| [News] From the Unmoderated section... | ANN.lu |
| Posted on 07-May-2000 11:40 GMT by Christian Kemp | 12 comments
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Some quick tidbits from the unmoderated section here on ANN.
A very unconfirmed and somehow unbelievable rumour of Axl Rose programming for the Amiga.
Somebody having problems with AmigaOS 3.5 and looking for assistance.
Another unlikely rumour of a dual-060 motherboard.
An availability notice of Winux.
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| List of all comments to this article |
| From the Unmoderated section... : Comment 12 of 12 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Ralph on 10-May-2000 22:00 GMT | Rodolphe, the phenix developer, gave me permission to post his eMail so
here it comes:
Hello,
Hey, all what you said me, I already know it !
Please read this official communique that was sent to the Atari communauty
in february :
And you will understand that Phenix is dead and the Riored PPC is my actual
job !
And we are in touch with Amiga world, Atari world, Beos and Linux major
actors !
Regards
Rodolphe CZUBA
28, rue des Sorbiers
F-60290 LAIGNEVILLE
FRANCE
email : rczuba@home.com
---------------------
- This announcement was not written by Centek but by Yann Lossouarn
- lossouarn.yann@free.fr, who is independent from Centek and contacted
- Rodolphe CZUBA by phone.
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The main piece of news in the Atari world this month revolves around
- Centek. Rumors are spreading over the web and on Usenet about the
- cancellation of the Phenix project and the launch of the Phenix 260
project.
- It is urgent for Centek to publish an official statement.
- Rodolphe CZUBA, who was obviously affected by the recent events has
- entrusted me with the writing of this announcement to maintain neutrality
in
- the description of events that are emotionally charged. I hope this choice
- will help avoid any controversy (unlike what happened in the past)
-
-
- History
-
- A few months ago (April 99) Centek and Class4 announced their merging to
- form a new company that would keep the name Class4. The goal of this
- operation was to get easier financing to allow Centek's developers to
devote
- their energy to the Phenix project and speed up the release of this
- long-awaited machine.
-
-
- Reasons for the cancellation of the Phenix project
-
- Reality was different. Even though the development of the Phenix's
hardware
- was on track, it was not the case for "Dolmen", its operating system. The
- three developers responsible for writing Dolmen gradually chose not to
- finish it and to spend more time working on Class4's business (laser
shows).
- Without these developers' work, the project was in a critical situation,
- which lead Rodolphe CZUBA to drop it (at least in its original form)
-
-
- Centek goes out of business
-
- The search for the financing necessary to complete the integration of
- Centek's products was never completed, or never started according to
- Rodolphe, and therefore the merging was never effective.
- With the Phenix project being phased out, there is no reason for Centek to
- go on. Rodolphe CZUBA and his former collaborators chose to close their
- business.
- Some equipment belonging to the company will be put up for sale
-
-
- Future or no future, that's the question
-
- The cut out of the Phenix project might leave some of you feeling that the
- trust they had in Centek has been betrayed.
- First of all, Rodolphe CZUBA has no intention of 'disappearing' and he
will
- support the products he has developed such as the CENTurbo II. Falke
Verlag
- in Germany might soon produce this accelerating card again, under a
- licensing agreement.
-
- A DSP 56301 + 20-Bit Audio (or better !) PCI card derived from the Phenix
could be created
- for the Milan.
- As of the software that was developed, there is a lot of uncertainty about
- its future. Will their authors support them? Nothing is more doubtful as
- they seem to have become uninterested in the Atari cause. It could be
- interesting if they would give them to the community so that others could
- possibly follow up.
-
- You might think that this announcement is just a long list of bad news,
- don't you? As strange as it may seem, I would say that it is the exact
- opposite. A very happy ending seems to be in reach.
-
-
- ... and the answer is : future !!!
-
- I would like to say that what is about to follow may seem implausible to
- many even to the most credulous. But I verified the information given to
me
- by Rodolphe CZUBA the best I could and my conclusion is that the project
- mentioned in the following lines is absolutely serious.
-
- In the past few months, Rodolphe realized that the Phenix project was
taking
- a bad turn : the enthusiasm of developers was going downward and the
- financing was late.
