Phase5 Announces Blizzard 603e PowerPC Board

Product News about the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board Accelerator for Amiga 1200
Oberursel, February 25, 1997:

phase 5 digital products is proud to announce the upcoming BLIZZARD 603e
Power Board, a PowerPC-based accelerators for Amiga 1200 and A1200-based
Tower Systems.  With this innovative and powerful new accelerator a new
dimension of performance is brought to the Amiga 1200, with performance
increases of multiple times beyond the performance of the fastest 68k based
accelerators available today, for a sensationally low price that is
perfectly targeted at the A1200 upgrade market.

Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga systems,
the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board incorporates phase 5's innovative
dual-processor technologie, where a fast PowerPC RISC processor is combined
with a 68k processor, in case of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board a 68030 CPU.
Both CPUs dynamically share the memory and system busses, what is necessary
for a true multiprocessor behaviour.  While the original AmigaOS 3.x
continues to run on the 68030 CPU - as well as all existing applications
do, what provides 100% compatibility - the PowerPC 603e CPU is supported by
a comprehensive PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all
functionality to integrate the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking
environment.  Software developers can easily optimze their programs step by
step by porting single tasks to PowerPC code, which then can run parallel
with 68k tasks.  Many important Amiga software vendors are preparing ported
or optimized versions of their software packages already, so it is expected
that a large quantity of software products supporting the PowerPC will be
available soon.

The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be availabe with the fast PowerPC603e
processor at a clock speed of 120 MHz; a socket is provided for the 68030
companion processor in a PGA housing.  It provides a fast memory expansion
option which uses standard PS/2 type SIMMs.  The memory is dynamically
shared by the two CPUs on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board .  As an option, as
very inexpensive Fast SCSI-II controller will be available for the BLIZZARD
603e Power Board, which combines transfer rates of up to 10 MB/s with the
flexibility and expandability of the SCSI standard. 

With it's 120 MHz 603e processor the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board provides -
only on the PPC side - a raw performance of approximately 170 MIPS or
approximately 3.5 SPECint95 and 2.8 SPECfp95 (estimations based on
Motorola/IBM manufacturer specifications) - a blistering performance that
can compete with most of the fastest PC systems available today.  with this
performance the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is ready for the most demanding
applications such as 3D rendering and high-speed 3D gameplaying, image
manipulation, animation, video applications, and many other demanding
applications that depend on fast CPU performance.

The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be delivered with a comprehensive
software package, which includes the PPC library as well as tools for
creative users, among them a Public Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC
(including sourcecode) and many demo programs and utilities with
sourcecode; in addition to this software free developer support is
available via the phase 5 FTP site.  Last not least a PowerPC-optimized
version of CyberGraphX V3 with RISC-optimized CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions
and libraries is included (with a special GGX driver to support the AGA
chipset) - of course with comprehensive documentation.


The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be selling for a price that can be
called sensational, offering a superior price/performance relation.  The
suggested retail prices are as follows:

BLIZZARD 603e Power Board w/ 120 MHz 603e processor  
DM 699,- / GBP 279.00 / USD 399.00


Note: All prices are recommended retail prices.  English and german price
include local VAT, the recommended US price does not include local taxes. 
The prices are without the 68030 CPU which is necessary to operate the
BLIZZARD 603e Power Board.  68030 processors from existing processor boards
can be used on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board by pluging these into the
provided socket.  If you don't own a 68030 CPU already, ask you local
dealer for an attractive bundle offer.

Registered owners of a Blizzard 68030 board will - within the PowerUp
upgrade program - receive special, attractive upgrade offers by mail during
March 97.  The handling of these upgrades will be done via local appointed
representatives.

The delivery of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is scheduled for late May
1997.  Availability for the A1200 desktop system is depending on the
finalization of the CE approvals until that date.

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