====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING || Newsmagazine) ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 990710 N O W I T ' S L I N U X J I M C O L L A S O N L I N U X K E R N A L Q N X R E P O R T S T O A M I G A N S Q N X R E S P O N D S T O A M I G A T H I S M O R N I N G F R O M M R . C O L L A S T H E L I N U X W O R L D R E S P O N D S O P E N L E T T E R T O T H E C O M M U N I T Y U P D A T E O N M A J O R A C T I V I T I E S B Y A M I G A A M I G A H I R E S D R . L I P E S A M I G A 2 0 0 0 S H O W A M I W E S T 9 9 U P D A T E S A K U 9 9 W E B S I T E E A S T A N G L I A N G R O U P L A U N C H E D A M I C O L A A N D . . . U N D E R S H O R T S ? Y A M 2 . 0 A T L A S T ! P R E C O N F I G U R E D T I M I D I T Y T O A M I N E T . . A 2 0 0 0 H D S F O U N D ! Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Now what in the name of Jay Miner is going on? In the last couple of days, QNX posted information about the upcoming Amiga OS and their work on the kernal, complete with information about developer support. That was followed by President Collas of Amiga saying no, the QNX post is misleading and furthermore, QNX will NOT be the kernal for new OS. Instead, it'll be the Linux kernal (not the whole Linux OS, just the kernal). This little exchange has caused as much or more confusion and consternation as the events right after Commodore's bankruptcy. We certainly don't know what's behind all this, and wonder if anyone else has the full picture, either in or out of Amiga? We do know there is supposed to be a technology brief released by Amiga soon, which should contain some answers. We'll bring that information to you in a special issue if that's the best way. As we reflect on the events of the last few days, it looks very much like someone was "blindsided". It's hard to believe QNX was caught unawares, unless Amiga management is totally incompetent and didn't keep them posted. However, it's also hard to believe QNX would post what they did knowing the information was misleading at best. Yet one or the other of these cases almost has to be true. The problem is, either case would be unprofessional. The least frightening for Amigans is that QNX posted "bad" information, hoping to force Amiga's hand. One thing is certain. Linux has become a powerful force in the computer world, and the reasons mentioned in the letter from Mr. Collas below are real. We've got mixed feeling about all this of course. Whatever happened resulted in a very ugly situation. However, an alliance with the Linux world could well turn out to be a very good thing for Amiga. As Amigans we need to see where all this leads before making any final decisions, especially harsh ones. --- One bit of housekeeping information I have to mention. Due to some technical problems with our current ISP, we are considering moving the "Update" elsewhere, perhaps to something like One List. This would not affect you noticeably, except there would be a small advertisement which we could not control on the bottom of each issue. If you have concerns about this, please let us know. I'll have more information on this in the next issue. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: Due to the length of this issue, we're holding our e-mail replies till next time. Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N O W I T ' S L I N U X Amiga selects Linux as their Next Generation OS Kernel July 9, 1999 - San Diego, California. Amiga has selected Linux as the OS kernel for the new Amiga Operating Environment that is scheduled for release later this year. Amiga is selecting Linux after several months of evaluating the technical progress of the OS and the tremendous industry support that Linux has gained. The development community has given Linux a major endorsement and the momentum that Linux now enjoys is having a significant impact on the computer industry. There are a large number of hardware device drivers and software applications written for Linux already and this number is growing daily. "Our strategy for implementing the new Amiga is to integrate the best technology in the industry into a new, efficient, exciting and revolutionary computer platform focused on the future'' said Jim Collas, President and CEO of Amiga. "Using Linux as our OS kernel is only one component of the overall Amiga Operating Environment.'' Look for more information on the choice of Linux as part of the overall Amiga Operating Environment in the Executive Update section of our {Amiga's} web site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- J I M C O L L A S O N L I N U X K E R N A L {This is the "more information" mentioned in the previous item. Brad} Dear Amigans, After months of research and in-depth discussions with all of our technology partners we have decided to use Linux as the primary OS kernel for the new Amiga Operating Environment (OE). I know this decision is a shock to many of you given the previous announcements and activities relative to QNX. This was a very complicated and difficult decision to make and I assure you that I didn't make this decision without a significant amount of research and deliberation. We have been researching Linux since February but didn't finalized our decision until several weeks ago. We were planning to communicate it to the Amiga community in the technology brief that will be released in the next few days. I am pressed to communicate the Linux decision before the technology brief because of information released by QNX in the last few days. This information had not been reviewed or approved for release by Amiga. In light of our Linux decision, this information is confusing and misleading so I would like to take the time to clarify the situation. I can't disclose any details of the Amiga/QNX discussions because of legally binding confidentiality agreements but I can talk to you about our decision to use the Linux kernel. I think that you will agree that this is the right decision once you understand the reasons for this decision. Before I continue, I should mention that our technology decision does not reflect negatively on QNX. I believe that QNX is a good company with great technology. I just believe that Linux gives us a better chance of executing our plans successfully. The decision to use QNX as our OS partner on our next generation multimedia convergence computer (MCC) was made late last year. When I took over as president of Amiga in February of this year, I initiated an in-depth review of existing Amiga plans and decisions. As president of Amiga I had to make sure that we were defining a strategy and an execution plan that would allow Amiga and the Amiga community to be successful. We reviewed our strategy, architecture decisions, technology partners, and execution plans. During this review period we also