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Amiga

Amiga & Transmeta? 160

Posted by CmdrTaco from the weekend-rumors dept.
kmj9907 its all the buzz- apparently the latest rumor is that Amiga and Transmeta will be working together on the new line of Amiga boxes. There still isn't concrete news, but the rumors have been propogating as fast as electrons can carry them around the net.
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Amiga & Transmeta? More

Amiga & Transmeta?

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  • Amigalux (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nonexistent processor for nonexistent OS. Amgia and Transmeta deserve each other. Let's see which one can con the other into thinking it really has something to show for all those years of secrecy,
    indecision, and failure to ship a product.

    In my opinion, Transmeta needs Amiga as much as Amiga needs Transmeta to keep the game alive. Thereby Transmeta may continue to pump the hype surrounding their nonexistent processor - implying that somebody actually plans to use their much-hyped technology for something. Since everyone knows that Amiga will do no such thing,
    but will just change its mind after another 6 months, Transmeta doesn't have to actually produce anything, but can attract investment based on such speculation. His emminence the Linus is just employed there to lend credibility to Transmeta's claims that it has a product under development, Linux being such a solid and reliable guy and all.

    It's fun to pretend.

  • Guy who lives in back of 7-11 is big into the whole technology thing. For 5 dollars and a package of Winstons he told me this incredible news!!!!

    The new Amiga CPU will be the fastest CPU ever created and there will never be one faster than it. It was so fast that the Bytemark tests needed to be re-coded to use long doubles instead of integers for the resulting score. He said it can encode an entire CD into MP3s in under 12 seconds, it's cracked RC5-DES in just under 4 minutes (the encoded message was "Eat your liverwurst, it's good for you," by the way), and it rendered all the water scenes in the Titanic sequel during the union-mandated lunch break yesterday afternoon. It beat Deep Blue the other day at checkers and tomorrow it's playing tennis against Agassi (the Amiga is a 3-2 favorite). Steve Jobs saw it and had to change his pants, and Andy Grove is still semi-catatonic over the whole deal. Wcarchive replaced cdrom.com's old machine with one just yesterday and upped the user limit to 65,535. It makes the lightest, fluffiest pancakes you've ever tasted and it brews a mean lager. It downed a bottle of JD and didn't even flinch.

    Suffice it to say, everyone will want one. It also comes in puce.

    Woo!

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • I've since had an email response from Anthony with a new phone number and an explanation. He registered the site when he first started hearing about an Amiga-Transmeta connection. Some members of the Linux press were present and may have more to report. Anthony promises to fill in the website with more information later.

  • From the LinuxToday [linuxtoday.com] story, it's been noted that the story was written by and reported by an Anthony Kilna. A whois query turns up a record for METAMIGA.COM, registered 17 July, 1999. The phone number listed, (619) 677-9830, responds with a "disconnected or no longer in service" message.

    Which isn't to say this is a fake, but I'm dubious at present. There are details BTW at http://www.kilna.com/ [kilna.com].

    I've emailed Anthony for more information, we'll have to wait and see what turns up.

  • Somehow, just having Transmeta's logo show up in their graphical presentation seems a bit lacking to me. It sounds more as if people in the Community are just a little bit over anxious to figure out this whole Transmeta thing -- our reactions are starting to seem like the high tech equivalent of Elvis sightings.

    ----

  • I just want to see the transmeta logo...where...where...Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeere?

  • Re:yes (Score:2)

    by Eccles ( 932 )
    Yeah, check out my post in one of the earlier amiga stories (the Amiga-uses-Linux one, I think). And several other people reached the same conclusion.

    I know I had a post with that guess, but I'm sure I got the idea from a previous post. However, a possible bit of evidence (and quite possibly just scurrilous rumor) is that I understand Linus himself is doing work on the USB drivers, which would be something one would need for a new architecture that relies on USB-only input devices.
  • Why is everyone so down on this whole idea? Just because it may not be typical Linux/OS stuff doesn't mean it isn't going to be really cool.

    I've been following the Amiga news on /. quite closely for the past couple of weeks, and I've been wondering the same thing. One thing in particular -- Amiga isn't doomed to repeat their past mistakes as some people evidently feel is inevitable. Amiga is under new ownership, and they are in no way obligated to follow Commadore's example of ineptness. Some people seem to be blaming Gateway for Commadore's inablility to inovate or ship products.

    I have no idea why this attitude is so prevalent, but I'm currently entertaining the theory that /. has been invaded by a disgruntled Atari ST user's group.

    TedC

  • I don't buy it either. Posting exactly this kind of bullshit is what has pretty much made most of the remaining Amiga users the laughing stock of the internet. One would've thought these guys would learned better than to do this by now. Shrug. Guess some people never learn....

