====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" || News Source) ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 001022 T H E A M I G A O N E I S A N N O U N C E D I N O Z S E P T E M B E R E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E A P C & T C P S T A T E M E N T O N E P I C U K A M I G A F U T U R E ' S F U T U R E S H A R K P P C F R O M E L B O X V O O D O O N E W S F R O M D C E E L B O X C O M P L A I N T R E V O O D O O H A N D P G E T S T F A X P R O , G E N E S I S S T F A X 4 . 5 I S A V A I L A B L E F A S T E C H ' S U N N A M E D E X P A N D E R I M A G E F X H O L I D A Y S A L E I N S T A L L E R N G ( 3 R D P A R T Y ) A V A I L A B L E Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: The biggest news in quite a while is the annoucement of the specifications for the new Amiga One computer at the Alternative Computing Expo in Australia. This REALLY marks the beginning of the next generation Amiga! There's a lot of interesting reading in the announcement. We think you'll find it fascinating. And what's this about Classic Amiga OS 3.9 ?!? The "smallest" news is that we seem to have new unprofessional feuds in the Amiga community. One involves Elbox (you'll recall we carried a complaint from them last issue) and a particular developer about Voodoo. The other is between APC&TPC and UK Epic. We don't know who's right or who's wrong, or who forced who to go public, but we DO know this is not a matter for public fighting. By contrast, at the present time two of the highest value companies in the US market also are feuding, at what might be a personal level involving CEOs. This feud has already involved many millions of dollars. Just about nobody outside of the companies is aware of this. Why? Because the people involved are true business professionals. We report the "good stuff", we report the "bad stuff", - and will try to be even handed, so if anyone involved in this silliness thinks they've not been given equal time, please contact us. Please note that everyone involved has "good stuff" to contribute if they wish to. The Community will build on the good stuff. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: 25 Sep 2000 Brad & company, I realize that everyone is exploring new ways to market and sell and get paid. However, the following eGroups ad was atop the recent AU: -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor ------------------------- Your family still won't know what you do. At least they'll know where. The resources, brainpower & breadth of opportunities at Microsoft are unmatched. The only question is are you ready for that kind of impact? http://click.egroups.com/1/9223/5/573261969761703 --------------------------------------------------------------------- I at first thought that it was a bad joke, but then decided maybe it was just bad luck. So I figured, OK, I'll support AU by clicking on it. My company firewall responded with, "Access to NON-BUSINESS chat site BLOCKED. " Which no doubt rung a little bell in the head demon's office of our network sysadmin, as I was checking it out during a break at work. So now I will finish with, No $*)(&#! Thanks, and watch your advertisers a little bit more carefully. No need to shoot our own market in the foot while trying to come out ahead. Paul ~~~~~~ Paul, You second thought was the correct thought - it was bad luck. That ad was put on the top of AU (issue 000923) by e-groups during transmission through their system. By agreeing to let them put ads on the mailings, we get their services for free. We don't even see the ads, and have no knowledge of what specific ad will be used, until after the mailings go out. This particular ad was very aggravating to us, but we had no way of knowing it was going to happen. Given that AU is totally free and has no income, we're not in a position to pay e-groups the fee to eliminate all ads. The potential for this to happen again exists. Best way to handle it is probably to just ignore it. But it isn't easy. Brad ====== Last issue we had a question from Dave regarding Castlewood's Orb drive. Below are two answers we received from readers, one each for IDE and SCSI versions of the drive. Thanks to our readers for being so responsive! Brad 24 Sep 2000 Hello Dave, On 28 Aug 2000 you wrote: > Has anyone used Castlewood's Orb drive on an Amiga? I hadn't found > any information regarding that yet and was wondering if their > headerless approach presents special problems for developing an Amiga > driver, or what special considerations might exist for implementing an > Orb drive on a SCSI-equipped Amiga (like my A3000UXD). I purchased the IDE version of the ORB drive several months ago. Unfortunately, I have not had very good luck with it. First of all, the write speed is much lower than the read speed. It seems to read data at a speed comparable to IDE hard drives. It writes data at less than half that speed. I only use the ORB drive for system backup and it takes a long time to do a backup. I am also unable to exchange cartridges without rebooting. When I load a new cartridge and issue a diskchange command, the system just hangs up. I previously used a Syquest 105MB cartridge drive (IDE) and was able to exchange disks at will. Also, the drive makes a lot of noise. My old Syquest drive made about the same noise as a hard drive. The ORB makes a loud, several second long, clicking