Organization: Institute for Study of Wombats and Lemurs
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.i-amiga
Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 1992 12:37:34 CDT
From:         David McGhee <DMCGHEE1@UA1VM.BITNET>
Subject:      News from WOC show courtesy of GEnie

Well here's some news guys....There's some other stuff
at the beginning of the 5-minute news also about the A4000, but I'll let
Jim Loomis (?) post the other parts.  I just didn't want anyone
to die of anticipation.  ;)

  ______  On-The-Scene Report from the World of Commodore
 (__  __) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   / /                   *StarShip* News Network
  / /
 (_/he World of Commodore Show opened today in Pasadena,
California, to sunny skies, enthusiastic crowds, and a
brand-new machine. The Amiga 4000, the subject of much
speculation, was finally presented to the public. Housed in
a gleaming white-and-tan case not much larger than the Amiga
3000, it dazzled the crowds with displays of 262,144 colors
- out of a 24 bit (plus 1 genlock bit) palette - and a wide
array of screen resolutions and modes.

You can read the numbers and you can try to imagine what
they mean, but the reality of HAM8 is astounding. The images
are photo-real, indistinguishable from 24-bit. If you think
of HAM pictures as low-res, chunky affairs, forget it. HAM8,
in high-res, gives you silky-smooth images of almost
unlimited hue.

The new graphic magic of the 4000 comes courtesy of the new
kids on the block - Lisa and Alice. Denise and Agnus, who
have served us well these past 7 years, have been retired in
favor of these 32-bit ladies. New graphics aren't the only
benefit, though. The 4000 has the capacity to read and write
high-density 1.7 Megabyte floppies.

Another innovative feature of the 4000 is the use of modular
processors. The CPU is no longer an integral part of the
motherboard; it's a plug-in board.  While Commodore won't
say exactly what their plans are, they indicate that the
4000 is the first of a new family of machines. The
implications are that the 4000 can be shipped with any of a
number of processors, from the 68020 to the 68060, when it
is released. Commodore occupied a large area at one end of
the show floor, exhibiting the A4000, as well as the newly-
released A600 and A600HD, CDTV, Unix, and Amiga Vision Pro.
They weren't the only ones there, though. Here's a brief
rundown of significant exhibits:

Inovatronics was demonstrating CanDo 2.0. This version,
finished just before the show, features script bookmarking -
allowing you to mark places in your script for easy return;
SuperDuper - a utility that allows you to insert
spreadsheet-style columns and rows of objects into your
applications; Object Layer Tool - which allows you to change
the hierarchy of objects - and an
error-checking utility, Bug Basher.

Color was the name of the game at the Centaur booth - over
16 million of them, to be precise. The OpalVision 24-bit
graphics board, currently shipping, was the centerpiece of
this display. If you've missed the splash ads, the
OpalVision board offers 24-bit color now, with a bundled
paint program, and promises Toaster-like capabilities in the
future through add-on modules.

You couldn't miss the Sunrize booth; it could be heard from
any point on the floor. Sunrize was busy demonstrating their
new 16-bit audio card, the AD516. This board features 8
tracks of sound, a time code reader, and a Digital Signal
Processor on one card, and is bundled with the Studio 16
sound editing program.

Sunrize plans to release the DD524 Digital Audio I/O board
within 6 months.  This board will feature direct
import/export of digital audio between the Amiga and a
Digital Audio Tape or CD player.

The word from the GVP folks was that Mirage, a world-class
Image Processing program, will ship just as soon as the
manual is finished. Meanwhile, they've released CimeMorph, a
polymorphing program capable of rendering to any Amiga mode,
as well as DCTV, HAM-E, and 24-bits. CineMorph will perform
static or full-motion morphing, works on single image or
sequences, can generate and automate animations, and
features AmigaGuide online help.

Over in the Merit Software booth, football ruled. Tom Landry
Strategy Football, that is. In an interesting twist, this
game - co-designed by Tom Landry - was developed on the
Amiga and then ported to the PC. It features a 2-player
modem option (with a chat mode) as well as VCR-style instant
replays. If the game gets too tough for you, you can always
consult with the master through the "Ask Landry" option. Tom
Landry Strategy Football is expected to ship within a month.

The Digital Micronics booth featured two things: Speed and
More Speed. The Vivid 24 board offers 24-bit graphics,
resolutions as high as 2048 X 2048, and the ability to
perform operations at speeds of up to 160 million floating
point operations per second. The modular design of this
graphics co-processor allows you to add various upgrade
modules, ranging from math co-processors to a video effects
generator. The Digital EditMaster board features editing
speed. This board offers full-motion JPEG - in real-time -
as well as 30 fps video capture. The EditMaster board can be
connected to the Vivid 24 board for real-time 24-bit image
transfer from hard disk to screen.

There was more to see, of course, but some things had to be
left for another day. This was only the first day of the
show, as well as the first day in the life of a new family
of Amigas. How to sum up the show? Perhaps with the most
frequently-heard expression on the floor:  "I want one!"

                          -*-

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  DMCGHEE@SSS.CBA.UA.EDU                                                   
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