###

####

                                                OPEN LETTER TO AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES, DR. PETER KITTEL
                           Bob Richardson, MagicBox Inc.                                                                                        magicbox@peak.org

May 8, 1995 Escom AG
ATTN: Dr. Peter Kittel
Tiergartenstr. 9
D-64646 Heppenheim
Germany Dear Mr. Kittel: Greetings. We have been following your posts to the internet for quite some time, and were very glad to hear of your new position with Escom. Our company markets products to the cable television industry, and relies heavily on the Amiga hardware and operating system both for development and our final product. Our products range from a low-cost character generator, based on the CD32 repackaged in a rack-mount chassis, on up to large distributed display systems based on multiple A4000's. This letter addresses our suggestions for what features we feel are essential for future machines, both for our needs and the general needs of the Amiga community. As you said in your post today, the most important thing right now is to get the existing models back in production. Short Term Suggestions: As you have mentioned in your posts, it is very important to keep the price of the low-end machines down. We definitely feel the same way, and recognize the need for those machines in the marketplace. Therefore, our suggested changes primarily apply to high-end machines, and the changes for low-end models are primarily related issues such as board layout. We feel that certain features which are not present in current models have provided significant problems for marketing the machines. For future models, we think the following relatively simple changes will add tremendous value: 1. SCSI in the high-end machines (A4000) Well over 90% of the Amiga 4000's we have shipped and encountered in the United States market have had to be equipped with a SCSI board, which occupies a Zorro slot. Because many of these system use the Video Toaster, which covers over but does not use two Zorro slots, only one slot is left free for networking, video capture, extra serial ports, etc. The addition of a SCSI controller (such as found in the A3000) will free up an extra slot, while simultaneously reducing the overall cost of putting a system together, since adding 3rd party cards is inevitably more expensive. 2. Video output in the high-end machines The A600, A1200, and CD32 provide a composite color video output which provide a remarkably high quality signal, better than most low-end genlocks. This solution should also be included in the A4000. If all you want to do is record your productions direct to video tape, you shouldn't have to buy an expensive genlock or waste your video slot. The exact same circuitry as the A1200/CD32 video encoder would be more than acceptable for most uses. 3. Audio input and/or extra parallel port in the high-end machines Most of the A4000's in the USA become equipped with a parallel-port based audio digitizer, such as the MegaloSound from HiSoft/AVR. Unfortunately, this requires the use of a switchbox or a Zorro slot with an extra parallel port, which is expensive, if you want to have a printer. Having this very inexpensive A/D circuitry integrated into the computer, or providing an extra parallel port for a printer (or PARnet, etc.), would eliminate this problem, and provide for more favorable direct comparison to competition from the A/V Macintosh line of machines. 4. Internal keyboard header in the low-end machines As I mentioned earlier, we repackage machines, such as the CD32 (and SX1) into a 19" rack-mount chassis. We have been doing this since the days of the A500. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to do with newer machines like the A600 and A1200. The A500 provided all the necessary keyboard controller lines on a header connector on the motherboard. Hooking an external keyboard to the A600/1200 requires soldering directly to chips or traces. Having the keyboard controller lines available just as blank, drilled pads that we can solder to would only add a couple of cents of cost to future machines, but would be of tremendous value to OEMs such as ourselves. 5. Connectors should all be on front or rear of high-end machines If at all possible, the location of the mouse connectors should be moved to the front or rear of the computer, as was the case on the A2000. By having connectors on the side of the machine, mounting of the cabinet in a permanent environment, such as a rack, is difficult, and sometimes impossible. 6. PCMCIA connector on low-end machines should be relocated We find the PCMCIA port to be of tremendous value, and use it for both SCSI and Ethernet applications. Unfortunately, the present location again provides problems for mounting of card-equipped machines in a rack, or in a professional setting. The best solution for us would be to have this connector present on the rear of the case, or recessed in a trapdoor. If it must remain on the left, perhaps moving it further toward the rear, and providing a greater depth for card insertion. We feel that the above suggestions, if implemented in the first round of new models, would greatly increase the usefulness of Amigas in a professional environment, while minimizing the cost impact to the lower models. Long Term Goals We have three additional suggestions for the future, which I will present here. Two are for new low-end models, and one is for the long-term future of Amiga O/S development. 1. Faster processor in the A1200 If (and only if) the component prices are low enough, the A1200 should get a processor upgrade. The simplest change, which wouldn't require a substantial redesign, would be to double the clock speed of the 68020 to 28MHz. A better solution would be to go with a 68030, with more address lines brought to the trapdoor, for more memory expansion. This would probably introduce compatibility problems and higher costs, however. Another suggestion would be to include SIMM sockets on the A1200 motherboard itself, so that the trapdoor could be used for other applications without always having to squeeze memory onto the cards. A problem many users face is that they buy one trapdoor card that accepts one type of memory, then later upgrade to a more powerful trapdoor card and find they have to buy all new memory. 2. Introduce an intermediate model that fits between the A1200 and A4000. We see a need in the video production and education markets, especially in the USA, for a very low cost Amiga model that appears more high end in terms of case design than the A1200. We feel such a machine could be produced using existing motherboard designs and would represent a good niche between the A1200 and A4000. Start with an A1200 motherboard, but put it in a plastic pizza-box style (thin form-factor) case with the floppy drive located in the front, and enough internal room for a 3.5" IDE drive. Provide a connector for a standard external Amiga keyboard. This machine will not cost much more than an A1200 to produce, and won't require a substantial redesign, but will easily overcome the established resistance in the US marketplace to console-style case designs. This would also be an ideal platform for low-cost multimedia delivery (see the CD32 section below). 3. Port the Amiga O/S to your chosen RISC platform The Amiga O/S is one of the last truly efficient, compact designs. It can be argued than a RISC-based Amiga that runs under Windows NT or such is not really an Amiga. We feel that in order for the basic design philosophies that the Amiga represents to carry on into the future, the operating system must be represented on future architectures, even if this takes much time to materialize. Without AmigaDOS, a RISC-based Amiga will just be a Windows box with a nice chipset. The CD32 This product deserves special mention. The CD32 has kept our company (and many others) going through Commodore crisis of the past year, as A1200's and A4000's are unavailable. We have gone so far as to design a 3" x 19" x 17" chassis that accommodates a CD32, SX1, 3.5" HD Floppy, 3.5" hard drive, and 3.5" 270MB SyQuest drive for our high end systems traditionally made up of A4000's. We feel that the CD32 has a good future as an ideal kiosk / multimedia delivery platform, and hope to see production continued. We wouldn't change a thing for the base model, as the inclusion of non-volatile RAM, keyboard and serial ports makes it a good all-around machine. A step up for multimedia producers would be a CDTV-style design with an integrated floppy drive. This could also be accomplished with the intermediate A1200-A4000 machine described earlier and an internal CD-ROM drive. Thank you for taking the time to consider these suggestions. We are looking forward to the results of your new efforts with Escom. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You may call me at [phone numbers removed from public post], or send email to magicbox@peak.org. Congratulations once again on your new position; we wish you the best of luck.
Sincerely, Bob Richardson
Director of Product Development
MagicBox, Inc.