First Report from the Cologne Computer '97 Show By Joachim Sondermann-Bieker

From: "Joachim Sondermann-Bieker" jsondermann@netcologne.de
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Cologne Fair Briefs
Date: 15 Nov 97 22:03:55 +0100
Organization: Netcologne GmbH

Hi all!

I was able to have a little chat with Petro Tyschtschenko during the Computer 97 Amiga fair in Cologne. Here's what he said in brief:

• New Amigas shall be aggressively priced to broaden the user base, both in the home sector and the professional sector. T. gave a figure of 400 Mark (around $230) for an entry level Amiga to 1500 Mark (approx. $870) for the top machine. (Rem: I'm not sure how complete such a machine can be. T. remained vague about whether you would have to add some components to get a really decent Amiga, e.g. HD, Gfx board or so)
• New Amigas shall be developed by Amiga Inc., USA, but not necessarily manufactured by Amiga itself. Instead, Amiga International is supposed to licence new developed items to whoever. Under a "powered by Amiga" label there shall be a variety of manufacturers that actually build Amigas. Amiga Intl. will see that certain standards and compatibility is maintained.
• There is no decision yet which CPU shall be used in the new Amiga line. Tyschtschenko made a pretty surprising statement: He would like most a Motorola 68060 or 68080 at 200 MHz in a new Amiga. He pointed out the advantage of being able to use a simple OS upgrade from 3.x instead of a complete rewrite. He didn't elaborate whether Motorola would be willing to build such a beast. Another option, processor-wise, would be some sort of cooperation with Phase5 (and the PPC board).

Besides, Tyschtschenko said pretty good about the work with Gateway executives. Amiga sales were going up. All in all he displayed lots of optimism though he didn't disregard possible dangers. AI stated earlier that new Amigas were not to be expected before sometime late in 1998. Maybe OS 3.5 will be out in the middle of the year.

Have a nice day

Joachim
--
Joachim Sondermann-Bieker
jsondermann@netcologne.de

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