Amiga, Inc. (South Dakota)

Last updated
Amiga, Inc.
Founded1997;26 years ago (1997)
Defunct1999 (1999)
Headquarters600 N. Derby Lane, North Sioux City, South Dakota
Key people
Jeff Schindler, Jim Collas, Tom Schmidt, Darreck Lisle, Marilyn Flint, Allan Havemose, Joe Torre, Kelli Newby, née Macomber
Products A1200, Power A5000, AmigaOS 4, AmigaOS 5
Number of employees
5
Parent Gateway 2000, Inc.

Amiga, Inc. of South Dakota was a personal computer company, originally a wholly owned subsidiary of Gateway 2000, Inc., predating the Amiga, Inc. of Washington. It was based upon the intellectual property of the German company Escom AG, and had descended from the original Commodore Amiga personal computer series from the 1980s and 1990s.

Contents

History

This instance of Amiga, Inc. was incorporated in South Dakota in 1997, [1] as a wholly owned subsidiary of Gateway 2000, Inc. (later renamed Gateway, Inc.) After acquiring from the German company Escom AG certain Amiga-related intellectual property assets in 1997, Gateway decided to keep the patents, and try to run Amiga, Inc. as a separate unit. It was originally intended to develop two new operating systems, announced as "AmigaOS 4" and "AmigaOS 5". [2] Amiga, Inc. was initially led by Jeff Schindler, then by Jim Collas, [3] and later by Tom Schmidt. [4] Other employees included Darreck Lisle (event coordinator), Marylin Flint (operations manager), Joe Torre (senior engineer) and Kelli Newby, née Macomber, (executive administrative assistant). Independent subcontractors who also briefly worked (without being hired) for Amiga, Inc. included William "Bill" McEwen and Barrie Jon "Fleecy" Moss.

In 1999, when Gateway closed Amiga, Inc., Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss obtained from Gateway [5] the amiga.com Internet domain and a license to incorporate a new independent company, also named "Amiga, Inc.", but incorporated in the state of Washington.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga</span> Family of personal computers sold by Commodore

Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems. These systems include the Atari ST—released earlier the same year—as well as the Macintosh and Acorn Archimedes. Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodore International</span> American home computer and electronics manufacturer

Commodore International was an American home computer and electronics manufacturer founded by Jack Tramiel. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Machines (CBM), was a significant participant in the development of the home computer industry in the 1970s to early 1990s. In 1982, the company developed and marketed the world's best-selling computer, the Commodore 64, and released its Amiga computer line in July 1985. Commodore was one of the world's largest personal computer manufacturers, with sales peaking in the last quarter of 1983 at $49 million.

Amiga E is a programming language created by Wouter van Oortmerssen on the Amiga computer. The work on the language started in 1991 and was first released in 1993. The original incarnation of Amiga E was being developed until 1997, when the popularity of the Amiga platform dropped significantly after the bankruptcy of Amiga intellectual property owner Escom AG.

AmigaOne is a series of computers intended to run AmigaOS 4 developed by Hyperion Entertainment, as a successor to the Amiga series by Commodore International. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech, and were based on the Teron series of PowerPC POP mainboards. In September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment secured an exclusive licence for the AmigaOne name and subsequently new AmigaOne computers were released by A-Eon Technology and Acube Systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Sassenrath</span> American computer scientist

Carl Sassenrath is an architect of operating systems and computer languages. He brought multitasking to personal computers in 1985 with the creation of the Amiga Computer operating system kernel, and he is the designer of the REBOL computer language, REBOL/IOS collaboration environment, the Safeworlds AltME private messaging system, and other products. Carl is currently a Principal Engineer at Roku, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZDNET</span> Business technology news website

ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gateway, Inc.</span> Former American computer hardware company

Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Iowa and South Dakota. Founded by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in 1985, the company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories. At its peak in the year 2000, the company employed nearly 25,000 worldwide. Following a seven-year-long slump, punctuated by the acquisition of rival computer manufacturer eMachines in 2004 and massive consolidation of the company's various divisions in an attempt to curb losses and regain market share, Gateway was acquired by Taiwanese hardware and electronics corporation Acer, in October 2007 for US$710 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperion Entertainment</span> Belgian software development company

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga OS, Linux, and Mac OS. In 2001, they accepted a contract by Amiga Incorporated to develop AmigaOS 4 and mainly discontinued their porting business to pursue this development. AmigaOS 4 runs on the AmigaOne systems, Commodore Amiga systems with a Phase5 PowerUP accelerator board, Pegasos II systems and Sam440/Sam460 systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escom AG</span>

Escom AG was a German computer company, best known in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States as the successful purchaser of Commodore International and the Amiga trademarks in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Haynie</span> American electrical engineer

Dave Haynie is an American electrical engineer and was chief engineer at Commodore International. He is vocal in the Amiga community.

Amiga, Inc. is a company that used to hold some trademarks and other assets associated with the Amiga personal computer.

Amiga is the name of a series of personal computers.

The Amiga is a family of home computers that were designed and sold by the Amiga Corporation from 1985 to 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga 1200</span> 1992 personal computer

The Amiga 1200, or A1200, is a personal computer in the Amiga computer family released by Commodore International, aimed at the home computer market. It was launched on October 21, 1992, at a base price of £399 in the United Kingdom and $599 in the United States.

The following history of the AmigaOS 4 dispute documents the legal battle mainly between the companies Amiga, Inc. and Hyperion Entertainment over the operating system AmigaOS 4. On 30 September 2009, Hyperion and Amiga, Inc. reached a settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted an exclusive, perpetual and worldwide right to distribute and use 'The Software', a term used during the dispute and subsequent settlement to refer to source code from AmigaOS 3 and earlier, and ownership of AmigaOS 4.x and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PowerUP (accelerator)</span>

PowerUP boards were dual-processor accelerator boards designed by Phase5 Digital Products for Amiga computers. They had two different processors, a Motorola 68000 series (68k) and a PowerPC, working in parallel, sharing the complete address space of the Amiga computer system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodore USA</span> US subsidiary of Commodore

Commodore USA, LLC was a computer company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, with additional facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Commodore USA, LLC was founded in April 2010. The company's goal was to sell a new line of PCs using the classic Commodore and Amiga name brands of personal computers, having licensed the Commodore brand from Commodore Licensing BV on August 25, 2010 and the Amiga brand from Amiga, Inc. on August 31, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petro Tyschtschenko</span> German businessman

Petro Taras Ostap Tyschtschenko is a German businessman best known for his work in the European market for the American computer company Commodore International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World of Commodore</span> Annual expo of Commodore computers

World of Commodore is an annual computer expo dedicated to Commodore computers.

3D Microcomputers Wholesale and Distribution, Inc., often referred to as 3D Microcomputers or 3D Micro, was a computer company based in Markham, Ontario. The company was among the top five personal computer vendors in Canada in the mid-1990s. The company was partially owned by Hong Kong–based computer manufacturer PC Chips for several years; many of the parts for 3D Micro's computers were of overseas origin.

References

  1. "Petro Tyschtschenko's Speech at the 1997 Midwest Amiga Exposition". Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group. November 1, 1997. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  2. "Plans for new Amiga emerge". CNET News.com. May 17, 1998. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  3. "Amiga President Jim Collas Addresses Amiga99 Attendees". Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group. March 12, 1999. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  4. "Collas out as Amiga president". ZDNet News. September 1, 1999. Retrieved December 26, 2007.[ dead link ]
  5. "Gateway sells Amiga to startup". ZDNet News. January 3, 2000. Retrieved December 26, 2007.[ dead link ]