Pride of Canada

Canada was the first country to receive the new A1 Micro's, for nebulous reasons likely related to maple syrup and the mating habits of the northern badger. So when Kindergip, a rising star in the fast paced world of #AmigaIRC, offered to document his A1 Micro experience on the site, we grudgingly accepted. The only condition was that he refrain from any mention of hockey, back bacon or lumberjacks.

The following is his firsthand account...

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Sunday afternoon, brunch with NeRP at a local restaurant.  He strongly suggests I think about ordering the "Consumer" version of the µA1 which has just been released.

There's not a lot to think about after missing out on the last of the first AOne's.  I e-mail Justin at LiveWireSystems and place my order.  To cover my bases I e-mail Adam as well.  Justin replies within two hours and confirms my shipping address saying he will send it ASAP.

On Monday I call up Jeremy, another member of the local Amiga club, who also has an µA1 on order, and we shop around for a case and other odds and ends.  An LG DVD-ROM was high on the compatibility list as was an Antec Aria cube case (it has two blue LED lights at the front).  I buy an Illuminator keyboard (black with blue light), some Altec Lansing speakers that match the case and a black Logitech optical mouse.

I phone NeRP. "Hey NeRP," I say, "How would you like to assemble an AOne Micro tonight?" Mumbling, he replies, "Ya, okay." I arrive promptly at the appointed hour. NeRP wants to document the whole motherboard so that he can post a jumper legend to clarify the documentation that was sent with the package. I myself could not see much resemblance to what was on that page and what was on the board but I am not a techie.

"It's so small," he keeps repeating for the first half hour.  I tell him to get over it, that's the whole point.  Gip, he says, "It's so small." The Aria case provides a good solid base to mount in and there is lots of room left over. It goes in and out a couple of times to check and recheck things, after all, it is an $800 dollar MB. Finally it is time to lock it down and close it up.
 

NeRP drags his ten inch monitor into the room, sits it on top of the case and plugs it in. In a very short time we are looking at an OS4 screen after a painless install procedure. NeRP sets several of the basic parameters and services and reboots. The screen flashes and goes off. We have exceeded its resolution by a great amount. Time to go home. Hmmm, is that why he uses that monitor? It's only 1:30AM.

A mere twelve hours later, many apps are installed and working under emulation.  Those that didn't make it will get a closer look later on.  OS4 Depot is quickly vacuumed of its contents after a visit to the AWeb PPC homepage.

First impression, my A3KT is not long for this household. It will be passed on to someone who wants it.  The µA1 is easily equal to my old CSPPC/CVPPC setup and the OS isn't even in final release.  It has sound, LAN, video (32M ATI 7000), USB, SVHS and composite video. Compatibility with application software is more than adequate. I have a suite of tools to use.

I anticipate spending a lot of time with this system in the near future. It has already distracted me from playing hockey with the local lumberjack union, and I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't had a steady supply of back bacon on hand for the marathon setup session. Needless to say, this is one computer that will make you proud to be an Amiga fan.