- Since he was committed to delivering the Phenix to Atarists, in September
99
-Rodolphe looked for some contacts to find money to produce the Phenix
- 260, using MiNT as the OS in case Dolmen would not be ready.
- These contacts (in particular a long time friend of Rodolphe) got him in
- touch with American business angels. They were very enthusiastic about the
- Phenix motherboard (hand routed by Rodolphe CZUBA) and decided to start a
- new project for which Rodolphe CZUBA would be in charge of designing a new
- and extremely different motherboard: the RioRed G4. The project would be
- handled by a new company based in the United States in Richardson TX, and
- named "Silicon Fruit". RioRed is the name of a variety of grapefruit,
which
- is the symbol of Texas and grows in the Rio Grande area.
-
- Here is a summary of the specifications:
- - CPU : 2 type 1 slots that can both host a card with a 450 MHz G4 PowePC,
- and 2 Mb of L2 cache memory @ 225 MHz
- - 4 32 bit / 33 MHz PCI slots (133 Mo/s in burst mode)
- - 2 64 bit / 66 MHz PCI slots (528 Mo/s in burst mode)
- - IDE UltraDMA 66 controller (4 periphericals)
- - 1 AGP slot
- - 4 USB ports
- - 4 100 MHz SDRAM slots (up to 1 Go, 800 Mo/s)
-
- It will also be possible to add a PCI card with a very powerful 1 GIPS
Texas
- Instruments DSP.
-
- The basic system provided with the machine will be a Linux distribution
- (maybe YellowDog optimized for the machine's hardware).
-
- There are also talks with Be Inc to port BeOs for the RioRed. Other
- alternative systems are being considered such as QNX and - very
interesting
- for the Atari scene - MiNT. A port or the use of an emulator under Linux
are
- being considered.
-
- 50 prototyprs of the machine (called Metanium) should be manufactured
- before the end of the second quarter of 2000. A first batch of 2,000
- machines should then be put up for sale. The bi-G4 version should be
priced
- "between a PowerMac G4 bi-proc and a high range PC). Distribution will be
- limited to sales over the Internet.
- Rodolphe is currently finishing the design of the first prototype in
- collaboration with a software developer in charge of writing a PPC BIOS
that
- would allow booting from an Iomega ZIP drive.
-
- A forum is open so that people interested in the project can have contacts
- with developers and investors.
-
-
- Conclusion
-
- The idea of an 'open' PowerPC platform on which a variety of alternative
- systems could be available is extremely attractive. Individuals interested
- in purchasing a machine or willing to take part in the development / port
of
- software should make themselves known in the discussion forum or to the
- members of the project. Prototypes might be provided to developers for
free.
-
- Wait 'n see
-
- NB : The Phenix 260 has not been shelved but may be developed personally
by
- Rodolphe as a 'hobby'.
-
- Yann Lossouarn / Falk'Asso
-
- -----------
- If you would like to check the information yourself, here is a list of
links
-
- Silicon-Fruit web site:
- http://www.siliconfruit.com
-
- Information on the G4 processor:
- http://ebus.mot-sps.com/ProdCat/psp/0,1250,MPC7400~98654,00.html
-
- Information on the DSP 320C6711 :
- http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/products/dsp/tms320c6711.html
-
- Information about the Linux distribution "YellowDog" :
- http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
-
- Article published in the online magazine GXNetwork :
- http://targetpc.gxnetwork.com/hardware/motherboards/siliconfruit/
-
-Article (german) published in the online magazine MACNEWS :
-http://www.macnews.de/index.shtml?/news_artikel/applecube/rio_17_01991.shtm
l
-
- Address for the forum :
- http://www.egroups.com/group/siliconfruit/
-
- -Article from the forum about porting MiNT for the RioRed :
- http://www.egroups.com/group/siliconfruit/4.html
-
- -Article from the forum about porting BeOS for the RioRed :
- http://www.egroups.com/group/siliconfruit/8.html
-
- --Article from the forum about porting the Phenix motherboard designed by
- "one of the developers":
- http://www.egroups.com/group/siliconfruit/56.html |
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