NOTES FROM CSi: AMIGA FORUM

Posted By Betty Clay

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - February 26 1999 - In a series of meetings in San Diego, representatives of Amiga Inc. and Amiga International met to hammer out the details of technical, strategic and marketing plans which will see the launch of a range of new Amiga-based computers for the next millennium.

The company has relocated its headquarters to San Diego and Jim Collas will be serving as the new president of Amiga.

"Amiga is an amazing opportunity that we must act on now or it will be lost forever," said Collas. "The Amiga's platform is ideal for Internet-ready, consumer-oriented digital appliances of the future. The Amiga name is associated the world over with user-friendly, low cost, powerful computing. We will take this philosophy into the next generation, enabling products from hand-held Internet appliances to high-end graphics computers that help the user rather than frustrate them."

Collas, formerly a senior vice president for Amiga's parent company, Gateway, will be running Amiga as a wholly independent subsidiary operation and will integrate Amiga Inc. and Amiga International under the new Amiga corporate structure. His leadership will allow the company to step up a fast-track development program that is currently underway.

Amiga is planning to launch next generation products world-wide before the New Year. They will be announcing detailed product plans and introducing several of their strategic partners over the summer. Products currently targeted for the initial launch are a development system, an Internet appliance, and a low cost home computer in the tradition of the Amiga A500 that dominated home computing in the late eighties and early nineties. The developers system will be available with a software development suite for low cost development on the new platform.

Jeff Schindler, in charge of product strategy for Amiga, is planning the new Amiga product line. "The Amiga community has been doing incredible things on a platform which hasn't had an official update in eight years," said Schindler. "They deserve a system which lets them show off their talents."

Amiga's administrative centre in San Diego will shortly be complemented by a software development centre under the leadership of Dr. Allan Havemose, vice president of Engineering for Amiga, in San Jose, California. The Silicon Valley team will be rapidly expanded over the coming months to develop revolutionary Amiga multimedia layers over the real-time Neutrino OS core from QNX Software Systems Ltd.

Petro Tyschtschenko will continue on as managing director of Amiga International and will also play a critical role in guiding the current Amiga community through the transition to the new Amiga architecture. "The new Amiga plans are a rebirth for Amiga and an exciting journey into the future," said Tyschtschenko.