added a number of very talented and experienced people to help us finalize our technology and product decisions. I am confident that we now have a solid and exciting plan that people can have confidence in. Linux has been picking up substantial momentum over the past year as a viable, open OS alternative in the marketplace. This momentum, the growing commitment to Linux applications from a wide variety of software vendors, and the growing availability of Linux device drivers from hardware vendors, makes it a compelling candidate. Additionally, with all of the significant component suppliers putting resources on writing drivers for Linux it was difficult to get them to port to yet another operating system. Using the Linux OS as a foundation for our Amiga OE allows us to leverage a significant amount of available software drivers and utilities. This allows us to quickly support multiple graphics cards and other peripherals. Given the above-mentioned advantages, we decided to do an in-depth technical analysis of Linux to determine if it was a suitable OS kernel for our new Amiga operating environment (OE). As we ported parts of our higher level operating environment and AmigaObjectTM architecture to Linux, we discovered some significant performance advantages in the Linux kernel in areas such as distributed object messaging across a network (up to 10X the performance of Windows NT). Although Linux configurations can be very large in size, the core pieces of the Linux kernel are actually very small and efficient. In considering hardware requirements we also found companies working on hardware components that were optimized for the Linux kernel. Additionally, Linux is probably the most stable operating system available in the market. After months of in-depth research we were confident that we could build an extremely exciting next generation Amiga based on the Linux OS kernel. Does this mean that the next generation Amiga will not be unique? Absolutely not! Remember that the OS kernel is only one component of the new Amiga OE and the hardware is unique. The revolutionary nature of the Amiga OE is in the way it extends the traditional operating system to provide a host environment for a new class of portable applications - applications that exist in a pervasive networked computing environment. We will be integrating multiple technologies including an efficient windowing environment and a unique user interface. In summary, we decided to use Linux because of the incredible momentum and the fact that it is solid technology and a good foundation for our new Amiga OE. Additionally, the Linux community is an impressive force that we should be aligned with. We share many common values and objectives with the Linux community. Using Linux as our OS kernel allows us to build a unique and revolutionary operating environment while leveraging the enormous momentum of Linux. The soon to be released technology brief will further explain our architecture and plans for integrating all of the selected technology. Once you read it, I am confident that you will understand the revolutionary nature of the next generation Amiga. I assure you that Amiga and the Amiga community will be a driving force behind the next computer revolution. Sincerely, Jim Collas President, Amiga ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q N X R E P O R T S T O A M I G A N S {This is the information from the QNX website which forced the premature statement about the Linux kernal by Mr. Collas. Slightly edited for better readability in our newsletter. Go to http://www.qnx.com/amiga/ for the original. Brad} Delivering on Our Promise to the Amiga Community Dan Dodge CTO, QNX Software Systems Last November at Computer 98 in Cologne I promised to deliver an advanced operating system that would once again put Amigans at the forefront of technology. Over the past 7 months we have had a team of over 40 engineers working towards making that promise and vision a reality. We are now in the final stages of development and are poised to put these new technologies into the hands of thousands of serious, enthusiastic developers like yourself. QNX is often compared to UNIX, LINUX and BSD. We do share the same POSIX APIs, and most code written for these systems ports easily to QNX, but the resemblance ends there. Based on 20 years of OS experience, QNX has a radically more advanced architecture. It's a massively scalable, multi-threaded, fault-tolerant, realtime OS designed for devices and computers of any type or size. QNX provides a unique network architecture where large full-service protocol stacks aren't required on each computer and devices plugged into the network are simply "discovered" automatically by other devices - all services and peripherals of the new device can then be used by any other device in the network. QNX is also the only self-hosted RTOS where the development environment and the runtime target environment are the same. And though we're not open source, we adopt an "open source" policy for hardware-specific drivers. This allows us to continually support the latest hardware advances, while still maintaining control of core technology. More importantly, it ensures QNX has a focused vision for the future. If you haven't visited our web site before, I invite you to look at the QNX Realtime OS and Photon microGUI®. If you'd like to dig a little deeper, we've included some screen shots of the exciting new look-and-feel for Photon below. We've also put the new QNX Neutrino System Architecture manual online. In a nutshell, QNX is the core and Photon the graphical environment for our new OS foundation: QNX - Supports POSIX thread services, MMU protected memory for all applications and drivers, variety of file systems (QNX, flash, DOS, CD/DVD-ROM, etc.), TCP/IP stack, transparent distributed networking, and development libraries. Photon microGUI - Complete windowing system with full Unicode support for integrated internationalization. Also includes visual application builder (PhABTM), powerful development environment (layered libraries, over 50 widgets, built-in image support, online documentation, etc.), web browser, multimedia player, 3D graphics, and gaming support. Although Photon represents a unique new graphical environment, it works seamlessly with existing windowing systems. You can, for example, connect to a Photon desktop from a Windows desktop or connect to a Windows desktop from a Photon desktop. And because a large number of existing source bases use the X Window System, we allow developers to compile an application for X and then run the application under Photon. QNX Developers Network for Amigans To deliver this technology to Amiga developers, we're creating the QNX Developers Network for Amigans. Qualified Amiga developers will receive, at no charge, a complete