  • Actually, we're sick of computer lemmings like yourself who run out and buy a new computer,sound or video card every six weeks just because some wannabe "computer journalist" told you should....

  • Anthony is a real guy. I went to high school with him.

  • Amiga made a bad choice (in their opinion) with QNX. Then QNX steamrolled them with a perfectly timed announcement, which would either force Amiga to admit to having switched without being able to produce the docs and SDK, or would force them to lay low and try to conceal the switch.

    QNX knew that either choice would divide the Amiga community and leave more customers for them.

    Clever.

    Now why is the Amiga community falling for it? Don't abandon Amiga for QNX until QNX actually HAS something.

    -Billy

  • yes (Score:2)

    by mattdm ( 1931 )
    Yeah, check out my post in one of the earlier amiga stories (the Amiga-uses-Linux one, I think). And several other people reached the same conclusion.

    But just because the rumor partly started here doesn't mean it's not true -- it seems fairly logical to me.

    --

  • They've clearly said that the new system will be based on an "exciting new chip". And that the new chip isn't x86 based. If it were a PowerPC, I don't think that would qualify as either exciting or new. So I think it's either Transmeta or Sony's Emotion Engine.

    --

  • Well for a while there I was hoping they were really building something new and revolutionary up there at Transmeta, but I guess if perpetual loser Amiga is gonna be their customer they may as well call it a day now.

    Michiel
  • I'm just tired.. Amiga is a brand that just refuses to go away. It died once already, I don't see what is left of it worth recovering.. Once Amiga stood for a computing architecture with an at the time visionary foresight of graphics and sound coprocessing. Now what is left? They have no clear hardware direction and no operating system. It's always the same, every once in a while some new company like PIOS or Gateway or QNX pops up and says hey we're gonna make this radical new Amiga and it never goes anywhere. Let it die..

    Michiel

  • Pictures of the new Amiga!! (Score:4)

    by Paul Jakma ( 2677 ) on Saturday July 24, 1999 @05:57PM (#1786108) Homepage Journal
    Amigacentral had a link to some pictures of the new Amiga, it's at:

    http://www.funtime-world.de/beri cht/woa240799.html [funtime-world.de]

    Real sleek black box with a couple of USB ports on the front, and a sleek futuristic monitor to match. If it costs less than £600, then it's worth buying for looks alone.

    (and i don't care what CPU it uses!!!)

    Also, this transmeta thing could be very real. Eg John Carmack just posted to G200-devel that he was at TransMeta this week discussing about 3D with their engineers, and that Linus *really* wants linux to have good 3D support!! So it sounds to me like transmeta are at a pretty advanced stage. They've been working on it for 2-3 years now, why shouldn't it be ready?

    (if you don't believe me check the g200 devel list archive, and no i don't have the url. get of your lazy arse and find it yourself!) :)


  • Wait, don't forget about "revolutionary!" Apparently they think that if they say it often enough and vehemently enough, then we might actually believe it.

    Or maybe they're just trying to convince themselves.

  • "Unfortunately,
    communicating the complete vision at this time would jeopardize our
    competitive advantage and business success, especially if we released
    this information on our web site. I hope you can understand how
    important it is for us to keep certain strategic information from our
    competitors."


    Does this mean no source code ?
  • Seriously, Joe, are you allowed to tell us what "Mitchie" is/was, yet? As far as I can remember, it was supposed to have been public by now.
  • Ah, that's OK. I was worried that I might have missed something by leaving early.
  • The Amiga was a great machine for its time, and it seems like the new Amiga people (who by the way are generally completely different from the old Amiga people, they are more like Gateway people) have some decent ideas. I don't know why you think this is bad. And what do you mean by "perpetual loser", what they don't get enough market share. If all you care about is that, there's this one company up in Seattle that seems to win a lot, you may have heard of it.
  • amigacentral is also reporting this, and has a shot of the image mentioned on linuxtoday, see http://www.amigacentral.com/news.html
  • It _may_ be just a rumor, or it _may_ be not.

    But anyway, if there _is_ something going on between Amiga and Transmeta, it'd be good for the rest of us.

    For too long we have been put in this little hole where we either have to go Intel or Mac. Amiga of yesteryears were good in technicality, but bad in popularizing its product (ie., marketing).

    Now that we _may_ have a third choice, software (Amiga) _and_ hardware (Transmeta), there _may_ be chances yet for this world to see something totally new.

    The Amiga/Transmeta combo _may_ use Linux as a base, or _may_ not, but who cares.

    What we truly need today is CHOICE, which we _really_ don't have.

    Let us all hope for the day when we have wider option then the old WinTel or MacPPC duality.

