...sem nasel...

[Petr.Valek@vsp.cz]

HiQ "Alpha Project" White Paper
For Immediate release 8th January 1998

HiQ is pleased to announce "Project Alpha" which is an ongoing 
project to integrate the Amiga system with the Alpha processor. 
Already we are at stage one, the Siamese RTG Software v2.5 which is 
Alpha and PC compatible. Following on from this we are determined to 
see the AmigaOS ported fully to this powerful chip over the coming 18 
months whilst retaining backward compatibility. For those who have 
not heard about the Siamese System please check out our web site at 
www.siamese.co.uk 

The "Project Alpha" plan of action is as follows. 

Stage one.
Shipping Now! 

Siamese RTG System v2.5 links existing Amigas via Ethernet to any 
Alpha machine including the new range supplied by HiQ 
http://www.siamese.co.uk/pr-alpha.htm. For those who have not heard 
about the Siamese system please check out our web site at 
http://www.siamese.co.uk/psiamese.htm. 

Stage two.
Shipping Q1 1998. 

Supplying Alphas to Amiga and Ex Amiga owning customers with one of 
the following optional additions, or supplying existing Alpha users 
with these products:- 

(a) Adding the Siamese RTG System v2.5 and an Ethernet connection kit 
to join the already owned Amiga and Alpha in a seamless link. 

(b) Adding the "Access" Amiga units from Index Information ltd, which 
are complete Amigas in a 5.25" drive bay, linked via internal 
Ethernet to the Alpha/PC and giving the Digital Video based Alpha 
access to the Amigas Analogue Video system to create a combined 
Analogue / Digital Video hybrid system. 

(c) Supply an additional Amiga Computer system for the US Video 
Toaster market if not already owned, to create the ultimate NTSC 
Video and 3D studio system with the accent on integration. 

(d) Supply Amiga Forever as a free add on to encourage the ex Amiga 
owning Alpha customer back to the Amiga once more. This will give the 
performance of around a 50mhz 68030 based Amiga. Once they grow 
accustomed to the Amiga way of doing things they can upgrade to Stage 
three. 

Stage Three
In final development, but taking advanced orders now.
Shipping in Q2-Q3. 

Designed around the "Inside Out" PCI based Amiga on a card from Index 
Information ltd and the Siamese RTG v3.0 Software from HiQ Limited 
and Paul Nolan, this System would create the ultimate Amiga and Alpha 
combined Multi-OS machine on the planet and all "Powered By Amiga". 

Amiga Features include:- 
ĽFull Amiga 680x0 backward compatibility with AmigaOS v2.1+. ĽOn 
board Amiga AGA chip set running up to 30% faster than existing chip 
set. Motorola 68040 or 68060 onboard with speeds up to 75mhz, 
depending on Chip used. Amiga PCI card design gives access to PCI bus 
on PC/Alpha motherboard. Supports all PCI, ISA and USB ports as well 
as standard ports. ĽCommunication between Amiga processor and 
Alpha/PC chip and PCI boards is at PCI bus speeds. ĽAmiga gets access 
to the latest high speed graphics cards and can use the latest 
drivers. ĽAmiga gets full blown OpenGL 3D graphics. ĽAmiga gets Mpeg, 
AVI, Quicktime etc. Video. ĽAmiga has access to low cost, less than 
200 in price, Digital video Recording cards. ĽAmiga gets 16bit Sound 
and access to Wave Audio system at last via AHI. ĽThe Amiga can run 
Macintosh software on high speed graphics cards. ĽThe new Amiga 
Integrates seamlessly with the WindowsNT operating system to create a 
robust and easy to use Amiga / Macintosh / Windows system. ĽAlpha 
speed available at up to 767mhz by Quarter two. ĽAlpha/PC gets an 
Amiga Video slot to run the Video Toaster direct from the Alpha/PC. 
ĽTruly a Multi-OS and Multi Processor system for the first time. 
Ľ680x0 based Macintosh users can get a huge performance increase and 
migrate to NT. ĽThis system is running NOW over Ethernet in stage 1, 
and this will be a True "One Box Solution". 


Stage 4
AmigaOS to Alpha Porting Plan.
Starts Q2 

We aim to Launch the "Project Alpha" porting plans as soon as we ship 
stage three, this is because it starts the entire ball rolling with 
the first goal of creating an Alpha that is fully backward compatible 
with the Amiga. Once the Amiga is ported it will leap frog any other 
Processor in one jump. 

Obviously the main advantage of this route is that the user has a 
machine that can run Amiga, Windows, MSDos, and Macintosh software 
from one incredibly powerful and economical system. This system is 
aimed at the serious Amiga user and not the budget user today, 
however the Alpha is coming down in price and once the porting is 
complete we expect to have a base machine for around 1500 which is 
what an average PC costs today. This is a realistic target unlike a 
lot of other so called new Amigas which will not appear. 

Porting Time scale, (very approximate).
Starts from where Stage 3 finishes.


Stage 5
At Q3-4 

Once this system is shipping, all Users who purchased the Alpha 
upgrade path license package will receive their first upgrade. This 
will include sections that can be removed from the Amiga OS control 
fairly easily and handed over to the Alpha to speed them up. 
Graphics, Sound file handling 
etc. 

Improvements to some functions like the maths functions and additions 
to OS, to allow software to call Alpha Maths libraries etc. to speed 
up floating point operations. 

Stage 6
At Q1-2 of 1999 

Once finished the entire OS will be Alpha based and only using the 
Amiga Card for software that relies on the Amiga Custom Chip set, 
although hopefully an ECS and AGA emulator may solve this problem. 
However we see the Amiga chip set still being important for Amiga 
developers and that it will be needed for some time to come with the 
Analogue Video world. 

All the best for the Future