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Author Topic: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite  (Read 3042 times)

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Offline anarchic_teapot

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #14 from previous page: September 21, 2003, 10:10:53 AM »
Quote
A few words about licencing.

The problem is that the "AmigaOne"-stamp on the board adds cost, without adding any value (2). So what would be needed for "non-BAF" costumers would be a TeronTX (4) with the capabilty to run OS4.


Balderdash. Without the licence, the mobo doesn't have the  legal or firmware capability to run OS4.

If the "stamp" added no value, you can be damn sure than a canny Yorkshireman like Alan Redhouse wouldn't pay for it.

(ignored the rest: it's just as full of irrational nonsense - competing with QNX, I ask you! As for support for purchases of 100+ units...)
AT
 

Offline Kronos

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2003, 10:31:35 AM »
@Chris

A) dig yourself through ann.lu (around March/April 02) and you will find
Ben H. stating that the OS4-licence and the A1-the-name-licence are
2 seperate things. The OS4-one  was even said to be free.
(wether one believes that is another matter).

Thats what I referred to by TeronTX+OS4.

B) We are not talking about the geek-market here, but about potential
embeeded uses,and in those areas "Amiga" hasn't any reputation
(atleast no good one), so it is just as good as ATARI, Pumuckl-PC.
Put an IBM or Dell-sticker on it,and we might have something to talk.

@anarchic_teapot (edited by Argo: personal attack)
Why am I not suprised that you didn't even tried to understand what I wrote ??

A) See my reply to Chris.
B) Because he allready "bought" that name ~3 years ago ?
Because A isn't really the fullthruth ???
Because that is the only weapon Alan has/had against the competition ?
Because it does matter to those that are the only target-market atm ?

C) Who said that QNXhad to offer direct support ??
1. We aretalking about a few 100 boards -> Alan shouldjust forget
ever making any profit.

2. We aretalking about >1000 boards (for kioskand such) -> Eyetech
can't offer the kind of support such costumer wouldask for.
A middleman needs to bve introduced. That middleman will look at
all possibilties, which includes getting QNX-licences and writing SW for it.

Just imagine Walmart would decide to introduce info-kiosks to all
their shops.

This is what they would demand:
24h support, silent, reliable,easy to use for both costumers and the
ones filling in the info.

Kiosk-Inc now wants to make an offer, and they have to decide if they
base it on x86-QNX,  PPC-OS4 or something different.

Price will be part of that descion,but not a name like "Amiga".
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline uncharted

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2003, 11:16:59 AM »
You can tell that the (accidental) announcement of the A1 Lite and also the news of OS 4 booting on the A1 is good because KennyR and Kronos are getting thier little knickers in a twist

:roflmao:
 

Offline ArgoTopic starter

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2003, 12:45:38 PM »
yeah, interesting huh. In the first story, there were complains about the old standard they saw on the prototype board, guessing about the graphics chipset, complains about only USB1 and no Firewire. I posted this as it stated what the end spec would most likely be as stated by Alan Redhouse. Can't find anything to say about the specs and now arguing about the licencing. It's not likely to change. Your at least 6 month away from finding out the price.
Didn't like the specs on the SE and XE. Well, this looks much more promising. Maybe they will update the specs on the XE.
Let's get back on topic.
 

Offline takemehomegrandma

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2003, 01:18:26 PM »
@ Argo

(Edited)

I myself like the announced features of this future product, and I hope it will be doable (and that it will be as easy as "adding a few new chips and connectors" to the current design).

But one of the more important features of any product is the price, and the price is AFAIK affected by the AInc licensing policies. One has to remember that it's not that difficult to come up with a product with interesting features. The real challange is to make the whole thing affordable to the customers. Are the features worth the money? Relative low volumes (?) and several different actors in the design/production chain (MAI designs, Eyetech license the design, it's manufactured by a third party, then it's sold by resellers, and they all wants a part of the stake) might turn that into a *real* challange. And if a given sum (on top of that) for each and single motherboard will be sucked into that black hole called "Amiga Inc", it won't be any easier.

My guess is that the "lite" will be sold at a similar price to which the A1 XE is sold today, since the situation seems to be quite similar in the design/production/licensing chain. But perhaps it will be sold as a Teron version aswell (that is, none "Amiga")?

