Amiga - for life! ═══════════════════════════════ Alexey Emelyanov Andrey Ambartsumyan The first multimedia computer! The official date of birth of the Amiga follows The date is July 23, 1985. In the center Lincoln (New York) was demonstrated Van's first Amiga 1000. On the computer a small demo program was running frame "Boing", which later became famous Menita. He flew on a huge monitor, re- flowing in different colors, a three-dimensional ball, which hit the edges with a “stereo roar” screen... The general opinion of those present at viewing came down to what happened new computer era! Eramultimedia. Thanks to its architecture and multi- media qualities of the Amiga found wide application in many fields related to computer graphics and animation. Concept "non-linear editing", "rendering", "vir- virtual reality", "video toaster" professionals are strongly associated with Ami- goy. It is enough to mention such famous TV series like "Robocop", "Vavi- Lon-5" (Babylon-5), "Underwater Warrior" (Seaquest DSV) and films: "Jurassic Park Rioda" (Jurassic Park) and "GoldenEye" (Golden Eye) to evaluate it according to toinity. Until now, the Amiga remains a favorite our "tool" of the world famous re- directed by Steven Spielberg. In collaboration with multimedia packages Scala Multimedia and Scala Multichannel Amiga used when creating presentations. Among the major users can be called Cleveland police, a hotel chain in Norway, hospitals cities and museums in Great Britain. Even in our country the optimal solution for studios of television is recognized precisely by Ami- ha. Like the ideal home computer Ami- ha has gained recognition all over the world. Nome Video, office applications (text pro- processors, spreadsheets, databasesdata, organizers, etc.), games - that's far from a complete list of its applications in this capacity ve. One of the types of computer art va on the Amiga remains the creation of the so-called our Demo, which demonstrate all the beauty that of this computer platform. Annually held in different countries Demo competition (a kind of computer competition) courses) - another confirmation of the leading Amiga's position in this area. Amiga 95 A decade has passed. Currently Amigas are produced in two classes: Amiga A4000T, designed primarily for professional use, and Amiga A1200, successfully used as home computer for "semi-professional" "nal" goals. The "heart" of the Amiga is the processor M680x0 from Motorola. Applied in A1200 32-bit 68020 processor, and A4000T has two modifications: with processors 68040 and 68060. Address space co- provides 4 GB, which allows you to really connect up to 1 GB of RAM.However, Amigas are designed to the central processor handled the main the logic of the programs, and everything else - input-output, graphics, sound special lysed microcircuits. Thanks to this rational division of labor many things Amiga can do better and faster than her opponents with three-digit indicators are so processor frequency. In modern models use the Advanced chipset Graphics Amiga (AGA), consisting of three processors with tender names ALICE, LISA and PAULA. They provide the following characteristics: Video and audio specifications: - resolution - from 320x200 to 1280x768; - color depth - 25 bits (1 bit - genlock); - standard number of colors - from 256 to 6OO thousand from a palette of 1 billion in all permissions; - hardware Scan Doubling mode pos- can display 15 kHz screen modes for 31 kHz monitors; - stereo sound output is organized as four 8-bit channels or two 14-bit channels sampling frequency up to 56 kHz.Other features relate to synchronization tion of chips and external video signal source cash for use together with di- personal video equipment, capabilities control screen output in real time menu, synchronously with the beam path - line by line and pixel-by-pixel, overscan mode support and much more. As hard drives Magnetic disks in A1200 use 2. S or 3.5 inch ATA HDD. Controller supports not only standard ATA HDD, but also various ATAPI devices. A4000T has built-in FAST interfaces SCSI-2, allowing you to connect the corresponding a wide range of devices, and standard ATA, similar to A1200. Expansion slots for A1200: - PCMCIA-2, to which you can connect some both standard and special devices created for the Amiga, including le controllers SCSI-2, network, ISDN, au- dio, MPEG cards, etc.; - internal expansion slot (Trapdoor slot), specially designed suitable for expanding architecture. He dis- readfor connecting SCSI-2 controllers, accelerators (accelerators) on processors 68030, 68040, 68060, PowerPC, DSP boards etc. The accelerator is usually installed special slot for further connection devices, such as SCSI-2-controller ra. Amiga A4000T has: - a special CPU slot used for connections of various processors of the family VA M68K or PowerPC; - two video slots intended specifically for connecting genlocks and pro- what video equipment. Known to everyone VideoToaster also uses one of