St. Louis 2001: Es hat sich nichts geändert

Amiga hat am Wochenende in St. Louis die aktuellen Pläne veröffentlicht. Angekündigt wurden diese mit einem Ground Shaking Event. Nachdem, was ich seit Sonntag darüber übers Internet gelesen habe, habe ich den Eindruck, dass sich nichts geändert hat.

Das langfristige Ziel von Amiga ist weiterhin ein portables, eigenständig laufendes AmigaDE in Kombination mit Elate von Tao. Neu ist, dass mit dem AmigaOS V5 inklusive Speicherschutz, SMP und anderen Features eine weitere Komponente als Grundlage für dieses System hinzugekommen ist. Außerdem gibt es mit Sharp eine Kooperation zur Entwicklung von Applikation für Sharp`s Zaurus-PDA auf Basis von AmigaDE.

Leider hat sich auch nichts an der Informationspolitik von Amiga geändert, so dass es sehr schwer ist zu verstehen, was Amiga eigentlich plant und ich mir auch nicht wirklich sicher bin, ihre Pläne nun richtig verstanden zu haben.

Ich habe allerdings den Eindruck, dass Bill McEwen und Fleecy Moss von ein und derselben Planung reden sich dabei aber auf die entgegengesetzten Enden konzentrieren. Bill McEwen konzentriert sich auf die kurzfristigen Ziele(AmigaOS für PPC, PDA, AmigaDE gehostet) und Fleecy Moss auf die langfristigen(eigenständig laufendes, portables AmigaOS V5 + AmigaDE für Hardware vom PDA bis hin zum Server einschließlich des Desktops). Diese unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkte dürften ein Grund für die derzeitigen Verunsicherungen sein. Ein zweiter dürfte darin liegen, dass Amiga bisher keine zusammenhängenden Texte veröffentlicht hat, aus denen ihre Zukunftspläne klar hervorgehen - u.a. ist weiterhin kaum etwas über AmigaDE bekannt.

So wie ich es verstanden haben sehen die Pläne nun folgendermaßen aus, wobei ich mir absolut nicht sicher bin, ob diese Darstellung stimmt, da es sehr mühsam ist aus dem, was von Amiga kommt, herauszulesen was Amiga jetzt eigentlich tun will und es auch Raum für eigene Interpretationen gibt.

Die kurzfristigen Ziele sind AmigaDE gehostet auf Linux und WindowsCE für PDAs und ein AmigaOS V4.x plus gehosteten AmigaDE für PPC-Rechner, die der Zico-Spezifikation entsprechen. Dies trifft z.B. auf dem AmigaOne 1200 von Eyetech zu.

Das langfristige Ziel ist ein portables, eigenständiges, run anywhere OS auf Basis des AmigaOS kombiniert mit Taos Elate und AmigaDE. Dieses OS wird Speicherschutz, virtuellen Speicher, SMP u.ä. bieten und skalierbar vom PDA bis hin zum Server verfügbar sein.

An der Planung und Weiterentwicklung von AmigaDE hat sich dabei nichts geändert. Es wird weiterhin den VP, die Sprache Sheep, OpenGL und die anderen geplanten und weiterhin unbekannten Features bieten und sowohl gehostet auf anderen Systemen als auch langfristig als eigenständiges System verfügbar sein.

Als Rechner für die Softwareentwicklung dürfte auch weiterhin der d´Amiga mit einer Weiterentwicklung des jetzigen SDKs dienen. Ich glaube/hoffe nicht, dass Amiga den Zico-PPC zum einzigen Entwicklungsrechner für AmigaDE ernennen wird.

Damit dürfte Amiga nun, 15 Monate nach der Gründung, sowohl die Wünsche der AmigaOS für PPC- und als auch die Wünsche der AmigaDE-Befürworter erfüllen, ohne das dies auf Kosten einer der beiden Grupppierungen geht.

Weshalb Amiga nicht in der Lage ist, dies der Öffentlichtkeit zu vermitteln ist mir vollkommen unverständlich.

Was mich an St. Louis stört

Katastrophale Informationspolitik

Die Informationspolitik von Amiga ist katastrophal. Amiga muß endlich begreifen, dass es derzeit für außenstehende vollkommen unmöglich ist zu verstehen und nachzuvollziehen was Amiga eigentlich aus welchen Gründen plant. Dies liegt daran, das alle nötigen Informationen nur Stückchen für Stückchen aufgrund heftiger Reaktionen der Amiga-BenutzerInnen veröffentlicht werden, die nach Amiga`s Ankündigungen in St. Louis vollkommen desinformiert waren.

Was weiterhin fehlt sind Texte, die Amiga´s Pläne klar, verständlich, nachvollziehbar und widerspruchslos an einem Stück auf amiga.com erläutern. Damit wäre nicht nur den Amiga-BenutzerInnen geholfen, sondern auch den MitarbeiterInnen bei Amiga, die kurz nach St. Louis mal wieder in einer Flut von heftigen Reaktionen erstickten und ihre Zeit sicherlich auch sinnvoller hätten verbringen können.

