07.Nov.2001
Jens Schönfeld (ANF)
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Update-MACH for Buddha Flash IDE Controller
The update for the Buddha Flash Controller which has been announced already for the last year is now available: The controller works fine in a RBM Zorro-Daughterboard for the A1200 (OnBoard Ex). Besides this there are some changes concerning the timing that saves the functions of the Silversurfer on the extension ports.
Unfortunately the update is not free because it is a failure which has been not caused by us. From now on new controllers will be sold without surcharge, old ones can be equipped with a new MACH for 19,- EUR.
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 22:54] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Jens Schönfeld (ANF)
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First software for VarIO interface card
On the support section of the website of individual Computers you can
find a first archive with software for the new IO-board VarIO. The driver also recognizes the serial interface Silversurfer and thus replaces the old silversurfer.device. The installer script is easy to understand and in two languages. Before you install it you should delete the silversurfer.device but the hardware should keep to be installed.
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 22:52] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Interviewer: Christoph Gutjahr
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Interview with Ben Hermans from Hyperion
Interview with Ben Hermans - Managing Director, Hyperion Entertainment
Done by Christoph Gutjahr - 07.11.2001
Amiga-News: First of all, thanks a lot for your efforts to bring us OS 4.0.
Let's start with some technical questions. Are the OS 4.0/4.2 features
outlined in the tech updates on www.amiga.com and various press releases
from Alan Redhouse still valid? Will you have to put some stuff "on
hold" to match the deadline (e.g. USB support)? Or may we even get some
new (minor) goodies to play with?
Ben Hermans: The feature list which can be found on Amiga.com is still essentially correct
but can be considered a bare minimum. We intend to deliver more if we can. More
details will follow.
Amiga-News: Which of the following models is the better description of AmigaOS 4.0's
concept:
- a WarpUp kernel running an "AmigaOS-Box", meaning that PPC tasks are
running in a WarpOS environment while 68k tasks are executed by
exec.library
- an exec.library that is able to execute both 68k and ppc tasks, plus
an "emulation layer" for existing WarpOS applications
Ben Hermans: [2]. OS 4 will not be WarpOS based. WarpOS was a solution for a dual CPU architecture
and isn't suitable for what we have in mind. We will ofcourse provide full backwards
compatibility with WarpOS programs.
Amiga-News: There are rumours that Harry "Piru" Sintonen is working on the OS4.0 exec.library?
Ben Hermans: This is incorrect.
Amiga-News: Could you describe the current state of the AmigaOS sources? Years ago,
Jeff Schindler claimed that "it's a complete and ugly mess". I read a
German Interview with Juergen Haage, where he stated that they cleaned up
most of the Kickstart sources and they were able to recompile them in
one go. What's your personal experience (or that of your programmers)?
How much of the core parts are available in C and can actually be
recompiled for PPC? Are there parts that must be rewritten from scratch
(e.g. because they're only available as 68k ASM)? Are there any plans
to use AROS code for OS4.0 (if neccessary)?
Ben Hermans: Olaf Barthel and H&P did an outstanding job by cutting down the number of compilers
required to compile the OS, cleaning up the OS 3.1 source-code and moving code from ASM to C.
Whilst there still are some parts which are in ASM, this is a minority. Olaf also put the
entire source-code in to a CVS repository which is a tremendous asset.
We have talked to Aaron Digulla who was very helpful and is generally a nice guy and we have
come to an agreement about using parts of AROS if need be.
Amiga-News: Alan Redhouse announced that OS4.0 will also run on existing
CyberstormPPC accelerator boards. What about the BlizzardPPC boards? I
assume they won't be supported, is this due to performace issues or are
there problems with the FlashROMs of those cards (as some people
supposed)?
Ben Hermans: We haven't ruled out the Blizzard PPC's completely but we must first be satisfied with the
performance of OS 4 on these machines. There are indeed some technical issues that need to
be solved before support of the Blizzard line of cards can be contemplated.
Amiga-News: OS4 available for Classic PPC Amigas - that brings up another question:
Which PCI solutions will be supported? I assume that Elbox and Matay
will be supported, as they are "Amiga partners". What about DCE's GRex
Boards? Are you (or Amiga Inc.) in contact with DCE?
Ben Hermans: We intend to support the widest possible range of MODERN hardware including the available
PCI busboards. It can't be ruled out that drivers for older hardware will break under
emulation but generally we expect no problems.
