====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 980525 F O L L O W U P T O A I ' S A N N O U N C M E N T A I ' S P R O J E C T M A N A G E R S P E A K S T H E " B R I D G E M A C H I N E " - M O R E D E T A I L S A D E V E L O P E R ' S T A K E O N T H E F U T U R E O N E O F T H E " M E N I N B L A C K " T A L K S A M I G A C I V I L W A R E N D S ? G A T E W A Y ( A N D A I ? ) T O R E L O C A T E O R E G O N R E S E A R C H D I E S A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y H O L D S F I N A L S 1 9 9 7 A A A A W A R D T O H O L G E R K R U S E Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Some of the smoke and dust have settled from the "BIG" announcement by Amiga Incorporated at "World of Amiga" in London. We've let a few days go by and put together another issue for you with some follow-up items. We think the articles we've assembled, from press releases, mailings and posts to the Amiga newsgroups, will help to clear up some misconceptions and bring everyone up to speed on what's known about AI's plans and what isn't. We even have a statement from one of the mysterious "Men in Black" who made their thoughts known to AI officials immediately after the presentation. Quick comments: no, the Amiga isn't going Intel. No, we don't know what the mysterious future chip will be yet, but speculating is becoming the official Amiga Community sport. And no, we're not worried about the future. We're pleased there is one. Finally, it seems as though there were some late breaking developments at AI, which caused last minute changes in the announcements, and perhaps led to some of the confusion we all sense. We begin this issue with some notes from our readers. We asked for your thoughts in our 980515 issue, hot on the heels of the announcement. Frankly, we didn't get as many messages as we thought we might, perhaps because there had been so little time to digest the news. The ones we got, though, were very interesting. We're still interested in hearing what you think, so drop us an e-mail with your impressions, thoughts or comments. Happy reading, Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-MAIL TO THE E-DITOR ===================== MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS Hi Brad! First, thanks for providing this fine, nearly instant, source of news!! One of a kind. Regarding the "Kickoff": As an Amigaphile since 1987, I've been waiting for this day a loooong time. I had long ago decided that the essence of the Amiga was the OS (since I got my graphics card! :), but I haven't yet digested the notion of running it on Intel. I'll get over that part in time, I hope. I feel good that the Amiga has a future, and sad to see an end of the "Classic Amiga" era. I'm sure it will linger for a long time, especially in THIS house, but its days are numbered. Hopefully the "feel" of 4.0/5.0 will be the same. At least some of the spirit will live on via those faithful in the development team. Regarding the "new" Amiga, there are still more questions than answers: Has 3.5 has been scrapped, will AI do ANY OS update for the Classics? Will 4.0 run on a run-of-the-mill clone? Will 5.0? Will there be a HAL for the pre\box? Who are the "Men In Black" (perhaps the most important question?)? What does AI mean by a "new software architecture"? And of course, can AI put together a platform/interface/system concept that will be able to steal some of Bill's thunder? Why would BeInc be interested in providing solutions for an Intel-based competitor? How will hardware manufacturers cope with being stranded (are they?)? The list is endless and I'm sure you thought of them too. I'm looking forward to seeing where this all leads, not only for my beloved Amiga, but for the future of popular computing. (Carl S. is RIGHT!) Hmmm. I wonder what Ted Waitt thinks of REBOL? -- Peter Schaff Team *AMIGA* UGN Newsletter editor, Whidbey Amiga Club A3000 A3640 CV64 Chameleon Tower PS: Thanks again for this wonderful newsletter!! {Thank YOU for the most kind words. The questions you ask are all important, and some have been asked by many Amigans. We can't answer them all, but we do have some information in this issue on a few of them. One thing to note right now, there apparently will NOT be an Intel based Amiga. Due to the way things were announced, a lot of people understandably came away with that thought, however. Brad} ===== THE PATH OF FEELINGS Hi there - Thanks for the email updates on the Amiga situation. I have gone from being unhappy with the Amiga Inc. decisions to now being somewhat hopeful about what the future might hold. I am doubtful this particular bunch of guys are going to be able to pull off what so many other companies have tried to do and failed (IBM, SGI, Sun, even C=), but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. That new superchip better be all they are claiming it is--the wintel world is not going to just sit still during the next 18-24 months. Sincerely, David Guerra {You make good points. My feelings followed the same path as yours, and I think that's