Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 22:22:13 +0200
From: ELBOX support@elbox.com

X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [pl] (WinNT; I)
Subject: ELBOX about SharkPPC, Sound and TV card drivers and Warp3D support

Below are the answers from Elbox to questions asked by Kay Are Ulvestad. 
The questions (asked in a message to Elbox) refer to SharkPPC cards, 
drivers to Mediator PCI for Sound, TV and other cards, Warp 3D support, etc.

--------
Kay Are Ulvestad wrote: 

> Hi! 
> I'm sorry to hassle, but you know how the Amiga market is. . . keep 
> public relations quiet for a while, and wild rumours start circulating. 
> Anyway, I was hoping you could provide this impatient user with some 
> info by answering some questions. With your permission, I will post 
> the info on the Amiga Mediator ML as well, hopefully calming some 
> people down. The questions may look kind of long, but I think 
> they're mostly easy to answer.  Ok, here I go: 

> 1. There recently was a claim (outside of Elbox), that the Shark 
> products were cancelled. Although I myself don't really believe 
> this on such a weak basis, the recent lack of information about 
> the products as well as the successful marketing of the AmigaONE 
> might lead to some users feeling they've invested in a "dead end" 
> expansion-wise. Perhaps you could tell me how the development 
> is going? Any estimated release date? 

As we have explained many times, we will start producing 
SharkPPC G3/G4 and ShakPPC+ cards when AmigaOS 4.0 is ready 
for releasing. 


> 2. When is the next driver release from you? What kind of drivers 
> can be expected, and how soon? 

Tomorrow we will make available the MediatorUP2.3 update, which 
is a simultaneous update for the users of Mediator PCI 1200 and 
Mediator PCI ZIV.  All the system files and the enclosed drivers 
have been optimized and adjusted to operation with Mediator PCI 1200 
and ZIV. In the pci.library, workaround has been made to avoid the 
incorrect recognition of 68LC060 processors by the LC060.library. 

The next drivers to be made available within the coming two weeks 
will be drivers for SoundBlaster 128 music cards. 

Drivers to TV cards, which were presented in WOA 2000 in Koln 
are ready and will be released in one package with drivers 
for SounBlaster 128 music cards.  

Further drivers, on which we are now working, are drivers for 
SoundBlaster Live! cards.  The work is advanced in ca. 80% on these 
drivers. 

Writing drivers is a very time-consuming work. Unlike drivers to 
the previous Amiga cards, like those in Zorro slots, writing drivers 
for PCI cards requires much more time. The reason is that drivers 
for Amiga cards were prepared usually for one specific series (mask) 
of chipsets around which they were produced.  For example, CyberVision 
64 3D cards were produced around the S3 ViRGE 86C325, chipset  but 
always only and solely for one series (mask) of these chipsets. 
Our drivers for S3 cards support various chipsets of the S3 ViRGE, 
but also have to run with all the series (masks) of these chipsets.  
This applies to other drivers written by us, as well.

In the recent several months , production of other PCI busboards 
for Amiga was announced. Probably many people believed that this 
would result in co-operation of companies for writing drivers 
for PCI cards.  We guess such co-operation would be beneficial for 
users of Amiga with PCI slots.

Elbox has written drivers for Voodoo3, Voodoo4, Voodoo5 and S3 
Virge graphic cards and Ethernet cards. 

We hoped that if a new busboard is to be introduced to the market, 
its authors will prepare drivers for these PCI cards, for which 
no Amiga support is available as yet. Then, by licensing, they 
would make available their drivers for working with Mediator, 
receiving in return licences for drivers  prepared by Elbox. 

Well, as we see , the trend is completely different: 

The only drivers which are made for other PCI busboards are drivers 
to these PCI cards, to which Elbox has already written drivers. 
Writing drivers to these PCI cards, to which drivers have been 
written and made available by Elbox, is like solving a difficult 
problem in physics, when you already have seen its solution...

Therefore, soon we will make available drivers for Mediator to 
such PCI cards, which due to technical reasons cannot work in PCI 
busboards other than Mediator. 