beta development package that includes the QNX Realtime OS, a suite of state-of-the-art multimedia technologies, the unique network-distributed Photon microGUI, and a self-hosted development environment. We will also create a dedicated online newsgroup, as well as a web site to provide technology updates and previews. Initially, we're looking for beta sites interested in porting existing applications or writing new applications. Companies and individual developers are both invited to join - the only thing we ask is commitment. We want active beta testers, not tire kickers, who will promise to provide valuable feedback. Of course, commitment goes both ways. So in addition to starting this program, we will, as of now, become active and vocal in all the appropriate newsgroups and magazines. We're looking forward to being a fully active member of the Amiga community, and to working closely with Amigans to create the next revolution in multimedia computing. Initial Release Our initial beta release will be for x86 PCs. While this hardware platform may, at first, seem undesirable to some of you, remember that most QNX applications and device drivers are source-identical across CPUs and boards. As a result, any work done on x86 will migrate easily to any other supported platform. We chose x86 because it's the hardware solution most widely available at low cost in the time frame that we wish to release the first beta - this Fall. Are You Interested? If you're interested in joining the QNX Developers Network for Amigans, please click here to fill out the application form. If you have any questions, email us at amiga@qnx.com. If your company already has an application you wish to port, you're also invited to contact the Department of Strategic Alliances at QNX Software Systems. Email: amiga-ports@qnx.com Tel: +1 613 591-0931. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q N X R E S P O N D S T O A M I G A {... and this is a response by QNX to the statements made by Amiga. Brad} 9 July, 1999 Eight months ago we were chosen by Amiga as their foundation OS partner. Our development group was thrilled to be part of the rebirth of such an innovative product. To meet the challenge we knew it would take a tremendous effort on our part. We had a team of people in place working on our part of the Amiga NG soon after the alliance was announced. Over the next few months we involved more and more of our engineering resouces towards making QNX an advanced multi-media platform. Our investment so far has been significant. These are costs we have born ourselves. It is clear today from Jim's letter that we were not chosen for the next generation Amiga. Naturally we're disappointed. So, where do we stand now? It is not our intent to confuse the Amiga community. We are proud of what we have accomplished and want to include Amigans in what we've achieved. I did make a promise to deliver an operating system and I intend on keeping that promise. I don't want to split the community, nor do I wish to engage in a war of words. I don't ask you to "trust" me or to take me at my word. Both QNX and Amiga have promised to deliver technology into your hands in the very near future. I ask only that your assessment of QNX be based on what we do and what we deliver. Thanks for the overwhelming support we have received so far. Dan Dodge CTO, QNX Software Systems ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H I S M O R N I N G F R O M M R . C O L L A S {And finally, this posted just a few minutes before we mailed this issue, form Amiga's President Jim Collas. Brad} 10 July, 1999 Response to Linux feedback Dear Amigans, I have read many of the comments from the Amiga community regarding our Linux decision. The key observation I would make about the feedback I have received is that people don't have a good understanding of our plans for the next generation Amiga. This is my fault and we are working to rectify this with the upcoming technology brief. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not to judge the Linux decision until you have a chance to read the technology brief. The foundation OS is just one component of our new operating environment. In addition to the OS, there are many components of hardware and software technology being integrated into the final product. The underlying OS is not what makes the next generation Amiga revolutionary. You will more clearly understand this once we have released the "technical brief'' in the next few days. Whether we use QNX or Linux, the new Amiga will be exciting, elegant, easy to use, incredibly efficient and yes, truly revolutionary! I should mention that I was adamantly against Linux when it was first suggested in March. It took several months of intense research to convince me that it was the right decision. I can assure you that the decision was not made without a significant amount of deliberation. I would not have made the Linux decision if I didn't believe it offers us a better overall solution while significantly increasing our probability of success. Please read this letter in detail to get a better understanding of the factors that drove this decision. I would like to further explain the Linux decision starting with the concept of revolutionary: rev·o·lu·tion·ary ("re-v&-'lü-sh&-"ner-E): adjective; 1 c: constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm The key driving objective of our plans is to come out with a truly revolutionary product that can drive the next computer revolution. By definition, revolutionary ideas are not easy to visualize and are difficult to communicate. The upcoming technology brief will help you understand why the next generation Amiga is revolutionary. You need to keep an open mind because revolutionary products ALWAYS challenge the norm and most people think in terms of the norm. Once you understand what makes the next generation Amiga unique and revolutionary you will understand why picking Linux over QNX isn't a critical technology decision. Our design philosophy was to find a good solution for the traditional pieces of the OS and build our revolutionary elements on top of this. It's that simple. QNX is a good technical solution for the OS components but poses a significant market and industry challenge. Linux is sucking up the mind share and resources of most of the major component manufacturers and technology suppliers. I simply don't believe we can gain enough momentum without tapping into the Linux momentum. Linux will give us continuous access to new technology and components as they are released. With QNX we could get out a new platform but I don't believe we would keep up with the rapid technology changes in the computer industry. At Gateway, I was one of the leading product executives in this industry and I have in-depth experience in this area. IT WAS MY