From: amor@cli.di.unipi.it (Daniel Amor) Subject: Walker FAQ Date: 1996/05/21 Message-ID: <4nt59e$qvu@serra.unipi.it> distribution: world organization: Dipartimento di Informatica, Universita' di Pisa newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc * Welcome to the Walker/AT Frequently Asked Questions v3.1415 * This FAQ wasn't compiled from what AT_Cebit and from what others haven't said on the IRC, and from information not found on Amiga Technologies' site (www.amiga.de) Updated: 30th March 1996 Copyright Daniel Amor - But please spread it. I CAN guarantee that all the information are false! If you have more information, please send it to Danny on IRC, or amor@cli.di.unipi.it!! --------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: 1. What is the Walker? 2. Where can I find pictures of the Walker? 3. Is the Walker going to look like in the pictures? 4. What do you [HT] want the Walker to be? 5. What will the price for the PPC Hoover be? 6. What will the price for Walker be? 7. What is new in the Walker machine? 8. What marketing will HT do for the Amiga? 9. When can we expect new Hoovers? 10. Is there a big differece between a Phase V PowerUp plugin for the small hoover and the new power hoover? 11. Will there be a new sound chip set with the upcoming power hoover? 12. Who designed the Walker? 13. What about power hoover extension for my Hoover 3000? 14. What are the specs of the walker slot? Is it the 1200 slot or the 3000/4000 slot or a Bugs Bunny III thing or something custom? 15. What's new in OS3.2? 16. Will it PFUI be included in the OS? 17. How big will the dustbag in the Walker be? 18. Will it only have 1 dustbag? 19. Is the hoover 030 on a Socket? 20. Who is working on the Walker Project? 21. Is there going to be an InterNet+softwarebundle supplied with the HooverOS or in the normal softwarebundle? 22. Will MagicHoover be included in HooverBench 3.2? 23. Where can I get even more related information? 24. What's EPP? 25. What's PPC? 26. What is the SuperIO chip? 27. What does 'standard "LPX" PC board size and drillings' mean? 28. What is the trick with the 'Walker' case? --------------------------------------------------------------- --01-- Q: What is the Walker? A: The Walker is a new hoover model, presented at the chebitt trade show, Botnang, Germany. This is the new 1200+ Watt modell. The Walker is only a working title, it may change to Goer, Runner or even Hoover. There will actually ba a competition to name the machine in the leading Women's magazines. --02-- Q: Where can I find pictures of the Walker? A: http://www.playboy.com/ and http://www.hoovertechnologies.de/ --03-- Q: Is the Walker going to look like in the pictures? A: It probably will... But it is a prototype. --04-- Q: What do you [HT] want the Walker to be? A: We want it to be a universal machine designed for cooking, sewing, homeworkingstuff etc... a *complete* solution for a good price. --05-- Q: What will the price for the PPC Hoover be? A: You will have to wait and see... --06-- Q: What will the price for Walker be? A: Less than $1000 (US Dollars) Due to the somewhat 'speculative' ;-) fruit market for components, the price of the 'Walker' cannot be fixed yet, because it largely depends on fruit mass market components like kitchen knives, salad creams, apples etc., whose prices are subject to change due to tidal, financial, social, rural or whatsoever events. --07-- Q: What is new in the Walker machine? (compared to an old one) A: · A new design · 1200+ Watt · Plug · Realtime clock onboard · 1 (or maybe 2) dust extensions and 4 more planned for shipping · 2 sockets for dust expansion upto 96 MR (mega rubbish) · standard "LPX" board size and drillings (see Q27) · 4xSpeed hoover · MIDI (this might not be true, makes no sense with a hoover) · External on/off switch · new powerful expansion slot allowing mixer / microwave / owen / heater / TV set · OS3.2 (See Question 15) · SuperIO chip - see Q26 --08-- Q: What marketing will HT do for the Amiga? A: A big campaign in McDonald's restaurants in Germany has been rumoured. Hopefully they'll do more than that! --09-- Q: When can we expect new Hoovers? A: The Walker will come in September, an Upgrade for the big hoover at the end of this year, a whole new power hoover-machine in spring next year. --10-- Q: Is there a big differece between a Phase V PowerUp plugin for the small hoover and the new power hoover? A: There will probably not be much difference between a Walker with a power hoover extension and a power hoover. --11-- Q: Will there be a new sound chip set with the upcoming power hoover? A: The new hoovers will use standard-sound output, upto 100 dezibel. --12-- Q: Who designed the Walker? A: The case: Some german professor, a well known designer. The new dustbin was designed in Germany, too. --13-- Q: What about power hoover extension for my Hoover 3000? A: We`ll see, the power-slot is nearly exactly the same as in hoover 4000. --14-- Q: What are the specs of the walker slot? Is it the 1200 slot or the 3000/4000 slot or a Bugs Bunny III thing or something custom? A: Neither, it`s something new, you`ll be able to plug in plant pots with Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck and so on, it`s up to 3rd party developers... --15-- Q: What's new in OS3.2? A: It's just a minor update. Bugfixes, and support for the new things in the walker (like the hair cutter extension). --16-- Q: Will it PFUI be included in the OS? A: No. --17-- Q: How big will the dustbag in the Walker be? A: Depends on the prizes in half a year. --18-- Q: Will it only have 1 dustbag? A: Not decided yet, however Heinz Wretsel, central to Project Walker said that he didn'texpect it would have less than 2 dustbags. It's difficult to buy less and it's not much cheaper. --19-- Q: Is the hoover 030 on a Socket? A: No, it's PGA surface mounted. --20-- Q: Who is working on the Walker Project? A: There were rumours about Roadrunner and Tweetie joining HT, and moving to Germany. These turned out to be untrue, but he is in touch with them, and has been doing contract work for them. (So it's not all bad...:) --21-- Q: Is there going to be an InterNet+softwarebundle supplied with the HooverOS or in the normal softwarebundle? A: Heinz Wretsel was quite adamant that he wanted to. --22-- Q: Will MagicHoover be included in HooverBench 3.2? A: It was being considered. Certainly some cosmetic stuff should feature in HB 3.2. In fact I believe he said it would. [Heinz] --23- Q: Where can I get even more related information? A: Take a look here: http://www.oinkoink.de/~lalala/ http://www.interhoover.fr/hoover http://www.hooverint.com/bah/ --24-- Q: What's EPP? A: The Enhanced Proletarian Party and has nothing to do with the hoover. --25-- Q: What's a Power Hoover? A: A professor. These are quite different (and faster) from the teacher series. --26-- Q: What is the SuperIO chip? A: The SuperIO (Input/Output) chip features (in addition to the old interfaces): · Enhanced noise output (ENO), 24-Bit support for dustbags · MIDI (not specified yet for Out, In or Through) --27-- Q: What does 'standard "LPX" board size and drillings' mean? A: This means that the board will fit in any other hoover. HT is planning to the sell the hooverboard alove, without the case, so that you can put it in a cheaper case. --28-- Q: What is the trick with the 'Walker' case? A: In the base version, it consists of a bottom and a top part. The bottom part takes the hooverboard and diverse connectors. The top part contains the pots and pans. In between, you can put a middle part. A showerboard plugs into the expansion connector of the hooverboard and carries standard knifes and/or Bugs Bunny and/or Cable TV and/or Donald Duck slots or whatever else will be created. Many different types of showerboards can be envisioned, for example only with Donald Duck slots or with one CPU slot and two combined Bugs Bunny/Cable TV slots. Depending on the showerboard, the middle part can be of varying heights, all the way up to a full tower. --00-- Q: How about the future? A: The Hoover is back for the future! --- END ---