Subject: [joeCARD eNews] AmiJOE- remarks (fwd) Date: 31 Mar 99 18:20:00 +0000 From: "Paul May"Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc What "stuns" me .... We are very glad to see that our recent announcement of the AmiJOE G3 processor upgrade for the AMIGA contributes not only to the ongoing discussion about the future of AMIGA, but also to the design efforts of other companies. Even in their approach towards potential customers and users of such products these people have started to think a little more customer-friendly. So, maybe itīs time to release some more educational stuff. Our AmiJOE 1200 is certainly meant for the majority of loyal Amigans still using one of the most exciting sub-500-$ computers worldwide. But please note, that we do not provide the G3 solution to owners of a customized A1200 built into a big tower case. Our AmiJOE will fit into the regular keyboard-style case of the original A 1200. How do we do that? Engineering! The AmiJOE 1200 will have an expansion socket for a module also fitting into the regular A 1200, offering either USB or, without any difference in price, a Fast-SCSII 2 - connector. This module is part of the AmiJOE 1200 product and included in the price of 599 EURO. AmiJOE 2000/3000/4000 will obviously be a little bigger in size, so it has USB on board. The PCI 2.1 - compliant connector will be ready to connect to another expansion card, the MultiJOE. At this stage, we donīt want to disclose too much information about the MultiJOE, since others should think up their own ideas. We are only going to let you know that MultiJOE will offer Ultra-SCSII and a complete grafics system, which includes 2D/3D, video-in and digitizing, alpha blending, genlock and flicker-reduction and AC-97- sound. In the last couple of months, we have learned a lot from our microprocessor partners about G4 and Altivec. The major benefit of the G4 (PPC 7400) will be to handle up to 2 Mbyte of Backside Cache. Itīs some waste of time making 1 MB BSC solutions with the G4, so we will stick to the G3 for now. One important thing to understand is that this next generation of PowerPC isnīt ready to ship by the time we will start to deliver the AmiJOE to the market. As it becomes available, there will be another product, too. Firewire maybe of interest for digital video editors, but itīs our clear vision that USB will bring a broad range of modern peripherals into the Amiga world. On the other hand, video work will bring much fun and productivity with the MultiJOE, and this will be a turn-key- solution without paying a fortune. EURO pricing is rather new, but makes it very easy for all customers in Europe and the US to figure out their ticket into the G3 sphere. We appreciate that others will join these practices, adding also more transparency to the competition. As we still donīt ask for prepayments, itīs good to support people who need this type of financials. And in this case, itīs very customer friendly to accept orders even without the prepayment, although they will have to pay a huge interest charge on top. Time will tell about reality. Yourīs sincerely Stefan Domeyer President & CEO met@box AG | joeCARD eNews - If you have questions regarding this message, | | please contact mac-support@metabox.de |