  • You are wrong. You should take the time to learn a bit about CPU's and how they work.

    The reason a lot of Pentiums and 486's came in multiples of 33 is that the busses for the chips were 33 or 66, and the chip was rated in multiples (1, 1.5, 2, ...) of the bus speed. A 50Mhz bus was also used, thus the P100 and P150. Today, a 100Mhz bus is used, thus the increments of 50Mhz.

  • I don't think the transmeta will even ship or live up to the hype if it does and if that's the case then the Amiga is truly dead. oh well, I'm sure Mr. Torvalds could find another job that pays a ton of money in a second
  • There are companies that don't have a product while claiming to do so, but there are also companies that may or may not have a product and will keep quiet about it until it's ready. Transmeta never claimed to have "the next big thing", although one could argue that the way they're shrouding themselves in mystery is just a strategy to attract more media attention, rather than the result of a professional attitude and being certain of the superiority of their product.

    Common sense tells me that they couldn't keep so many extremely bright people occupied and happy (especially those from academia) if they weren't making any progress, so I assume that that's what they're making. On the other hand, they seem to have limitless funding possibilities, so they might be getting dangerously close to the academic way of doing things (never finishing something because there's no economic need to do so - my apologies for this generalisation!).

    As for what exactly they're doing - I'd be very surprised if it was something other than the sum of the parts of leaked/known information that have been around, i.e. a CPU that can emulate many architectures efficiently (with hardware support for dynamic translation), coupled with an OS that supports execution of binaries for various platforms (either in one environment, or with parallel execution of virtual systems as in VMWare). I've always thought that the name "Transmeta" itself was a bit of a giveaway. I wish them good luck and hope their product will eventually be cheap enough to compete with the successors of current architectures (Celeron 666 running boring multi-boot systems).

  • Sounds more like sponsoring to me, but I'm not ignorant enough to claim that R&D is usually much different. Was the offer you described the actual one? I very much suspected that Linus was hired for a specific task - continue to work on Linux and make sure that it works well on whatever Transmeta is working on.

  • ... they're just playing Buzzword Bingo with company and technology names instead of terms like 'paradigm', 'restructure', and 'action-item'.

    Sorry boys, it doesn't work if you yell out the names.

    --
    QDMerge [rmci.net] -- data + templates = documents.
  • The processor in the Amiga will be 5x faster
    then the fastest now-available PIII and will be
    able to run Java code as fast as native code
    (smart logic gates finally?) The processor will
    use the RISC instruction set and according to my
    source (which unfortunatly is under NDA) claims
    that the chip is not made by transmeta, however
    due to the NDA papers this COULD be a lie.
    Supposedly the people who are working on the new
    Amiga and it's processor have employed several
    top guys from SGI too, including the guy who made
    the super-cheap N64 chip.

    The main reason I think that transmeta MAY be
    involved in this is because Linus said that his
    work with transmeta was not DIRECTLY related to
    linux.
  • the "Wonderful 128 bit cpu" is a Toshiba, based on a Mips IV core. Mips IV is neither new nor exciting. It's just efficent, and time-tested, and carries with it arguably the most flexible technology licensing scheme used by any chip maker.

    Mips Co doesn't care who sees, uses, modifies their design, 'long as they sign the license check.

  • Re:Chip (Score:1)

    by Axe ( 11122 )
    That's Elbrus (Name of highest mountain in Europe)
    But don't wait for it, even with Luzhkov's money, they will not find a fab...
  • People have excepted something cool and *new* from Amiga and Linux is not new - you may say anything Un*x based is in fact ~20 years old.

    ... so here I am looking for that bright, shiny new car. I head over to the FORD dealership. I look at their cars, kick the tires, and even take a few for a test spin. Then I start thinking. I become rational. Henry Ford built the first car in 1919. Oh My, I can't buy a FORD. Who in the world would ever buy a car based on 80 year old ideas? I sure don't want to drive around in a patched up - rebuilt Model T. So I leave. I look for a automobile compney that started in the 90's. They are the one's that'll have real cars. But where to find ...

  • Here's the link

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/990723-000006.html

    Apparently if Amiga plans to work with ATI they may, for cost cutting reasons, choose to use ATI's MIPS cores altered by Chromatic (aquired by ATI). Cromatic has made some of the most multimedia intensive chips out there (albiet lacking on 3D performance though...)

    Also consider that SGI makes CPUs containing MIPS cores too and they have some serious multimedia intergration skills.