Kein neues SDK

Entgegen der Erwartungen vieler wurde in St. Louis keine neue Version des SDKs präsentiert, die z.B. schon OpenGL enthält und einen Ausblick auf Sheep und andere Komponenten bietet. Was ein Grund dafür sein dürfte, dass der Eindruck entstand, dass Amiga nun AmigaDE links liegen läßt und sich stattdessen aufs AmigaOS konzentriert.

Vernachlässigung der jetzigen AmigaPPC-Rechner

Zu Anfang hatte Amiga das AmigaOS links liegen lassen und sich auf AmigaDE konzentriert. Es gab nicht mal die eindeutige Aussage, dass eine Drittfirma AmigaDE auf die jetzigen AmigaPPC-Rechner portieren wird und AmigaDE von Anfang an eine Amiga Classic-Emulation erhalten wird(die Betonung liegt hier auf eindeutige Aussage). Aufgrund solcher Aussagen hätte man recht ruhigen Gewissens Hard- und Software für die jetzigen Amigas kaufen können, da man dann ja gewußt hätte, dass man diese Komponenten auch in der Zukunft zusammen mit AmigaDE nutzen kann. So hätten Amiga-Firmen und -Händler seit Anfang 2000 ihre Geschäfte ganz normal weiterführen können.

Daher verstehe ich nicht, weshalb Amiga nun schon wieder den gleichen Fehler macht. AmigaOS V4.x wird für Zico-PPC-Rechner angekündigt aber es gibt keine eindeutige Aussage, dass AmigaOS V4.x auch für die jetzigen PPC-Amigas erhältlich sein wird. Ausgestattet mit einem PCI-Board plus enstprechender USB-, Firewire-Karten u.ä. würden diese Rechner zudem die Zico-Spezifikation erfüllen.

Das sich Amiga selbst auf den leichter handhabbaren AmigaOne konzentriert, verstehe ich. Dadurch verliert Amiga keine Zeit und kann sich besser auf das eigentlich Ziel konzentrieren. Weshalb aber zusammen mit AmigaOS V4.x für AmigaOne nicht die Möglichkeit genannt wird, dass Drittfirmen dieses OS auf die jetzigen PPC-Amigas portieren können kann ich nicht verstehen. Irgendwo hatte Fleecy Moss zwar diese Möglichkeit angedeutet, eine eindeutige Aussage scheint es mir dazu aber nicht zu geben.

Amiga würde durch eine solche Portierung nichts verloren gehen aber es kämen vermutlich problemlos ein paar weitere 1000 AmigaOS V4.x AnwenderInnen hinzu. Niemand wäre sauer, dass plötzlich die teure PPC-Hardware überflüssig wird, obwohl sie sich für das AmigaOS eignen würde und Amiga-Firmen und -Händler könnten schon jetzt mit PCI-Boards u.ä. Geld verdienen, statt bis zum Sommer auf den AmigaOne warten zu müssen.

Vernachlässigung der Desktop-Rechner

In Bezug auf AmigaDE konzentriert sich Amiga zunächst auf PDAs. Da eine Kooperation mit Sharp besteht und sich meiner Meinung nach im PDA-Bereich leichter eine sichere Markposition einnehmen läßt als im Desktop-Bereich ist dies auch richtig. Da AmigaDE aber für den Desktop-Rechner verfügbar sein muß(Entwicklungsrechner) und ein wichtiger Punkt bei PDAs darin besteht, dass man die Daten leicht zwischen PDA und Desktop austauschen kann spricht meiner Meinung nach nichts dagegen, im gleichen Atemzug auch den Desktop zu nennen. Da gerade AmigaDE es erlauben würde ein und dieselbe Applikation auf PDAs als auch auf Desktops auszuführen. Die Desktop-Variante würde dann gehostet auf den weit verbreiteten Windows- und Linux-Rechnern und zusätzlich unter AmigaOS V4.x auf Amiga-PPC-Rechnern laufen.

Fazit

Mit AmigaDE plus Anwendungen für PDA und AmigaOS plus der PPC-Hardware schlägt Amiga meiner Meinung nach zwei Wege ein über denen sowohl Amiga als auch Drittfirmen schon kurzfristig Einnahmen erwirtschaften können. Zusätzlich erfüllt Amiga nun die Wünsche der PPC- und AmigaDE-Befürworter, ohne dass sich die ursprünglichen Ziele geändert haben.

Wieso sich Amiga jetzt wieder aufs AmigaOS zurückbesinnt weiß ich nicht. Gründe dafür könnten die Forderungen nach einer Weiterenwicklung des AmigaOS sein und das Amiga in den letzten Monaten Bekanntschaft mit der Realität gemacht und dabei gelernt hat, dass es doch immer einige Zeit braucht, die eigenen Ideen umzusetzen egal wie gut sie sind.