ASSESSMENT THAT WE WOULD FAIL ON THIS PATH. Please take note of this statement. How could I NOT make the Linux decision if I truly believe this? How could we continue on a path that I think will have us fail? Who will benefit if we fail? Let's also talk about the Linux technology itself. Some people view Linux as a stable but large and inefficient OS. I had this concern also when Linux was first suggested so we spent a significant amount of time understanding Linux, its strengths and weaknesses. We have even discussed our Linux evaluation in-depth with Linus Torvalds to better understand the pros and cons. Linux is evolving at a very rapid pace and I was satisfied that it could comfortably meet our technology requirements. Part of the reason Linux is large and inefficient is because there are so many options and different configurations. Amiga will define a clean and efficient Linux configuration as a standard part of our operating environment. An additional advantage of Linux is the fact that there are companies working on hardware components optimized for the Linux kernel. This will allow us to gain efficiencies and increased performance on the MCC through tight integration of hardware and software components. The MCC hardware will be highly optimized for both the Linux kernel and Java. In addition to the unique Amiga OE, the MCC will run Linux and Java better than any other computer in the world. This is worth some market momentum and will significantly increase our probability of success. We should expect to sell many Amiga computers into the Linux community and this is a good thing. We won't be successful unless we can increase the size of the Amiga community. I can understand the caution that many of you have on this announcement and will work aggressively to alleviate your concerns. I want to emphasize that it was not my intention to mislead the Amiga community in any way. I have been working hard to put together the best plan possible for Amiga to drive the next computer revolution. I believe that the Linux decision is consistent with this objective. Maybe I should have communicated this decision as soon as it was made several weeks ago but I was hoping to get out more information on the overall architecture first. I apologize for not doing a better job planning the communication on this. I am making dozens of key decisions a day and some of them aren't ideal. There are some people that will use the confusion caused by this situation to fuel a negative community reaction in order to split the community. It is critical that we stand united as a community or all will be lost. Please be patient, strive to understand, and have confidence. It's been a long and turbulent ride but I promise you that the wait will be worth it. Sincerely, Jim Collas President, Amiga ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E L I N U X W O R L D R E S P O N D S {Following are just two posts to the "Linux World" site on the web. You can find these and more at http://linuxtoday.com/stories/7523.html. Brad} Subject: Two of the best things in IT history packed together (Jul 9th, 08:51:36 ) I think I speak for every one, When I say that Commodore pionered the PC market. I must admit I never had a Amiga my self I sticked with the C 64 and then went to the XT but I always loved the machine powered by the 68000 (a very fast and reliable 16 but CPU) that out performed the Intels in a long shot. And they still do nowadays. Linux is one of the best things that happend for the consumer/techy OS market. And now both the advanced graphics,sound and motorola and Linux in one box. I can't hardly wait and I will buy my first Amiga! I missed out 10 years ago but I won't mis out now. Raymond Subject: This is Wonderful!!! - 2 of the best! (Jul 9th, 10:23:38 ) I never imagined this day would come.. but I'm glad it's here. I think this is finally a step in the right direction for the Amiga. Now, it is quite possible for Amiga to finally get the recognition that it deserves. Lets just hope the new Amiga hardware takes a similar step in the right direction. Peter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O P E N L E T T E R T O T H E C O M M U N I T Y {This letter was written before the great QNX/Linux Kernal uproar started. Brad} From Jim Collas June/July 1999 Dear Amigans, I apologize for posting my June (now June/July) letter so late. I was ready to post it last week, but decided to scrap it and re-write it this past weekend for several reasons. One reason is feedback I received from the Amiga community. To better understand the desires of the Amiga community, I have been following many of the Amiga public forums (in addition to reading the thousands of emails sent to me). I have posted in a few of the forums when I felt it was important to clarify information relative to Amiga's plans. In the "comp.sys.amiga.misc'' forum I posted a message requesting feedback on our strategy and plans. The post is in the thread titled "Collas and LeFaivre - thanks for talking''. I received many good insights and suggestions in response to my post, but while reading these responses one thing was clear: I haven't given the Amiga community enough information to clearly understand our plans. The community still doesn't have a clear understanding of our product plans, and what we mean by the term "operating environment.'' This is obviously not the fault of the community but mine in not communicating enough information. This is why I decided to scrap my original letter and address this issue. In the past several months, I have attempted to disclose as much as possible to the Amiga community without disclosing too much to our competition or violating confidentiality agreements with our technology partners. I don't think I have been effective at striking the right balance in this regard, so I just initiated an activity to disclose more of our plans. We are putting together a five to seven page product strategy and technology brief that will be released to the Amiga community within the next week. This brief will help you better understand our overall plans by giving you more details on our new Amiga Operating Environment (OE) and Multimedia Convergence Computer (MCC). The technology brief will also talk about new and exciting Amiga technology. I will talk a bit more about some of this technology later in this letter. This brief will also disclose some of our 3rd party technology choices. We have spent the last four months evaluating technology and defining the next generation hardware architecture and software structure. We have now finalized the architecture and structure. We have also finalized all of our major technology and partner choices. A significant amount of effort and resources went into the evaluation of 3rd party technology - you may be surprised at a few of