the video deoslots; - three ISA 16-bit bus slots. When us- installing a special Bridgeboard card or PC AT hardware emulators based on i486/Pentium they are used to connect and use of standard ISA cards; - five 32-bit bus slots Zorro-III - one of the fastest in its class. Among its features are: mark asynchrony,unique amigos- Autoconfig autoconfiguration protocol (TM), allowing you to fully realize Plug'n'Play principle, and special block data transmission modes, when applied which achieves very high production activity. A large team has been created for Zorro. number of expansion cards for different purposes nia. Amigas are currently shipping in several configurations. Amiga A1200 Magic kit includes standard A1200 supplied with the package programs that can safely be called Amiga Office. It contains a powerful text- processor, database, electronic table, organizer, graphic editor and an image processing program. Amiga Surfer is ideal for working with the Internet. B its composition is A1200, equipped with Amiga Office and equipped with a modem and special a set of programs for the Internet, which includes a TCP/IP package, a powerful WWW browser, supporting Netscape 2. x modes, FTP, IRC, NNTP and e-mail client. Purchase- The owner gets 100 free hours work on the Internet.The A4000T comes equipped with a rigid 1 GB Kim disk with interface SCSI-2, Amiga Office programs and pre-installed prepared presentation package SCALA Multimedia 300. Amiga Walker As soon as Amiga Technologies announced announced that at CeBit'96 there will be a presentation got a new computer, in the Amiga message rumors began to spread about his possible specification. This may yet- get weird, but until the last moment the characteristics of the new Amiga remained secret noy is under seven seals. It is appropriate to note that complete secrecy of development has become already a characteristic feature of Amiga Technologies. Whether this policy is good or not - about that one can argue, something else is important - unlike Commodore (former "owner" of the Amiga) Amiga Technologies has so far done everything marked and made public plans. That's how it goes happened this time too. New project under The name Amiga Walker was introduced to the public who came to CeBit'96, at the stands three companies at once: Escom, Motorola (!!!), MicroVitech. First time visitors Walkerwere surprised by the completely new design borrowing a computer (lovers of classical forms were simply shocked). If pro- to draw analogies at the everyday level, then Walker very reminiscent... of a vacuum cleaner. According to one many of the employees of Amiga Technologies, this is the design that is replacing tower and mini-tower. And indeed, new models of Acer computers and servers Panda already have similar cases. But not by design alone... Amiga Walker uses the same famous AGA chipset, but a new one has been added to the usual ones chip - Tony, EIDE controller appeared, fast parallel and serial ports, MIDI, and two expansion slots. Central processor - M68030 with clock frequency 40 MHz. Two expansion slots can be can be used to build up archi- texture (accelerator settings at PowerPC, various expansion cards up to to PCI slots. As stated in the press release ze, Amiga Walker is a new generation Amiga leniya, opening the way to the future, the basis which will become PowerPC. The leitmotif of all conversations, discussions this and disputes near the Escom stand, naturally Indeed, there was a transition to the PowerPC platform. In this direction Amiga Technologies works closely withtwo German companies mami Phase5 and Haage & Partner Computer. Phase5 is developing the chipset and accelerators on PowerPC for existing model range (the first accelerators have already been sent to the developers). Haage & Partner Computer wrote a compiler for PowerPC for your Storm C++. And the most interesting thing. I will mention all three - higher companies are in close mutual in collaboration with...Motorola. Collaboration details ties are kept in the strictest confidence. But apparently Motorola is interested is to get PowerAmiga as quickly as possible was put into production. Indicator- but that the world famous giant production of processors not only monstered the Amiga at his stand, but also published advertisements for PowerPC in almost all magazines and publications dedicated to the Amiga. Looks like the Amiga got a pretty solid an ally who, by the way, owns the right MacOS license sales. A if PowerAmiga will be able to run applications written for PowerMac, then Apple will receive a very strong competitor, especially but in the home computer market. And in conclusion, one more news yatsa. Agreed to work for Amiga Technologies Dave Haynie - man,whose name became a legend in Amigov- com community (for the uninitiated: exactly he developed A2000, A3000, A4000 chipset AAA). "Computer Press 5'96" Text provided by Alexander Nikiforo- vym.
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