Gateway paid about US$13 million for 47 Amiga patents, including those for important multimedia techniques. The San Diego PC maker's original plan was to use the patents as a bargaining chip in royalty negotiations with other PC makers. "It was a treasure chest," says Joe Torre, a former Amiga hardware engineer.
"There's a new computer revolution on the horizon that has to do with making computers a natural part of everyday life," says James Collas, the Amiga unit's president and a former Gateway executive. He says the unit will craft everything from digital-music players and game machines to wireless tablets that link to the Internet.
Gateway will pit its tiny subsidiary against PC kingpins such as Microsoft
and consumer-electronics companies such as Sony and Philips Electronics, which also are developing new-age information devices. Mr. Collas says Amiga will license its designs to consumer-electronics makers to promote technologies that can be embraced far beyond its parent.
Reassembling design team
Amiga, he says, will operate independently from its parent, and be free to strike its own agreements. Mr. Collas wouldn't say if Gateway plans to spin off the subsidiary. A Gateway spokesman declined to comment.
Among the San Diego division's first products will be a new Amiga PC that Mr. Collas says is aimed to bring Amiga PC software writers back into the fold. Next week, the company plans to release a new version of the Amiga operating system that provides access to the Internet.
The Amiga is nothing if not resilient. It first appeared 14 years ago as a spunky alternative to the IBM PC and Apple's Macintosh. Graphics and film enthusiasts flocked to the machine because of its ability to handle video and sound. Commodore Electronics Ltd. sold five million of the low-cost machines before the company's sudden demise. Even today, Hollywood animators and filmmakers still use the machines for generating special effects.
How much of the new Amiga will come from its past isn't known. Mr. Collas has recruited designers from Amiga's heyday along with software specialists from Silicon Graphics
and Apple.