the decisions but I am confident you will agree that they are the correct choices. Before you read the brief you should understand that we are still not at liberty to disclose all of the details of our plans. I don't want to disclose too much to potential competitors and we are under confidentiality agreements with our key technology partners. Within those boundaries we will disclose as much as we can. The difficult part about not being able to disclose everything is that some decisions don't seem to make sense unless you have all of the information. We have no choice but to work around this for now. As background information for the technology brief I would also like to discuss the concept of revolutionary products and our strategy for implementing the next generation Amiga. REVOLUTIONARY PRODUCTS: rev·o·lu·tion·ary ("re-v&-'lü-sh&-"ner-E): adjective; 1 c: constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm The original Amiga was revolutionary because it drove a fundamental change in computer graphics performance, capabilities, and overall value. It allowed people to do things that couldn't be done with other systems at the time. It moved computers a big step into the future by fundamentally changing the way people viewed and used computers. The next generation Amiga must do the same but in the context of the present computer industry. Faster CPUs and faster graphics alone will not drive a revolutionary new computer platform. They are important but not revolutionary. Revolutionary thinking requires us to let go of past preferences and envision a future that doesn't currently exist. It requires us to develop technology and functions that enable this future vision. This is the spirit of revolutionary innovation. The same spirit that drove the original Amiga development team. The problem is that revolutionary paradigm shifts are difficult to envision before they occur. Let me give you an example. When I was in college, I had a job as a software developer programming video games for the Atari 2600, Commodore64, and Apple II (This was before the first Amiga came out). At the current time, all video games were programmed in assembly language. This was great at the time because it gave you complete control of the hardware. I couldn't imagine programming a game in a high-level language such as C++ because it would be so incredible inefficient. It just seemed like an unrealistic proposition. Well, the world changed. You can't manage the complexity or extravagance of today's games in assembly. You need sophisticated tools and a high-level language like C++. This was a revolutionary paradigm shift that was hard to envision years before it happened. Keep this section in mind as you read the technology brief that will be released. It is not enough to bring out an incremental product. It must be revolutionary in order for all of us to succeed. You must think in a different dimension to understand the revolutionary nature of the next generation Amiga environment. The technology brief will help you understand this future vision - I look forward to getting your continuing feedback on our directions. PRODUCT IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY: Our strategy for implementing the new Amiga is to integrate the best technology in the industry into a new, efficient, exciting, and revolutionary computer platform focused on the future. It is important to understand this strategy so that you can better understand some of our decisions. The computer industry today is much different than it was when the first Amiga was designed. The initial Amiga was designed when the computer industry was at its infancy. The computer industry has now matured and the dynamics have changed significantly. The industry is replete with companies developing and supplying great technology and components. As an example, there are many excellent companies offering sophisticated high-performance 3D graphics chips. All of these companies have one goal in mind: to develop and ship the best 3D graphics solution. These graphics companies have many world-class engineers. Trust me, I know these companies well. To think that we could design our own 3D graphics chip that was better is not reasonable. This is why all leading computer companies (IBM, Compaq, Gateway, Apple, et al.) now depend on 3rd party graphics companies. It was clear to them that internal resources couldn't compete with companies specialized in this area. This is the normal cycle of a maturing industry and is the reason why we can't think in the past when creating a revolutionary product for the future. Does this mean that the Amiga won't be unique or lead in performance? Absolutely not! Firstly, you shouldn't define performance by exclusively using narrow benchmarks of today's industry. We need to focus on addressing the next computer revolution rather than competing with the last one. Secondly, an extremely efficient architecture will make the most out of commonly used components like 3D graphics chips. We can get remarkably impressive performance by coupling an industry leading PCI/AGP graphics chip to the extremely efficient architecture of the new Amiga. On the CPU side we have selected a CPU that will bring exciting new capabilities to the Amiga. I can't disclose what instruction set it uses at this time because of confidentiality agreements. I can tell you that it's very exciting and NOT an x86 architecture processor. Our plan is to disclose the CPU in several weeks at the World of Amiga and AmiWest shows. At this time I hope to disclose all of our technology choices and partners. In order to pull this great technology together and develop our next-generation platform, we are also developing our own technology in key strategic areas. This technology will allow us to make the product unique, integrate 3rd party technology and create the final revolutionary product. For example... A TEASER: The technology brief will also include the description of new Amiga technology that I think is particularly exciting. It is an object-oriented technology developed by Amiga called the AmigaObjectTM. The AmigaObjectTM is a powerful software structure that enables easy integration of technology, distributed computing, high-speed network transactions, and communication between applications. They are also powerful software building blocks that will allow people to build impressive applications quickly. AmigaObjectsTM are portable and transferable across platforms allowing AmigaObjectsTM to proliferate throughout the network, the Internet and the world. Do I have your attention yet? This is just one piece of the new Amiga operating environment. It is this type of technology that will allow us to build a revolutionary computer platform. We can discuss this technology because we have now filed patent disclosures