noise every 15 to 20 seconds. Since I only use the drive for backup, I began booting without a cartridge installed which eliminates the constant sounds. I can later insert a cartridge and mount it with the OS 3.5 Mounter tool if I need to use the drive. Reliability has been a problem for me too. I use the drive very little; only about twice a month for backup. About a month after purchasing the ORB drive it suddenly stopped working. When I booted the computer the drive would flash a red error code and would not mount. Castlewood was very responsive though, and I was able to send the drive back to them for an exchange. Yesterday, I got a write error while trying to do a backup. I could read the data that was already on the drive, but was unable to write new data. When I tried to reformat the drive I got another flashing red error code. I tried another cartridge and got the same result. I haven't had time to contact CastleWood yet, to see if they will repair or replace the drive. I would like to state for the record that my experience is with one Castlewood ORB drive and is probably not representative of the quality of all their drives. I have had Email contact with several users who have the SCSI version of the drive and are happy with the ORB drive. I have not heard from anyone else with the IDE version. Regards, Jeff --- 27 Sep 2000 Brad, With regards to Dave's request for info on an Orb drive, I am using one with my Amigas. I connect it to a 2000 with a Blizzard 2060 board, a 3000 with the built in Amiga SCSI controller, and a PC with an Adaptec controller by just switching the cable to whichever computer I want to use it with. It works just fine with the Amigas; they just think it is another removable drive like a SyJet or Syquest (ho hum). The PC had to have drivers installed, of course, and to use it with Drive Image on the PC, I had to do some more gyrations, but the Amigas just use it, as expected. I HAVE found that the Orb drives are sometimes sensitive to SCSI IDs and bus placements, particularly on the Mac, but with the Amiga it is pretty foolproof. Haven't gotten it to work with the Video Toaster Flyer yet, but am working on that. I think that is a termination problem. Just connect it up with the SCSI ID set right and the correct termination, and format the disk. No sweat (other than the usual OS 3.5 problems). Bob ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E A M I G A O N E I S A N N O U N C E D I N O Z October 21, 2000, Melbourne, Australia - It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the first new Amiga hardware in over 6 years. The AmigaOne, our first consumer product, will be targeted at the desktop and workstation market. Further products to follow will cover the markets from Personal Digital Assistants and upwards. All these products will run a single piece of software, the revolutionary Amiga Digital Environment (DE). We completed the AmigaOne specification three months ago, and dubbed it the "zico". It is a specification and not a product because Amiga is a software company, not a hardware manufacturer. The ability of the Amiga DE to host itself on multiple hardware and operating system platforms frees us from hardware dependency and gives our partners and our customers the freedom to chose the hardware that best suits their needs and tastes. The zico specification is as follows; - One AmigaDE friendly host processor (PPC, x86, Arm, SH4, MIPS) - 64MB+ memory - Next Generation Matrox graphics card - Creative EMU10K1 based audio card - 10 GB+ HD - CD/DVD - USB 1.0 - Firewire - 10/100 Mbps Ethernet - 56k modem - Spare PCI slots for expandibility With the completion of the specification stage of the Amiga One, we contacted several respected hardware companies with a view to selecting partners who would be interested in creating AmigaOne products. The AmigaOne process involves close co-operation between Amiga and our partners' hardware groups, the running of the AmigaDE on the hardware, and a thorough quality certification of the final product. Only then can the product be called an AmigaOne. Whilst still in detailed negotiation with several companies, we are delighted to announce the first partner company and its initial set of AmigaOne products. The Eyetech Group Ltd, of Stokesley, U.K. already has an excellent reputation in the Amiga community. They have done much to keep the classic Amiga alive during the last five years, and we feel that in the creation of the first new Amiga machines and the transitioning >from the classic to the next wave, that experience will prove invaluable. Bill McEwen President of Amiga Inc commented: "This arrangement builds on and extends our existing partnership agreement with Eyetech, first announced in April of this year. Our experience during this period has shown Eyetech to be a no-nonsense company capable of delivering what they promise on time and this consideration also weighed heavily in our choice of a hardware partner for the PPC based AmigaOne." Alan Redhouse, Managing Director of UK-based Eyetech, said; "I am delighted that we have been able to build on our existing partnership with Amiga and continue our close working relationship with them on both a technical and manufacturing level. Our decade of Amiga experience, plus our hardware and software efforts to push the Amiga forwards means that we are able to work with Amiga to deliver