true for many Amigans. Brad} ===== MUNDANE USES - BUT IMPORTANT ONES 18 May 1998 Dear Amiga Update, I am glad that the Amiga is moving forward; I'm just never sure just what it means to me, an Amiga user who uses his Amiga for no Desktop Video, in fact uses it for all the mundane usages (Word processing, Email, Games etc.) that were supposed to be ceded to MS-DOS years ago. The truth is I like the OS, am familiar with it, and don't want to learn one that I understand is far more clunky. And besides, I'm cheap; what I use meets my needs, more or less. Keep up the good work, Best regards, Mike Phebus {The scariest thing I've heard since the announcment is the indication AI thinks all Amigans use PCs. That could lead to them make the new machine less than an all-around computer, more of a niche graphical appliance. I and many others use Amigas as alternatives to PCs, and I think it's important that continues. So far, no real indication that it won't. (See the Men in Black article below for an indication of AI's possible belief that Amigas live next to PCs on all our computer desks.) Brad} ===== RESPECT ... ? 22 May 1998 Mr. Webb - I happened to drive by a new Gateway computer store which had recently opened in the Dayton area, apparently one of several Gateway has opened up around the country. I really didn't expect to find any Amiga products, but decided to stop out of curiosity, and thought I'd share my findings. I must say, they really took that cow theme to the extreme. Maximum bovine! The floor was bare concrete. The wall paper was a mural of a farm field. The computer desks had metel tractor seats, and there were "milking" tubes coming down from the ceiling at each computer station, apparently hiding the power cords. The backdrop behind the computer station was a corrugated metal section from a grain cylo. Maybe it was my imagination, but the whole store even seemed to smell like a farm (it didn't stink, just had that smell of fresh hay). After walking once around the perimeter, I failed to see any evidence of Amiga computers. This didn't surprise me, but while I was there, I figured I'd ask one of the salesmen what he knew. The conversation went something like this: "Do you have any Amiga computers?", I asked. "Amega? No, I don't know anything about that", he replied. "Well", I explained, "I understand Gateway recently bought the Amiga line." The other salesman, seemingly more knowledgeable on the subject, joined in, "I did hear something about Gateway buying them. We can special order them for customers who want them." This was beginning to sound promising, I thought. Then he added, "What kind of Iomega drive are you looking for?" Michael Pershing {This letter made my day, thank you for sending it. Maybe when there are Amiga ads again we could get Rodney Dangerfield as a spokesman. Brad} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F O L L O W U P T O A I ' S A N N O U N C M E N T 18 May 1998 Post by Ben Hutchings Here's my (rather hurried) report on Friday's announcements. It's based on the notes I made at the time, plus additional details I remembered, plus some clarifications I got later from Fleecy Moss and Joe Torre. It could probably be improved quite a bit, but I haven't got time to do that right now. If you need to reply to me, please use e-mail, as I am unsubscribing from this group until my final university exams are over (late June). ===== The presentation took place in a large hall on the first and second floors of Novotel. Petro Tyschtschenko was first to speak; he began by presenting gifts to the World of Amiga organisers (Peter Brameld and Norah Hodgson). Then he summarised what Amiga International had been doing in the past year, mentioning shows, the website, new licenses, the success of Amigas in the Indian video market, and continuing sales of Amigas for kiosk systems. Jeff Schindler then stepped up to make the announcements we were all waiting for (well, except those journalists who had been to the lunchtime event). He thanked Petro, and then introduced the Amiga Inc employees present. Marilyn Flint (Manager), Joe Torre (Hardware Engineer), and Darreck Lisle (Events Coordinator) were all there. Gateway was represented by Jim Collas, Senior Vice President, and Steve Johns, Head of Corporate Development. Jeff then announced three new employees - Fleecy Moss (Project Manager), Dr Allan Havemose (Head of Technology and Development), and Bill McEwen (PR). The business plan that has now been approved for funding by Gateway is the 15th in a series of refinements by Jeff. Unfortunately not all of it could be revealed as some details (about a third of the information that was intended to be announced) have yet to be agreed with outside companies. The rest is expected to be finalised within about a month. Jeff Schindler showed a series of slides (using Powerpoint, sadly) summarising his points. I noted down much of the content of these so I could remember what was said. The key question for Amiga is, how can it regain a lead? The next question that can be asked