giving us some protection against competitors. More on this in the technology brief. IN SUMMARY: The upcoming technology brief will be released early next week. While it will of necessity be at a fairly high level, it will still be the most comprehensive description to date of the new Amiga product and operating environment. I think it will go a long way in helping you understand Amiga's future and the new products. I am very excited about releasing this information and getting your response. After you read it, I think you will agree that Amiga and the Amiga community has a chance of driving the next computer revolution. Sincerely, Jim Collas President, Amiga ---------------------------------------------------------------------- U P D A T E O N M A J O R A C T I V I T I E S B Y A M I G A {This was also posted before the QNX/Linux situation developed. Brad} June/July 1999 Operations/Planning: 1) We have identified an office building for our operations in San Diego. We will be moving out of the Gateway building into a separate building in order to accommodate the expansion in Amiga's staff. New Management Staff: 1) We hired Dave Curtis as director of object technology and transaction services. Dave will be responsible for developing our transactional object technology. Dave was one of the original architects of CORBA and has worked for Inprise (Borland), the Object Management Group (OMG), and other organizations focused on object oriented technology. Dave's expertise will help us implement transactional object technology in the Amiga Operating Environment. 2) We hired Dr. Jim Miller as director of user experience. Jim will be responsible for all user interface design and software development. Jim has worked in the human interaction groups of both Hewlett Packard and Apple Computers. Jim is highly respected and well known in the national and international user interaction (UI) community. Major Development Programs: 1) O/S 3.5 - The target final release is August 21st at the Amiga Downunder show in Australia. We are talking to Amiga hardware development companies to qualify hardware products targeted at the O/S 3.5 release. We plan to come out with a recommended hardware configuration and list of qualified Amiga hardware products for the O/S 3.5 release. 2) AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) - We are developing our next generation operating environment including operating system, user interface, and some revolutionary software structures to be disclosed at a later date. Target beta version is late 3Q99 with final in late 4Q99. We are also looking at the possibility of porting this new AmigaSoftTM OE to the O/S 3.5 recommended hardware configurations. If we can accomplish this it will allow people to run the new OE on specific Amiga configurations with PowerPC boards. 3) AmigaSoftTM development system - This is planned in late 3Q99 along with the beta release of the new AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment. 4) Amiga Multimedia Convergence Computer (MCC): - We have finalized our industrial design and created foam models. - The next mechanical design step is hard models. These will be available for WoA and AmiWest. - We have initiated final schematics of the system board design. Shows and Community Activities: 1) We held a telephone conference with the Amiga press to bring them up to speed on our plans. 2) We received all of the nominations for Amiga Advisory Council (AAC) members. We will be notifying the top nominated members for approval in the next week. First AAC conference call should occur within two weeks. 3) We initiated multiple Amiga hosted forums accessible though our Amiga website. 4) We will sponsor and participate in the 1999 London World of Amiga show in late July. 5) We are also planning to support the AmiWest show in late July. 6) We are planning for the Cologne and Las Vegas shows in November. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A H I R E S D R . L I P E S Director of Multimedia Services Dr. Richard Lipes, Director of Multimedia Services, is responsible for delivering 2D and 3D graphics, audio and video streams, and special graphics effects for Amiga's products. He has over 20 years experience in high performance computation on graphics, vector, and parallel computer architectures, gained in large organizations as well as three startups. Prior to joining Amiga, Dr. Lipes was director of software development at ARK Logic, responsible for design, development, and maintenance of all software for 2D and 3D graphics accelerators. The accelerator drivers supported both OpenGL and DirectX technologies. He was previously at Silicon Graphics where he worked on Project Reality, which produced the highly successful Nintendo 64 Gaming system and on Magic Carpet, a project for delivering MPEG-2 audio and video, AC3 audio, and 3D graphics to set-top boxes and network computers. Earlier, as director of imaging software at Kubota Pacific, he was responsible for medical imaging software that supported 2D and volumetric rendering of key medical modalities. Dr. Lipes received his S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from Caltech, both in physics. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE. He has served on the board of directors of the Caltech Alumni Association. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A 2 0 0 0 S H O W Randomize Announces International Amiga 2000 International Amiga 2000...The Amiga Showcase to the World We would like to announce that the previously announced International Amiga show in Toronto, Canada will not happen this year. Rather, we have decided to to postpone International Amiga to early 2000. As many that attended International Amiga 98 will know, we were successful in a number of our objectives including: o Bring developers and manufactures together to show new products o Bring European based manufactures to North America providing exposure and sales of their products o Provide an great sales opportunity for all exhibitors and great deals for users o Hosting the most professional Amiga show in North America since Commodore So why are we postponing? Quite simply so that: o we can co-ordinate IAY2K with the release of AmigaSoftTM Systems and AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment o we will show new systems, not announce them the Amiga market has an opportunity to recover based on the release of AmigaSoftTM Systems o We have the time to make IAY2K even better than IA98 International Amiga 2000 (IAY2K) will expand on the success of IA98 by: o working very closely with Amiga, Inc. o attracting North American and European developers and manufactures of both Classic Amiga and AmigaSoftTM environment products o providing a venue to the world for all things Amiga If you have thoughts, or constructive input please email thom@randomize.com Randomize, Inc. R.R. #2 Tottenham Ontario Canada L0G 1W0 Telephone: (905) 939-8371 Fax: (905) 939-8745 Orders: 1 888 RANDOMIZE (1 888 726-3664) Sales e-mail: sales@randomize.com Support e-mail: support@randomize.com web: http://www.randomize.