Phase5 news - Blizzard 603e

[<Petr.Valek@vsp.cz>]

    phase 5 News

Product News about the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board Accelerator for 
Amiga 1200

Oberursel, February 25, 1997: phase 5 digital products is proud to 
announce
the upcoming BLIZZARD 603e Power Board, a PowerPC-based accelerators 
for
Amiga 1200 and A1200-based Tower Systems. With this innovative and 
powerful
new accelerator a new dimension of performance is brought to the 
Amiga 1200,
with performance increases of multiple times beyond the performance 
of the
fastest 68k based accelerators available today, for a sensationally 
low
price that is perfectly targeted at the A1200 upgrade market.
Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga 
systems,
the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board incorporates phase 5's innovative dual-
processor
technologie, where a fast PowerPC RISC processor is combined with a 
68k
processor, in case of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board a 68030 CPU. Both 
CPUs
dynamically share the memory and system busses, what is necessary for 
a
true multiprocessor behaviour. While the original AmigaOS 3.x 
continues
to run on the 68030 CPU - as well as all existing applications do, 
what
provides 100% compatibility - the PowerPC 603e CPU is supported by a
comprehensive
PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all functionality to 
integrate
the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking environment. Software 
developers
can easily optimze their programs step by step by porting single 
tasks to
PowerPC code, which then can run parallel with 68k tasks. Many 
important
Amiga software vendors are preparing ported or optimized versions of 
their
software packages already, so it is expected that a large quantity of 
software
products supporting the PowerPC will be available soon.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be availabe with the fast 
PowerPC603e
processor at a clock speed of 120 MHz; a socket is provided for the 
68030
companion processor in a PGA housing. It provides a fast memory 
expansion
option which uses standard PS/2 type SIMMs. The memory is dynamically 
shared
by the two CPUs on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board . As an option, as 
very
inexpensive Fast SCSI-II controller will be available for the 
BLIZZARD 603e
Power Board, which combines transfer rates of up to 10 MB/s with the 
flexibility
and expandability of the SCSI standard.
With it's 120 MHz 603e processor the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board 
provides
- only on the PPC side - a raw performance of approximately 170 MIPS 
or
approximately 3.5 SPECint95 and 2.8 SPECfp95 (estimations based on 
Motorola/IBM
manufacturer specifications) - a blistering performance that can 
compete
with most of the fastest PC systems available today. with this 
performance
the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is ready for the most demanding 
applications
such as 3D rendering and high-speed 3D gameplaying, image 
manipulation,
animation, video applications, and many other demanding applications 
that
depend on fast CPU performance.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be delivered with a comprehensive 
software
package, which includes the PPC library as well as tools for creative 
users,
among them a Public Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC (including 
sourcecode)
and many demo programs and utilities with sourcecode; in addition to 
this
software free developer support is available via the phase 5 FTP 
site. Last
not least a PowerPC-optimized version of CyberGraphX V3 with RISC-
optimized
CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions and libraries is included (with a 
special
GGX driver to support the AGA chipset) - of course with comprehensive
documentation.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be selling for a price that can be 
called
sensational, offering a superior price/performance relation. The 
suggested
retail prices are as follows:
BLIZZARD 603e Power Board w/ 120 MHz 603e processor

DM 699,- / GBP 279.00 / USD 399.00
Note: All prices are recommended retail prices. English and german 
price
include local VAT, the recommended US price does not include local 
taxes.
The prices are without the 68030 CPU which is necessary to operate 
the BLIZZARD
603e Power Board. 68030 processors from existing processor boards can 
be
used on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board by pluging these into the 
provided
socket. If you don't own a 68030 CPU already, ask you local dealer 
for an
attractive bundle offer.
Registered owners of a Blizzard 68030 board will - within the PowerUp 
upgrade
program - receive special, attractive upgrade offers by mail during 
March
97. The handling of these upgrades will be done via local appointed
representatives.
The delivery of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is scheduled for late 
May
1997. Availability for the A1200 desktop system is depending on the 
finalization
of the CE approvals until that date.