Amiga-News: What's your intended "information policy"? I suppose there's not much
to demonstrate for now (i.e. only an A4000PPC running an OS that looks
and feels exactly like AmigaOS 3.x), will you go quiet until the
AmigaOne/OS4 combination can be demonstrated? Or will there be some
kind of "progress meter" on your/Amiga's website or regular press
releases?
Ben Hermans: We intend to release regular progress reports.
Amiga-News: Will developer documentation be available for free?
Ben Hermans: We intend to encourage people to develop for OS 4. Developer documentation will therefore be
available at production cost.
Amiga-News: Does the agreement that was signed on the WOA-SE only deal with OS4.0 or
did some/all of the parties involved commit to contribute to the further
development of the OS?
Ben Hermans: I cannot comment on the terms of the agreement but suffice it to say that OS 4.0 is just a
step in a continuous process whereby the OS gradually gets moved from 68K to PPC with full
backwards compatibility, whereby the OS is untied from the custom chipsets and whereby modern
functionality is introduced along the way.
Amiga-News: Hyperion are known for their strict "no AmigaOS for x86" Attitude. You
are now a key developer of OS4, and you develop the 3D API. We don't
know much of the proposed specs of OS5, but we know that it will be
available for several platforms, including x86. Will your intellectual
property (e.g. the Warp3D and OpenGL implementations) be a available for OS5?
Ben Hermans: It's true that we are no fans of the x86 architecture for reasons we have outlined before and
which have to do with Windows smothering all competition. Recent developments such as the demise
of BeOS, the sale by Corel of its Linux activities and the bankruptcy of Loki, the largest
games-developer for Linux, have only reinforced our view.
Talk about OS 5 is a bit premature at this point so we will reserve judgement until things are
a bit more concrete.
Amiga-News: I assume most of your staff is working on OS4 now. How does that affect
your other products? E.g., what's the scheduled release date for
"Descent Freespace"? Will other projects (Realsoft 3D, Worms
Armageddon) be put on hold until OS 4.0 is finished?
Ben Hermans: Our resources are obviously not unlimited and OS4 development will have an impact. It should
however be realised that it isn't the case that work on OS 4 is only now starting or that
Hyperion will be doing all the work. Most OS 3.5 and 3.9 developers are already onboard and
we have a good working relationship with the AROS team which will help cut down on development
time.
Amiga-News: Looking at Hyperion's projects and reading statements from your employees
about the sales of Linux and Amiga products, one could wonder that
Hyperion still exists ;-) If I understood that correctly, you won't be
paid in advance for OS4 (Alan Redhouse: "no upfront costs for Amiga
Inc."). There must be a point were you can't stretch any further, even
for Hyperion? Is a "success" of OS4 crucial to the future of the
company Hyperion?
Ben Hermans: No. The vast majority of Hyperion's revenue comes from paid contract-work for Mac OS 9/X.
The Amiga market alone cannot sustain a company with several full-time developers.
Obviously, the more successful the project is, the more time we can allocate for Amiga
development, time which is now spent doing contract-work.
Amiga-News: Thanks a lot for this interview and good luck for the future.
Contact information Hyperion Entertainment:
WWW: www.hyperion-entertainment.com
E-Mail: Ben Hermans, Managing Director
E-Mail: Ben Yoris, PR Manager (ps)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 20:50] [Comments: 1 - 08. Nov. 2001, 13:43]
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07.Nov.2001
H&P
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H&P: AmigaOS XL: More FAQs
H&P just added an extensive collection of answers to frequently asked
questions (FAQs). Amongst others it is explaind how to partition a
hard disk, how to install a boot manager and how to install Amithlon
on a hard disk. (ps)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 20:25] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Virus Help Denmark (ML)
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Virus Help Denmark: New VirusWarning.guide
Virus Help Denmark has published a new VirusWarning.guide. The facts follow:
- Name: VirusWarning.Guide v3.4
- Achive name: vht-vg34.lha
- Archive size: 107.799 Bytes
- Date: 7. November 2001
- Programmer: Virus Help Denmark
Download: vht-vg34.lha
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 19:44] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Robert Williams (ANF)
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Goodbye Clubbed... Hello Total Amiga Magazine
South Essex Amiga Link is happy to confirm the announcements about our
future plans for Clubbed magazine made at the World of Amiga South
East Show on the 3rd of November. In the next few months we plan to
make two major improvements to the magazine:
A New Name
From issue 10 "Total Amiga" will be the new name for Clubbed magazine,
we hope that this name better reflects the fact that we are a general
Amiga magazine and will encourage new readers to give us a try. Along
with the new name the magazine will have an extensive redesign but
will retain the essential feature of Clubbed, honest down-to-earth
writing by real Amiga users.