Die Zico-PPC-Rechner sind jedoch eine sehr kleine Marktnische, die erstmal nur die jetzigen Amiga-BenutzerInnen anspricht. Mit einem LinuxPPC für diese Rechner kann der Benutzerkreis noch um ein weitere handvoll Leute erhöht werden, die dadurch eventuell auch aufs AmigaOS und AmigaDE aufmerksam werden. Einen größeren Markt wird man damit meiner Einschätzung aber nicht erreichen können. Dies könnte aber mit dem gehosteten AmigaDE für PDAs und Desktops möglich sein. Wobei ich weiterhin nicht weiß, um was es sich bei AmigaDE im Detail handelt, so dass ich nicht die geringste Ahnung habe wie interessant dieses System für BenutzerInnen andere Systeme sein könnte.

Wenn es aber auch schon jetzt ein eigenständig laufendes AmigaDE geben würde, dann würde dieses meiner Einschätzung nach nur einen kleinen Teil der installierten AmigaDE-Systemen aus machen, da der überwiegende Teil vermutlich gehostet auf anderen Systemen laufen wird. Da die BenutzerInnen so gleichzeitig ihr bekanntes System mit der bewährten Software plus dem neuen System mit der run anywhere Software nutzen könnten und nicht dazu gezwungen wären komplett von heute auf morgen auf ein neues System wechseln zu müssen.

Weil ich keine Details zu AmigaDE kenne, kann ich derzeit nicht einschätzen wie gut Amigas Zukunftsaussichten sind. Ich denke aber, dass sie ihre Planung nun auf einen soliden Boden gestellt haben, so dass die Ausgangsvoraussetzungen gut sind.

Ein möglicher Durchbruch wird meiner Meinung nach aber nicht über Nacht kommen, sondern sich nach und nach in Laufe der Jahre ergeben. Ein wichtiger Punkt wird dabei dann das portable AmigaOS V5 darstellen, in dem vermutlich das AmigaOS und AmigaDE zusammenschmelzen werden und mit dem sich Amiga dann von anderen Systemen unabhängig macht.

Nachtrag 06.04.2001:
Wer mit dem ursprünglichen Link Probleme hat, kommt hoffentlich über einen der folgenden Links zum Text:

http://olis.north.de/~indy/NichtsGeaendert.html
http://homepages.compuserve.de/SvenBerne/NichtsGeaendert.html

Nachtrag 08.11.2021:
Meldung um den vollständigen Text ergänzt, da das Original schon lange nicht mehr im Netz verfügbar war.

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               A M I G A      |#010403 |      U P D A T E
                              |________|
  "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
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        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
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      *   S P E C I A L   A M I G A   2 0 0 1   I S S U E   * 

            O U R   " T A K E "   O N   T H E   S H O W 

   A M I G A ,   S H A R P   Z A U R U S ,   A N D   O T H E R S 

   S O M E   D E T A I L S   F R O M   G A R Y   P E A K E   . . . 

    . . .   A N D   D E T A I L S   F R O M   C T O   F L E E C Y

 
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 Below are items pertaining to the just completed Amiga 2001 show held
in St. Louis, USA, over the past weekend (March 30 - April 1). Due to
the importance of the show, and the buildup before it, we thought
we'd put together a small special issue to get information to you. 
 As with most things, the true significance of events will probably
not be known for some time.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            O U R   " T A K E "   O N   T H E   S H O W 

3 April, 2001

By Brad Webb

 It was billed as "1985 all over again". In some ways, for some
people, it probably was.
 It was definitely the changing of the guard.
 It had it's usual share of organizational problems.
 It was fun, and the place to be this last weekend.
 The most important news from the point of view of our readers may be
that there will be additional versions of AmigaOS, and they will be
Power PC native!
 The most important news from the point of view of the Community and
its continuation is that there are once again good ways to make money
as an Amiga developer!

