This just might be the final nail in the Hyperion coffin.
I disagree - I think this will make Hyperion.
They really botched the PR on this X1000 product.
Actually I think it was quite ingenious.
A week of baiting hype followed up by focusing on this XMOS chip. A lot of folks are jazzed about this little embedded processor and coming up with some really bizarre ideas about what it will be capable of. Some lame (nothing wrong with that), others impractical, some impossible. The expectations are high and this thing ain't gonna deliver. Well, not unless hyperion writes all the code themselves, which they won't.
Expectations are high and results will be high. I don't they've overhyped it at all. Those that say the chip is overhyped and it wont do that much don't really understand the impact it can have when integrated in a system such as the X1000, especially with an OS like AmigaOS with a large community of programmers that already understands how to code for a system with such an architecture.
For every 20 people who come up with fantastical crazy ideas about stuff the XMOS chip isn't suited for, perhaps 1 person will code a demo to render a fractal or something on it? Maybe blink some LEDs?
They'll be 20 great ideas, loads of non completed projects but it will be that one amazing, complete, functional app that sets the worl alight.
What Hyperion needed to do was have a motherboard ready for sale day one of their website launch.
No more mobo only launches - I want a complete product to buy.
Something reasonably fast to run AOS4 and demonstrate that they're alive and committed to their OS.
Who says they aren't dedicated to OS4?
Instead we got 5 days of more hype, nothing to buy, and rabid amigans fantasizing about weird little embedded chips.
Hype sells stuff - simple as. And Amiga fans are always rabid - it's just who we are. We'd be rabid about a coffee cup with an Amiga logo on it.
If I wanted to play with the XMOS chip, I wound't buy an Amiga to do that, I'd buy the $99 dev kit and plug it into a windows machine where I could actually use the development tools.
But you'd only have an xmos dev kit that could only do xmos stuff - not an Amiga that can do so much more.
For every fanatic Amiga fan there is an Ex Amiga user deriding the platform - such is the way of the universe. I look forward to the challenge of producing an app that will change your mind.
One thing i noticed missing from the X1000 motherboard is wireless support. Where's wifi?
My £250 pc mobo doesn't have wireless. Leaving it off is a good call imho - more money for other stuff.
That website sure doen't help the cause... that desgin repels customers. Again this is a niche market at best. At least someone is finally doing SOMETHING...
I like the website - nice retro feeling in keeping with the Amiga scene. Re the niche issue - I wouldn't be interested if it wasn't a niche product :-) Even at the height of it's popularity, the Amiga was nothing more than a niche product - and all the better for it imho.