a proven upgrade solution to Amiga users which gives their existing 'Classic' applications an immediate and substantial performance boost whilst providing full forward compatibility with the new Amiga DE. Our work on the Predator line of boards means that we can help Amiga to fulfill its requirement of maximising the investment of the current community as it moves forwards." Fleecy Moss, Chief Technology Officer, Amiga Inc added: "After talks with the hardware development staff of several companies I am convinced that working with Eyetech will allow us to offer an elegant solution that gives both an excellent level of backward compatibility and a powerful basis for the new Amiga Digital Environment. Top of our requirements list was to ensure that those Amigans who have spent considerable money in staying with the Amiga would not be left out in the cold. Whilst you can't please all of the people all of the time, we think we have come up with a set of products and solutions that will put a smile on as many faces as possible." Eyetech is focusing on an immediate need in the existing Amiga market. Many have already invested considerable resources in their classic Amigas, both in terms of hardware and in terms of software. Whilst keen to move forwards with the AmigaOne, they also want to maximise their investment in the classic platform. The Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 1200 is a custom board which uses Eyetech Predator technology with the "zico" specification to provide a perfect synergy of classic and next generation. It provides all the functionality of the standalone AmigaOne PPC, but has been extended to mate with a classic Amiga A1200. This allows customers who have a serious investment in the classic Amiga to continue to use their machines whilst also having a brand new Amiga at their disposal. The 68k processor in the A1200 will be emulated at a substantially increased level via the PPC processor on the AmigaOne, whilst the classic operating system can take advantage of the AmigaOne's next generation hardware resources. The AmigaOne PPC 4000 machine is similarly designed to allow customers who have a significant investment in their classic Amiga A4000 to be able to move that investment forwards whilst also benefiting from the next generation capabilities of the AmigaOne. The Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 1200 will be available as an upgrade for owners of towered A1200 computers, the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 4000 as an upgrade for Amiga 4000 desktop computers in tower conversion cases. Options for producing AmigaOne PPC upgrade designs for other Classic Amiga designs (such as the A3000 and Amiga International A4000T) will be looked at (subject to demand) once the A1200 and A4000 products are released. In order to implement all the features of the AmigaOne specification the, A1200 and A4000 upgrade versions will feature one AGP and six PCI slots, a user-upgradable G3/G4 (Macintosh-type) cpu slot, up to 512MB SDRAM and a high speed IDE/ATAPI interface. The system will be dual-bootable both into the Amiga DE and into Classic Amiga Workbench. This latter feature will allow purchasers to have the performance benefits of full G3/G4 cpu speeds and 512MB of SDRAM memory whilst running Classic Amiga software. Both these boards are scheduled to ship in 1Q01, with developer versions being available in December 2000. Design of both the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC A1200 and A4000 products has been done with great sensitivity to the existing user and developer community. "By releasing the classic compatible AmigaOne PPC products first," said Alan Redhouse. "We are providing a transitional path forwards for the existing community, enabling them to maximise their current investment whilst also leaping ahead with the new Amiga DE." In order to facilitate this transition, the classic Amiga operating system will see its lifeline extended. OS3.9, to be launched before Christmas will add a raft of new features and functionality, and will be able to run on the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC classic products. Eyetech are also keen to talk to existing hardware manufacturers about possibilities for licencing, manufacturer and other co-operation in order to ensure a smooth transition of the existing Amiga community from the present to the future. Amiga is also very close to signing up partners for a standalone AmigaOne machine. The ATX form factor AmigaOne has been designed to run the full consumer version of the Amiga Digital Environment (DE) allowing the best of the Classic Amiga software which has been ported to run directly under the Amiga DE, and the use of a wide range of Amiga DE-based digital content - such as productivity software, content creation suites, development environments and 3-D games - to be used 'out of the box'. All this work - including extensive testing of hardware and software components - is scheduled to be complete in time for end user deliveries 3Q01. Amiga Inc is currently in negotiation with several potential partner companies for the development and manufacture of the stand-alone AmigaOne and its related digital content/software. Companies interested in producing this version, utilising the PPC processor family include Eyetech, and bplan GmbH of Germany. We hope to have announcements