Logistics
~~~~~~~~~
 There were problems with getting classes and seminars started and
ended on time, and there was a terribly long wait to enter the banquet
hall Saturday night. These things seem endemic to many Amiga shows and
can often be traced to the small number of people willing to help. We
hope as the new market develops and grows, more people will be
available to help run Amiga shows. In the meantime, those who worked
on Amiga 2001 did a fine job given the circumstances, and those in
attendance were able to deal with the minor logistical problems and
get real benefits from the events.

The Sales Floor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 The sales floor was well attended, especially on Saturday, and there
seemed to be a good amount of buying. The number of vendors was not
real high (about 14 or 15 key Amiga stalwarts), but the large booth
belonging to Merlancia seemed determined to make that up by itself. It
looked as if all the stock ever assembled by Amiga International was
there to be purchased. They also had a nifty assemblage of items in a
sort of mini-museum of Commodore and Amiga memorabilia. The two large
vats of free bottled beer on Saturday didn't hurt matters, and went
well with the incredibly huge pile of pizza in boxes brought in by
Petro for his retirement luncheon. The pizza itself was first rate.
 There were only a few new products, the most interesting of which was
a PC on a card from Mr. Hardware Computer. We haven't seen it in
operation, but hope to have more information in the future.

Petro
~~~~~
 Genuine emotions and deep appreciation were everywhere in evidence
for Petro throughout the weekend as his retirement was was both
celebrated and regretted. The roast, which certainly had its
hilarious moments, ran quite long as many in the Community wanted to
share their affection and memories. It might well have been an event
by itself on another night, so much needed to be said. A standing
ovation for Petro was just one of many clearly deeply felt attempts to
express appreciation. And just because he's retiring, don't be
surprised if you see him very much in attendance at future Amiga
shows.

The Future
~~~~~~~~~~
 When Bill McEwen finally got to the main presentation during the
banquet, he tried to compress his remarks to save time. As it turned
out, he had a lot of good things to say, and anything that had to be
left out was covered later during the weekend.
 Much applause greated the statement that Amiga OS is planned out
through vresion 5.0 and they're not going to stop there! The OS will
become native PPC, beginning by moving OS 3.9 to PPC. Eventually, at
version 4.2, the "old hardware" will no longer be needed and
standalone machines can be built. Once again, emphasis was made that
Amiga will not be making hardware itself. 
 For the short term, a completed Amiga ONE board for the 1200 was
shown. We discussed the status of an Amiga ONE for the A4000 the next
day with Alan Redhouse of Eyetech. He tells us it's still firmly in
the plans, but must be a money-maker to remain there. If it doesn't
see the light of day, it will most likely be due to completion taking
longer than Amiga OS requires to reach 4.2, when it will no longer be
needed. It all depends on how fast the new versions of Amiga OS come
along.
 The Amiga ONE is headed into beta in the June/July time frame and
just might (no promises) be ready in time for the west coast Amiga
show in Sacramento, California, at the end of July.
 The other key point made by Bill McEwen during his banquet
presentation is that there is now, finally, a new and huge potential
market for Amiga developers, where they can actually make money! This
is where the comparison with 1985 has some merit. In 1985, Commodore
created a new market for developers with the original Amiga. Now, the
new Amiga Inc. has created another new market for developers with
Amiga DE.

New Market
~~~~~~~~~~
 Bill pointed out that the cell phone and handheld markets are
starving for content. This content needs to be small games and
utilities of the kind Amiga developers are well equipped to create. 
 The Amiga DE provides a single solution for this new Java-centric
small appliances world. In Japan, the Sharp Zaurus is already
Amiga-able. More are coming, and coming to the rest of the world as
well. We have a press release below which should answer most questions
you have. Bill did point out there were over 1800 new Amiga developers
now due to this new market.
 Bill noted that after the Zaurus comes the Psion, and that's just the
beginning.
 It's a simple market. The user of the cell phone or PDA downloads an
application / game / ringer sound / what-have-you and pays for it
on-line. Price is perhaps $10 for a small game. 60% goes to the
author, 40% to the distributor. There are no boxes, no shelves full of
inventory, no manuals to take care of, and no returns. Simple,
elegant, and with millions of potential customers.

New Amiga OS Versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Bill also stated that Amiga DE would roll into the Amiga OS as it
goes forward. During discussions Sunday morning, Bill explained the
reason for going forward with Amiga OS was a business one, which means
there's a good chance it will actually happen close to plan. The
business reason is simple - the new Amiga needs server machines it can
control for use as it's home server. There's nothing better for the
job than the existing Amiga OS. A second, but very important reason,
is that Amiga knows a number of the talented developers in the
Community won't develop on anything else.
 There are a couple words of caution. At this point, it's not clear
how compatible existing PPC based machines will be with the future
standards. Compatibility will not be ignored, we're sure, but of
course can't stand in the way of success for the future.
 In addition, this does mark a change in direction for Amiga from what
was announced in the past. The Amiga DE was supposed to be scalable
from PDAs to servers. Now it seems it is not, due primarily to its
lack of memory protection as we understand it. A change in direction
is not all bad when it's fine tuning an overall strategy. The problem
is the Amiga community has seen little other than changes in direction
in the past, with no direction lasting long enough to produce growth
and meaningful product. This change doesn't seem to be in the same
category as previous ones, but we're not surprised Amiga is being
taken to task in postings on the net by long term disillusioned
Amigans. As we've said so often in the past, "time will tell" - but
we're inclined to be more reassured than frightened by this change.