We also hope that external developers will write drivers for 
PCI cards.  SDK for Mediator is available free of charge after 
signing NDA.
However, prospective developers have to remember that: 
- They should approach appropriate companies about documentation 
  to PCI card chipsets, to which they want to write drivers. 
  Usually, such companies require signing an individual NDA. 
  Also, questions about operation of the PCI cards of interest 
  to them must be asked with these companies. 
- PCI specifications are property of PCI SIG and may be acquired 
  at http://www.pcisig.org.

> 3. Is there a solution within reach to the 4mb memory window problem 
> on early mediators with BlizzPPC cards? Or will AND have to wait 
> for the Shark? 

For users of BlizzPPC cards with Mediator PCI produced last year 
we are preparing a special offer for upgrading to the appropriate 
MACH chip.


> 4. It seems Hyperion has mostly completed the Warp3d drivers for 
> Voodoo3. How long until we can see the true power of Voodoo3 on the 
> Mediator? 

This question should be asked to Hyperion.

Elbox accepted financial conditions of the Hyperion company. 
However, the Hyperion company so far was not able to give any 
specific date when their Warp3D drivers to Voodoo3 for Mediator 1200 
could be released, despite numerous earlier assurances (since December 
2000) on the part of the Warp3D team that preparing such drivers is 
only a matter of a few weeks. 
As soon as Hyperion are able to give a definite date, there will 
be nothing to be an obstacle for signing the contract. 


> Well, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks in advance, 
> and keep up the good work for the Amiga market! 

June is a month of very intense work for us, as , apart from 
all the things I have already written above, we now begin 
production of three more Mediator busboards: 
 - Mediator PCI ZIV for the Z-IV busboards, 
 - Mediator PCI ZIII for any Amiga with Zorro III slots, 
 - Mediator PCI 4000 for controlling Elbox Zorro III/PCI (7xZIII, 
   5xPCI, 1xVideo) busboard of the E/BOX 4000 tower system (known 
   also as Power Tower 4000 or  Winner Tower 4000) for Amiga 4000D.
   
The two last models of Mediator are technologically the most 
advanced busboards in the Amiga market for Amiga 3000/4000 computers.
 
Mediator ZIII and Mediator 4000 busboards for Amiga 3/4000 computers,  
unlike other simplified bridges offered for Amiga with Zorro III slots, 
support the most advanced Zorro III  mechanisms like e.g. DMA between 
PCI cards and memory in the turbo card and other features omitted in 
these bridges, which are necessary for cards like SoundBlaster 128 
or SoundBlaster Live! to work properly. 

We are glad to be able to answer your questions. If you still have 
any doubts, please drop us a line.

Best regards,

Darek Dulian
ELBOX COMPUTER, Support Department
support@elbox.com
http://www.elbox.com

• Spiele - Vollversion Beneath A SteelSky
• Spiele - Vollversion Blade HD
• Spiele - Vollversion Sharks
• Anwender - Vollversion AFind
• Anwender - Vollversion KidHTML
• Anwender - Vollversion FBase