to make on this within the next few weeks. Other companies and other processors are also under negotiation. A new website is being set up, specifically to provide a focal point for news, questions, comment and discussion on the AmigaOne, and we encourage people to visit it and participate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S E P T E M B E R E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E September 28, 2000 Executive Update Greetings to one and all. I know it has been a long time since I last had the chance to write to all to all of you. It has been very, very busy, and we have seen some great successes, and some disappointments. I have not been asleep, and to the contrary I have not been getting much sleep of late. There is so much activity, and so little time that I have been spending a great deal of time in other areas and not keeping everyone up to date. To my Friends in Italy, I apologize that I was not able to attend the show. It was a real disappointment for me personally, as I wanted to greet each and every one of you. The reason was not because we are broke, or out of money as the rumors would state. Simply, there were two companies in California that I have been working with, and they requested a meeting that occurred over the same period of time. With working with these OEM's we will be able to add several million more Amigans, and the discussions went well and are progressing quickly, these meetings were in addition to what is mentioned in point 3 below. Now with all the above fun stuff...... Here we go: 1. The SDK for Amiga DE. This has been very exciting, and we are really pleased with the number of applications and the number developers using the product to create some great products. The next version of the Software Development Kit will be out in the next couple of weeks. In addition to the Linux version there is now a version available for Windows. That's correct you are now able to develop for the new Amiga on either Linux, or Windows. It will feature a new raft of multimedia (Mesa, the SSEYO Koan Audio Engine, streaming) as well better development tools, a richer AVE and enhanced performance. 2. Amiga OS 3.5 and beyond We are continuing taking a very hard look at the current Amiga and how we can best move the platform forward. There are discussions on going for some new opportunities and we will be able to share some announcements in the very near future. 3. Amiga DE business opportunities. Wow, this is an area that is absolutely exploding. For developers this is going to be great news. Not only will the applications you are working on be used by your Amiga family members, but with the deals that are either executed or in motion there will be millions more consumers joining the Amiga family. Now many of you began to speculate on the Meternet announcement. Meternet is offering a great product, and they are going to be making it available to the Amiga community, but it is not the AmigaOne. 4. The AmigaOne. We have listened to a great many of you with comments, suggestions, business ideas and technical ideas. Dean Brown has been a huge help, especially that he is now here in Snoqualmie with the other members of the team. Because of this input we have begun negotiations for a brand new design. Most of the details have been worked out, and I hope to have the finished announcement ready by the middle of October. It is my firm belief that you will all be very pleased and excited. 5. Dealers/Distributors, and our friends in the Press: The well of information for all of you has been too dry, and inconsistent. To better provide information to each and every one of you. Amiga has created two new mailing lists. Please go to: http://www.amigadev.net/index.php?sid=&subpage=home&function=showmail lists or to www.amigadev.com and select mailing lists on the right hand side of the screen. Select either press or dealer, and fill out your information. We will begin weekly feeds to these lists to better support our press and dealers. I know that many of you will read that this letter says nothing, and that there is nothing happening, other than a new motorcycle for me. Well you are very wrong. We are meeting directly with the heads of some of the largest computer and consumer electronics companies in the world, and not only do they see the value in what we are offering but they see where the Amiga community, you, is the real value. Now we still have a ways to go, but we are moving very fast, and I know that you will all be very proud of Amiga as we continue to make things happen. The biggest challenge for Amiga right now is to stay focused on our core strengths, and not make the mistakes of those who have walked before us. The Amiga opportunity is huge, and sometimes overwhelming. There are so many conflicting reports, and I have not done a very good job of being able to communicate to all of you as well as I would like to. We are getting much closer every day, and everyone of you are a major part of the Amiga Family's success. Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A P C & T C P S T A T E M E N T O N E P I C U K 30 Sep 2000 I beg to inform you about the following: APC&TCP has just one single distributor: GTI Epic Marketing UK (not Epic Germany!!) hasn't been our English distributor for a long time and hasn't been supplied by us with anything. Epic UK does also not receive any legal software from our company by other middlemen. Epic UK should not have one single product of APC&TCP in their stock after a whole year (products which haven't been payed for anyway), so they can't offer nor sale any of our products. If this should be the case anyway - well, it should be clear enough what exactly is sold there :( APC&TCP http://www.apc-tcp.