The Transition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 It might have escaped notice by some, but this event marked a
significant transition for Amiga. Petro's retirement was one element
of this, though mostly symbolic. The second is more subtle, but more
important for the future. Amiga Inc. is now taking a firmer guiding
hand. In the past, Amiga OS 3.5 and 3.9 (for example) were pretty much
farmed out on a "bring us something" basis. From now on, Haage and
Partner and other key contributors will be functioning more as project
managers within an overall strategy maintained by Amiga. This will
give the market some much needed direction and should be a help to all
who depend on it. It's a sign of the maturing of the company, and is
quite welcome.
 Interestingly, Bill McEwen stated Amiga enters this new state with a
new Vice President of Engineering, a person he would not identify yet
to spare him loads of e-mail, but who came from MicroSoft. The
operating system side of development is being handled by Fleecy Moss
and his team.

Word Pictures
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 There's always so much more to an Amiga show than the speaches and
sales. We'd like to share a few "word pictures" with you from the
weekend.

 40 or 50 Amigans talking about every Amiga topic under the sun at
Amiga's Hor's D'overies party Friday night. We finally got to meet
Phil Vedovatti, the man behind New Icons, and found him delightful.

 Living in yet another hotel with strange floor arrangements. Last
year's Henry VIII was torn down due to airport expansion, but this
Sheraton maintains its spirit. We entered on the ground floor, then
took an elevator down two floors to our room on the first floor.
There, we had a door out onto a ground level patio. Shades of
"Castrovalva" from Dr. WHO.

 Getting tossed out of the dining room along with "Mrs. Brad", JoAnn,
Florence and John Zacharias (of "AE Mail" fame) when they closed it
for the night. There was a lot to be gone over, so we just moved on
...

 The first day, the phones didn't work. Not just in the hotel, but all
over this section of St. Louis. Someone cut a key cable somewhere. It
was NOT a MicroSoft plot to keep the word from getting out.

 The Mardi Gras beads being handed out by Kermit Woodall of "Nova
Design". No, we're not going to tell you what you had to do to get
some. Yes, we do have some. They were everywhere in evidence, all
weekend long.

 Seeing Dave Haynie and Leo Schwab again, Leo in full medieval costume
as in days of old. Wonder where he gets the hats? "Schwabbies"
(remember them?) might be just "the thing" for the new small appliance
market.

 Rollie and his clarinet, performing "A Very Good Year" for the
banquet crowd. Actually kept everyone quiet in appreciation of the
music, no small task! High marks for the organizers for this one!

 The dancing Petro baby during the Petro roast video. Not to mention
the speach by video from Bill Gates - or a darn good rendered
likeness, anyway.

 The stories of Petro's driving. It's a good thing he's skilled at it,
or we might be short a large number of Community members.

 The UGN folks in the corner, doing their best to get the word out to
the world. We didn't get to discuss the phone failure and how it
affected them, but it can't have been a help.

 The many good restaurants, bars and shops in the West Port area right
outside the hotel. Definitely an improvement over the old venue. There
are a lot of word pictures to come from events in a few of the bars,
which we won't be bringing you.

 The collision of the Amiga crowd waiting to enter the sales floor on
Saturday morning and 100 or so children with parents heading through
the same area on their way to an early Easter Egg hunt. Can't blame
the organizers for this one. Incidentally, the wandering Canada geese
outside the hotel seemed slightly confused by all the colored eggs
lying about.
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   A M I G A ,   S H A R P   Z A U R U S ,   A N D   O T H E R S 

 ST. LOUIS, MO, March 30, 2001 - Amiga Incorporated, a pioneer in the
development of multi-media and content, today announced a long-term
partnership with Sharp Corporation, a worldwide developer of
innovative products and core technologies in electronics, in which
Amiga will develop content for next-generation Sharp handheld
computing devices.
 
 In March, Sharp announced its plans to market the Zaurus PDA in the
United States and Europe as one of the world's first Linux-based
handheld device. The Linux operating system is gaining wider
acceptance in the computer server market because its underlying code
is freely distributed on the Internet. Easily adaptable for different
hardware devices, the Sharp handheld will be able to run software
written in Sun Microsystems' versatile Java software language that
supports different operating systems.
 
 In this partnership, Amiga announced that its developer community
would either develop new content or adapt existing content for PDA
applications, using their reputation for innovation and leadership in
gaming, 2D, 3D, animation, video, and music applications.
Amiga-developed content can be downloaded directly through wireless
networks, using desktop computers, or ported directly into the new
device.
 
 "By working with Amiga as one of our content partners we are able to
expand the applications and content available for our new devices,"
said Dr. Hiroshi Uno, Ph.D. Division General Manager - Mobile Systems
Division, Communications Systems Group, Sharp Corporation Japan.
 
 Amiga has an outstanding reputation for software development. We
anticipate that the alliance with Amiga will create a lot of momentum
for the Zaurus PDA."
 
