The InsideOut, the SiamesePCI, has been an on-off project due to the shifting fortunes of the Amiga, Amiga community and Amiga market. Back in the infamous World Amiga '98 announcement, the project was to provide a key component bridging the gap between Amigas old and new, but alas this appears no longer to be the case.
So, what is it? Why does it still hold such a fascination? Why does it still offer a particular piece of the classic Amiga that is unlikely to be found anywhere else?
The hardware is the real piece of exciting material, aimed at fast execution of current Amiga code. The reason is obvious: it's a classic Amiga running the fastest available 680X0 processor, but freed from many of the hardware constraints that limit the existing classic architecture.
Siamese have made a big fuss over the system, plugging away as a panacea for all kinds of users - ex-Amigans, next generation Amigans, Macintosh users moving to the PC, PC users looking for a Mac, PC users looking for an Amiga... the list is endless. Amiga by Stealth was the wonderful term I heard being used. Well, SiamesePCI is all this and perhaps more.
The idea of putting an Amiga on a PCI card is one of those things that is simple, revolutionary and yet could easily have never been thought of. The Siamese software is in such a state whereby it can be ported to the hardware within four weeks, the only trouble is that the hardware is on hold for various reasons. I doubt Amiga dropping the card eased the path from drawing board to full-blown production.
The card features a subset of the classic Amiga architecture, all that is required for successful operation within a host system. This subset has been developed to provide the maximum capability.
The Access Innovations InsideOut card:
The system is, in essence, the next step of the Siamese Amiga. Rather than relying on relatively slow serial or Ethernet connections between a PC and an Amiga, the InsideOut Amiga is connected internally via a PCI bus - giving a connection which is several orders of magnitude faster. In fact, the connection beats the internal bus speeds of normal Amigas - memory and graphics can be accessed faster than ever!
The most obvious result of this invention is that old software can move to any new hardware, so long as it features PCI (though I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to adapt to other interfaces at a later date). No need for slow or clumsy emulation - give it a real Amiga to play with. However, this is a rather narrow view...
Everyone knows the Amiga can emulate a Macintosh, they share a common processor heritage. Put a Macintosh emulator on the card and you have a Macintosh on a card, plus an entry point into the Macintosh market. Since it is likely to be used on a PC, you have an entry into that market as well. Amiga by Stealth, as Siamese are fond of saying.
PC developers can easily purchase a card and use existing development tools to craft Amiga software. No need for hefty investment, no need to port tools and utilities, no need to add further delays to new Amiga software. The Amiga needs to get up to full speed as quickly as possible - and this offers the smoothest ride possible. If it also grabs new users in the process, so much the better!
Video Toaster users can plug the card into a modern video workstation and benefit from the Amiga and Toaster they know and love, while taking advantage of the cheap, high-performance rendering hardware out there.
At present, Siamese is aimed at Windows 95/98/NT platforms but Siamese is now pushing more towards Linux which means added support for those who prefer the robustness and power of UNIX.
Personal Thoughts:
This is still a very exciting project - I remember being highly impressed when I saw the demo at the World of Amiga back in 1998. At first, it had no direct relevance to me as I was committed to the Amiga and had no interest in moving to a Windows platform ever. My thoughts were towards integrating the classic Amiga within a PowerAmiga system like the Met@Box transAM running a new version of the OS.
I urge anyone with even the remotest interest in this project to offer their support to Siamese. Remember: if you don't express an interest, you risk losing this valuable piece of kit forever.