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A F U T U R E ' S F U T U R E 16 October, 2000 CS&E PRESSRELEASE CS&E has recently made an agreement with Amiga Future to produce an English version of this popular German games magazine. To begin with Amiga Future will be included in Amiga Survivor, but after a few issues it will be out as a publication in its own right under the Amiga Future UK name. You can subscribe to Amiga Future UK now and you will receive at least two FREE copies of Amiga Survivor until Amiga Future is ready. Simply contact CS&E and leave your details, including a credit card number if you desire. Subscription prices will be similar to the current prices charged by Amiga Future. Amiga Future UK will be out in the UK and beyond under the new CS&E Media label. Best Regards, David Connolly Managing Director CS&E AMIGA FUTURE PRESSRELEASE The Amiga Future met recently a license agreement with CS&E (England). Starting from the output 27 of the Amiga Future now also English users can arrive the benefit of the Amiga Future. For the first outputs the Amiga Future will be however only once a part of the well-known English magazine Amiga Surivor. Later the booklet will become completely independent. The German editorship supplies only the booklet contents of the editorial section of the Amiga Future UK. CS&E is exclusively responsible for subscribers, advertisement , selling price and for pages which are particularly arranged for English users. The same applies also to subscriptions and single orders of the English Version. Also the cover CD will not be 100% identical, since the English user has no need for German info texts. The Amiga Future appears as used and except the editorship of the Amiga Future has nobody to influence on our magazine. Definitive nothing will change for our German-speaking user. Naturally the editorship looks also still further for partners in other countries. Andreas Magerl Chefredaktion ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S H A R K P P C F R O M E L B O X Krakow, 12 October 2000 ELBOX COMPUTER is proud to announce the breath-taking new product: the most powerful PowerPC accelerator for Amiga 1200, 3000 and 4000. The new accelerator - SharkPPC G3/G4 board - is a pure PowerPC-based processor card to be fitted in MEDIATOR PCI A1200 and MEDIATOR PCI A3/4000 busboards. SharkPPC G3/G4 cards give Amiga Classic computers the top performance of the latest PowerPC technology and the power of the long-awaited next generation computer. New PowerPC750 processors installed in SharkPPC G3/G4 cards offer the following performance: 17.4SPECint95@400MHz, 11.7SPECfp95@400MHz, 928DMIPS@400MHz, 22.4SPECint95@550MHz, 13.3SPECfp95@550MHz, 1276DMIPS@550MHz. The SharkPPC G3/G4 design combines speed of PowerPC G3/G4 processors with extremely fast on-board memory interface controlling two SDRAM modules, up to 512MB each. The peak memory transfer rate reaches 582MB/s. The accelerator card takes control over the PCI busboard with a 66MHz PCI 2.1 compliant interface fitted with a two-channel DMA controller. Communication between the existing Amiga turbo accelerator and the SharkPPC G3/G4 card is executed with the shared SDRAM memory and the interrupt controller in the MEDIATOR PCI hardware. The new accelerator offers excellent bandwidth to any PCI card: 264 MB/s (132 MB/s in the system with 33 MHz PCI cards). This powerful performance in PCI graphic cards enables development of new superb games/graphic applications in the native PPC code. All the currently available Amiga software may be executed in the 68k processor with full use of all the PCI cards installed in the computer. It is possible because both accelerator cards installed in the computer access all the PCI cards independently. On top of that, in new applications to be developed both accelerators may enhance performance of each other just the same way as it is done in advanced multi-processor systems. This is due to the fact that processors in both accelerators (68k/PPC and SharkPPC) work fully simultaneously, which is for the first time available for Amiga users. The first SharkPPC G3/G4 cards for developers will be available by end of November, with production planned to commence in January 2001. When new speed versions of PowerPC processors are available, the SharkPPC line will be expanded with more models. The suggested retail price (VAT excl.) for the SharkPPC G3/G4 accelerators are: SharkPPC G3/G4 750@400................ EUR 390.00 (PowerPC750@400MHz and 256KB@400MHz L2 Cache) SharkPPC G3/G4 750@550................ EUR 520.00 (PowerPC750@550MHz and 256KB@550MHz L2 Cache) Pricing of versions with other processors will be announced separately. NEW Please look for our further releases: 1. Development progress of PCI Sound and TV card drivers for MEDIATOR PCI 1200. 