is, what defines an Amiga? Amiga Inc decided it was not specific technologies, but the vision: awesome technology, freedom of choice, an enthusiast following, a worldwide community, and so on. So the goals for future Amiga technology are these: ease of use, affordability, high- performance multimedia, an open architecture, evolution to meet new standards, and of course fun. What is the market that Amiga can attack now? Amiga Inc identified the so-called "digital convergence" market. This is the fusion of Internet access, digital media and entertainment, with real computers underneath, of course. It is predicted that there will soon be an electronic paradigm shift, with ubiquitous digital appliances. Among products that might run AmigaOS in the future are: Internet appliances, games machines with Internet and DVD support, set-top boxes, sub-$500 computers, combined TV/game/computers for the bedroom or kitchen, PC/TVs, and of course the conventional tower, desktop and portable computers. To do this, AmigaOS needs to run on cheap, fast hardware. Amiga Inc has discovered, through Gateway's connections, a chip in development that can offer incredible speed at a low price starting from next year. (It's being kept secret by the company developing it - apparently, partly for fear of losing their current good relations with Intel before the chip is in production.) Quoted performance statistics were: 5-10 times faster than current high-end PC hardware, 400 million pixels per second 3D rendering (in 24 bit colour, with whatever 3D effects you want), and decoding of 4 MPEG2 streams at the same time. It can also support high-speed Internet access using ADSL or similar protocols. Of course hardware isn't everything. Amiga Inc will need to provide breakway OS technology - "convergence-ware" that will be perfectly suited to the sort of new products that were mentioned above. This will mean a new OS core and new APIs. The next slide showed how Carl Sassenrath had reacted to the news. He was present at a demonstration of the predecessor to this chip, along with Amiga Inc, and reportedly said: `It will be fun to again see the Amiga "blow the socks off" everything else that is out there.' He said that REBOL Technologies will support the new AmigaOS, which might interest you... Now comes the controversial bit. There is a long way from the current (1992/93) Amiga OS and hardware to this new cutting-edge chip and an OS with "convergence-ware", and that jump needs to be made in 18 months. The plan is to do this in two steps. Current technology - AGA, OS 3.1, and 680x0 - is described as "Amiga Classic". The first step from this will be to the "Amiga Bridge", which will consist of an x86 PC running OS 4.0, with an optional "Amiga Classic" bridge card. This will be the development platform for the next step. The use of the bridge card means that it can also run existing programs very fast, so it may well be useful to non-developers too. The second step is to OS 5.0 running on a new architecture in "digital convergence" products (which still include conventional computers). This will be basically software-compatible to the last 4.x release. What are the building blocks for these two steps? Backward compatibility is provided by the bridge card (based on the Siamese or InsideOut PCI cards in development) or by UAE (which should run just fine on the new chip!). For the development platform, an OS kernel will be licensed from another company to save time. The choice of kernel is yet to be announced. All along the way, there will be software upgrades to meet future standards. The backing of the Amiga developer community is an essential. The software timetable is as follows: Developer program begins Q3 of 1998 OS 4.0 release November 1998 OS 5.0 ready late 1999 The developer program will be handled by ICOA together with Amiga Inc. It will provide support for porting applications and creating native applications for OS 4/5. Developers will also be involved in the process of designing APIs for the new platform. Developer kits and complete systems (PC + bridge card + OS) will be available from Amiga Inc. There was a meeting on Saturday morning where an outline of OS plans was presented, but for the time being that information is not public. Key targets for OS 4.x will be: OS 3.1 compatibility; advanced multimedia performance; support for open standards (such as OpenGL); real-time, threaded, protected, pre-emptive multi-tasking; a new GUI; full Internet support. I believe the planned features for OS 3.5 will be included in 4.x. OS 5.0 will be the final result of all the additions made to OS 4.0, but will run on the new chip instead of on x86 PCs. There was brief mention of the importance of user groups and the existence of the UGN as an interface to Amiga Inc - though not an exclusive one. There was a UGN meeting on Sunday morning, but I didn't go to that. Jeff also sought to reassure Amiga distributors that there was still plenty of opportunity to sell "legacy" software and hardware, because new developments will retain backwards