My guess is also that the A1 XE will be discontinued when the "lite" is introduced, and that a new "power model" will be announced (with a MAI PPC 970 design?) so that there will be two "A1" models in the future, a base model (the lite) and a power model (the 970), similar to the Genesi strategy. The "power model" will probably be *a lot* more expensive than the lite model ...

Ah well, I guess we will know more in half a year or so. Wake me up then ...
;-)
MorphOS is Amiga done right! :)
 

Offline ArgoTopic starter

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2003, 01:49:03 PM »
Well, then you also have to take into consideration production margins, price per board is dependant on how many are produced. Especially, when talking about small quantities. There is also supply and demand. And lastly markup, everyone from the raw materials source to the retailer wants there slice of the pie.
Do you know how much the Amiga, Inc. Royalty Fee is per board? Show me the contract with Eyetech. How much do you think Amiga, Inc. gets out of every $800 XE board sold?
 

Offline takemehomegrandma

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #20 on: September 21, 2003, 02:02:27 PM »
@ Argo

(Note that I edited my previously post while you were typing your reply)

Quote
Do you know how much the Amiga, Inc. Royalty Fee is per board?


I haven't got a clue! But even if it's only a 1$/€ per board, it won't make it *cheaper* than without it, right? ;-)

Anyway, Eyetech (or someone else?) did also sell "Teron" boards for the Linux market? What was the price difference between those and the "Amiga" branded ones?
MorphOS is Amiga done right! :)
 

Offline jaokim

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #21 on: September 21, 2003, 02:53:06 PM »
Quote
Anyway, Eyetech (or someone else?) did also sell "Teron" boards for the Linux market? What was the price difference between those and the "Amiga" branded ones?


Well, don't know about eyetech, but the swedish reseller ggsdata sells a Linux-only variant which is about 50 Euro cheaper (500 SEK), so the price-difference is what you pay for OS4. However to upgrade the Linux-only to OS4 cost 150 Euro (1595 SEK).

#  AmigaOne G4XE Linux-only  8295:-
# AmigaOne G4XE Earlybird 8795:-


Oh, yeah, I haven't got a clue of what OS4 is going to cost, i just made an estimate/assumption.
 

Offline Erwin-K

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #22 on: September 21, 2003, 03:51:04 PM »
Back awhile, Alan spoke about selling a new(next?) A1 series board running Linux to the server farm market.

Is the A1 Lite that board?

Targeting (IIRC) folks with >5000 servers the big selling point would be an operating savings in space, power, & air condtioning, of 100 to 150 Euros per unit per year.  If this works out Eyetech sells a ton or two or three of these boards with Yellow Dog and the Amiga community gets the pricing benefit of high production runs.

Maybe I've missed something since I don't know diddly about commercial servers. Sure hope I'm right, tho!
Best,

Bob Kennedy
 

Offline CyberViking2000

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #23 on: September 21, 2003, 07:25:10 PM »
Quote
This is not what we see on the pictures. Obviously they threw out some pictures on the net, purpously without any explanations, just to get some feedback (or "whishlists") from the forums. Many of the "whishes" are now "official features". Perhaps they also listen to the most important whish of them all, the *price*?


Actually, no. Eyetech never released the pics. One of their partners posted the pics on their website due to a misunderstanding of why they were given the pics. But the  response  has been so positive that although Eyetech won't go into detail on the pics, they know that they're on the right track with the majority of Amiga users.

If you would read what Alan posted, the last thing they want is feedback or wishlists because they already have too much e-mail.
 

Offline Floid

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Re: Alan Redhouse comments on the A1-Lite
« Reply #24 on: September 21, 2003, 09:29:23 PM »
Quote
Back awhile, Alan spoke about selling a new(next?) A1 series board running Linux to the server farm market.

Is the A1 Lite that board?


Dunno.  If they can leave the Radeon *off* cleanly, they'd be left with what'd hopefully be a very inexpensive clusterable box, sort of a next-generation BRiQ.

Of course, whether they'd need to shave the graphics depends on what price point the full 'consumer'/'workstation' model comes out at.

Edit: For extrapolation, some small subset of people *are* crazy enough to use racked iMacs, though I doubt in 5,000-unit quantities.  For that matter, I don't think there's a barrier to dual cards on these, so maybe some sort of dual G3 (750GX?) setup could appear and make them a poor man's XServe.  Hard to know until anything's productized, though.