Message-Id: <5.2.0.9.0.20021127140602.01ffd840@192.168.1.5>
An: amigaone@yahoogroups.com
Von: Eyetech Group Ltd 
Datum: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 14:39:40 +0000
Betreff: Re: [amigaone] Some answers

> > > The AMR 'was' there in May, now gone!  
> >
> > The answer was "this has still not been decided yet". That's not the same
> > as
> > "is gone". I agree that the answer was late and is far from being
> > satisfying, but I don't see a need to start panicking  


After having some feedback from the A1 dev list the AMR card issue has now 
been decided.

The G3-SE boards will not come with an AMR riser card as we have not been 
able to source these at a sensible price. However Ole-Egil is rolling into 
production soon with and audio-only in/out card for the AMR slot and those 
AmigaOneG3-SE purchasers that want one will be able to buy one directly 
from him ad a very reasonable price. (If we were to sell them then the 
additional margin, VAT and shipping that we would have to add would mean 
that it would have to cost considerably more to the end user). However the 
G3-SE boards will be shipped with (small, quiet) cpu fans and modified ATX 
I/O backplates within the published price (ie ukp360/euro580/usd580 ex-VAT) 
which I hope helps.

We did not consider the loss of the modem to be too important as most Amiga 
users will have external modems - or ethernet broadband connections - anyway

For those that require an entry-level sound card to get going we can supply 
the Creative labs Vibra 128 card for UKP10/euro16/usd16 ex VAT.

The production version of the AmigaOne-XE boards (now in manufacture) will 
come with an onboard codec etc and audio sockets in the usual positions on 
the ATX I/O knockout - and no AMR slot.

A list of tested hardware is being assembled by people on the A1-dev list 
and will be made public shortly. Clearly as far as graphics and other 
PCI/AGP cards are concerned these should be chosen from the OS4 support 
targets, and not just those that are supported by PPCLinux. The Articia 
northbridge uses server-type registered RAM and a list of tested, supported 
RAM manufacturers/part numbers will also be included. Quite a few 
non-registered SDRAM DIMMs will also work, but only as singles (ie you can 
only have one slot populated) These also will be available types will be 
included on the list as well.

For the 'Earlybird' systems the SuSE Linux PPC installer is now complete 
and comes with a licenced UAE PPC + ROM image. We will be shipping bare 
boards with this installer disk and a minimal SuSE linux distro, but unless 
you are experienced with Linux we recommend that you buy the full SuSE 
LinuxPPC distro with 8 CD's and manuals either from us or elsewhere.

Finally we have been unable to find out from Escena what, if any, progress 
that they have made on their PCI-A1200 bridge card so I think that it is 
fair to assume that this is unlikely to materialise. However the benefits 
of that approach - over networking a 1200 to the A1 and using the latter as 
a file etc server - are in my view minimal anyway. This is because most 
non-retargetable (eg games) software will get no advantage by running on 
the G4 (rather than the A1200+accelerator), and the keyboard and monitor 
would have needed switching with either approach. We do still have some 
Mk4/5 EZTowers available for anyone who would like to have their A1 and 
A1200 networked together in the same case.


Hope this helps

Alan