compatibility. The possibilities for new products are of course greater. Next to speak was Dr Allan Havemose, the new Head of Technology and Development. He has previously worked for Commodore-Amiga, building up the European developer network, and leading the OS development team for releases 2.1-3.1. He didn't add much to what Jeff Schindler had said, and unfortunately I didn't take notes of what he did say! Some more details that came out in response to questions. (These aren't verbatim, but a combination of my notes and memory.) Q. Why aren't you supporting the PPC as a development platform? A. We're negotiating with P5 for support for the PPC. There should be news in a month. Q. How do you plan to get a new kernel etc all in place by November? A. We're teaming up with another OS corporation to use their kernel. BeOS, Java OS, Linux and others are under consideration. (Note, this is just for OS 4.0.) Q. What happened to OS 3.5? A. OS 3.5 has been dropped. We looked at the plans and realised it wouldn't be worth doing, when we need to get OS 4.0 done by November. Q. How can a little company like Amiga Inc get access to this mystery chip? And who is making it? Intel? A. Gateway and its business partners are negotiating for the rights to use this chip. We can't say who is making it, but it's not Intel. Q. What will Amiga Inc do to get PC software companies to port to the Amiga? A. We can use Gateway's contacts to try to persuade them to allow these ports, and we will support Amiga developers who want to work on them. Q. Who's making the bridge card, and what processor will be on it? A. Mick Tinker and Steve Jones are working on it. It can use a 68040 or 68060. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A I ' S P R O J E C T M A N A G E R S P E A K S 18 May 1998 This is what Fleecy said today on #Team*Amiga: OK, here's the story. There is a superchip out there that very few ppl know about we found out about it because of the GW2k connection the problem is, it won't be available until at least 1Q/99, which means that systems won't exist until at least 4Q/99... to develop an OS for it, we have to use simulators. The chip companies simulators and compilers are all x86 platform to develop for OS4, we have to use the tools to create the OS and the APIs. It does mean a brief flirtation with x86, but not with Windows as soon as the chip is available, we will move everything across and voila, bye bye x86. Fleecy Moss, Project Manager, Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E " B R I D G E M A C H I N E " - M O R E D E T A I L S The InsideOut is essentially an Amiga on a PCI card. It has all the usual things like AGA, CIA's, floppy & IDE connectors. It doesn't have a serial, parallel & mouse port because these are all available on the host. It has a set of drivers that handle the transfer of data between the host and InsideOut to simplify how you move data around, kind of like a 133Mb/s serial port! (consider that the current version of Siamese is one of the fastest Amiga's you are likely to use and it only uses 600kb/s across Ethernet). The Siamese traps all relevant Amiga OS calls and sends them to a command queue on the Amiga side of the bus, in most cases the Amiga can then accept that the operation has been completed (such as drawing graphics to the display). This is what makes the whole thing fast because the 68k can immediately get on with doing Amiga things and forget about the graphics, sound & I/O. Also there is little or no CHIP memory used for the display meaning that large displays take no extra memory on the InsideOut, its all used on the PC, this also means that there is no video DMA going on, leaving the full chip memory bandwidth available for the processor. On the host there is a command queue which receives the function calls from the card and the Siamese host software translates the Amiga function call into the appropriate host OS call. A clear advantage of this is that the Siamese PCI is totally independent of the graphics card, disk format, network protocols, etc., as these are all handled in the end by the host OS. Using Win95 this means that virtually ALL graphics cards are supported without any changes to the Siamese. At power up Siamese adds a display database entry for the display resolution of the host. There is 2Mb chip on the InsideOut, but no fast memory which is allocated on the host dynamically. This gives memory access rates that are about as fast as most Amiga's, however things like disk DMA can be carried out directly into this memory without it having to transfer across the bus, also images in memory can be transfer to the graphics card without using the PCI bus (because it can go across the AGP port). It depends on the application, but expect about 2x the performance from the 68k processor than you would normally have expected. Regards Mick Tinker Access Innovation (formerly Index Information) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A D E V E L O P E R ' S T A K E O N T H E F U T U R E 18 May 1998 All right guys, listen to me