TaskiSMS_BOS.lha     comm/tcp   171K+Bosnian translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_DEU.lha     comm/tcp   167K+German translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_ESP.lha     comm/tcp   164K+Spanish translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_FRA.lha     comm/tcp   156K+French translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_ITA.lha     comm/tcp   159K+Italian translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_MAG.lha     comm/tcp   159K+Hungarian translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_POR.lha     comm/tcp   161K+Portuguese translation for TaskiSMS
TaskiSMS_RUS.lha     comm/tcp   143K+Russian translation for TaskiSMS
GDS-DISC11a.lha      demo/mag   1.9M+D.I.S.C.#11 by Gods (1st Release)
GDS-DISC11b.lha      demo/mag   1.9M+D.I.S.C.#11 by Gods (2nd Release)
SceneArchives.lha    demo/mag   1.3M+SASU v1.09: Ultimate Demo CDs-11 CD's (8
StolenData09.lha     demo/mag   1.1M+Stolen Data #9 by Anarchy (100%)
GfxSndSystemSr.lha   dev/c      284K+C++ Sources of an independant graphic/mu
millibar.lha         dev/c       57K+Millibar Barcode Library v 0.1
FD2Pragma.lha        dev/misc   185K+V2.131 create pragma, inline, ... files
HunkFunc.lha         dev/moni    15K+V1.14 display executable file structure
Dismount.lha         disk/misc    4K+Dismounter for volumes and drives
PPaintHTML.lha       docs/hyper 665K+HTML Version of PPaint Guide
FltMate1.lha         game/2play 572K+4 player skydiving simulator. Disk 1/2
FltMate2.lha         game/2play 645K+4 player skydiving simulator. Disk 2/2
BRAlltimeleagu.lha   game/data    6K+All time greatest teams from Brasil for 
F1GP_2001.lha        game/data   10K+2001 F1 season data for F1GP-Ed (24 June
Mattonite.lha        game/demo  723K+BreakOut demo game, working in progress
aminano.lha          game/jump  127K+AMIGA Nanotech (ONLY GFX-BOARDS)
WormWars.lha         game/misc  731K+Worm Wars 6.7a: Advanced snake game
mccontrol.lha        hard/hack  730K+V1.62 PSX MemoryCard Reader
imdbDiff010615.lha   misc/imdb  2.1M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
vdo_puls.lha         mods/vdo   565K+Pulse width [xm 14ch]
Alecos-WB.jpg        pix/wb     120K+A nice desktop 800x600 16 Bit by Alecos
carls_wb.lha         pix/wb      73K+Snapshot of Carl Svensson's Workbench
BareED.lha           text/edit  281K+Simple text editor which supports propor
HTMLstrip.lha        text/misc   26K+HTML stripper which can also replace HTM
GlowAttackFix.lha    util/misc    5K+A Guide for GlowAttack (That works)
ReqAttackUpd.lha     util/misc   77K+RAPrefsMUI 1.82
CopyReplace.lha      util/sys    19K+V1.18 powerful Copy replacement
VirusExecutor.lha    util/virus 259K+VirusExecutor v2.19
xvslibrary.lha       util/virus  55K+External Virus Support Library v33.26
AddItem.lha          util/wb     25K+Tiny helper to launch programs from tool

• Paula DMA-Sounds wurden nicht richtig abgespielt, wenn die Samples überlang waren. Fixed.
• FigurMenu konnte außerhalb des Bildschirms gezeichnet werden. Fixed.
• Ein Gebäude, das gebaut und nicht fertig gestellt wurde, konnte nicht nochmal gebaut werden, außer wenn man die Stadt resettet hat. Fixed.
• Alle Screens prüfen nun den ChipRAM-Stand und lassen DMA-Samples weg, wenn nicht genug ChipRAM zur Verfügung steht.
• Die Karte hat nicht alle Elemente freigegeben, dadurch wurde Speicher fragmentiert. Fixed.
• Das Kornlager hat nicht allen Speicher freigegeben. Fixed.
• Wenn man eine Armee inkl. Rüstung aufstocken wollte, wurde die Anzahl der Waffen und Rüstungen nicht ordentlich überprüft. Fixed.
• In Armeen, wie schwere und mittlere Infanterie, haben sich andere bzw. falsche Figuren bewegt. Fixed.

• Aktualisiert: LexSite von Alex Lupták (aktualisiert am 03. Mai 2001) im Kapitel Peripherie.
• Hinzugefügt: The Art of James D. Sachs von ihm selbst und Jeff Palmer im Kapitel Specials. Jim Sachs zeichnete u.a. als Art Director für das Spiel "Defender of the Crown" und war für die grafische Benutzeroberfläche des Commodore CDTV verantwortlich.
• Hinzugefügt: AS WE MAY THINK von Vannavar Bush im Kapitel History - Amiga Patente. In diesem 1945 im Atlantic Monthly veröffentlichten Artikel nimmt V. Bush vieles von dem vorweg, was erst Jahrzehnte später Realität werden wird (Internet, GUI...) und auch Einfluss auf das Design der Workbench hatte.
• Hinzugefügt: reedBench - A Workbench emulation by Jaakko "Reed" Kaitaniemi im Kapitel Specials. Eine Nachbildung des Bootvorganges unter Kickstart/OS 1.3 und 3.1 (benötigt JavaScript)
• Überarbeitet: Index Page für verbesserte Übersicht und Navigation.