 "Amiga is excited to be part of the Zaurus PDA project, and we look
forward to bringing the excitement, brilliant content and magic of the
Amiga community to Sharp," said Bill McEwen, President/CEO of Amiga
Incorporated. "Amiga is adding new dimensions of content for the next
generations of computing devices, and we see the new PDA platform as
an important area of strategic business growth and applications for
the Amiga community. We intend to develop some really great
applications as consumers more fully understand the great potential
and skill set of the Amiga community."
 
 About Sharp Corporation
 
 Sharp Corporation, a worldwide developer of the core digital
technologies that are playing an integral role in shaping the next
generation of mobile computing products for consumer and business
needs. Since creating the Wizard(R) electronic organizer in 1989,
Sharp has led the market in introducing innovative handheld computing
products. Sharp is also the global leader in LCD technology, which is
incorporated into leading-edge LCD monitors and projectors. From the
small office/home office (SOHO) to large corporate environments, Sharp
provides a variety of innovative, computer-related solutions designed
to help increase productivity while providing functionality to meet
customer demand. Dedicated to improving people's lives through the use
of advanced technology and a commitment to innovation, quality, value
and design, Sharp Corporation employs approximately 60,200 people
worldwide in 30 countries. More information is available at
http://sharp-world.com/index.html.
 
 About Amiga
 
 Amiga Inc. provides technology to developers for writing and porting
applications to a new multi-media operating systems which is hardware
agnostic. AmigaDE is a joint development effort between the Tao Group
of Reading England, and Amiga Incorporated. AmigaDE based applications
can run unchanged on x86, PowerPC, M Core, ARM, StrongARM, MIPS R3000,
R4000, R5000, SH 3, SH4, and NEC V850 processors. The Amiga OS can run
hosted on Linux, Embedded Linux, Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, CE and
QNX4. Amiga is based in Snoqualmie, WA, 28 miles east of Seattle and
has offices worldwide. Amiga can be reached at (425) 396-5660 or visit
Amiga on the web at http://www.amiga.com.
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   S O M E   D E T A I L S   F R O M   G A R Y   P E A K E   . . . 

 {The following items were found posted on the net and should help
clarify the announcements from Amiga 2001. Brad}

3 April, 2001

As has been discussed here several times, AmigaDe has no 
memory protection. This and a couple of other issues are 
the reasons for the announcement.

Basically, here is what we are doing and why:

1. Developers are starving to death and will leave 
unless we find a way to help them make money fast. 
Dealers have the same problems. We need more oomph to 
take advantage of higher fps games, etc. This IS a 
multimedia platform community after all. My mail box 
tells us developers and dealers need something quickly. 
We can get AmigaOne and OS4.0 out by summer without 
losing any time developing the DE. This is with our 
thanks to Haage & Partner and Eyetech who have agreed to 
meet PRD's we set before them. We could not implement 
this plan so quickly without their valued help. Also we 
should include Hyperion who is assisting our team with a 
level of GL and video capability that will enhance game 
developers potential.

2. Users want new hardware. Amigas are starting to fail 
and frankly it is just too expensive to start R&D for 
new (modified) chips in the amounts we would probably be 
able to sell and just as expensive for fabbing the older 
chips as well. So, off the shelf, open designed, new 
machines based on PPC is the most inexpensive way to get 
the Amiga user onto a newer platform.

3. Amiga users have always been partial to PPC. Dean 
Brown, Dave Haynie, Mick Tinker, and Joe Torre (four of 
THE best and brightest Amiga minded hardware gurus I 
know) are all for a PPC based platform advance. Dave had 
the PiosOne design that he allowed us to release openly 
to help people see what can be done with an open 
hardware design based around PPC. We did not release 
Dave's specs the week before the announcements by 
accident. It was to open people's minds to what can be 
done by thinking outside the box. Dave Haynie doesn't 
know what a box is. Remember, we already run on a bog 
standard PC.  :)

4. Our Zico base specs are an open spec based around 
PPC. Alan Redhouse at Eyetech has a full plan, knows 
when to freeze the design and ship, and has met our 
Product Requirements Document. Dean Brown has approved 
his design. Dave Haynie saw it in St Louis and thought 
it was cool. Joe was there also and while I didn't ask 
Joe specifically for his ideas, he is open enough to 
have said if he thought the design was bad. Haage & 
Partner have met our PRD's on the software side. Both 
have excellent reputations for actually meeting 
deadlines and shipping product when they say they will.
While they are contracting to us, these projects are 
being managed by us now.

5. Amigade provides us with binary compatibility, 
distributed processing capabilities and many other 
things we can get no where else. This line of 
development will continue as previously planned. Note: 
There are NO changes to what you have been told we plan 
to do with AmigaDE.

6. We intend, as we have stated all along, to cover 
everything from PDA's and cell phones, set top boxes, 
and servers. This plan allows us to do that with ease.

