Ah, November... the month I finally got NetBSD installed on my salvaged 486 PC, decided my next Amiga would be an 060 Boxer, realised I'm in an underpaid/overworked job, and discovered KOSH isn't just the name of my favourite Babylon 5 character... but a possible future of the Amiga...
By now you've heard of the announcement of Amiga Inc.'s new partnership with QNX, one of the premier realtime OSs available today. I won't rehash everything to do with this, except to note that I'm genuinely excited about the news. QNX are an ideal partner, and it was a real bonus to discover most of the QNX team actually own Amigas. As regards QNX, I think we're in safe hands.
However, Amiga Inc. made another bungled announcement. On Sunday I heard via Convergence International's newsletter that Amiga Inc. had partnered with QNX. A swift search of various Amiga sites revealed no such announcement - so I put it down to another "Gateway PowerPC Amiga" hoax. OS News carried the story the next morning, but there was still no sign of the announcement on ANY Amiga site or the QNX site. Gradually, by about the middle of the week, the news had been retrofitted to various news sites, and an announcement had been added to the Amiga Inc. and Amiga International sites. Amiga Inc. really haven't quite figured out how to make announcements properly yet, but I guess they have more important things to attend to (I'm hoping OS development takes a priority over press release writing).
One of those things seemed to have been sacking Fleecy Moss, a dedicated, enthusiastic and high-profile member of the Amiga, Inc. team. There has been no concrete background information on the departure of Fleecy Moss so far, though the general indication is that Fleecy Moss and Amiga Inc. were not in agreement about the direction the Amiga was heading. Speculation and rumour has been rife, naturally, and a lot of commentary has been made on the fact that Amiga Inc. may be joining the infamous Amiga-Killer alumni which features such impressive members as Commodore, ESCOM and VisCorp. Apparently Amiga Inc. just haven't been communicating to the community properly (really?) and that such important societies as the ICOA, JMS and UGN have been shunned.
That's probably a bit harsh, and I admit I don't I agree wholeheartedly on this matter - though being paranoid by nature, you just can't help but wonder sometimes... I'm adopting a wait-and-see approach - if the November Box and OS 3.5 ship in the first quarter of next year, and they both ooze of quality, I'll be satisfied that Amiga Inc. are going the right way. If there are any delays, or OS 3.5 doesn't come up to scratch, then I'll get worried...
I think it's important that we remain unified and give Amiga Inc. a chance to prove themselves. Until we see OS 5.0 in action, or get a feel for the new architecture we don't have much to base our opinions on. However, Amiga Inc. could at least communicate a bit more and ease the fear, uncertainty and doubt (I use these words for a particular reason) rippling through the community. The comment about confusing Micros**t doesn't cut it with me, Micros**t can blow the Amiga out of the water at any point they choose, if they set their mind to it. But then, they have a few more pressing matters to resolve - the DOJ trial, and the impressive partnership of AOL, Netscape and Sun... and don't forget Apple's iMac.
So what now? Well, I was waiting around for the November developments - deciding whether to invest in a November Box, transAM, Pre\BOX, PowerUP or opt for an 060 Boxer. None of which have, unfortunately, turned up (except for the PowerUP). I'm unsure about PowerUP for my needs at present, particularly with the ESCENA multi-G3 boards due to be unveiled. transAM and Pre\BOX are currently low-profile, and Boxer is delayed (but improving in features as time goes on).
Boxer is my current aim, particularly to ensure I have a suitable basis for future expansion should anything go horribly wrong with the Amiga Inc. situation, or if the chance of buying an MMC Amiga computer (not Set Top Box, Console or Internet Box... a real computer system) is limited for a year or so. Then a multi-G3 board when available - I have some serious need for rendering and assorted processing power at the moment, and this seems like the ideal opportunity.
For now, embracing what we have at the moment is the most sensible option. Once all the dust has settled early next year we can then begin to make firm decisions about where everything is truly going. If it looks like disaster is looming, there are options such as Fleecy Moss' inspired KOSH (Kommunity Organised Software and Hardware) or AROS (Amiga Research Operating System) out there which, given an injection of good old Amiga community spirit, offer solid foundations for an Amiga future with great potential. Far from the doom and gloom many people are seeing, it's a very exciting time one way or another.
Recently, I became aware that a development team consisting of IAT Manufacturing and Alternative Approach are close to unveiling a project which will introduce ColdFire technology to the Amiga. There were some murmurings of ColdFire a while back, but it never came to anything. I believe the Sinclair QL has had accelerator boards based upon ColdFire and even 68060 (at a lower cost than equivalent Amiga boards!) for a while now, so why not the Amiga?
ColdFire is a RISC evolution of the 680X0 line, though it doesn't fully support 680X0 code and thus requires software emulation of missing instructions. However, you get excellent performance for the price and when you couple this with the fact the Amiga ColdFire boards will offer multiprocessing without sacrificing compatibility with existing 680X0 applications you may well find it a very tempting proposition, particularly as it can coexist with PowerPC boards.
The initial Impulse board is set for an early 1999 release, and will feature two ColdFire processors each running at 70 MIPS. Consider the fact that V4 ColdFire chips will offer about 600 MIPS performance for as low as around $20-$25 and things become even more tempting.
Check out my new ColdFire page for further information.