• Added MuMove4K right!
• Removed library version check for xadmaster.library.
• Added Amiga OS Update IDE_scsidisk right...
• Removed all internal virus checking as they are added in xvs.library v33.26
• Fixed bug when running on kickstart lower than 3.0 Thanks to Jan Andersen for telling me...

• Marcos Alves aus Portugal
• Keith Michaels aus den USA
• Tony Whent aus Australien
• Holger Herrmann aus Deutschland

• Jouster 3 (Der Arcade-Klassiker 'Joust' für den Amiga)
• Kamakazi Killers (gutes Galaga-Spiel)
• Rattlesnake (Street-Fighting-Spiel)

• Repugnance
• Roswell
• Response
• Tear down the Wall
• Some Justice

• A320 Airbus (das Spiel selbst wird bald zum Download bereitstehen)
• Big 6-Dizzy Collection, CD³²
• Case of the Cautious Condor, CDTV
• Chinese Karate
• Euro Soccer '88
• Fallen Angel
• Hard Drivin'

• 24.06.01 new: Dick Tracy (Titus) done by Mr.Larmer
• 24.06.01 new: Pucman (F1 Licenceware) done by Jeff
• 23.06.01 new: Linus (Palace) done by Codetapper
• 23.06.01 new: The Blues Brothers (Titus) done by Mr.Larmer
• 22.06.01 new: Mortal Kombat (Acclaim) done by Codetapper
• 22.06.01 new: Black Tiger (Capcom/U.S.Gold) done by Jeff
• 21.06.01 improved: Puzznic (Ocean) several enhancements
• 21.06.01 improved: Alien Bash 2 (Glen Cumming/Myles Jeffery) speedup
• 19.06.01 new: Fernandez Must Die (Mirrorsoft/Imageworks) done by Jeff
• 18.06.01 fixed: Hard Drivin' (Domark) file loading corrected (
• 18.06.01 new: Star Wars (Lucasfilm/Domark) done by John Girvin

• Neu: Bobek2-Link-Virus (Dank an Jan Andersen für die Dateien und an Zeeball für die Memory-Removal-Routinen).
• Neu: Expl0de-Trojan-Link-Virus.
• Neu: Expl0de-Trigger-File-Virus (Dank an Jan Andersen für die Dateien).
• Änderung: 8x8-Link in Motaba-3 unbenannt.

• Hinzufügen von Neurotic Death 1 - 5. Bei diesen 5 Linkviren handelt es sich um polymorphe Viren, die jedoch nicht auf Olausen's System laufen. Es sieht auch so aus, als ob sie noch nicht in der Öffentlichkeit verbreitet sind. Olausen hat sie anonym vom Autor erhalten.
• Eine Kopie des GlobVec-Linkvirus erhalten. Die einzigen, die diesen Virus besitzen sind Heiner Schneegold (VT-Schutz) und VTC Hamburg (Virus Test Center Hamburg). Aber Heiner Schneegold hat bisher nicht seine Erlaubnis ans VTC gegeben, diesen Virus an Olausen weiterzugeben.
• Hinzufügen eines neuen Linkvirus. Eine Infektion wird mit folgendem Requester angezeigt:
  "POWYÚSZA INFORMACJA MA NA CELU ZAZNAJOMIENE
  I OSTRZEÚEME CIË PRZED NIEZWYKLE
  NIEBEZPIECZNYM WIRUSEM!"
  "OSTRZEÚME"
  
  
  Englische Übersetzung:
  "This information is just for telling you
  and warn you about extremelly
  dangerous virus!"
  "WARNING!"
  

1. Präsentation des lauffähigen AmigaOne mit AmigaOS V4.0.
2. Präsentation der derzeitigen Version von AmigaDE, laufend auf dem Sharp Zaurus.
3. Dr. Alan Havemose (ehemals bei Commodore und Gateway beschäftigt) und Bill McEwen sprechen zum Thema: "Gateway und Amiga - Was wirklich geschah".

