Is the Amiga architecture still relevant today?

[Raffaele]

No Amiga architecture is no more relevant today...

But if you enjoy your pC today remeber that in PC world they were very inspired by Amiga technology.

Check diagrams of A3000 motherboards and how buses were conceived. It inspired all modern PC architecture diagrams...

Check diagram blocks of CD32... It is the same of Playstation1...

Sony copied the same technology of CD32 but wisely added in Playstation vector graphics and a first 3d engine...

PCI BUS technology of PCs was inspired by Amiga Zorro BUS

Audio section of DirectX engine in Windows was taken directly by Bars&Pipes Amiga software technology.

Micosoft buyed BlueRibbon Soundworks, the makers of Bars & Pipes to obtain that technology and incorporate it in Windows audio subsection in DirectX engine.

There is still an Amiga technology up to date and still unsurpassed:

AUTOCONFIG!

Plug and Play on PCs is nowadays a very stable and relying technology but in its early days it was called PLUG AND PRAY due to its instability...

Recognizing hardware peripherals it is the only modern techology were Amiga can teach a lesson to Peecees, because our Autoconfig System for recognizing and install on the fly hardware peripherals is still amazingly perfect... You can look at any ancient classic Amigas and take a look on how beautiful our system was....

PC engineers should take a look on Autoconfig so then they could improve Plug and Play technology more than usual and reach a new era even in hardware peripherals.

[Raffaele]

HAHA No, not at all, no.

Oh dear...

People disinformed of their own platforms and adoption of its technology into other platforms...

What sobbying pitiful people...

http://retiary.org/ls/writings/alg_comp_patents.html

I took a break and checked my email.

Todor Fay, who is listed as the inventor on the Microsoft patent, had written me back most positively as follows:

>Would you or others in the composer community be interested in
>DirectMusic? It's far more extensible and pluggable than Bars&Pipes,* and it
>ships as part of the Windows OS. There's a pluggable authoring tool as well,
>so you can create music technologies and create the tools to edit the
>technologies hand in hand. One big objective is to make it easier to
>innovate.
>
>Developing this beast has been an incredibly gratifying experience for me.
>I'm very lucky to have this opportunity.
>
>Todor

Have I been overly cynical, thinking in general terms as though trying to formulate a rational policy based on general principles, from fear of loss of freedom?

[*Bars&Pipes was a patchable modular music architecture which Todor Fay wrote for the Amiga in the late 1980s and which he and his wife Melissa Grey published independently under their company name "Blue Ribbon Bakery".]

http://www.newbluefx.com/background.html

Founders Todor Fay and Melissa Jordan Grey launched NewBlue in 2001 to create innovative, expressive technologies. With a combined 45 years of experience in interactive multimedia technologies, they have spearheaded the development of myriad pioneering technologies, and have collaborated on the design and publishing of more than 55 hardware and software products on multiple computer platforms.
In 1988, Fay and Grey founded The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks, Ltd, an interactive audio software firm that designed music and audio software for musicians, composers, animators, and video production artists.
Among their notable projects was the development of the multimedia controller and musical soundtrack for Atlanta’s successful bid for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The company was well-known for its Bars&Pipes line of music composition software which still boasts a following today.

In addition, they created AudioActive, the interactive audio engine that won Best of COMDEX for Multimedia in 1995. The pair collectively authored 22 audio-related technology patents. In 1995 the company was sold to Microsoft Corporation, where both principals held senior-level positions overseeing technology teams and drove the development of key products, including DirectMusic, the Interactive Music Architecture featured on MSN and other digital media products and technologies.

The duo has appeared as expert speakers, presenters and co-chairs on interactive audio at a range of professional forums, including the Game Developers Conference, Meltdown, WinHEC, XFest, Interactive Audio Special Interest Group and the MIDI Manufacturer's Association. You'll find NewBlue co-founder Todor Fay's DirectX Audio Exposed at fine bookstores worldwide.

http://www.amazon.com/DirectX-Audio-Exposed-Interactive-Development/dp/1556222882

DirectX® 9 Audio Exposed: Interactive Audio Development features a look into the most advanced interactive music and audio development system in history. DirectX Audio, a suite of tools and technologies developed by Microsoft, provides software engineers and content creators the ability to create interactive, adaptive, and dynamic audio content for use in host applications and stand-alone playback. In addition to providing a comprehensive tutorial-style look at the inner workings of the DirectX Audio libraries, this book includes discussions about the process of creating music and sound effects for games such as Halo and No One Lives Forever and explores the use of interactive music on the web and the future of DirectMusic.