2. MEDIATOR development line (A4000 and A3000). Mariusz Wloczysiak ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V O O D O O N E W S F R O M D C E DCE gets exclusive rights to publish Voodoo CGX drivers Oberhausen, Friday 13th October 2000 Today, Vision Factory Development (VFD) and DCE Computer Service signed an exclusive contract about the use of current "CGX Voodoo"-Drivers. In contrast to earlier announcements , this driver will be exclusively available for the G-REX PCI expansion only. This contract guarantees the immediate availability and the best support a user can get for the current range of powerful voodoo graphics boards in conjunction with all currently available ppc accelerators of the Blizzard- and CyberStorm series. With the expected problems of PPC 3D drivers in conjunction with Mediator PCI and the currently available PPC accelerators in Dual-CPU mode (68K 2D driver) in mind, VFD decided to drop the further development of the actual Alpha Voodoo drivers for Mediator and concentrates on development for the G-REX PCI board because drivers were succesfully tested already. Voodoo3 cards should give you a significant performance boost for the current range of PPC accelerated games, flawless working of the CyberGraphX driver can't be guaranteed due to technical hardware limitations of Mediator PCI though, so VFD decided to go that way. As a final note, CGX Voodoo driver alpha versions that are probably develivered with the Mediator hardware are in no way authorized or licensed by VFD. Current S3 ViRGE drivers are not affected by this agreement. DCE and VFD also decided to work together on additional drivers regarding both networking and sound in conjunction with G-REX PCI. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E L B O X C O M P L A I N T R E V O O D O O On Saturday, 14 Oct 2000 community of Amiga users were informed that an agreement was signed by virtue of which Mr. Frank Mariak (Vision Factory Development) transferred exclusive rights to Voodoo PCI drivers written by himself to a third party. We, ELBOX Computer, feel obliged to make the entire situation clear to Amiga users world-wide, as the circumstances around this event are twisted again and again and give false image of the situation to public opinion. Please find the below report as the clarification of what has been transpiring in the recent weeks behind the scenes. Background On 24 July 2000, Elbox Computer and Vision Factory Development jointly released an announcement on concluding an agreement, by virtue of which VFD undertook to develop support for PCI graphic cards installed in the MEDIATOR PCI busboard. (See http://www.vgr.com/mediator/pressrelease1.txt ) Before this agreement was concluded, both parties negotiated and finally decided on some specific terms and conditions of co-operation as follows: The key point of the agreement was that support for PCI graphic cards in CGX3 was to be devoid of hardware acceleration, which was to be fully developed in the CGX4 commercial version. The parties decided to make the following commitments: 1. ELBOX Computer shall make the developer's documentation for the MEDIATOR PCI busboard available in order to complete the agreed work. The developer's documentation was transferred to Mr. Frank Mariak on 14 July 2000. 2. ELBOX Computer will provide Vision Factor Development with computer hardware for preparing drivers for PCI graphic cards installed in the MEDIATOR PCI 1200 busboard, which Mr. Mariak needed at that time. ELBOX Computer sent the hardware: Amiga 1200 in E/BOX tower with the developer's MEDIATOR PCI 1200 busboard, 1240 turbo card, FastATA 1200 controller, a hard disk and other necessary add-ons as well as S3 ViRGE and Voodoo3 PCI cards to Mr. Frank Mariak on 07 Aug 2000. Another computer hardware set was delivered to VFD team last week. 3. Vision Factory Development shall develop support for graphic cards operating in the MEDIATOR PCI busboard. Support for S3 ViRGE and Voodoo3 chipsets was agreed upon as the minimum. S3 Virge: ELBOX Computer received a test version of an S3 ViRGE card driver (enabling starting Workbench in the S3 ViRGE PCI card) from Vision Factory Development on 18 July 2000; S3 ViRGE drivers are currently available. Voodoo3: ELBOX Computer received a test version of Voodoo3 drivers for MEDIATOR PCI for presentation purposes (allowing for operation with Workbench) on 29 Sep 2000. 4. ELBOX Computer, after starting the production of the MEDIATOR PCI busboard shall deliver a bundled free package of CyberGraphX v.3 along with drivers for all the currently supported PCI graphic cards. ELBOX Computer is now selling the MEDIATOR PCI busboard through the network of its distributors world-wide. CGX3 is bundled with MEDIATOR PCI. This is an excellent advertising move for the commercial CGX4. Before the agreement ELBOX offered Mr. Frank Mariak that our programmers would prepare drivers for various graphic chipsets, including Voodoo3 PCI, for working with CyberGraphX. Such drivers would then be transferred in the form of source codes written in assembler for Mr. Frank Mariak's authorisation and distribution. We expected only making available some developer's information related to CGX in return. However, Mr. Mariak decided he would himself write the drivers if we supported him with hardware and documentation. Which we did. False information in the announcement on selling rights to Voodoo drivers included alleged expected technical problems related to implementation of 3D drivers with our MEDIATOR PCI busboard. Please note that none such problems exist. On our