More info about Tsunami (10.07.2001 - 07:10 Uhr)

The Tsunami is said to be the first product in a new series of multimedia hardware called "Torro" that the Merlancia company plans to release starting this year. The G4 computer, which was developed in cooperation with the German company bplan, is also to run the Atari operating system TOS (see also Topnews). In the meantime Merlancia gave out further information in a conversation with st-computer. The G4 board corresponds to the standard Micro-ATX design, so that it can be used in any tower of today. The standard case is said to be made of steel. MIDI ports are also integrated in order to place the Tsunami in the music market by means of the TOS operating system.
Merlancia currently employs 13 people, five of whom work on the Toro project. Among these employees, former high-ranking developers from Commodore and Amiga Technologies stand out, especially Dave Haynie. Haynie, for example, was instrumental in the development of the Commodore TED in 1983. He also worked on the C=128, the successor to the C=64. Later he moved to Commodore's Amiga division and was responsible for important parts of the Amiga 2000. He is also considered the "father" of the Amiga 3000. Merlancia's software team also includes Chris Aldi, who among other things developed the new interface system "ReAction" of the AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9.
There are also first details about the pricing. Realistically, Merlancia wants to price the Tsunami somewhat below the prices of a G4 Mac. Depending on the equipment, the price should be between $ 2000 and $ 2500. The Tsunami will be available from the end of November 2001, but it is not yet clear whether the TOS will be included.
To clarify: Merlancia will not release the computer primarily for the Atari market, but sees itself primarily as a company producing for the Amiga market. In addition to AmigaOS and AmigaDE, however, other operating systems are to be made executable on the Tsunami in order to cover a broader market. These primarily include Linux and QNX. Whether BeOS and even MacOS will also be offered for the Tsunami is not yet certain. Merlancia is very interested in running TOS on the Tsunami. The prerequisite for this, however, is the adaptation and cooperation with Milan Computersystems as the owner of the TOS rights. (tr)

http://www.merlancia.com/