A


Message #9 "Amiga Discussion" (Read: 11)
Date: 13 Sep 92 14:45:55
From: Matt Davidian
  To: All
Subj: Happens at WoC!!!

These are some of my impressions, observations and comments about the 
World of Commodore show in Pasadena on 9/12.  These aren't rumors, 
this is for real, except where I might comment or speculate on 
something. (I hope those places are clear)  If there are any factual 
errors its probably my fault (due to bad memory/notetaking) 
 
First off, the Keynote Address by Commodore.  I think Commodore 
shocked a lot of people (at least they did me) by having the V.P. of 
Engineering handle most of this.  Basically, he outlined where they 
were (briefly), where they are now, and where they are going.  In 
some detail, which is what is shocking given how open (NOT!) 
Commodore has been in the past about their future plans. 
 
First the AA (Double A) or AGA (what marketing likes to call it).  It 
has 4 times the bandwidth of ECS, due to a 32-bit memory path and 
page-mode DRAMs.  256 colors are available in all resolutions, out of 
a 24-bit palette. The new eight bit HAM mode uses 64 base colors and 
is also available in all resolutions according to an AmigaWorld 
preview that was distributed at the show. Sprites may be 16, 32 or 64 
bits wide.  The audio is still the same. The new chips are named Lisa 
and Alice, replacing Agnus and Denise.  These are downward compatible 
with the ECS chip set.  Plug in upgrade will not be possible, as have 
past upgrades, since these new chips are apparenly using surface 
mount technology.  At least part of the reason is that the socket 
degrade and slow signals.  In any event, with a 32-bit data path and 
page mode DRAMs, I don't really see how an upgrade is possible short 
of a motherboard swap.  For the A3000, it *ought* to be possible to 
make a video board with the new chips, and simply not use the old 
graphics chips on the motherboard, but no mention was made of this. 
 
For the future, Commodore is defining a low end and a high end chipset. 
The AA graphics chip seem to form a core on which both sets will build 
on.  First, some features of the low end chip set: 
  * To be comprised of two chips. 
  * 32 bit DRAM 
  * 57 Mhz pixel clock 
  * ECS/AA compatible 
  * Support for 4 Mb floppy with hardware CRC 
  * 32 bit processor support 
    (Apparently there will be some kind of direct interface to couple the 
     chips with the processor.) 
  * 8x bandwith increase 
  * 2x blitter performance 
  * 800x600 256 color mode at 72Hz 
  * 16 bit "true color" graphics mode 
  * FIFO buffer on serial port 
  * Larger chip RAM address space 
 
That's the low end.  Here are the high end features: 
  * 4 custom chips 
  * 32/64 bit wide VRAM (allow simultaneous access, increasing bandwidth) 
  * 57/114 Mhz pixel clock 
  * Support for "Chunky" pixels 
    --Bitplanes are not being done away with here, but chunky pixels will 
      be supported because there are some things they do better. 
  * Support for 24 bit planes 
  * CD-ROM ready 
  * Frame Grabber built in (don't know how fast it will operate) 
  * 1K x 1K screen resolutions 
  * 16 bit audio, samples up to 100kHz 
  * On demand DMA--instead of the synchronus DMA that is currently used, 
    asynchronus DMA will be done, but it will be backwards compatible. 
  * 12-20x bandwidth increase over AA chipset 
  * 32 bit blitter, 8x performance 
    Possibility of having a separate blitter for each bit plane 
  * Decompression modes for video (coming in from a CD-ROM presumably) 
  * ECS/AA compatible 
  * Improved genlock support 
  * 72 Hz refresh rate 
  * Processor indepedant (they are thinking ahead to RISC machines) 
 
He expected to have the high end chips in silicon in 3-6 months.  After 
that, a lot of testing is needed to determine flaws, how compatible the 
chips are with the old set, etc.  I would guess any machine with these 
specs is well over a year away. 
 