Contributing authors include audio project managers Jason Booth and Marty O’Donnell, sound designer Jay Weinland, and interactive composers Tobin Buttram, Bjorn Lynne, Scott Morgan, Ciaran Walsh, and Guy Whitmore.

The companion CD contains the DirectX 9 SDK and the projects discussed in the book, including support materials and sample media.

About the Author
Todd M. Fay (aka LAX) is a business and production consultant working in and around the game, music, and television industries. His passion for music and interactive entertainment brought together the best of the best in the world of cutting-edge audio in DirectX 9 Audio Exposed.

Todor J. Fay (no relation to Todd Fay) drove the vision and design of DirectMusic at Microsoft and ultimately managed DirectX Audio API development. An industry expert, Todor is passionately dedicated to bridging the worlds of art and technology. After leaving Microsoft, Todor co-founded NewBlue Inc., an interactive technologies developer and consultancy.

Scott Selfon is the Xbox audio content consultant and has assisted with nearly 100 individual games. He was previously the DirectMusic Producer and DirectX Audio Scripting test lead, and has also worked on interactive web site sonification projects.

Other Patents by Todor Fay

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090048698

If you are unaware of, FYI Todor is the maker of Bars&Pipes, ask him about DirectX audio subsystem...

http://www.newbluefx.com/contact-us.html

[Raffaele]

What a sad case of wanting to believe.

What you claimed was (I quote): "Audio section of DirectX engine in Windows was taken directly by Bars&Pipes Amiga software technology.".

This is funny, because Bars and Pipes does not even have an audio engine (MIDI != audio). It's a MIDI sequencer, and unlike e.g. Cubase/Logic etc. it's MIDI only, i.e. the audio engine you refer to doesn't even exist.

(btw - the patents (and the other stuff) you referred to is related to Algorithmic Composing, which is not the same thing as an audio engine at all. It's a fact that Blue Ribbon and their patents were purchased by Microsoft, but that's about it).

Bars and Pipes was it that was, i.e. nothing than a MIDI sequencer... But the method it used for passing data and dialoguing between its modules is the key feature used into direct music and then DirectX Audio Api.

At least so it was told to me from persons who asked Todor.

Maybe they were uncorrect, but I am sure it was so.

[Raffaele]

Um, I think you have things backwards here. By this time, the Amiga was technologically ancient. I know because I upgraded my old Amiga 500 to a sparkling "new" Amiga 1200. My friend ditched his Amiga 500+ and bought a 486 instead. His PC ran circles around my Amiga, no matter how hard I refused to believe it...

I had Amiga1200 and PC 486 DX2-66 MHz

Despite the fact it could render 3D images with enormous more speed than A1200, and it could handle 3D graphics better than Amiga1200 (Frontier game for example) it was too slow on bitmaps, and not only real 24 bit.

Also I had 8bit audio Soundblaster that rendered audio in Fm... It was pitiful compared to Amiga audio 8bit real DAC.

When using serious programs such as Ventura Publisher (in DOS with its own GUI interface) and other software in Windows, then it was totally not responsive to user... What a waste of power...

Once I tried a floppy version of QNX on my 486 PC... I was astonished! It flied....

Sure MS-DOS and Windows were the real snails that blocked the real power hidden in 486 Processor!

[Raffaele]

i never knew they planned to run windows, but it wouldn't surprise, as Commodore was stupid enough to build PC's instead.

it was not stupid to run Windows on Hombre... It was just an alternative solution.

And perhaps once there was a version of Windows running on PowerPC machines...

[Raffaele]

The graphics were more advanced (SVGA I think?) and of course there was nothing like Wolfenstein or Doom on the Amiga! That's actually another thing: there were much more software, including games, which were of particular interest to us at the time.{/QUOTE}

You never heard of Breathless Amiga clone game of DOOM?

It had all features of DOOM, including textures, shades, light effects, jumps, and on basic Amigas it could be even shrinked in pixels down to 160x120 to grant playability, or enlarged if you had had CPU with muscles...

On accelerated Amigas Breathless game make use of more horsepower speed and it could even recognize graphics cards connected to amiga AFAIK...

Also to gain speed you could change textures from 1x1 pixels to 2x2 or 4x4 or even remove it and revert to solid rendering of surfaces without any textures.

Breathless was a real masterpiece but its existence was just barely known amongst amiga users due to the fallen of Commodore.