Executive Update - Amiga
Status Announcement
April 12th, 2002
Greetings to the Amiga community,
A week ago we shared with you our joy as we move towards the rebirth
of the Amiga desktop platform. The AmigaOne and AmigaOS4 are projects
that have occupied almost every day of our lives for the last two years.
For the community, the wait and the false dawns have been unbearable.
Contrary to the rumours spread in some circles, we have spent considerable
time and resources in creating a strategy that will see the Amiga desktop
platform move back into the mainstream and take its proper place in the
market. The AmigaOne and AmigaOS4 are just the first and most visible
signs of this strategy. It is very important to us that we provide a total
and compelling Amiga experience to future customers.
The first measure we are announcing is that we have pledged ourselves
to the production and development of a platform where both users and developers
are guaranteed not just a quality product but a total quality experience
as well. This will be achieved through a combination of a strict set of
Quality Assurance certifications and the AmigaOS only being available
to licensed solution providers for the shipping of combined hardware and
software solutions.
From the top of the company to the bottom, we are committed to championing
the cause of quality for the consumer and will ensure that substandard
products do not make it into the Amiga market where they can do irreparable
damage to the reputation of the platform. Licencees will have to develop
and resource a full customer solution, with guarantees on product quality,
delivery, and most important of all post sales support, with firm commitments
to repair, replacement and turnaround, elements that have blighted the
platform over the last five years.
In addition, the close co-operation between Amiga Inc and solution licencees
will ensure the tightest binding of the software to the hardware, providing
the highest possible performance and providing the basis for rapid development
as we move forwards together.
As a result, AmigaOS4 and all future versions will ship only on those
hardware products to which Amiga Inc has specifically granted a license
after reviewing the capabilities of both the solution provider and their
product. The only exclusion to this policy is a temporary measure to support
the community members who have invested heavily in existing PPC accelerators
and will cover products where an Amiga manufactured or licenced Kickstart
ROM is present (for instance A1200/A3000/A4000).
Currently this hardware comprises:
- Eyetech's AmigaOne series of PPC motherboards
- Cyberstorm-PPC accelerators by phase 5/DCE
- Blizzard-PPC accelerators by phase5/DCE
We have also been approached by and are currently in negotiation with
the following companies for the licencing of the AmigaOS to allow for
a combined hardware and software solution:
- The Shark card by Elbox
- PPC accelerator cards for the Prometheus by Matay
- Merlancia Industries MMC Toro Series
In the case of newly available hardware, including the Eyetech, Elbox
and Matay products above, the licence requires that OS4-specific extensions
are included in the hardware's boot ROM as an anti-piracy measure. For
hardware which is not capable of being used in conjunction with Amiga
WB 3.1 (such as the AmigaOne) we will require, as part of the licence
conditions, that a copy of Amiga OS is purchased with all boards sold
that are capable of running it.
The measures identified above have been put into place after consultation
with our partners, developers, dealers and users, and represents a recognition
that if the Amiga platform is to become successful again, it needs to
exude professionalism and responsibility where the needs of the customer
are paramount. With these measures, AmigaOS4 and the new hardware solutions,
the Amiga desktop platform is primed to move forwards.
Bill McEwen
CEO
Amiga Inc
Snoqualmie, WA
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