• Bugfix: Der 'Icon DRAW evaluation bug' machte es möglich, dass fremder Code auf dem Desktop-Level ausgeführt werden konnte. DRAW ist nun nicht mehr innerhalb von Desktop-Icons erlaubt. Hinweis: Dieser Fehler betraf nicht die in REBOL eingebaute Sandbox, so dass Dateien außerhalb des REBOL-Verzeichnisses weiterhin sicher waren.
• Bugfix: Die HTTP-POST-Operation ('read/custom http://... [post "data"]') wurde so korrigiert, dass nun die Zeilenendenmarkierungen ignoriert werden. So müssen bei HTTP-Uploads nun keine entprechenden Daten mehr eingefügt werden.
• Bugfix: Fehler, durch die 'load/markup' und 'debase' in seltenen Fällen abstürzten wurden behoben.

DOpusCFG.lha         biz/dopus   85K+DOpus4.x configuration V2.25, biggest co
DalHelper.lha        comm/irc    40K+Interface to Dalnet Services: (Chan/Memo
ML_Support_Tur.lha   comm/mail    5K+ML-Support Turkish Catalog
YAMMiami.lha         comm/mail   32K+YAM-->Miami-->Yam2NN, united. V1.01
SMS2D2.lha           comm/misc   14K+Send sms to german D2 via modem or ISDN
adt_ixemul.lha       comm/tcp    78K+Aminet Download Tool 2.6, AmigaOS
AmiDiction.lha       comm/tcp    26K+Online Dictionary
CManMI.lha           comm/www     3K+GlowIcons Toolbar for CManager
IBrowseMI.lha        comm/www     7K+GlowIcons Toolbar for IBrowse
mFTPMI.lha           comm/www     7K+GlowIcons Toolbar for mFTP-II
NRogMI.lha           comm/www    21K+GlowIcons Toolbar for NewsRog
dkg-wtow2.lha        demo/aga   638K+Welcome To Our World 2
dkg-boozenow.lha     demo/intro   4K+Booze Now - Breeze Now Remix
dkg-trip98inv.lha    demo/intro 133K+Trip `98 - The Invitation
BlitzLstMay01.lha    dev/basic  133K+Blitz mailing list archives for May 2001
MakeTagBase.lha      dev/misc     6K+Make methods and tags bases 1.1 (17.06.0
SettingsWin_Fr.lha   dev/mui      9K+French Catalog for Settingswindow_mcc
ChunkyStartup2.lha   dev/src     89K+Chunkystartup.asm CGX/AGA/PICASSO useful
RKM2_ASM.lha         dev/src    427K+R.K.M codes - Translated into Assembly.
RKM_ASM2.lha         dev/src    427K+R.K.M codes - Translated into Assembly.
FindChanges.lha      disk/misc   97K+Finds changes made to disk
TSGui_Fr.lha         disk/misc    2K+French translation for TSGUI
GS-FullGame01.lha    game/actio 7.0M+Genetic Species The Full Game (01/19)
GS-FullGame02.lha    game/actio 8.0M+Genetic Species The Full Game (02/19)
GS-FullGame03.lha    game/actio 7.7M+Genetic Species The Full Game (03/19)
GS-FullGame04.lha    game/actio 7.1M+Genetic Species The Full Game (04/19)
GS-FullGame05.lha    game/actio 7.0M+Genetic Species The Full Game (05/19)
GS-FullGame06.lha    game/actio 7.2M+Genetic Species The Full Game (06/19)
GS-FullGame07.lha    game/actio 7.8M+Genetic Species The Full Game (07/19)
GS-FullGame08.lha    game/actio 6.8M+Genetic Species The Full Game (08/19)
GS-FullGame09.lha    game/actio 7.6M+Genetic Species The Full Game (09/19)
GS-FullGame10.lha    game/actio  15M+Genetic Species The Full Game (10/19)
GS-FullGame11.lha    game/actio  13M+Genetic Species The Full Game (11/19)
GS-FullGame12.lha    game/actio  11M+Genetic Species The Full Game (12/19)
GS-FullGame13.lha    game/actio  11M+Genetic Species The Full Game (13/19)
GS-FullGame14.lha    game/actio  11M+Genetic Species The Full Game (14/19)
GS-FullGame15.lha    game/actio  11M+Genetic Species The Full Game (15/19)
GS-FullGame16.lha    game/actio  12M+Genetic Species The Full Game (16/19)