a minute. First of all, I've been developping on the Amiga for the past 7 years. I like to believe I've contributed to this platform. Now we have been told some SERIOUS changes are coming up for the future. For the past year, we ALL complained at the lack of DEVELOPMENT. Yesterday, they announced a plan for the FUTURE. So the Amiga can exist not only in a year, but on 4, 5, maybe *10* years. The Bridge is *NOT* the system of the future. The bridge is meant as a *TEMPORARY* development system. It will run Amiga software by itself, NOT on the PC's CPU. In 18 months, they want to come up with a totaly new architecture. This new archiecture will have *NOTHING* to do with the x86. Zilch. What CPU will that be? It's not sure yet. Maybe Merced? Maybe Altivec? maybe something yet unreleased? Just one thing is sure: They are NOT going x86. So no, the Amiga is NOT turning into a Windows box. So, just give AInc time to explain the WHOLE plan. We've been told only SOME of it so far. They will probably explain more of it as the show will proceed this week-end. Just read the press release they issue, and take a few mins to analyze what you read THERE. And think about what you want to use in 3 years of now: An Amiga 4000 with a PowerUP but AmigaOS still running on the 68040? Or a totaly new CPU, ahead of both the 680x0 AND the Pentium? They are planning the future, not just tommorow, neither the day after. But the next years. So, just give them time to explain the details, and THINK about it. Thank you. Eric Sauvageau, NewIcons/SysInspector co-author/author ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O N E O F T H E " M E N I N B L A C K " T A L K S 19 May 1998 Posted by Mikey Carrillo Hi! (I originally posted this item on Saturday 16th of May unfortunatley UKONLINE my ISP has got some problems with their News server so I'm now posting from my work server instead 4 days late, apologies if this has already been covered) Right where do I start. firstly if you have read the news pages on the Amiga web directory then you will have read about the mysterious men in black. I'm one of them, and I shall tell you what went on to the best of my ability but please remember It may not be 100% accurate but I will try. Once the announcement ended we were all invited outside the hall were refreshments and food was served to all attendees (Something never seen under commodore) After I had got my freebies I stood around talking to other another user and that's when I noticed Andy Korn of CU-Amiga magazine along with Steve and Jenny (of Alive Mediasoft) in a circle with other people one of whom was Joe Torre. The Other MIB's I now know as John Helliwell the other hangs around the newsgroups under the name of ROB - Hi Rob! - At any rate after much discussion about Vodoo II and Graphics cards I decided To interupt the discusion and speak to Joe Torre (who incidently is a very nice man)I asked him if OS 4.0 would run on dual systems i.e. Intel and Motorola 68k series. His answer was no - intel processor only. So I asked him how we existing amigans were expected to benefit from it. He looked surprised and said something along the lines of "Well there is a possability that we shall release an amiga on the card for PC users." To which (I think it was Rob) said but I haven't got a PC (others voiced their agreement) This astonished Joe Torre and I could tell by his reaction that this was news to him, Then the other man in black said that it is most common outside the US for Amiga users to only have Amigas. i.e. europe and uk. He then stated that all the amigans in the US (as far as he knew) Had both formats and didn't think that it was going to be a problem. (My opinion is that they thought most amigans only used their amigas as an alternative to PC's NOT by choice.) I further went on (with support of others) to state that what they had done had virtually killed of the existing Amiga Market, since without PPC there was no way that existing Amiga users would continue to support a platform for 18 months - 2 years without upgrades and support. "Think of the developers" I said, "What are they going to do? Who's going to want to develop decent games/applications for the Amiga market now? What about people like Phase 5 and others? they have sunk a lot of money into helping the Amiga and now they are possibly staring bunkrupty in the face, Whose going to want to develop for PPC when it has no future?" Joe Torre responded that he thought that PPC has a future for now, but as myself and others pointed out the Amiga is going down a mainline railway line whilst PPC has hit the buffers. He later stated that perhaps he should have stated the Amigans case more strongly during development meetings (from what I gather mostly made up from PC people) We all pleaded with him to go back and talk to the rest of the team and work out something with Phase 5 and PPC, because come colgne '98 the Amiga market will have shrunk to virtually nothing. (After having made the points to poor old Joe (sorry Joe I know I/we gave you a hard time) we noticed