    -Huang Bao Lin
  • That was funny! You're right about the benchmarks too! But the MP3 encoding bottleneck is really the first order harmonic wobble caused by the slikscreened weight imbalence. It REALLY does encode MPEG-2 4:2:2 720x480(525) Video and 2 channel 44.1 Khz in real time, SERIOUSLY, EASILY.
    Broadcasting MP3's with (InsertName)Cast in audio or Video are a HW thang. BLESS THE CREATORS!
    No CPU overhead to be a "caster" either. Cool.
    ...and thats just the MPEG part of Michy!

    We scouts know how to tie fishing knots, and how to angel. But we're NOT casting hooks! This aint fishing! They're fished in: It's hosing scales, fins, guts, and heads overboard, to laugh at the sharks. A feeding frenzy of folly!
    Though gulls are allways there, Smart Amigans stay out of the water when this is going on...

    If you believe the CPU is either of the Trans-Play-Siberian2's, then _I_ created Aminet, and Miami also.... AS-IF!
    (Bravo to the ICONs in your mind: I'm no where NEAR good enough to have done those!)

    Flush your mind of those MINI-MICHY cpu's, and enjoy the rest of the adventure...
  • What is the best amiga hardware ever producted ?
    In other words, if one has top of the line amiga ( accelerators etc..) how does it compare to say, ADM 400 Mhz ??
  • Speaking as an Atari user (I ended up with 4 of them over a 4 year period, as far I recall), I'd love to see the Amiga resurface.

    It sounds to me like a Linux box (yes!) with some great extra hardware (yes!) and the traditional strengths of graphics and sound (yes!).

    So it runs my favourite OS, and it has all the bells and whistles. The technology it's based on is secondary (as far as I'm concerned). I'd be perfectly happy if it was the Transmeta chip, but it's not my majot concern.

    Amiga/ST's etc all lost the plot because they weren't mainstream. Here's a chance for a non-mainstrema platform to change the world, folks. And why not ?

    Simon.
  • The box shown is larger and has more stuff up front than some
    sparcstations...
    Besides, if all the Amiga does is reveal what Transmeta was up to
    and then flop, its efforts would be worth it. Granted, I never used
    the original Amiga and couldn't care less about the new one.

  • Now why is the Amiga community falling for it? Don't abandon Amiga for QNX until QNX actually HAS something.

    That works both ways: Don't abandon QNX for Amiga Inc, until Amiga Inc actually HAS something.

  • Standard PPC machines may not be dead yet. It was just a bit of a shock to get backstabbed by Apple. If someone can figure out a large enough target market for them without Apple, then the dream may yet happen.

  • Most of the time when I browse around on here I find some kind of meaningful discussion about the topics posted. For some reason, this doesn't seem to hold true for the Amiga-related stories that have been popping up lately.

    I suppose that this is likely to attract flame responses, but oh well. (hey, I'm posting from a real logged in /. account instead of hiding behind anonymity - go for it!)

    Will you lot please grow up?

    It's amazing how petty the Amiga threads here have become. Seems they all follow the same pattern: Some kind of actual news makes its way to the public (which in itself is an achievement given how quiet Amiga has been and how noisy the Amiga community has been), someone posts it to /., and then all the flamers and morons come out to play.

    Just a games machine.

    It's dead, leave it be.

    Vapor products.

    Do you people have nothing better to do than tear down anything that may actually have a chance at success? Do you actually have a clue what you're shouting down in the first place? It's always easier to rip something to shreds to make yourself feel better than it is to actually discuss the news, isn't it... that is, after all, what I thought Slashdot was HERE for.

    I find it upsets me to say it, but this attitude from several frequent posters here has greatly disappointed me. I hope its a trend that isn't going to continue.

  • What are the interesting new chips? Two immediately come to mind:

    • Transmeta's
    • Erebrus's


    Transmeta's logo was flashed, but this could (stretching) simply be a reference to Torvalds. Of course, interesting new chip could mean any new revision of the current chip technologies out there.

  • Rumors (Score:3)

    by Tardigrade ( 17769 ) on Saturday July 24, 1999 @03:03PM (#1786136)
    Isn't slashdot one of the places these rumors started? This is like a news source creating it's own news. Would this have happened on a site that wasn't so into Linux, and therefore Linus and Transmeta?

  • There's something else to keep in mind: if the Transmeta chip alone could instantly quadruple the speed of desktop machines while slashing the price in half, it would not make sense for Transmeta to keep everything secret. To maximize profits, they would instead be seeking investors so the technology could get out to market as quickly as possible.

    What sounds much more reasonable is that they're trying to clean out all the old instruction sets and create a massively scaleable and flexible computing platform. To do so would clear the path for future developments for years to come. It's a very solid business plan IMHO. Basically the same goal as RISC technology, but this time the engineers have direct contact with people who have extraordinary modern OS design experience and vision such as Linus, the Amiga team, and until recently the QNX people. They cannot help but produce something dazzling to geeks and end users alike.
  • Ahem, someone moderated the above post down (while someone else moderated it up). It is not appropriate to call it flamebait. It is a question worth exploring.

