Article: 3087 of alt.zines Path: news.cic.net!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!nic.scruz.net!armory.com!leavitt From: leavitt@armory.com (Thomas Leavitt) Newsgroups: alt.zines Subject: Bleeding Edge: Journal of (definitely) Alternative Computing Date: 25 Mar 1994 01:39:03 GMT Organization: The Armory Lines: 152 Message-ID: <2mtfc5$4he@nic.scruz.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: deeptht.armory.com Summary: New e'zine! Amiga, Atari, TI, more! Articles, news and views. Keywords: computer alternative Amiga Atari electric net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] "/BBBBBB /L /EEEEE /EEEEE /DDDDD /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /BBBBB /L /EEE /EEE /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /B B /L /E /E /D D /BBBBBB /L /EEEEE /EEEEE /DDDDDDD I N G /EEEEE /DDDDD /GGGGGGGG /EEEEE" /E /D D /G G /E /E /D D /G /E /E /D D /G /E /E /D D /G /E /EEE /D D /G /EEE /E /D D /G GGG /E /E /D D /G G /E /E /D D /G G /E /E /D D /G G /E /EEEEE /DDDDDDD /GGGGGGGG /EEEEE Taking you where no one has gone before... to the obscure depths of truly alternative computing, where desperate users ponder the future, and stretch the capabilities of their machines to the utmost. EDITORIAL Hi folks, this is the first edition... send me any comments, criticisms, etc... leavitt@armory.com. Users of platforms not covered in this edition (older workstations, Acorns, 8 bit platforms, antiques etc. are encouraged to mail me tidbits for inclusion... only qualification is, it can't be a "mainstream" machine). Basically, this is just a compendium of news and views picked up off the net, along with a little commentary interspersed on my part... I try and pick up new and exciting things, as well as keeping my ears to the ground for rumors... plus, I'd like to thank David Higgens for his excellent article on the Supra28, an inexpensive accelerator that gives new life to old 68000 based Amigas. And Hans Luyten for the A2000 to A1200 keyboard hack. Send those articles in folks, and get the ego gratification of being PUBLISHED. :) Someone trashed my Unix account :( so I don't have the most exciting stuff of all... the full "banner file" on the WARP System... a scalable, multi-processor transputer for the Amiga that sits on the Zorro III bus and goes ZOOM. It functions transparently to the OS, so porting applications is relatively easy... VistaPro, among others, has already committed to supporting it. All it takes is recompiling the application using the WARP libraries. Lotsa buzz going around about HP and C= collaborating... sort of a net consensus that when the Amiga goes RISC, it'll be with the HP PA-RISC chip. Other news, widely known, is that HP is going to use the AGA (and maybe AAA) chipsets in their desktop boxes. No one's mentioned what OS they're going to be running, or what the CPU will be... late rumor has from one net source has it that CBM is going to be eaten by Sony and HP, and the AAA chipset will never see the light of day. Someone posted a note to the effect that Sony's bought 30% of CBM stock... who knows what's really happening. Other info is more positive, as you'll be able to see in the stuff I picked up. Looks like the AAA chipset is pretty rad, 20x the speed of AGA, with built in 3D rendering, and 16 bit sound support (though the method on the last, is uncertain... in the on-line CIS interview, Dave Haynie says that they're debating whether or not to go with sound through the chipset, or a DSP, though he also indicates CBM isn't doing much with the DSP. Puzzling... ). On the other hand, Dave Pleasance's comment that NT will be able to run on the nextgen Amiga doesn't thrill me at all... what role does AmigaDOS have in that case? CD^32 selling like hotcakes accross Europe, even being advertised on TV in Canada... what kind of impact it'll make here in the US of A is unknown, as of yet. Rumor has it that near half a million units have been shipped... someone mentioned they got it with a game pack for 250 pounds British, which translates to $400 U.S. But considering that UK prices are much higher than U.S. prices, that bodes well for a quick drop to $299, The various expansions turning it into a real computer are already on their way... the SX-1 is mentioned herein. The Emplant seems to have attained a reasonable level of stability, though Jim Drew seems to be churning out revisions on a daily basis, almost. 4.x already! An ftp site has been established for various revisions and patches... check out comp.sys.amiga.emulations for more. On other fronts, Atari finally got a clue, and licensed the Atari platform to a third party, which produced what looks like a pretty exciting computer in the Pandora/Medusa. The Falcon seems to be like by it's users, though Atari's interest in it seems minimal... people are apparently doing some rad things with the DSP. And finally, my old standby, the TI, has some news of it's own... apparently, a company has finally produced a reliable hard drive controller for the last serious orphan platform without one. And, even more interesting, several working emulators have emerged in recent weeks... commercial, and publicly available. Contents: (I've designed this so that users with GREP can pop right to the juicy bits.) 1. SUPRA28 (search pattern in ALL CAPS) article. And yes, it does work in your A1000. :) (might buy my dad one, eventually) 2. KEYBOARD hack. 3. AGAFIX for banding problem on A1200s. 4. A4000 new models, and fate of '030 version. 5. ADVANTAGE AMIGA the "official" list! Help this guy out... 6. AMIGAVISION LIVES ... official word from CBM. :) 7. APPLEEMU looks like it's fairly workable... might use it to convince the school/PTA people that it's finally time to put those Apple IIes out to pasture. Over half the computers in US schoolrooms are 8 bit Apple IIs... is this sad, or what? :( 8. PROGRAMMING is a popular hobby among Amiga enthusiasts... some spirited debate between an Atarian and Amigan about who assembles faster, and a fairly comprehensive list of programming languages available for the Amiga. Most of 'em free, even! 9. AUSTRALIA (why can't I spell that right? :) Newspaper transcription, fairly definitive word on the aftermath of CBM Australia going broke. 10. X-CALIBER hmm... seems like there's a bug in this baby. 11. CD32 EXPANSION specs for the SX-1 and other stuff. 12. BBKING uses the Amiga! 13. FRACTINT fun with fractals for the big boys... 14. GOLDENGATE the full spec sheet for the product that allows you to use IBM cards in your Amiga, with your Amiga under AmigaDOS. 15. CIS CONFERENCE with Dave Haynie (Amiga God) and Randall Jessup (lesser diety :) ). If you haven't read it for some reason already... stick it in your files. 16. AMIGAFUTURE a series of posting discussing AAA chipset, news about the next generation systems, CPUs, etc. 17. HDDRIVE a high density drive for your Amiga... pulled off comp.sys.amiga .reviews... 18. STUDIO full specs on the ultimate Amiga printer driver software... 19. SCREAMER where the Toaster Screamer, (4 R4400s running in paralell to make Lightwave [you guess it] SCREAM. 20. FANTASY one Amiga users hearts desire. 21. SPREADSHEET not many of these for the Amiga, this might do the trick. 22. TRANSPUTER some stuff, not what I had hoped for... :( 23. ATARILYNX fix for button problems. 24. MACEMU software Mac emulator without ROMs? 25. TI-INFO a SCSI board, C compiler, the 99/5B (and where you can get photos of the rarest microcomputer ever produced. :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Leavitt, author of Thom's Little Guide to Purchasing a COMPUTER, publisher of the e-zine "Bleeding Edge", and confirmed net.addict. Also, iniator of alt.religion.gnostic... check it out. Finger leavitt@deeptht.armory.com for more info on the above!