Future goals: 
  * Incorporate AA chipset across product line 
  * Modular system designs to ease upgrading 
    (The Amiga 4000 has the 68040 on a plug in card.  I would expect to see 
    68030 and/or 68020 versions) 
  * More timely introductions of newer & faster processors 
  * Add DSP technology 
  * SCSI-II Zorro III 32 bit bus master controller, to be introduced 
	possibly by the end of the year (This will incorporated into the 
    motherboard of future machines) 
  * Move CD-ROM across product line 
  * Full motion video (biggest obstacle here appears to be software) 
  * Cost reduce and enhance CDTV (he empasized that CDTV is still 
    important to Commodore, although it seems that they have 
	repositioned it since it hasn't exactly taken off in the 
	consumer market.) 
  * Upgrade multimedia software 
  * Accelerate VLSI development 
 
With regard to the operating system: 
 
OS 2 
Rework of operating system 
Scalable fonts 
3D Look 
 
OS 2.1 
Localization (18 countries) 
CrossDOS 
Hard Drive Install Utility 
Enhanced Printer Drivers, including a Postscript Driver 
 
OS 3.0 
AA support 
Multimedia utilities 
 
OS 3.1 
Network API Extensions 
File & Printer Sharing 
DSP support 
 
OS 4 
Retargetable graphics 
Full Postscript support 
 
The upgrades to the operating system are apparently going to happen over the 
next year.  A priority has been to get the engineering department in the 
position to effectively get new technology developed and out the door. 
 
Jim Dionne answered some questions at the Keynote Address.  When asked why 
PrintShop wasn't available for the Amiga, he said this type of question 
comes up a lot.  He would like to see all software run on the Amiga, 
except Windows, which drew a round of applause from the audience. 
One way to get software ported is to pay the developer a lot of money to 
do it, which Commodore isn't in the position to do.  Also said the 
software that's available is a reflection of what the installed user 
base wants...On the C64, it's still selling around 700,000 in Europe, 
so Commodore is still making them.  Will the A500 be phased out with 
the new A600?  Sales figures will tell them what to do, Dionne said. 
Why did Commodore let the education market get away from them and 
let Apple and IBM get it?  Commodore wasn't in the position to give 
millions of dollars in hardware and discounts away like the others did. 
Now with price wars, and margins getting smaller, the three companies 
are more on an equal footing, Apple and IBM can't do that any longer. 
(Although Apple and IBM do have the installed base, and C= doesn't) 
Dionne said that he would love to have the 65% education market share 
in the US that he saw when he worked in Canadian Commodore...Trade Up 
programs to new AA computers?  Dionne says they have had success with 
these programs in the past, so given Commodore's "whatever sells" 
philosophy... 
 
Why no Amiga laptops?  Basically, the old chips use too much power to 
make a laptop feasable.  Newer chips will use NMOS technology and 
consume less power.  Also these new chips will not be made by 
Commodore (but they are designed by Commodore)  The Lisa and Alice 
chips are being made by three different companies.  Three sources 
should prevent supply problems.  That about wraps up the keynote 
address. 
 
I talked a bit with Ed Green, who teaches a high school algebra, 
geometry and chemistry class using CDTVs networked into an A3000. He 
had a demo setup in the Commodore area.  The system is amazing, and 
could revolutionize teaching.  His enthusiam for this system is very 
catching.  He goes on about his "five dollar network" (the cost of 
the MIDI cable used to network the machines) and fifty cent textbook 
(since such a large part of the instruction is on computer, the 
"textbook" is photocopied) and he complains of sometimes not being 
able to spend all of the $750,000 in grant money from Nabisco that is 
funding this three year project because the hardware is so cheap. 
Commodore had a press release in June on him, but this is the first 
I've heard of this program.  This is exactly the kind of PR stuff 
that Commodore needs to improve its image. 
 
I didn't get a chance to take a good look at AmigaVision Professional, 
but from the spec sheet here are two highlights:  Several CDTV 
support features and a freely distributable runtime. 
 
Final Copy II on the AA chipset looks fantastic.  According to one 
of the guys who wrote it, an upgrade mailing should be going out 
next week.  It seems to be working its way towards the type of high 
end word processor the Amiga needs.  From my experience with the 
original Final Copy and Softwood's support of their products, I 
highly recommend FC II. 
 