Jeff Schindlers Boss (jeff incidently had scuppered) Jim Collas We all went over and explained it all to him all over again. The only difference being that He admitted that they had wanted to speak to Phase 5 before the meeting (at which Mr Deitricht stormed out off.) but were unable to. I stated that 15 revised plans and they still cocked up (to which Jim sadly agreed) At any rate he promised that they would talk to phase 5 as soon as possible. Last minute note: I spoke to Andy Korn again today, May 16th (god I bet he's sick of me)and he told me that AI/inc had met with H&P and Phase 5 around mid morning but what was said he didn't know. (I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall) **************************************** So please guys & girls email Jeff Schlinder and co. and tell them we want OS4.0 for PPC as well and to run on our existing machines!!! NOT the PC! Let's deluge the guys and gals at AI/inc. ***************************************** One more thing. What AI/inc have in store for OS5 Amigas is nothing short of breathtaking and for that they should receive our support Sorry for the long post but I thought you'd like to know. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A C I V I L W A R E N D S ? May 20th, 1998 Phase 5 / Haage & Partner Cooperation In a joint anouncement after the recent World of Amiga show in London, and as a reaction to the plans revealed by Amiga Inc., Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products have emphasized their full and continued support for the PowerPC integration. With joint efforts both vendors will further support the developers and the users of PowerPC technology, and will ensure a fast growing number of stunning and powerful applications. With many thousands of PowerUP boards beeing shipped so far, a number of installed systems which is rapidly growing, the PowerUP boards already provide an attractive market for all developers. This fact is underscored by many upcoming PowerUP releases of major Amiga software packages, and the increasing support of software vendors which has been agreed on during the WoA even after the announcements of Amiga Inc. Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products emphasized that the competition of their different approaches towards PowerPC integration, as well as the public dispute about this, are a matter of the past. "We will ensure that users of PowerUP system have a transparent integration of their PowerPC software, and will see a rich variety of most powerful applications to be released soon" say representatives of both companies. Further development of PowerPC system software shall be done with close consultations between the companies; beside that, cooperations in the development of powerful PowerPC-based system libraries and other OS extensions are being discussed. In meetings of the managements of Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products with Amiga Inc. already during the WoA show in London, it has been agreed that a new proposal will be presented to Amiga Inc. which outlines an alternative option to "Amiga Bridge" system planned by Amiga, Inc. This alternative is a new PowerPC-based system, which will feature the planned Amiga OS upgrade and can be out for sale in the retail channels by end of the year already. Beyond incorporating standard industry components and interfaces, such a system can provide additional options which allow for creative development and expansion in the spirit of the Amiga and can also run the current and next releases of AmigaOS. Based on the PowerPC, this system will also provide continuity and innovation for all users and developers, and will allow the Amiga community to take part of such stunning developments such as Motorola's new AltiVec technology, an extension to the G4 PowerPC processors which will provide a breathtaking performance already early next year. With approval and support of Amiga Inc., this technology can introduce the long-awaited revival of the Amiga platform already this year, quickly providing a growing market of powerful systems which users can buy, and for which developers can develop and sell software and add-ons. Haage&Partner and phase 5 digital products also encourage all Amiga developers who want to participate today in an existing innovation, and who want to be a part of an Amiga market which provides growth, continuity and innovation from now on and during the next years, to speak out now and commit themselves to support the PowerPC as the heart of the next generation of Amiga systems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G A T E W A Y ( A N D A I ? ) T O R E L O C A T E 22 May 1998 Gateway itself is moving to San Diego, and it is possible that Amiga Inc. will be following them. It seems that Amiga Inc will be moving -somewhere-. ----------------------------------------------------------- Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine VP, Legacy Maker Inc. http://www.cucug.org/ar/ http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O R E G O N