7. AmigaOS will continue to be developed and will be 
merged into or under AmigaDE so that we eventually have 
our own familiar base to play on and it will be a full 
AMIGA base that is server capable and cell phone capable 
as well. But we will not drop Windows and Linux 
compatibility either. Think of this as adding yet 
another playground for AmigaDE. It is no different from 
deciding to also play on top of Be or any other OS out 
there. We will continue to find playgrounds that provide 
us, our developers, and dealers even more opportunities.

8. As far as splitting the community and the developers: 
We have over 2,000 developers currently involved with 
us. Another 30 added themselves today after the news 
from St Louis. My mailbox is so full I spent all day 
JUST answering new mails from developers and companies 
wanting to come to Amiga and play and I didn't get them 
all answered yet. Half of the developers are firmly in 
the PDA, cell phone, and set top box camp. The other 
half are either desktop oriented or want to do both. 
This gives everyone a place to utilize their talents and 
make money.

9. Most notable request from developers I have 
is "please also give us a desktop". As Bill noted in his 
banquet speech, he made certain promises to me based on 
what Team AMIGA members (6000 plus) and others in the 
community have said they want from whomever has the 
Amiga name. I took this job based on those promises. 
Bill keeps his promises.

10. This is a business and this is fun. We do what we do 
because we want to and we can. If someone tells us we 
can't, we do it just to show them we can. This is also a 
family. This was very evident over the weekend. I hugged 
more people in St Louis than I do at a family reunion. 
Bill had tears in his eyes as he talked about us losing 
Bob Cosby. We care. We have to make sure our friends and 
family can finally make money but we have to do it in 
ways that keep us afloat as well from a business 
standpoint.

11. Tao Group is a great partner and is providing Amiga 
with opportunities we have never been able to land 
before. Good business means taking advantage of this 
opportunity they provide and we intend to do that with 
their help and asistance.

12. Listen to the facts and ask questions here and in 
other Amiga forums where we are there to answer your 
questions truthfully. Don't listen to the naysayers, the 
hype, the conjecture, and the innuendo of people who 
have no clue. We will tell you the truth. Bad or good, 
you get the truth.

13. We have taken flak from certain people because they 
say we provide no value. Our value is in uniting as many 
people as we can into a formidable force. We can not do 
what we plan alone. It takes unity, solidarity, team 
work. All of us must work together and together we will 
slowly conquer the world ... just because we want to.


Sincerely,

Gary Peake
Amiga Inc.
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   . . .   A N D   D E T A I L S   F R O M   C T O   F L E E C Y

{Also found on the net, and dealing with things at a bit more
technical level, are these notes from Amiga's CTO, Fleecy Moss. We
found this as a posting from Alexander Lohrmann and answers from
Fleecy, which we indicated with *s. Our thanks to Mr. Lohrmann for
asking the questions! We've removed a few things for clarity but added
nothing beyond the *s. Brad}


Apr 1, 2001 

 Will there be any improvements over OS3.9 like:

 - A really integrated TCP/IP-stack
 
 *Brand new, written from scratch.
 
 - Memory Protection for new apps (I know it is impossible for old
ones)
 
 *Virtual Memory will come in OS4, which will make a big difference.
MP is much harder and will be done in OS5.

 - recource tracking

 *the Amiga Component Model will give you that.

 - SMP

 *OS5

 - A new datatypes-system, especially for streaming and anims

 *The ACM and streaming system will give you that.
 
 - a new and better soundsystem, with support for surround and 3D
 
 *The Audio system will be the best of any system out there. We have 5
of the best audio people in the world working on it.
 
 - 2D and 3D APIs, integrated into the gfx-system instead of hacked-in
like now
 
 *Already underway, and with our close alliance with Matrox, there
will be not only standard high level APIs but GLIDE like low level
APIs to really take advantage of Matrox cards.
 
 - a new Workbench
 
 *OS4.5
 
 - an improved intuition.library (we really need one !)
 
 *OS4.5
 
 - hardware-independancy
 
 *OS4.2
 
 - a new filesystem
 
 *OS4.0 -
 
 - a good printer-system with drivers for more printers
 
 *Probably OS4.2, waiting for USB, and for the full benefits, OS5, the
PDP media system.


  2) AmigaDE

 We always heard that the AmigaDE will run on everything from PDAs to
servers. I think you have left this idea behind, I have understood it
that way that it will run on STBs and PDAs and the new AmigaOS 4. Is
this right
 
 *That's correct.
 
 ? Do you think that there will be a really native version for x86 &
co, I mean a real desktop-os, later in the future ?
 
 *It will integrate into existing desktop OSs. That is what all of our
big customers tell us is necessary for success.