request, Mr. Mariak was to report to us any possible problems related to his development work... and he remained silent all the time. Using Developer's Documentation for MEDIATOR PCI and computer hardware (including Voodoo3 PCI card) provided free of charge by ELBOX Computer as requested by Mr. Frank Mariak for writing Voodoo3 drivers, as it turned out, for another company is the clearest form of breaching rules of social life and business honesty and integrity. New business vision On 13 Oct 2000, Mr. Frank Mariak signed an agreement on selling the Voodoo3 drivers for benefit of another company. In contacts with our company, Mr. Frank Mariak never mentioned any intention of this kind on his part, never suggested such a possibility and never asked for or negotiated any payment for his software writing work. He never contacted us in this issue. Then, out of the blue, he surprised us and all Amiga users with making a "simple BUSINESS DECISION" (original quotation from Mr. Mariak's response to our inquiry for explanation of the VFD & DCE's announcement) on making an alliance with a third party for selling the above rights. We hope this explanation clarifies the situation. Please make sure that we refrain from any comments of ethical or whatever nature. The above are simple facts to make you all aware of the plot behind the scenes. ELBOX MOVES FORWARD In the view of the circumstances described above, ELBOX Computer hereby announces that our programmers shall prepare software for supporting Voodoo3 cards in the MEDIATOR PCI busboards. These drivers will be included in the software package for the MEDIATOR PCI busboard. We expect completing work on the first version of this software within two weeks. ELBOX Computer Mariusz Wloczysiak, Press Department ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H A N D P G E T S T F A X P R O , G E N E S I S Darlington, UK. September 28, 2000 Active Technologies and HAAGE&PARTNER Computer GmbH (H&P) have come to a mutual agreement where the publishing rights to the fax/voice software STFax Professional, and the copy and publishing rights to the TCP/IP stack, Genesis, are passed from Active Technologies to H&P. Active Technologies believe that the future of STFax Professional and Genesis is more secure and promising under the direction of the H&P development team. The agreement is in effect immediately and further enquiries should be addressed to H&P. Jürgen Haage comments on the take-over: Genesis and STFax are strategically important products for H&P and we are glad that we can care for their future development and porting. A first result of our efforts will be the release of a new update of STFax by next week. We are also planning a new look for Genesis - you will be surprised. Active Technologies was a developer of Internet and communications software for the Amiga computer, producing a number of award-winning titles such as NetConnect, Genesis and STFax Professional. H&P is the leading manufacturer of development systems and applications for the Amiga family of computers and currently developing next generation software for the existing and future Amiga market. Their mission is to provide the Amiga market with the most effective tools and applications possible. For further information, visit www.haage-partner.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T F A X 4 . 5 I S A V A I L A B L E 13 October, 2000 The following functions have been added: o Added ELSA MicroLink Office support for Independent Mode. o Added support for Diamond Multimedia voice command set. o asyncio.library is used (if available) when transferring files via XPR libraries (BBS transmissions). o The check for files stored inside the modem memory will be performed only once when STFax is started, instead of each time the serial device is opened. o The viewer will open using the last used scaling factor. More Information on STFax Availability STFax 4.5 is available now and can be bought directly in our online shop. Full Version The price of STFax 4.5 is 98,- DM. Updates There is a free update for all customers of version 4.x on our ftp server (-> Download). Customers that do not have Internet access can find the update on our Service-CD. Customers of older versions can get the Update for 59,- DM. Sidegrades Customers of other commercial fax programs can obtain a Sidegrade for just 79 DM. (-> Proof needed!) www.haage-partner.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F A S T E C H ' S U N N A M E D E X P A N D E R 21 October, 2000 Amiga super expansion system The as yet unnamed Amiga classic expansion system is currently in the alpha test phase. The product will initially be released for A3000/T and A4000/T computers. The system provides: - 3 PCI slots - 3 Zorro-III compatible slots - 1 AGP slot - 1 SDRAM DIMM slot - 2 CPU expansion slots - 1 A1200 style clock slot - 2 x serial and 1 x EPP Parallel ports Inital CPU module offerings will be 400 MHz Motorola Power PC G4 based and 333 MHz Motorola Coldfire based (68k compatible) Coldfire CPU module completed and in testing. The new coldfire CPU module is now complete and in testing with the expansion module. OS patches and library updates required are now being developed. Initial performance testing is very impressive. Legacy 68k Amiga applications like DTP and 3D rendering software run at modern PC/Mac speeds. PowerPC module has been delayed due to performance concerns. Our Charon chipset on the Expansion system is being redesigned to allow full speed access by both CPU modules and the PCI and AGP busses concurrently. Expansion System drivers now in Alpha testing stage: - LSI(Symbios) 53C8xx SCSI - VIA rhine ethernet (10/100) - DEC Tulip ethernet (10/100) - Intel Ethernet (10/100) - Axxon I/O (HS serial parallel) - SB-Live! - HPT-366 IDE GFX drivers coming soon pending RTG software decision. http://fastech.iwarp.