GS-FullGame17.lha    game/actio  13M+Genetic Species The Full Game (17/19)
GS-FullGame18.lha    game/actio  13M+Genetic Species The Full Game (18/19)
GS-FullGame19.lha    game/actio 4.1M+Genetic Species The Full Game (19/19)
ETWUpdates.lha       game/data  181K+Various league updates for eat the whist
JumpingAround.lha    game/demo  188K+JumpNRun demo game, working in progress
WHD_HardDrivn2.lha   game/patch  38K+HD Installer for Hard Drivin' II
WHD_StarWars.lha     game/patch  38K+HD Installer for Star Wars
dungen3ecs.lha       game/role  201K+Dungeon floorplan generator/editor
KC.lha               game/role  102K+Programme for RPG players
YambMUI.lha          game/wb     49K+Game with dices. (V1.28) *BUGFIX*
Warp3DDev-u.lha      gfx/board   67K+Warp3D V4, Autodocs
JP-Guide.lha         gfx/conv   130K+Jpeg Converter (V1.1), supports datatype
tga_to_iff24.lha     gfx/conv    15K+Convert tga to iff24 (CLI)
DiamondBOX.lha       gfx/edit   466K+Layer based 24 bit image editing V1.10
SvIVFix917.lha       gfx/misc    75K+*Fix* for SViewIV V9.17 (19.6.2001)
Ant.lha              misc/sci    76K+Another cellular automata
MiraPLOT_Fr.lha      misc/sci     2K+French translation for MiraPLOT
irix-lha             misc/unix   89K+SGI Mips Irix version of LHA
Mobyle.lha           mods/mpg   2.4M+Famous "Mobyle" as MP3
id3taglibgui.lha     mus/edit   146K+MPEG Audio ID3Tag (V1.x and V2.x) Editor
ID3TaglibGUI_F.lha   mus/edit     3K+French translation for ID3TaglibGUI
AmiTiMiDiTy.lha      mus/midi    14M+Timidity68k/PPC GUS patches - Plays MIDI
SmallPlugin3.lha     mus/play    18K+AmigaAMP plugin with fire effect
QuadraMI.lha         pix/gicon  302K+Images and Icons for Toolbars and Menues
CoolOS4.jpg          pix/wb      43K+Stylish WB-pic made with PerfectPaint
CoolOS5.jpg          pix/wb     273K+Stylish WB-pic made with PerfectPaint
Nokiafont.lha        text/bfont   2K+The Nokia 51x0/61x0/+++ series font.
scenefonts.lha       text/bfont   6K+Three C64/Scene/retro inspired bitmap fo
HTMLstrip.lha        text/misc   26K+HTML stripper which can also replace HTM
Bindechex.lha        util/conv   21K+Converts Binary<->Decimal<->Hexadecimal
akJFIF-dt.lha        util/dtype 216K+AkJFIF-dt V44.99 (JPEG, 68000-060, PPC/M
akPNG-dt.lha         util/dtype 237K+AkPNG-dt V44.99 (PNG, 68000-060, PPC/MOS
akTIFF-dt.lha        util/dtype 226K+AkTIFF-dt V44.99 (TIFF, 68000-060, PPC/M
asyncioppc.lha       util/libs   23K+Asyncio.library with WarpOS functions (V
GlowAttack.lha       util/misc  199K+"Glow" anims for ReqAttack v1.80+
Safe.lha             util/virus  33K+*Recognizes BOBEK2 linkvirus!* (v15.9)
VEPatchBrain.lha     util/virus  22K+PatchBrain v1.35 for VirusExecutor v2.xx
AmigaDE_GUI.lha      util/wb     98K+VisualPrefs Bitmap set based on the new 
GHelpDeluxe.lha      util/wb     77K+Provides access to and searching of all 
outlinefont14.lha    util/wb      5K+Draws outline/shadow on WB 3.5+ icon tex

• Weiterführung der bereits begonnenen Neuerfassung der Naturdaten zu den Ländern.
• Eine Mitarbeit an den Informationsdaten von GeoWorld würde demzufolge erfordern, die zur Verfügung gestellten QuellTexte (abgescannte Lexika-Seiten, Html-/Text-Dateien aus dem Internet, z.T. auch in Englisch) gedanklich zu verarbeiten und selbständig in entsprechende Texte (z.B. Beschreibung des Naturraumes eines Landes) zu fassen.