 What I liked about the AmigaDE as it was announced in the past was
the fact that (as I understood it) developers would have the
possibility to write an application or a game for the AmigaDE and
contribute some kind of runtime-environment including all necessary
stuff like the translator, the Elate-kernel, GUI, Sound and 3D-APIs or
whatever is needed by the product for every supported operating system
with it. This could bring developers to the AmigaDE and if there is a
version of AmigaDE hosted (or really part of) on AmigaOS 4 then there
would be many new apps and games and then maybe there will be some new
(or old ? :-)) users. Will this still be possible ?
 
 *Yes.

 Will the AmigaDE still contain stuff like OpenGL, a sound-API or some
gui-stuff ? Or will it only contain things PDAs need ? If it would
contain everything needed by big apps like office-packages or games I
think many developers would come along, even companies, because they
could increase their sales from let's say only Windows-users to Mac,
Linux and AmigaOS 4 users without the need to make several version.
Write once run everywhere
 
 *The AmigaDE has a capabilities system which dynamically matches
requests to capabilities. If you are on a desktop, you can use AmigaDE
desktop apps.

 P.s.: Will AmigaOS 4 run on existing PowerUP-hardware ? I think this
is a must-be, otherwise many users will feel traited ... (Is this the
right word ?)
 
 *At the moment no 8-( Anyone who has bought PPC accelerators
understands the drag the architecture has placed on those products. To
code an AmigaOS4 around that solution is to condemn it before it even
begins. The new AmigaOnes will be cheap enough and expandible, and
will be orders of magnitude faster than the existing products. It is
hard, but this is the first Amiga certified hardware in over five
years - the line has to be drawn somewhere, and this is it.
 
 *There is a possibility of a software compatability layer, but the
performance would most likely kill its usefulness compared to an
AmigaOne.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2001 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
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1. OS 4.x soll auf Servern eingesetzt werden. Speicherschutz mag man auf Desktops haben wollen oder nicht, auf Servern ist es schlicht ein Muss. Laut McEwen wird es Speicherschutz erst ab OS 4.2 geben, nach Planung Amiga Inc. sind das etwas über 12 Monate. Bis dahin wird niemand AmigaOS als Produktionsserver einsetzen, und auch wage ich das zu bezweifeln: Wer kann mir eine Firma nennen, die Server auf Basis von PowerPC-Prozessoren einsetzt?
2. AmigaOS 4.x wird nicht auf bestehender Hardware laufen. Das bedeutet, OS 4.x wird sich nur an diejenigen verkaufen, die sich einen AmigaOne kaufen. Viele "Altuser" werden bei ihren bisherigen Maschinen bleiben. Manche werden auf andere Plattformen umsteigen. Warum irgendjemand z.B. aus dem Linux- oder dem Windows-Lager einen AmigaOne kaufen sollte (auf dem neben OS 4.x und LinuxPPC nun wirklich gar nichts läuft), geht über meinen Horizont.
3. Die Leute, die sich ein SDK oder gar einen d´Amiga gekauft haben, wurden von Amiga Inc. voll im Regen stehengelassen. Auf absehbare Zeit ist AmigaDE bzw. das SDK in den Plänen von Amiga Inc. für PDAs, Set-Top-Boxen und Internet-Waschmaschinen vorgesehen. Die wenigen verbliebenen Programmierer, die danach gelechzt haben, für das AmigaDE Applikationen wie Textverarbeitungen, E-Mail-Programme und 3D-Spiele zu programmieren, dürfen jetzt entweder ihren x86er einmotten und per Salto rückwärts eine neue PPC-Hardware anschaffen, oder müssen noch ein paar Jahre warten, bis OS 4.x und AmigaDE vermählt werden.
4. Wer sich den AmigaOne anschafft, kann darauf AmigaOS 4.x oder LinuxPPC nutzen. Sollte Amiga Inc. mit den aktuellen Plänen scheitern, bleibt nur noch LinuxPPC. Dafür muß man dann eine Summe hinlegen, für die man lässig einen x86er PC bekommt, auf dem man neben dem besser unterstützten x86er Linux auch noch Windows, QNX, BeOS, AROS, WinUAE und ein gutes halbes Dutzend weiterer Betriebssysteme zur Auswahl hat.
5. Bis Amiga Inc. das eigene Versprechen einlösen kann, eine Betriebsumgebung zu bieten, die hardwareunabhängig vom Handy bis zum Server skaliert werden kann, werden nach Angaben von Mr. McEwen noch mindestens drei Jahre ins Land gehen. Ich werde jetzt nicht darüber spekulieren, inwieweit man dann noch davon träumen kann, in einen von Embedded Linux und Microsoft .NET dominierten Markt vorzustoßen. In diesem, vielleicht auch noch im nächsten Jahr hätte man mit den Fähigkeiten Skalierbarkeit und Binärkompatibilität vielleicht noch groß punkten können. Dummerweise bewegt sich die Konkurrenz in die gleiche Richtung, und wenn Microsoft erst einmal Fahrt aufgenommen hat, so zeigt die Geschichte, hilft alle überlegene Technik nicht mehr weiter.