    Media corruption has existed for a long time but now with the shift in the news delivery medium, as pioneered right here on /., misreporting may be transforming into something much more subtle.

    If there's anything I learned from taking history classes, it's that communications mediums have shaped history more than any other identifiable shift. (That point is debatable, of course.) At any other time or place has it been so easy for common people to instantly benefit from hundreds of others' views on breaking news in their own fields of interest? The result on /. is usually that the news is refined or thrashed enough that the real truth breaks through. Assuming the modified approach scales up so that the masses can use the /. model for non-technology-related topics, we are in the middle of an evolution in communication. Obviously the Internet itself is an evolution in communication, but sites like /. are what make it so!

    Thus even though /. is relatively small, it could be very significant. Therefore if subtle rumors may be a by-product of /., it is important for us to discover that truth also.
  • >Posting exactly this kind of bullshit is what has pretty much made most of the remaining Amiga users the >laughing stock of the internet. One would've thought these guys would learned better than to do this by >now. Shrug. Guess some people never learn....

    Its just like many Linux-rumours and Linux-users. Wake me when Linux gets real OpenGL-support, and simple installation of drivers for different devices. Last time I heard something, it was Real Soon Now...

    Shinobi - Inquisitor of CoJ, Champion of Lady weeanna
    "Why despair? We are all going to die anyway!"
  • Speaking of whom, I saw The King rocking it up with Linus at a nightclub recently. It was funny to see a whole gaggle of geeks dancing to it too. Strangely, I can't seem to recall RMS or ESR in the croud ;) Probably had something to do with the dance being called the Penguin and not the GNU/Penguin.

    Ok, I'm done being offtopic now.
  • There is no absolute certainty until either company confirms or denies it.
    However, besides this there is a multitude of signals that can be interpreted as indicative of what will happen. First among those is the fact that TransMeta is the only known company out there that specifically keeps what it's doing a secret.
    Secondly, when you dig deeper into that announcement you will find a link to a newsgroup in wich a) somebody speculates extensively about the nature of Transmeta's chip, depicting the what-if-amiga-uses-transmeta scenario and b) A high-profile Amiga employee (I'm not sure who, but he's not just anyone) is all but confirming that this his speculation is fairly close to the target.
    I do not believe this is all product hyping. Maybe the reactions from the communities involved are a bit on the extreme side but considering their (mutual?) interests in seeing Linux/Amiga/Transmeta (whatever applies) succeeding that was to be expected. If Amiga wanted to create a buzz (wich they don't need, they have plenty of that of their own) there would have been inconsistencies. But there aren't any. Everything just adds up. The design remarks, the secrecy of the chip-manufacturer, the openness in wich they make their announcements and discuss their products. They seem to be very much in sync with the ideals that the majority of the Slashdot population seems to have. Maybe they even are. If they do, then lying or product hyping without facts to back it up is totally out of character.

    just my $0.2


    P.S. If anyone digs up that link, feel free to post it in a reply.

  • And how exactly can something run java as fast as native code without breaking the laws of mathmatics?

    You simply make bite code instructions, the machine code instructions. Include some basic threads that always run, implement a synchroization device and call it a java chip.

    Next if the processor can "become" other architechtures, you could implement the correct libraries (see wine) and run windows, and mac, and unix binaries.

    I think that would definately turn the computing word upside down

    geach

  • It seems like Amiga is jumping on just about every band wagon it can. Linux, transmeta, QNX, Enlightenment, etc. It all this for real, or are they just trying to capitalize on the hype of other technologies?

    And, from what I understand, the new Amiga is going to based on the PPC. The OS software will be the Linux kernel, with Enlightenment/X as the GUI. Just how is this new machine related to the original Amiga? Not the OS or the main CPU. Maybe the graphics/FX/sound chips? An Amiga software layer over Linux and X? Or maybe the developers the same? Or does the new Amiga just try to capture the "spirit" of the old Amiga?

    Or are they just trying to capitalize on the Amiga name too?
  • I was sitting around the office the other day, reading the latest amiga news on /. and at the top of my lungs yelled out "I'm f**king sick of amiga! They're going the way of transmeta! If they don't bring out hal9000 on a watch I'm just gonna snap!"

    And people thought starwars was too hyped????

