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1. The Big Little Fair - a report from Neuss (by Martin Baute)

»The "World of Alternatives" has become small, at least in the space it takes up: this was my first impression of the World of Alternatives, which was held in the city hall of Neuss, Germany.

Due to the steep drop in the number of visitors and the overall level of the Cologne fair - already felt in 1998 and noticeable last year - I was afraid I would come upon something like an improved garage sale. But while the space was modest, the standard of this fair was in no way inferior to the Home Electronics World.

Lots of well known faces recognized. Maybe TOO well known - if every other visitor is one you've seen at a similar event before, then the market needs a breath of fresh air. Not exactly a new discovery... There were no fantastic new products to get excited over; the demo animation of the fantasy simulation "Tales of Tamar" was a remarkable exception, which the visitors appreciated accordingly every half hour.

Otherwise, there was not much to be reported about the fair. Yes, here and there was a new version of some software, or some more hardware for the good old A1200. At the "individual computers" booth, Jens Schoenfeld displayed one of the A1000s handsigned by Jay Miner.

Screenshot

At times the hall was filled to bursting with visitors, but this did not mean much in such a narrow space.

Screenshot

In spite of this, there was a breath of fresh air to come, from the report "rooms". Bill McEwen, president of Amiga Inc., had arrived from the USA to satisfy the curiosity of the users and developers community. He had with him the first release of the Amiga Software Developer Kit (SDK) - which, contrary to a previous announcement, was freely on sale without the need to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

I will go into more detail about the SDK later, but first a few small drawbacks: No, the SDK does not contain a graphical developers environment. It does not contain a bootable new desktop, where you can test new applications right away. Several parts are still missing (e.g. 3D and sound support). And Amiga Inc's part in this SDK (still) is quite small. The main part comes >from and is about Tao, the technology partner of Amiga Inc.

But otherwise - aside from the almost obligatory C/C++ compiler (a modified version of gcc) the SDK contains a Java Virtual Machine (according to Sun 22 times faster at display of multimedia contents than any other JVM); a Java compiler with support for PersonalJava 1.1.7 - certified by Sun; complete Unicode support; documentation and tools for programming in VP (Virtual Processor, the object based, binary compatible macro assembler which is the foundation for the new operating system); and nearly 300 pages of printed documentation in addition to the 4MB (compressed) online documentation. I let this speak for itself.

At least as interesting as the SDK was the information gleaned from Bill McEwen's presentation. Partnerships, possibilities, future expectations - if you compare the efforts of Amiga Inc. with what was introduced by either Escom or Gateway you have to be delighted with the new team's impetus and speed. This enterprise's success does not (only) depend on us - Bill McEwen obviously believes unwaveringly in his project and he knows how to infect others with his enthusiasm.

It was clear that many people in the audience were keen on more development for the "Classic" market - the question of the further development of AmigaOS 3.5 arose several times. Bill McEwen dampened down those expectations, but in an open, honest way and with reasonable arguments: To port the AmigaOS to PPC might need 18 to 24 months work - and even then this port would only be 80% complete (compatible), because many parts of the OS are very closely connected with the custom chips. Because sales of OS 3.5 have been slow - and a PPC-based hardware successor to the A4000 and A1200 is not in sight - the effort put into such a port just would not pay.

Da sich schon das OS 3.5 nur sehr zoegerlich verkaufen liess - und ein auf PPC basierender Hardware-Nachfolger von A4000 und A1200 ebenfalls nicht in Sicht ist - wuerden sich die Anstrengungen einer solchen Portierung einfach nicht auszahlen.

Instead of this Amiga Inc. will concentrate on the new OS (which is supposed to be an OE - Operating Environment - greetings to Collas) and on new partnerships. For years we grumbled that "our" latest "mother company" made crazy decisions, did not recognize marketing opportunities and had not developed a vision for the future. We can only regret now that, after decades of technological standstill a "reanimation" of the "Classic" Amigas must be seen as a "crazy decision". Sad, but true!

What will the future bring?

The SDK is - at least for developers - the first step. Version 1.0 still is quite limited: It only runs with a Linux installation as host and only on an x86 processor. Officially tested Linux distributions are Red Hat 6.1 (not 6.2, which contains various bugs!) and Corel Linux. Several users have successful tested the SDK with the SuSE 6.4 distribution, which is easier to obtain hereabouts.

Future versions of the SDK (updates may be downloaded from the internet for free) will run on other processors, e.g. APUS-Linux with PPC-Amigas - but also on StrongARM, MIPS, SH/4 and other CPUs, such as the ones commonly used in games consoles. Compatibility across the CPU borders will also be a part of the final OS for users.

The final OS will be able to use other operating systems as host, for example Windows (98, NT, CE) or QNX. Support for non-desktop-OS's like EPOC or PalmOS is under development. Thus, later on it should be easy to "snoop" into the new AmigaOS, without being forced to change completely - this is an important argument.

Of course the new operating system eventually will not need a host at all, but will optionally work as a special OS - assuming that relevant drivers exist (with this in mind Haage & Partner have already announced plans to adapt their WarpUP accordingly). Developers are advised to aim at a system with AMD-K6-2 CPU, Matrox G400 graphics board, Soundblaster Live! and 128 MB RAM, because these are the specifications for the Amiga DevBox.

Amiga Inc. will only give full support on hardware problems to developers with machines bought as a DevBox bundled with the SDK from a licensed local dealer.

And those users unwilling or unable to write software?

Well, Bill McEwen announced the AmigaOne, a multimedia desktop with the new operating system, to be developed by Amiga Inc. and manufactured by a partner company, as soon as the new operating system is ready. He would not say anything about the hardware to be used, because it will take some time until it is ready. On the other hand, as soon as the operating system is ready it will not matter which hardware platform it will be used on...

Martin Baute <solar@baud.de> June 27, 2000«