I deliberately steered clear of any talk about the new Amiga in last month's comments. At the time, the details were still fresh, and decidely vague and hazy. All kinds of rumours were circulating, people were either crying out about the death of the Amiga, or praising a superchip which was becoming increasingly more amazing with each retelling of the story. Not one of the best executed announcements in the history of computing, but at least it wasn't the bad news many people had expected...
Within a few hours of the announcement, a friend of mine (a devout Acorn, ARM and NetBSD fanatic) had already expressed an interest in the new system - if it can inspire that kind of rethink amongst people who still think of the Amiga as a 7MHz 68000 machine with a double density floppy disk, then things are definitely looking up. But what are my plans now that the future of the Amiga has been sketched out, if not yet available and polished?
Since my first pay cheque back at the end of November '97, I've been saving away - some of it for my future, and some of it for a future Amiga. My intention, once the inevitable PowerPC version of AmigaOS was available, was to buy a dual-PowerPC PIOS transAM. After all, Amiga Inc. were going the software route, with third party hardware companies shipping the goods to use AmigaOS on. It seemed like the ideal way to enter the new millennium. It still seems like a good way, but things have overshadowed it now. I'd still like a transAM, but my priorities, and Amiga destiny, now lies elsewhere...
So what are my plans now? Well, the new hardware is the definite target, I can't see anything coming quite so close. Which leaves me with the dilemma quite a few of the visitors to this site have expressed - what do I do in the meantime? Do I sit around twiddling my thumbs for the next year and a half, or do I go out and upgrade my machine quickly, pushing it to one side once I've bought a new Amiga?
Had a PowerPC native AmigaOS been ready and available by the end of the year, I would probably have stuck it out and gone for the transAM. Now that I've got more than a wait of a a few months, the most pressing need is to get my existing system a faster processor. 25 MHz 68030s aren't exactly cutting edge these days, and I've really been stretching this thing to the limit recently. It's coped with everything I've chucked at it admirably, but I've reached a limit. Everything else is fine - I have the storage, I have the graphics cards, I have the memory, I have a new 15" display with more controls than the space shuttle. (Why is it that the more controls on a monitor, the more adjustments need to be made to get everything set just right?)
68060s are still expensive, but I'm not totally sure if going for an 040 is a wise choice or not - think future-proofing, in case it all goes horribly wrong. Now that Phase 5 and Haage & Partner have come out of their cold war, the PowerPC future looks much better. We could still see future AmigaOS versions running on the 'Amiga Classic', and I aim to be using the A4000 alongside the new Amigas - just as my A500 still maintains a dignified place on my desk. (Though it's currently under a mountain of letters from my car insurance company and solicitors, but you get my meaning...) As such, a 604e looks to be quite a nice investment irrespective of whether an 040 or 060 is going to replace my current CPU. For me, the accelerator looks set to be my only upgrade from now until the new Amigas.
I can justify an interim upgrade like this, but only just. I usually begrudge anything which is going to last less than about 4 years (one of my reasons for an aversion to the Wintel world), but in this case the upgrade will give me some extra power as a taster for the next level of performance. A year and a half is a long time, and the 604e may well give me an entry point into OS 4.0 if things work out in the PowerPC camp.
My only concern is for those who don't have the cash to make such a decision at the moment. What of a lowly home user/hobbyist who wants a major upgrade which is going to last a long time - do they take the plunge now and live with it for the next few years, or do they wait for the new Amigas? What of the developers who have upgraded their Amigas only to find that interim development is now on a PC compatible? I wonder how many loyal Amiga developers would be turned away from the platform because their investment has gone into, say, the PowerUP route. We aren't talking a quick change of processor, but a whole new platform - one which will be effectively a short term solution! That's a lot of investment...
However, things could still look very bright for the PowerPC field. With the welcome partnership of Phase 5 and Haage & Partner, the PowerUP route could still provide an entry into the new Amiga's future. Current developers wouldn't need to buy an expensive PC compatible, they could use their existing machine - a real bonus for poorly financed Amiga developers and bedroom coders. I wish Phase 5 and Haage & Partner every success with making a PowerPC interim system a reality - I aim to have an upgraded A4000 meeting whatever requirements they desire, ready for Amiga II: The Next Generation.
Yep, I finally did the honourable thing and bought a PACE 56k modem, Netconnect 2 (well, when it arrives...) and a year's subscription to Wirenet. I've owned a computer since 1985, remember when 64k was excessive, been an Internet user since 1994 and rewritten the multitasking kernel in MINIX - but have never had to use a modem before. I'm a newbie all over again, and loving every minute! (With the exception of using the awful Thor mail software... it's adequate for newsgroups, but frustratingly clumsy for normal e-mail)
I've always had a permanent, free connection to the Internet, SuperJANET access via university (where else can you get a 20-30kps connection at peak time?) then a 128kbps leased line at work. Taking 24 hours to download 10Mb (Netscrape upgrades!) used to be taken in my stride - but when it's your phone bill mounting, the situation looks different. It's great to be free of ever vigilant sysadmins at last, and with a decent machine for access - believe me, the Amiga is the ideal Internet access machine, so long as you can cope with being treated as a second class user by most ISPs (not Wirenet, obviously!).
My only problem is that I need a serial card to get full use of my modem, the internal serial port just can't cope. Finding a Zorro card with the serial port is a major headache - no one in the UK can get hold of the Hypercom3Z, the PortPlus3Z has been discontinued and I haven't been able to locate anything similar. Once again, A1200 owners get all the great expansion options (except for graphics cards *smug grin*), while Zorro equipped Amigans have to scrounge around for an expensive and difficult-to-find alternative. Ah well...