    G-funk
  • Well in all honesty my understanding is that untill reciently nothing has changed really from the old 386 33MHZ. Sure they added a FPU and a frontside bus, and are making the buses slowly faster. But basically they are just stacking multiple 33MHZ processors into the same chip. Why else do you think that all early pentium chips were rated in multiples of 33. (well sorta, they did kinda get lazy with their math) (I believe amd chips are the same, though I don't know about the k7 it may have gotten away from that)
  • Sorry I guess I was misinformed, but it was stated as just my understanding and was perfectly open to correction which I thank Hal for doing (assuming he is right).
  • Not even close.

    It would be much more accurate to compare the Pentium to a very fast 386, because nothing revolutionary has been added since (MMX and SIMD aside)...

    But, not only are current x86 chips much faster at the individual instructions, but they are capable of doing multiple instructions at once.

    The basic instruction set is the same, but that's like comparing a third-grade vocabulary to a university vocabulary. Sure, the univ. one has all the same words as the elementary one, but it uses them more efficiently, and has many other ones.
  • Erm...

    Mac users aren't the only ones who don't like Intel chips. This is an Amiga article, you know :)

    Yes, the guy made a mistake. Not a big one - the 8088 is as 8 bit as the 68000 is 16 bit IIRC. Still not a good chip, and I'm still yet to find any coders who actually like writing assembly for these chips. Sure, that's not done very often nowadays, but if you're going to look at fundamental chip advantages a nice clean assembly language is a big plus, and it isn't.

    Greg
  • The average PC today is still just an 8 bit intel preocessor stuck on a bus that was obsolete the day it was first used - taken to a higher level of ineffeciency.

    What?? there was *never* an 8bit x86 CPU, and the system bus on current PCs use GTL+ (gunning tranciver logic, I think) and represent a completly new system. K7s use the same bus as the Alpha. is that an ineficcent '1970s' bus?

    The intel hardware was designed to be cheap and backwards compatable, and it sucseeded. Its really not that bad, and compition between AMD and intel in the past year or so, have *really* lowerd prices for chips (into the
    Your aperant lack of understaning leads me to belive that you are simply drawing conclusions based on your own *dislike* of intel hardware. After all, if *you* don't like it, it must suck, right? (let me guess, mac user? I wouldn't exspect a hardcore unix hacker to be so incorect...)
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"

  • money (Score:1)

    by delmoi ( 26744 )
    sorry I should have posted this in my last reply, but I didn't read your whole post through. anyway

    Why are so many people down on efforts to do something different and new with hardware and software?

    so they can make money, it dosn't matter how "cool" your system is. if it doesn't run any good software, no one will buy it.
    back in the late 70s and throughout the '80's geeks would be willing to buy them with out programs. but today, they already have computers, that they probably love. I would have loved to buy a BeBox, but I already had a computer. It wasn't "the greatest" but it worked, and it was good enough
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • Transmeta may continue to pump the hype surrounding their nonexistent processor

    Yes, look at *all* the hype they've been spewing so far! It's crazy, floding the airwaves, /. why, it's like every other day they issue a press release!

    seriously though, look at there Website [transmeta.com] they havn't said one word. I don't think you can accuse a company of having vaporware when they havn't even said that the yave anything planed. *everything* that we've heard so far has been idle speculation based on a few patents that were filed and there employment of Linus Torvlads.

    ... claims that it has a product under development, Linux being such a nice guy and all...

    heh, you said 'Linux' when you ment 'Linus' :) It would be nice if we could fix these post after we submit them, maybe have a "version two" show up or somthing later....
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • It seems like Amiga is jumping on just about every band wagon it can. Linux, transmeta, QNX, Enlightenment, etc. It all this for real, or are they just trying to capitalize on the hype of other technologies?

    what would be the point of trying to capitlize on all this stuff if they never planned on relasing a product? *just* to screw QSSL? (makers of QNX)
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • And how exactly can something run java as fast as native code without breaking the laws of mathmatics?

    you mean like one of suns Java Chips, where the native code *was* java? Not that the guy you were replying to wasn't a total crackpot....
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • first off:
    I think just about everyone has decided that Amiga's full of shit. Even if they do come up with a system, it's not going to be earth shattering. Just another PowerPC clone running Linux. Ho-hum.

    I don't think that many people have decided Amiga's full of shit, some have, other havn't. You also have confused Amiga Inc's Amiga, with Phase 5/QNX's version of the amiga, the Ami Rage (or the A mirage, if you prefer)

    Second:
    Transmeta, if they're NOT full of shit, had better bring something to market to show for the months of secrecy. This industry does not tend to be forgiving and will lose interest in companies that don't have anything to show for their much hyped technology.