Bimonthly Publication
With the changes at Amiga Active, Total Amiga is the only regular UK
print classic Amiga magazine (as far as we are aware). To help fill
this role we want to publish the magazine more regularly, therefore we
will be looking to move to bimonthly publication as soon as possible.
The main barrier to this is the number of writers on the magazine so
in the coming months we will be actively seeking more contributors and
we hope to work with the French magazine Amiga Power to share content
(translated both ways). Whatever happens issue 10 will still be three
months after issue 9 (just published) because we have to transform
Clubbed into Total Amiga as well as create the new issue.
About Total Amiga
So far we have published 9 issues of Clubbed and the magazine has been
praised for its quality and production values. Each issue has 44 or
more A4 pages, a colour cover and is professionally printed. At World
of Amiga South East both Fleecy Moss of Amiga and Alan Redhouse of
Eyetech endorsed Total Amiga and you can expect to see articles from
them in future issues.
The magazine is entirely produced on the Amiga, written by enthusiasts
and operates on a not-for-profit basis. We are committed to covering
all aspects of the Amiga market and all products aimed at Amiga users
in a totally impartial manner.
A 4 issue subscription to Total Amiga costs £14 including UK postage
and single trial issues are available for £3.50 inclusive. Overseas
subscriptions are available, please see our web site for rates. You
can order direct from SEAL by cheque or postal order or via credit
card through Forematt Home Computing
(http://www.forematt.free-online.co.uk) or on-line at Kicksoft
(http://www.kicksoft.co.uk).
For more information including details of all back issues please
visit: http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk and click on the Clubbed section.
An all-new Total Amiga web site with its own domain name will be
on-line before the first issue is published.
(ps)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 19:26] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Golem - IT News / SOL-Invictus (ANF)
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Golem: Developer units of Linux-PDAs of Sharp can be ordered
»More details to the software-packet published
From now on Sharp offers to the developers the opportunity to order
the Linux-PDA SL-5000D as a developer device which is planned at the
end of the year. Sharp presents a former prototype at the IFA in Berlin.«
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 19:23] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
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amiga-news.de: Move did not work
Unfortunataly the move of our server did not work. Murphy catched us. The contractor who should transport the servers from A to B this night defered the move to next week because of reasons which are still not known.
Because of the changed and again changed back domain-name-server-entries there can be some impairments.
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 15:00] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Czech Amiga News
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Linda Godwin astronaut speaker at Amiga99 going into space & info on show
Bob Scharp wrote:
All of you who attended the Amiga99© Computer show,
hosted by Amigan-St. Louis's Bob and Diana Scharp in
St. Louis, MO a few years back, will certainly remember
the banquet. Dr. Linda Godwin, a current astronaut and
her husband, Col. Steve Nagel (retired USAF), a former
astronaut and current NASA employee, were two unforgettable
speakers. Linda not only spoke of her exploits in the
space program, she brought a video that blew our
(Amiga) socks off.
Well, it's Linda's turn to go into space again. I have
heard that she is scheduled to launch November 29. The
mission calls for her and several other astronauts to
go to the new space station, and return several days later.
I know I speak for all of you when I say that Diana and
I wish her the very best flight and a soft touchdown
back on earth.
Read more under the title link. (ps) (Translation: ps)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 14:19] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Richard Kapp (E-Mail)
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GFX-BASE: Interview and new voting
GFX-BASE has interviewed John Mason who is the programmer of some nice tools like Taskbar, Wibby, DReminder or NewStuff.
Besides this there is a new opinion poll. It is asked if you use a WB-replacement like Opus Magallan 2 or Scalos or if you are satisfied with the WB as it is. Those ones who improved the Workbench with the help of tools and patches may list them on the vote-commentars thus other ones will get to know it. Have fun!