I was also very impressed by GVP's Phone Pak VFS.  Not only can you 
have it record messages and faxes (in separate, password protected 
mailboxes if you want) but the system can be programmed to send a 
fax to a caller based on a number they put in.  The caller has to 
call from a fax with a built in phone, since callback isn't 
supported (long distance calls are an issue here, cause it would be 
your dime on the callback).  Now compare this to a high end fax 
information service on the PC:  The GammaFax MLCP-4/AEB supports 
four dial-in lines.  It lists at $3995.  You also have to add a 
voice board, $1150.  If you want to be able to have broadcast fax 
capability, also add in a $995 GammaFax Programmer's Interface. 
(This is from September 92 Byte)  List total:  $6140.  No voice 
mail, no incoming fax, but it has callback. 
 
Now compare this to Phone Pak. You can put four Phone Paks in a A2000 
to handle four lines, have voice mail, incoming faxes stored, send 
faxes (as well as broadcast send faxes), and have a fax information 
service for callers to request documents--although without callback 
capability, and an ARexx interface so you can integrate Phone Pak 
with anything, all of this for well under $2000 total!  GVP has really 
got something here, and they seem poised to establish another niche 
market for the Amiga. 
 
Sending a fax is as easy as printing a document from your word 
processor--because that's exactly what you do with their fax printer 
driver.  One caveat--due to a bug in the Zorro III bus 
implementation, the board won't DMA correctly to 32 bit memory. 
Commodore developed a workaround for GVP, but isn't fixing the A3000 
bus (the A4000 is supposed to have this fixed).  GVP is apparently 
modifying their board per Commodore's fix.  In the meantime, A3000 
owners need a Zorro II 16 bit memory board so that DMA can happen. 
 
ICD was showing their new Trifecta hard drive.  It was running 4.5 
minutes of Star Wars (where they escape from the Death Star)  Full 
screen lores nolace HAM at 30 fps & audio on a stock Amiga 500 w/1Mb 
of chip RAM.  The drive was transferring data at 1.9Mb/sec, total 
size of video was 350K.  I honestly though they had a VCR plugged 
into the monitor when I first saw it.  I had to walk around behind to 
check if there was a composite connection.  I'd heard about these 
kinds of demos before, but I don't think it really sinks in until you 
see it in person. 
 
The new computers--the A600 was doing what it was purposed to do, it 
seems, playing games (although one was running one of the star gazing 
programs).  Reaction seemed mixed; some complained about lack of 
features/expandibility, others thought it could be a very hot machine. 
If the price comes down, I think it will be a big seller.  Right now, 
it may be too close to the price range of the A500.  There were some 
hints that a more powerful low end computer would be introduced, 
but nothing concrete. 
 
The A4000--it looked great, but it seemed besides Final Copy II the 
only thing to do on them is play with the preferences.  The AmigaWorld 
preview said they will have a list of software that has been designed 
to work on the new graphics modes in the November issue.  The 
prefences are still quite impressive, especially the pallete editor 
(which now uses a color wheel) and the Workbench pattern editor, 
which now supports an IFF file to take the place of the patterns 
(I don't know if this is a 3.0 only feature or not) 
 
Version 3 of the operating system apprarently is the same as version 
2.1, with support for the AA chips and multimedia.  According to the 
2.1 information, multiple parallel and serial prefences are 
supported, 68040 support, spline screen blanker, enhanced 
reliability, improved icon editor. 
 
SAS was there, and although most Amiga owners probably don't have 
their C compiler, in the end everyone will benefit from their 
continued enhancements--better tools make program development faster 
and easier. For those who don't know, Commodore has a new hypertext 
system that SAS C 6.0 uses.  I've heard this will become a standard 
part of the operating system, but I don't know which revision. 
 
There was a lot of other stuff there, but other people will probably 
cover it.  I've just tried to go over some of the stuff that 
impressed me the most.  If the next World of Commodore is near where 
you live (or even if it isn't) go to it! 
 
Matt Davidian 
GEnie:     M.DAVIDIAN1 
Internet:  matthewd@csufres.csufresno.edu 
 
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