    Dosnt' full of shit imply that you're lying? how can some one be lying if they arn't saying anything at all? And it's been years of secrecy, not months. no one is hyping transmeta's technology at all (although I do think that they could anounce somthing by now, since there chip's only a few monts away from production, or so it seems. I belive that this current veil of secrecy is just to generate hype for the amiga). How do you know if other companys don't do similar things? you couldn't know, if they were secret. the only reason we know anything about transmeta is beacuse they employ linus torvlads.

    what the fuck should transmeta care what other people think of them now? If they put out a good product, people will use it, if they don't, people wont. They don't have to worry about investors, as the company is owned by Paul Allen
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • As far as I know the Emotion Engine is a graphics+T 'n' L setup chip (trasformation and lighting), like the nVidia NV10. I think that Amiga is going with an ATI rage chip for graphics, so that would rule out the EE, as for the wonderfull 128bit CPU on the Playstation 2, I doubt sony would licens that. they might, but since they put the word 'Transmeta' and have been hinting at an aliance, (plus the Linus Torvlads thing) I think Transmeta is actualy a more likely bet.
    _
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • I'm still using my Amiga because I CAN use it, it's streamline (no advertizing at every turn as in the Windoze world). The programs I use I can customize EASILY and SIMPLY. I've tried many proggies on my PC but, you have to go through GatesHELL to customize anything...FUCK THAT!

    No amount of speed can fix that.........
  • The Finn is a real guy too. I went to school with him. The story checks out. :)

    Sorry about the DNS issues and the non-current information in my WHOIS listing. I've got a bit to learn on setting up DNS, and the WHOIS thing was just a slip-up. If you need to contact me, you can reach me at anthony@kilna.com though, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

    I tried to get both the site and the article up in a hurry, and it shows. But the content is valid and can be verified with any AmiWest or World of Amiga attendee.

    I hope to have a better-hashed-out version of both METAMIGA.COM and the article very soon.

    Thanks
  • >AMIGA OS:
    >I personally don't beleive the Amiga OS (regardless of the kernel used), or QNX (for that matter) can match either method for market entry.

    Yes, the real question is the value-add on top of a typical Linux distro... they are pushing Amiga Objects as that value-add. But it seems to me that Amiga Objects are just a repackage of Sun's Jini. I think the key to the new Amiga is the object technology in combination with a processor that can handle crunching Java the fastest. They seem to be playing the "package deal" slant on a bunch of hot new technologies (Linux, Java, and the mystery Transmeta inclusive). We shall see!

    >TRANSMETA HW:
    >Learn from AMD, preferably Borland. You need much greater performance, and a much cheaper chip to quickly enter this entrenched market.

    The rumors seem to indicate they are working on a big increase in speed in combination with a big decrease in cost. If the rumors are true, it fits the bill.

    >But, Good God, don't shoot for a proprietary mobo design, whacky cases or custom ram configurations. The nerd market will ignore you. If you can't make something that fits in my box at a price/performance model on a par with AMD, you might as well all go look for new jobs now.

    They are releasing an ATX mobo that uses standard PC busses for connecting to paripherals / memory... (in addition to the iMac style Amiga of course :)

  • You can find a frame-grab of the video at Amiga Central [amigacentral.com]
  • "My bad" :)

    It's been fixed, I set the domain up with ns.metamiga.com as primary with the internic, but then proceeded to use ns1.metamiga.com in my dns setup. Oops. I am curious why it didn't roll over to my secondary or tertiary servers, though. There must have been another misconfiguration on your end.
  • Or maybe they're just trying to convince themselves.

    Absolutely not! :)
  • First Amiga meant great hardware.
    Then Amiga meant great software.
    Now Amiga is the best vapourware. Nothing else comes close.

    I heard some people say that "Amiga" is really just an attitude, rather than a particular technology. Maybe Amiga will become the best wetware next. I have more faith in the QNX based alternative than the "official" new AmigaOS with its mysterious hardware.

    I still think AmigaOS is a great operating system, but it is tied to hardware that can't be modernised without hack piled on hack. There will soon be G4 processor upgrades for Amiga 1200s, for goodness sake.
  • I fear I must agree with Morden.

    I cashed in my Amiga chips not so long ago, and at one point I _was_ beginning to develop for the Amiga. But it just wasn't economically viable.

    Commodore's marketing pushed the machine into its own rut, at a time when the general public weren't ready for a machine which could _multitask_ - and be productive as well as being a games machine. That was the Amiga's death knell.

    I would rather learn from its mistakes, and leave it be. I question why people are hovering around this, expecting miracles from Jim Collas. It is not dissimilar to the hero cult which has grown around Linus Torvalds, and of which some slashdotters are more than guilty.