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 14:19] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Andreas Magerl (E-Mail)
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Magazine: Amiga Future 33 published
Today Amiga Future 33 has been published. This means all magazines have
been sent to the subscribers, single orderers and dealers. The editing
stuff have to be completed. We are looking for an editor who has got a
well equipped Amiga with Internet access, longer Amiga-experiences, at
least can speak and write a little bit English, a good spelling and who
wants to work at Amiga Future actively. You can get further information
at the editing staff of the Amiga Future.
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 14:19] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Opera
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Sharp wants to use Opera-browser for PDA (Zaurus)
On the press release of Opera which you can find under the title link Opera informs that Sharp will convert the browser called Opera 5 for their PDAs.
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 14:18] [Comments: 0]
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07.Nov.2001
Anton Preinsack (ANF)
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First test runs of PowerPC G5 gain 2.4 GHz
According to an unconfirmed report on "The Register" two prototypes of
the PowerPC 8500 (G5) of Motorola have gained the level of 2,4 GHz of
clock rate. All other processors of this line work with a clock rate of
1, 1.2 and 1.4 GHz. According to this anonymous source up to one thousend
G5-systems of Apple are supposed to be sold to important developers.
Because PowerPC-processors of Motorola are supposed to work in "Pegasos"
as well as in "AmigaOne" this statement is interesting for future
"Pegasos"/AmigaOne"-succession models which might come. (ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 07. Nov. 2001, 14:17] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
Martina Jacobs
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Looking for a game-patch?
If you are looking for a patch for your favorite game have a look at the
title page. There you can find patches for different os like Windows,
Macintosh, Amiga, Linux.
(mj) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 23:16] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
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amiga-news.de server move
To increase our speed we are moving to a new server. We are well prepared
and we are expecting no interference of our service. There may be some
short interrupts so we beg your pardon.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 21:32] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
infoSync
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infoSync: Sharp readies SL-5000D
There is a comprehensive article about the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D PDA available.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 20:16] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
Different sources
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Software Updates (Report+ / pasm)
Tool: Report+ version 5.1a
Report+, by Amigan-Software, lets you easily create bugreports, aminet readmes, autodocs and similar reports. The program is freeware and supports the GUI-systems ReAction
and GadTools.
Download: report.lha (430 KB)
PowerPC Assembler: pasm
Frank Wille released version 1.6 of his portable PowerPC assembler. This version introduces an experimental Altivec-suppport.
Download: pasm.gz (42 KB)
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 14:42] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
Amiga Mediator
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Amiga Mediator Support side updated
The unofficial Amiga Mediator support side was updated. Beside of many
changes and extensions there are new driver versions available.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 12:54] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
Amiga Expo 2002
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Event: Amiga Expo 2002
Nova Design is organizing an
Amiga-exhibition that will be held from 29.3.2002-31.3.2002 in Baltimore,
MD (USA) at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn.
The following firms will definitly be there: QNX, Nova Design, Software
Hut, Mr. Hardware, Haage & Partner and Cloanto. Furthermore there will be
a paper by John Harris of Pulsar about AmigaDE-programming. Dave Haynie
by Merlancia will speak about the future of the computer and especially
about the history of the Amiga.
There will also be a banket that will offer a nice atmosphere for talking
about the Amiga.
Detailed informations are available at the title link. (ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 12:21] [Comments: 0]
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05.Nov.2001
Czech Amiga News
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Filemanager: ClassAction V4.31
Martin R. Elsner released version 4.31 of his filemanager 'ClassAction'. The following changes were made:
- Bugfixes: Icon-commands now using the correct filename, GETSIZE displays the correct size and SNAPSHOT also works now.
- The zoom-button takes ClassAction into the fullsize-mode.
ClassAction recognizes about 40 fileformats (gif, jpeg, iff, mods, ...). This lets you perform actions like viewing, execute and edit by clicking on the file. Additional
filetypes can easily be added.
The program needs AmigaOS 3.5 or higher and a 68020 CPU.
Download: classaction.lha (459K)
(sd) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 05. Nov. 2001, 00:35] [Comments: 0]
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04.Nov.2001
Dirk Baeyens (E-Mail)
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AmigaDE: New games - MazeMonster, Gobbler, Tikino
There were new games released at the AmigaDE shop including
the PacMan like game 'MazeMonster' developed by
Motion Studios,
the Snake game 'Gobbler' by
Pulsar Interactive
with several worlds, and the think-game 'Tikino' by
Technomages
with 25 levels.
(sd) (Translation: mj)
[News message: 04. Nov. 2001, 17:58] [Comments: 0]
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