friday, 1 October after SNDF, Genesi will host a special day of Pegasos Developer workshops that will filled with a full spectrum of Pegasos related programming and development issues. Matt Sealey will be coordinating developer participation for Genesi.
Finally, we also sent this email out yesterday to Resellers that defines a Pilot Program in which Genesi and its strategic partners will provide machines for various organizations and groups. You can read an edited version of the presentation Genesi Pilot Programs online. (If someone would like to clean that up for us just let Matt know...) We will be announcing a number of Pilot Programs with Avalanche in the weeks ahead and these other pilot programs as well.
Genesi continues to march ahead. Things are coming back together.
R&B
P.S.: Bounties.MorphZone.org is coming soon. (snx)
[News message: 06. Jun. 2004, 21:53] [Comments: 0]
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06.Jun.2004
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AmigaOS 4: First impressions
In the 'AmigaOne' section of his homepage, Sascha 'SieGeL' Pfalz describes his first impressions of the AmigaOS 4 pre-release.
(cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 06. Jun. 2004, 21:33] [Comments: 0]
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05.Jun.2004
Sven Scheele (ANF)
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Short article about the ACSH users meeting in Kiel (Germany)
Sven Scheele wrote:
"To deliver some impressions from the ACSH users meeting in Kiel we have released some pictures.
8 computers are installed, among those probably the only AmigaOne with water cooling, and a Pegasos II, too. Right now appr. 20 visitors were counted..."
(cg) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 05. Jun. 2004, 19:14] [Comments: 0]
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05.Jun.2004
Hans-Jörg Frieden (ANF)
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Hyperion Entertainment opens new web presence
Leuven, Belgium - June 5th, 2004
Hyperion Entertainment is proud to announce that our new web site is now online. The new site can be reached at www.hyperion-entertainment.biz.
The new site features an all-new dynamic content system that allows registered users to login on the front page. Logging in will give users access to otherwise restricted areas of the web site, including more download options.
New features will be added to the web site in the future.
(cg)
[News message: 05. Jun. 2004, 18:01] [Comments: 0]
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05.Jun.2004
Norman Walter (ANF)
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Amiga-C course for beginners with new lesson
The Amiga-C course for beginners has been enhanced with a lession about graphics primitives.
(snx) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 05. Jun. 2004, 15:06] [Comments: 0]
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04.Jun.2004
amigaworld.net (Website)
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AmigaOS 4: Diverse Emulators
Steffen Häuser ported several emulators to AmigaOS 4. You can download
"Stella", "xMame", "xMess", "xCPMame" and "xNEOMame" from amigashare.com.
(cg) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 04. Jun. 2004, 20:29] [Comments: 0]
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