nova a4000 additional information

there are three ranges of machines; the alpha series, the bravo series and
the nitro series, and there are three models in each of the alpha and bravo
ranges, and two in the nitro (the nitro, and the nirtopro). prices range from
$2899 for a 'basic' 150mhz 604e, 48mb ram, 4mb vram and 2.1gb hd model, up to
around $7500+ for the nitro models with video toasters and flyers.

uk prices have not been announce. even so, rough conversions into ukp suggests
value for money, far better than previously available a4000s, and only slightly
more expensive than equivalent pcs - impressive when you consider that these
machines are just a4000s with bits bolted onto them, as opposed to completely
new machines, not to mention having to be supplied with that additional 68060,
which costs about £300 in itself. 

nova have also announced the nova supreme, to be released shortly
(more powerful than the nitropro...) they are also working on a notebook
amiga, which will feature powerpc, amigaos 3.5, and emulation for 680x0 amiga binaries. 

the machines are bundled with various bits of amiga software (including the magic pack),
as well as a 3d raytracer program, either aladdin or lightwave. this is a curious point
actually - presumably, the raytracer would be a ppc port (a 604 rendering machine would
be a bit pointless if it used the '060 only...) but i have not yet heard of news of a
port of lightwave, or even if newtek are intending to. maybe nova know differently... 

it is pleasing to see that nova's website is very pro-amiga, unlike newtek's 
(see another article i have written...) they have sections saying why their amiga based
models are much better than powermacs and pcs. 

it is great to see such high end machines being made available. of course, these are no
good for the average home user, but the amiga has always had a niche in high end 3d and
video work.

such niches have been hard to keep with the amiga being restricted to the 680x0 processors,
but these machines put the amiga back at the top! some people may say how these machines are
no good when most amiga software is in 680x0 code, and multitasking is not possible between
680x0 and ppc. i don't think it is too much of a problem, as hopefully ppc software will
become more and more available. certainly, one of the main uses of these machines would be
as 3d renderers, and many amiga raytracers are either available for ppc, or will soon be.

the fall back '060 or more than enough to cope with the amigaos! 

if you look at the range of macs available, as well as the lower end macs, you have lots
of high end macs in the £2000-£5000 range. if these just weren't available, the mac would
have lost out a lot on its high end markets such as in desktop publishing. in fact, you
would have a situation where macs would be better value than amigas for traditionally amiga
dominated areas such as 3d, simply because there were no high end amigas available.

thankfully, that is no longer the case.