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Re: Prohlaseni Amiga Inc.
>>* Vazne si tady nekdo mysli, ze nekdy bude Amiga rychlejsi nez PC? To je
>>mozna pekne sneni, ale realita je trochu jinde
>
>Jak to muzes vedet, dys vo tom naprosto nic nevis? Ma to bejt novej cip.
DAve se trochu rozepsal a uvedl radu duvodu, proc
by ten cip mohl byt CHROMATIC MPACT-3.
Gateway ma udajne 20% Chromaticu. Vyrabi jej Toshiba a Goldstar,
jmena, ktera nejsou moc znama v pocitacovem prumyslu (viz prohlaseni AI)
[Jen tak pro informaci: V rychlovlacich (ve vagonech) pouzivaji MC68000
a v lokomotive 68040, kdysi jsem to cetl...]
StB
For example, I can formulate a theory that fits the known facts and
fairly reasonable extrapolations, but I don't know if it's correct.
THEORY:
- The SuperChip is the Chromatic MPACT-3
SUPPORTS:
- Not yet available, but there is the MPACT-2. If you're not
familiar with the cutting edge of 3D graphics on the PC, the
MPACT-2 could be quite impressive. For that matter, since it
does MPEG-2 as well, and you can do both at once, it might
even give good show with the right demos, it not being
immediately obvious their 3D engine is just so-so. Carl might
have be wowed by such a demo today.
- Toshiba and LG Semicon (GoldStar) make the chips; two
household names you wouldn't associate with a "CPU".
- Gateway reportedly owns 20% or so of Chromatic.
- Chromatic has a good idea in the all-in-one media chip (theirs
was the first), but they've been hurt by the fact that right
about the time they debuted, the super-cheap PCs they sought
to support started using more integration, including the CPU.
So the media chips have, for the most part, been seen as the
"gallium arsenide of the multimedia world" -- interesting
technology not quite going anywhere. So they're very likely to
be interested in looking for non-PClone applications, despite
their current "nothing but Windows" stance.
- If they put a general purpose CPU, say, an x86 clone chip (or
something that closely resembled one, or something that could
claim to hit Pentium II@300MHz performance via software
emulation), perhaps people would actually use the MPACT-3 in
low-cost PCs, not just as a MPEG-2 decoder (the current application
for MPACT-1). Adding a CPU of some kind (the current MPACTs
are all VLIW, not general CPU, but several independent
processors wouldn't be out of the question) would also enable
stand-alone application in game machines, enhanced DVD players
and DTV receivers (STBs), etc. So this makes real sense.
- Chromatic has said that MPACT-3 supports "digital television",
which would be crazy if not a full HDTV implementation,
sampling in 1Q99 as they plan. This also matches with the
hardware schedule you would need to launch a new system in
18 months.
- Chromatic has been hurtin', but DVD is moving from "high end
cool thing" to "craze", and there aren't all that many
solutions around. They claim to be hittin' 5% of the PC market
right now (sounds high, but who knows), so perhaps there is
the influx of money needed to complete this development (
however, it's questionable how much Chromatic gets on each
chip; their original business model was supposed to have them
make money primarily on the software).
Also, the partners all use these chips themselves or have no
other entry in the increasingly crowded MMC market, so they
would be in deep doggie doo if they let Chromatic fail.
Especially since some thing the MMC market could be a pathway
to that illusive "next generation mass consumer device".
Anyway, I could probably go on, but you get the gist. The facts fit what
I know about the mystery chip, but others might fit as well. The chip
could also be a deep dark secret thing nobody knows about.
Dave Haynie | V.P. Technology, PIOS Computer | http://www.pios.de
Be Dev #2024 | DMX2000 Powered! | Amiga 2000, 3000, 4000, PIOS One
Buy my house! Take the tour at http://www.jersey.net/~dhaynie
Bob Stifter --===***===-- TEAM AMIGA
tel. +420 602 834287 -==- A1200T 603