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I W E S T 9 9 U P D A T E 8 Jul 1999 AmiWest99 Update #4 AMIGA has annouced that Dr, Allan Havemose, Vice President of Engineering, will be present at AmiWest'99 along with two members of his staff, Richard Lipes, Director of Multimedia Services, and Jim Miller, Director of User Experience. Dr. Havemose has a long history with the Amiga. He was the European Technical Support Manager for Amiga - building the European Amiga developers program at Commodore ESCO, Manager Amiga Software Development and Director of Systems software for OS 2.1 to 3.1 at Commodore International in the US. Dr. Havemose will be presenting a technological update on the New Generation Amigas at the show and also conducting a question and answer round table discussion as one of the seminars. Mockups of the new Next Generation Amigas are expected to be shown at the show. We also expect a presentation on the new Amiga 3.5 OS for the Classic Amigas at the show. Another Amiga pioneer, Carl Sassenrath, will also be present at AmiWest to present seminars on his well known Rebol language. Carl was the Manager of Operating Systems for Commodore Amiga, Inc. and designed and implemented the original Amiga OS. AMIGA has also donated two Amiga 1200HDs with Magic Packs which will be given away as grand prizes at the end of the show days on both Saturday and Sunday. Hourly raffles will be held on both Saturday and Sunday where prizes, donated by the vendors and other sources, will be given away. These can include hardware as well as software. You must be present at the raffle to obtain your prize. We will not ship prizes. AMIGA has also provided an assortment of the round Amiga mouse pads and the "Back for the Future" CDs which will be given away during the hourly raffles. Among the other prizes so far donated by vendors are Directory Opus Megellan from GPSoftware, four packs of the Magic Software Bundle from Compuquick, and various prizes from Software Hut. Remember, AmiWest99 is being held on Friday through Sunday, July 23-25, at the Holiday Inn, Sacramento NorthEast, in Sacramento, CA. Classes and seminars will be held Friday through Sunday with the exhibit hall being open on Saturday, July 24th from 10 A.M. - 5 P.M and Sunday, July 25th 10 A.M. - 4 P.M. Specially priced tickets for AmiWest99 are available in advance by mail. Prices are: two day admission tickets, $12 and one day admission ticket, $8. If you elect to purchase tickets at the door, the prices are: two day ticket at the door, $15 and One day ticket at the door, $10. If you are ordering a one day ticket by mail, please specify which day (Saturday or Sunday) you are attending. There will be a banquet dinner on Saturday evening, July 24th. Price is $35 per plate. Banquet tickets must be purchased in advance. They will NOT be sold on Friday nor Saturday due to the hotel needing attendance figures for planning the banquet. You can mail your requests for advanced admission and banquet tickets to: AmiWest99 c/o Sacramento Amiga Computer Club P.O. Box 19784 Sacramento, CA 95819-0784 Make checks payable to "AmiWest". Special hotel room rates are available at the Holiday Inn for those attending AmiWest99. Room rates are $ 79 (Single) and $ 89 (double) if reservations are made by July 1. You must mention that you are attending AmiWest to get the special rate. You can phone the Holiday Inn at 1-916-338-5800, 1-800-388-9284 (Tool Free - Hotel directly) or 1-800-465-8329 (Toll Free - Holiday Inn Reservation Number) to make hotel reservations. Hope to see you at AmiWest99 on July 23-24, 1999, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S A K U 9 9 W E B S I T E FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Finnish Amiga Users Group Announces Saku 99 Web Site ESPOO, FINLAND - June 29, 1999 - Finnish Amiga Users Group is pleased to announce that the Web site for its third annual Amiga event, Saku 99, is now open. The Web site features highlights, directions and other vital information for interested visitors and exhibitors from Finland and abroad. We are also planning a Saku 99 webcam and an IRC channel. Saku 99 will be the biggest Amiga event in Finland this year. Following the success of Saku 98, which was visited by some 500 Amiga enthusiasts, Saku 99 is aimed to be bigger and better than the previous events. Mr. Petro Tyschtschenko of Amiga has already confirmed his presence and other great highlights are planned. Saku 99 will be held on Saturday September 4th 1999 at the Science Centre Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki. Please visit http://batman.jytol.fi/~saku/english/ or our mirror site http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/english/, for further information. E-mail inquiries may be sent to Janne Sirén (siren@mikrobitti.fi). 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 disk magazine, the group is trying to accomplish its goals by organizing meetings and by publishing a disk magazine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users Group and it's predecessors have released over thirty issues of the disk 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E A S T A N G L I A N G R O U P L A U N C H E D About The... East Anglian Amiga User Group ___________________ WELCOME! Welcome to the East Anglian Amiga User Group. We are a brand new user group based in Lowestoft, Suffolk but have an anticipated member list of The World! We were set up by two very keen Amiga users Nigel Holland and Michael Parker, to provide to Amiga user with all the latest news, reviews and events etc. at a cost marginal to a commercial magazine, yet providing the same accuracy and quality you, as an Amiga user expect. WHAT DO WE OFFER? We do this by providing our users with a 8-weekly newsletter and e-mail (were available) for important events in between issues. We DO NOT hold meetings as we believe this to be unfair to users outside a travelable distance. In addition to this you will receive special disks (at least two a year) with the latest Utilities, Games, Patches, Shareware and PD around for the Amiga! Users will also get a Membership Card each and every year. WHEN IS THE NEWSLETTER DUE? Distribution of the newsletter begins in August 1st 1999 so, if you want to receive the first copy be sure to send your application off well before then so we can cope with the demand. Then, after the first issue is released the next one will be published and distributed two months later, and so on! HOW MUCH IS IT? A years membership is just £10 (UK) -that's £1.20 an issue! Plus you receive a membership card and at least two disks a year, not to mention the newsletter is not filled with 100's of ads. PLUS: Every issue is delivered ON TIME to your own doorstep! WHAT CAN I DO? You to can write for us, about anything Amiga! You could even end up with you own column in every issue! If you don't fancy writing about anything, why not tell us what you have in the way of Amiga equipment and become our set-up of the month! Got something to sell? Want a piece of Amiga hardware/software? Put it in our classifieds for all members to read- and possibly buy! E-mail the User Group (eaaug@eaaug.freeserve.co.uk) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I C O L A A N D . . . U N D E R S H O R T S ? 