Two years Amiga Technologies announced PowerPC as the future of the Amiga, but since the buyout by Gateway 2000, they have been reconsidering this choice. Now, as the PowerPC boards from Phase 5 are finally shipping, Amiga International have stated that PowerPC is indeed the future of the Amiga.
They stated that they will be taking the dual processor route of a 680x0 processor as well as the PowerPC to provide maximum backward compatibility, as is the case in the Phase 5 boards. The advantage is that we don't have to wait for a new version of the AmigaOS with a 680x0 emulation and what's more, we have the PPC cards here now!
On the other hand, there is the concern of multiprocessing between the 680x0 and PPC processor. The exact situation is unsure, but there appear to be problems when multitasking between a 680x0 program, and a PPC one. AI have not stated if they intend to work on a PPC OS and 680x0 emulation so that, eventually Amigas will be able to be PPC only; AmigaOS 3.5 will be 680x0 only.
A few days before the announcement, it was revealed that Amiga International had signed a deal with Motorola stating that they would make the Amiga's CPU. Given Petro Tsychenko's misleading statement at Computer '97, many were worried they were on about these mythical 68080s, or Coldfire processors - thankfully, this is not the case.
Even though there is concern about the dual processing option, it has to be agreed that generally, PowerPC is an excellent choice. Hopefully, this will lead to greatly increased sales of PowerUP boards. In turn, we should see more developers willing to port software to PPC - maybe from companies who had left the Amiga.
Amiga International have stated that they will not be making new machines themselves, but developing the Amiga technology and licencing it to manufacturers. In many ways, this is an excellent choice; if they made Amigas themselves, then they would be in competition with their licencees, and may decide to increase the licence costs, or even withhold licencing, just as is currently the case with Apple. On the other hand, it must be noted that Gateway 2000 will have much more purchasing power than the sorts of companies that will be making Amigas, and so would probably be able to offer Amigas at cheaper prices.
The BoXeR motherboard and the new DCE A5000/6000 machines are 680x0 based, with cheap PPC cards to follow - now we will hopefully see new machines that have 680x0 and PPC as standard on the motherboard, making them cheaper still.
One problem with PowerPC at the moment is that Phase 5 have control over the way it is implemented, with their ppc.library, a situation that Haage and Partner have challenged. With Amiga International now committed to PPC, and with the prospect of PPC machines and accelerators from other companies, hopefully we will see a more open solution to this.
It is interesting, worrying in fact, to note Amiga International's reluctance to actually port the AmigaOS to PPC. Agreed - a dual 680x0/PPC system will be far quicker to achieve than a single PPC system (indeed, we already have the PowerUP cards), but what about long term? Will they be working on an Amiga 680x0 emulation for PPC, and leter porting the AmigaOS to PPC? They stated that, if other companies wanted to port the OS to another processor, they would give them the necessary support - but that seems a bit vague.
Regarding the PowerUP cards, the Blizzard boards specification has now changed (again) from what was originally planned. Now, all cards will have a socket for '040 or '060; the '030 version will not exist. Given that a more powerful 25MHz '040 is only slightly more expensive than a 50MHz '030, this makes sense. It will also be possible to buy the board with an '040 that doesn't have an FPU. The 603e processor will be available at speeds of 160, 200 and 250MHz.
The names 603 and 603+ remain, but now indicate whether the boards are SCSI equipped are not. While the 603+ has SCSI 2 as standard, as before, the 603 comes without SCSI (and is not upgradeable). This is a welcome move, as those wishingt to take an IDE route are not paying for something they don't want.
Both the 603 and 603+ boards will take the BlizzardVision graphics card, and feature 2 SIMM sockets for up to 64MB of 64bit RAM.
Some current prices are as follows:
| Board | 680x0 | PPC 603 | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 603 | 25MHz '040 w/o FPU | 160MHz | £240 |
| 603 | 25MHz '040 w FPU | 160MHz | £250 |
| 603+ | 25MHz '040 w FPU | 160MHz | £300 |
The CyberVision and BlizzardVision PPC graphics cards are set to be far better than existing Amiga graphics cards, and superior to most PC cards. Expected prices are £200 for the 4MB BVision and £220 for the 4MB CVision. Prices for the 8MB CyberVision have not yet been announced.
Although a 200MHz 604e is fast, it's not the fastest, given that the processor is already available at speeds of 350MHz. Phase 5 have stated that this will be rectified... in a rather dramatic way. They are planning multiprocessor cards, with several 604e CPUs (or maybe even 750s) working together. One example I heard was a card with 4 350MHz 604e processors (wow).
I don't know if software has to be specifically written to take advantage of this, or whether it will be done via hardware. Note that the Genesis is a Mac clone that features 4 603e processors, but as far as I know, the MacOS does not support multiple processors.
Boards such as this are essential to keep the Amiga in the highend 3D and video industry. Hopefully, this will make NewTek stay with the Amiga, continue to develop the Video Toaster, and port Lightwave to Amiga PPC.
Nova have released a range of PPC equipped A4000T clones. Just think what one of these machines would be like with 4 350MHz 604s...
Mark