    But I fear that from a business viewpoint, any attempt to breed a new Amiga would be up against great marketing difficulties right from the word 'go'.
  • Just between us girls, there's a story about the Amiga/Transmeta thang in the issue of Forbes that will hit the stands next week (8/9 cover date), so it should be on the Forbes website [forbes.com] come Monday.
  • All aspects of the new Amiga will be different from the original machine. As far as I know, the developers are different as well. (Jay Miner is dead, Carl Sassenrath is making Rebol, don't know about the others.)

  • > there was an 8 bit x86, it was called the 8088.

    No, the 8088 was a 16 bit CPU, just like the 8086, with an 8bit data bas instead of a 16bit data bus!

    Get you facts correct AC!

    As for amiga, unless they can design a rocken chipset, i won't even consider it worthy of the name!
  • If they use an ATI rage chip for graphics, then the Amiga WILL NOT very good! :( I have seen real amigas. The chipset they originally used rocked compared to anything else around.

    If amiga is just going to mix a few hi-end components around into Yet another bloody computer, then they deserve to die, and die quickly!
  • 1) I AM A PROGRAMMER. There are a lot of us too :)

    2) Intels PDF does say 16 bit internal architechure and an 8 bit data bus, just like I said :)

    Please read the "facts" and my post before claiming I look stupid.
  • Actually, I've heard some actual technical info that makes it sound as if they may have done just that. Of course, it is mostly speculation, but what about the Amiga isn't ;)? If they can do even half of this, I'll be impressed.
    Usenet post on Amiga/Transmeta.
    Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
  • Hmmm... it seems to have just linked to /.(?!?!?!). Here's the real URL:
    http://x27.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=501274972&search= thread&CONTEXT=932845453.372965529&hitnu m=11
    Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
  • >lemmings like yourself who run out and buy a new computer,sound or video card every six week

    Thats funny, the last official hardware for amiga came out in `92 this hardly qualifies as lemming behaviour.

    I guess we could go out and buy a pc sound or video card but they wouldn`t fit.

    Speaking of lemmings which platform was it created on ?
    A Amiga
  • I feel sorry for anyone who would fall for that rhetoric, really poor.
  • Right on!
  • I wrote to Rick le LeFaivre and got a message quite quick in responce... although it was to do with the usage of x:

    "Thanks for the note, -----. We're continuing to look at other options to
    X-Windows, but one clear advantage to having it available is that there will
    be lots of Linux/X-Windows applications available soon that we'd like to be
    able to run on the MCC. Most developers and users will never "see" X
    directly, as it is basically some underlying software that manages bits on
    the screen -- if we find something better to manage the bits (windows) on
    the screen, we can use it.

    Ease of use remains one of the primary goals of the development team.

    Rick"

    So whatever ideas we have cant all be that bad in reality.... And hey we're all cynical about the new mig... but if it does live up to expectations I'm sure I wont be the only one buying the box.

    Ive also got a hunch that the first new migs of the pres wont be Transmeta power, they will be Motorolla, caus Transmetas chip wont be out in time for migs release... However later in 2000 we'll see a mig model with Transmeta power..

    Oh my crystal ball has foged up...
  • At least their press releases claimed the reason for using Linux instead of QNX to me bigger user/developer base and thus better support for all emerging technologies. I guess that it also holds for Linux vs *BSD as there seems to be at least 10/1 ratio between Linux and all BSDs combined.

    As to why they refuse your SMTP server, it is probably your language ;cP

  • A comment and a question, not necessarily in that order.

    Question: What exactly does this have to do with the Amiga and Transmeta?

    Comment: I've never had problems installing drivers for Linux. I don't have a use for "real" OpenGL support (whatever that means) and am content with the options avalable now. Although there are efforts to bring "official" OpenGL support to Linux, I don't think the majority of developers care that much. If you do, then you may consider joining the effort if you have any significant OpenGL programming abilities. If you're simply a user who wants to purchase a solution, there are many commercial solutions for high-end 3d graphics using OpenGL, as you are aware...


  • Some said 'Star and/or Wars' was the most action we would see this summer, and others said 'Austin Powers', 'Eyes Wide Shut', 'Wild Wild West', etc. were going to be the most exciting.

    They are all wrong. 'Amiga Rumor Time 3000' is the best thing I've seen yet! I don't believe I have ever experianced so much entertainment. My hats off to Spielberg/Lucas/Krubrick or whoever directed this action packed thriller about the olde tyme machines.
  • I just got back from the WoA show in London, where I was witness to Jim Collas' speech.
    Nothing was specifically said about Transmeta. What did happen was they showed a video, where several logos were flashed up on the screen (Sun, Corel, Transmeta), and they then went on to talk about various future partnerships. In the actual speech bits, they mentioned Sun and Corel, but not Transmeta. As far as I'm aware, that's all there is, unless more was said at the Amiwest show.

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