Jim Collas And Jeff Schindler Answer Questions

The following edited IRC transcript is from a session held at the Henry VIII Hotel, in St. Louis Mo., site of the Amiga99 show. In it, Jim Collas and Jeff Schindler of Amiga Inc. answer questions from Amiga users gathered on the channel. The channel was sponsored by the User Group Network.

(HammerD) 1) what will the first product be?

(Dracvl) Will the dev.system require anything but a normal PC?

(Jeff) The first product will be a development system followed by a multimedia computer

(Dracvl) Q: Will there be massive advertising campaigns?

(HammerD) 2) Have any major software companies pledged support? any details?

(Jeff_SHOW) I want to say that I am with Jim Collas all the way I have never seen him so excited and I have worked with him for 5 years

(HammerD) 2) What will be the price point of the multimedia computer?

(Jeff_SHOW) We are not at that point to know the price but as Jim said tonight we want to allow computers at a $500 price to be as powerfull as a $3000 PC

(HammerD) 3) have any major software firms pledged support for Amiga NG (besides QNX) ? Any details?

(Jeff_SHOW) We are talking to several major Software application companies, this is why we have Jim Von Holle on staff this is his expertise At this point no company has said no

(HammerD) 4) Can you reveal any details about the processors supported in Amiga NG ? MMC chip?

(Jeff_SHOW) We plan to support mulitple CPU's Back to the Software question We will need as many of you to write apps for the new AMiga This is critical for the revoluiton to take place

(HammerD) 4) Do you plan to use the existing dealer network to sell the Amiga NG? any programs to help them? GA

(Jeff_SHOW) Yes this is what Petro is intending to do

(Jeff_SHOW) I need to let the boss talk Who wants to talk to Jim Collas I will type for Jim

(HammerD) When will we get details on the architecture? GA

(Jeff_SHOW) We are hoping to have developer conferences in the summer & fall Keep Amiga in your heart see ya

(FabianNF) How will Amiga try to protect the current group of developers and dealers from getting steam rolled by the big boys if they come back to the Amiga? GA

(HammerD) On behalf of the Amiga community I would like to welcome you Jim. I think we are all glad you are on board!

(ZEUS^) do u plan to show NG prototip on cebit or something (wintel market) ?

(Jim) Our first general industry show will be fall Comdex

(Timmer) jim: what compilers will be supplied with the dev system and 5.0? eg. GCC, Metroworks, WatCom?

(Jim) We have not determined this yet.

(Blitter) What types of applications do we need to creat as a community... any ideas from the developement that has happenend so far.... Jeff stated you need our help with apps. for the next gen amiga. GA

(Jim) Games, multimedia, internet based S/W, things that will be innovative and exciting . . We will be looking for developers to help us once we get a solid foundation in Q3. We will be posting information on our Web site.

(amidude) What marketing/advertising will be used to reach 20-30 million units sold? GA

(Jim) There will be significant marketing funds starting later this year but we will also depend on large volume OEMs to use AMiga as a standard.

(cade) Jim, Thanks and we are SOOOo happy to have you with us, Thank you so much! question What about other countries? Will you be targeting mainly the US in the beginning?what about small countries like South Africa? Can we expect some form of Hype and marketing? GA

(Jim) We intend to drive AMiga as a global company but will start our focus in couuntries with a significant AMiga presence i.e. Germany, U.K., and the U.S.

(Ng) How do you see the new Amigs coping with the growing popularity of the "free" OS, Linux and it's suitablitiy to all of the Amiga's target markets?

(Jim) We are evaluating the Linux O/S to understand how we may be able to support Linux environments. No plans yet.

(CyberWolf) Q: Is Metabox (formerly PIOS) involved in the development of the new AMIGAs? GA

(Jim) THey are not directly invloved but we are in touch with them to understand what they are doing.

(Tiggster) We have heard that Amiga, Inc. is primarily a software company. Will AI be releasing an AmigaNG computer or will that be the responsibility of your partners? GA

(Jim) We will be introducing exciting new hardware also but we want an open H/W architecture so that the AMiga environment will be used in multiple products.

(OSS542) We am interested in porting our current software to the the new Amiga. What sort of development support can we expect for this ? BTW: Just bought a new GPS-450 the other day....:-) Doa though...:-(

(Jim) We will be publishing all required information for developers when available. We will also have engineering people dedicated to supporting developers. We are currently hring engineering people in our new engineering facility in San JOse under Dr. Allan Havemose.

(Dracvl) Firstly: Welcome aboard, Mr. Collas. Questions: 1. Will the dev.system require anything but a normal x86-based-PC? 2. How about pricing - will the development package be free?

(Jim) We are thinking about offering a multimedia card as part of the O/S bundle to allow for advanced multimedia features and performance that may not be available in all PCs. We have not determined any pricing for development environment. We may have 3rd party costs associated.

(NorthWay) when will we get some _solid_ info to judge what the new Amiga will be? I don't think you expect anyone to show up on a DevCon without prior knowledge. and I'd like a porting layer too :). GA

(Jim) We should be releasing detailed information in July/AUgust. It may be earlier if we feel that it will help people start development.

(Mawrick) will there be developement tools that will be as good as Borland builder, VC (or similar products)? ,and are you going to have some sort of fees on sw-development licenses like ms-wind*** :) ? GA

(Jim) We are still working on development environment plans. Don't expect to be like MS.

(Zap) Are the slides that where shown going to be made public so we can view them via www? GA

(Jim) We are releasing to the press tomorrow and will post on the site next week.

(cwallace) one more question!

(HammerD) 1) Can you release more specific information on OS 3.5 features? 2) Will Amiga International sell the planned multimedia computer under the Amiga name? (as C= sold the A1200) or will you depend soley on 3rd parties? GA.

(mrpop2) by `we need many of you` you (jeff) mean the classic developers ? so purly treated so far, if that is the case (please be explicit with your words so as to make it clear) where doest Mick tinkers projects stand now that it appears Gateway/Ainc are not interested in his classic PCI card now, will you make an official statement (HERE&NOW) dropping him or perhaps the classic community that gateway say they admire and NEED, were miss informed and your ac

(TB) Sorry bout that, slight mistake on the que :)

(Jim) OS 3.5 features were disclosed today. They will be on the Web site early next week. I understand that we have fallen short in certain areas. I am working on plan for better developers support. I will be reviewing the classic PCI situation next week. I can't give you a final statement until I meet with them.

(cwallace) thank you everyone

(TB) Thanks Jim for speaking here today

(cwallace) great questions and see you all later...


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