2 July, 1999 {Directly from the Amiga web sites. Brad.} New Promotional Products Available Soon New promotional products will be available at the World of Amiga on July 24th and 25th. There will be the cool drink for all AMIGA freaks: AmiCola Also available soon: AMIGA shorts (sizes S, M, L, XL, und XXL, colors white and black), and socks carrying the AMIGA logo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Y A M 2 . 0 A T L A S T ! July 6, 1999 YAM 2.0 final has been released! It can be downloaded from the YAM support site and - in a few days - from any Aminet mirror. REQUIREMENTS - Amiga Computer with an 68020 cpu or higher - at least 4 MB of RAM - AmigaOS/Workbench 3.0 or higher - MUI 3.8 or higher - bsdsocket.library compatible TCP/IP software like Miami, AmiTCP, Genesis or TermiteTCP - PGP 2.6.x or 5.x (required only for composing or reading encrypted mail) - XPK libraries (required only for compressed folders) - Internet provider who supports POP3 and SMTP services FEATURES - Basic functions: read, write, delete, reply, forward or bounce mail - Four folders for incoming, outgoing, sent and deleted mail plus an unlimited number of folders for archived mail - Folders can be compressed and/or protected with a password - Support for multiple users. Optionally, addressbooks and other config files can be shared - Searchable address book supporting groups and distribution lists - Built-in POP3/APOP client to check for mail on startup, on demand or at regular time intervals - Check up to 16 POP3 accounts in a single step - Message pre-selection: browse message headers before downloading large mails - Write or reply your messages offline and send them to the mail server using the built-in SMTP client - Extract sender information from message headers and create an address book entry with a simple mouseclick; a picture of the sender is automatically downloaded and displayed - Built-in support for UUencode and MIME to send and receive binary files - Co-operation with web browsers: send mail from your browser, pass an URL to a browser - Handle return receipts and read confirmation - Support for anonymous remailers and mailing lists - PGP/MIME support: encrypt and/or sign outgoing messages, check signatures, decrypt messages. Works with PGP 2.6 and PGP 5. - Fast internal editor that offers WYSIWYG textstyles and spell checking - Search your folders for messages (including full text search in header fields or message body) - Up to 100 filters to automatically process new or sent messages - Comprehensive ARexx interface that allows other programs to control YAM - The graphical user interface of YAM (including toolbars and status images) is fully user configurable - YAM runs either on the Workbench screen or on any other custom screen - Context related online help through help bubbles and AmigaGuide - Includes catalog files for many different languages - Easy installation with the Installer - Much, much more... CONTACT World Wide Web: http://www.yam.ch E-mail : support@yam.ch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P R E C O N F I G U R E D T I M I D I T Y T O A M I N E T . . 9 July, 1999 {The Timidity midi player has been on Aminet for a short while. Recently, we learned that Giordio Signori was working on a (large!) set of archives that would provide a pre-configured Timidity you could download and use. Here's what he has to say on the subject. Brad} I am going to upload on Aminet a ready-to-go preconfigured Timidity archive with all the patches (be ready to download some megs ;-) so you will not have to get crazy configuring Timidity. It's not really a "product", as it's 100% free, since Timidity is under GNU Public License. I thought that on Amiga we missed a very good MIDI player with a good quality. So I've been searching for the best samples usable with this great piece of software (that, note, is not ported by me) and spent some days configuring the whole thing to make it easier to use. I am impressed by the quality that it can reach. The drawback is that the LHA archive is 15 megs, but with ftp resume or HTTPResume it's not a problem to download in some days. To be true, the archive for Aminet is ready, sitting here in my hard disk. But I have been unlucky... yesterday I was uploading it, but when I arrived at 14 megs out of 15, the line dropped!! So I have to retry... maybe I will split the archive to make it easier to upload and download. But once you downloaded it, you can be sure it's worth the time you spent, as you can finally listan to MIDI files with an astonishing quality. Just to comprare, the Star Wars soundtrack in MIDI format, played with Timidity with this set of patches is nearly identical to the CD one played by the orchestra, only good hears will notice the difference! And all this is for free, what do you want more? ;-) Giorgio Signori ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A 2 0 0 0 H D S F O U N D ! Intrepid Communications Announces Supply of A2000HD Amigas FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Intrepid Communications, Inc. announces the discovery of a cache of new in-the-box and excellent condition used classic A2000HD computers. All include: original keyboards and mice, internal 880K floppy drive, A2091 SCSI controller with hard drive (most are 52MB) and Kickstart and Workbench 1.3 or above. They are also equipped with an ASDG multi-port serial board. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY New A2000HD (US) $400 plus shipping and handling. Used A2000HD (US) $250 plus shipping and handling. Orders may be placed by telephone by calling: (US) 1-407-678-6999 Credit card (Master Card/VISA) or pre-paid orders only. As of 7/1/1999: 80 new units are available. 70 used units are available. Intrepid can also upgrade and customize these machines to meet specific needs. Contact Lori Brown at the number above for further information or e-mail sales@intrepidcomm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html {Note new address!} Stop by and check out our archive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================