R E S E A R C H D I E S 20 May 1998  Going Out Of Business Sale Now until June 30, 1998 A sad sad day... Welcome to the final edition of the Oregon Research News. This last year has been difficult for all Amiga users and even more so for us at Oregon Research. This is a sad day in the world of Amiga. After ten years of service, it is with great sadness that I must announce that Oregon Research is going out of business. The expenses of operation have far exceeded business income for too long and our creditors have lost their patience. Even though Jo and I have both taken jobs outside of the business to help repay the debts, it is not enough. In an effort to repay our business debts and avoid personal financial ruin, we are forced to liquidate all of our inventory and business assets. We have tried to avoid this action for as long as possible. Unfortunately, time and the bill collector caught up with us before Gateway could deliver on their promises. I want to take this opportunity to personally thank each and every one of you for supporting us over the years. Without your loyal support, Oregon Research would never have been possible and my personal dream of building my own business would never have become a reality. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My only regret is no longer having the opportunity to serve such a wonderful subset of the human race. Until we meet again..... Bob Luneski orres@teleport.com http://www.orres.com for sale prices, including software, hardware and code rights ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A U N I V E R S I T Y H O L D S F I N A L S 25 May 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Amiga Informer Announces the Final Round of Competition in the Amiga University Prize Contest. If you'd like to win one of the great prizes in Amiga University's online trivia contest, be sure to register right now for the last round of challenging questions at www.amigainformer.com/amigau You'll be eligible to win any of the following prizes: * Super CD-ROM bundle or Pen Mouse from Turtle Lightning * Airmail Pro from Toysoft and Aweb II 3.1 from Amitrix * Aladdin 4D 5.0 from Nova Design * $400 Game bundle from Vulcan Software America * Amiga 1200 Computer System with Magic Pack software So, if you're up to the task, register now. Winners will be selected from those with the best scores. Hurry and play now because it will all be over in the beginning of June! Good luck, Amigans. The staff at The Informer would also like to let our readers know that issue 14 will be a bit delayed. Do to the massive amount of information released at the World of Amiga show in London and subsiquent related information, we felt it necessary for us to delay printing. This amounts to about a one week delay, so if you are a subscriber you should get your issue around week 3 of June. Once you get the issue and see the detailed and, I should say, excellent and exciting news, you will be happy. Good things are finally happening on the Amiga and you can read it all in issue 14 and those that follow. Thanks for your support, Fletcher Haug, Editor in chief The Amiga Informer Magazine (www.amigainformer.com) And our friends at: Pantheon Systems (www.pantheonsys.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 9 9 7 A A A A W A R D T O H O L G E R K R U S E London, UK. Saturday May 16, 1998. Holger Kruse, creator of well-known Amiga Internet connection software "Miami", received today the AAA Award International 1997 at the World of Amiga show in London, UK! Presentation The AAA Award International 1997, consisting of a custom designed crystal glass Boing ball and a fine diploma, was handed over by Petro Tyschtschenko, MD of Amiga International, Inc. who along with Martin Sahlén, director of AAA Awards, performed the presentation. Holger Kruse, voted winner by Amiga users all over the world, expressed his gratitude for receiving this recognition. The ceremony was performed at the Novotel Exhibition Centre, Hammersmith, London. Motivation The motivation, for which Mr. Kruse received the AAA Award International 1997: "For creating Miami, 'the first TCP/IP stack for EVERY Amiga user'. The inexpensive, fast and easy fashion of Miami has helped making the Amiga a true Internet computer with a wave of new applications as a result." Acknowledgements The AAA Awards Committee wishes to thank all Amiga users who voted, Amiga International Inc. and the World of Amiga management for their support. Contacts AAA Awards, homepage http://www.aaa-awards.org AAA Awards, suggestions hotline +46-90-71 00 20 (24 hours) AAA Awards, fax +46-90-71 01 46
Holger Kruse, e-mail kruse@nordicglobal.com Martin Sahlén, e-mail director@aaa-awards.org, martin.sahlen@aaa-awards.org Petro Tyschtschenko, e-mail ptysch@amiga.de The AAA Awards 1997 presented in proud association with AMIGA International, Inc. and Cloanto. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1998 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 ======================================================================