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I M A G E F X H O L I D A Y S A L E 27 September, 2000 Nova Design, Inc., the award winning leaders in graphics software for the Amiga, is pleased to announce a special bundle and sale on ImageFX for the holidays! We're not kidding around this time, we're not playing softball either. This is a big league sale. We mean it -- this one is big! Really Big!! (to quote the Shatner) Before we tell you just how low we've cut the price of ImageFX, you really want to know that we're adding something extra special into the package. With EVERY sale we're including PowerStation -- the PPC modules for ImageFX. Normally these sell for $99.95 all by themselves. But not this time, because we're going to include them for free when you buy ImageFX new or upgrade! Now, here's the deal on the pricing. You're getting ImageFX and the PowerStation modules included in the package. ImageFX itself normally lists for $299.95 -- and sells for about $240 from most mail order companies. If you added PowerStation to that price you'd be paying $340 or so, but not this time. For the first time ever, we're going to lower the price to only $199.95 for direct or reseller sales! That's less than $200. Granted, it's only a nickel less, but it's still the lowest price ever offered outside of Clem's copy of a used ImageFX on eBay! If you just need to upgrade your ImageFX -- the deal is even better, because we're lowering the upgrade prices as well. If you're upgrading from ImageFX 3.x, the price will be only $59.95. PowerStation ALONE cost more than that! If you're upgrading from 2.x, the price is only $79.95. If you have ANY other, older, version of ImageFX -- the upgrade price is being dropped $25 down to only $124.95 now! We've NEVER lowered upgrade prices before and we don't plan to do it ever again. The only 'catch' is that you better buy soon, because this sale isn't going to last long. It's just for the holidays or until my partners find out and make me stop! Special Pricing Again Okay, one more time. ImageFX, brand new, with PowerStation, is only $199.95 for a limited time. Upgrades from 3.x, 2.x, or older are an insanely low $59.95, $79.95 and $124.95 respectively. Also for a limited time. Remember, ImageFX is available from your favorite Amiga reseller and they need your business too. Outside the US contact our distributors Haage and Partner in Germany or EyeTech in the UK. They are running their own specials at this time and you should contact them for their prices. If you wish to order directly at full retail you can also fax your order to (804) 282-3768 or mail it to Nova Design, Inc., 1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 204, Richmond, VA 23230 ATTN: INSANE PRICING For more information visit us on the Internet at http://www.novadesign.com 'PowerStation' works on any Amiga equipped with a PowerUP supported PPC accelerator with ImageFX 3.2 or higher installed. WarpUP with the new PowerUP compatibility also works well. ImageFX works on any Amiga with 4mb of RAM and a hard drive. http://www.novadesign.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I N S T A L L E R N G ( 3 R D P A R T Y ) A V A I L A B L E Oct 1, 2000 What's this thing about First, you need an Amiga Computer for this tool. Furthermore, the Amiga must run at least version 2.1+ of the operating system. Every Amiga user knows the Installer tool, distributed with the system. Well, the idea is nice, but the Installer became a pretty old thing during the last years. Thus, in 1997 I decided to rewrite the entire tool and the result is the InstallerNG, which you can get here. Below, please find a few of the things which are enhanced (compared to the old Installer) and which are completely new: o the compiler itself is stronger and, thus, much safer o resizeable and modern GUI; if you like, plugin the MUI interface o mc68060 and PPC recognation and support o many new functions (see the documentation) o interpreter options (e.g. debug, create uninstall scripts, etc...) o optional compiler modules o many, many more ... And of course, it is fully compatible to the old Installer (provided the scripts are ok)! Archives The InstallerNG is Freeware. You may download the entire distribution (binaries, documetantion, developer information, compiler modules, GUI plugins, sample scripts), the binaries (including a version for either 68000 and 68020+ plus a debug version) or related compiler modules here. o complete archive (440k,Oct 1, 2000) download o the binaries only (215k, Oct 1, 2000) download o compiler modules (4k, Oct 1, 2000) download If you would like to release your own GUI plugins or compiler modules, please don't hesitate to contact me. http://installerng.light-speed.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 2000 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 ======================================================================