** 2 page feature / 2014 words **
** Titchy text (and/or continue on any spare 0.5 page **

When Bengy met Ali

Bengy Collins, MagiC on-line recently interviewed Ali Goukassian about Milan Computersystems...

Bengy:
I am sorry to begin with such a difficult question, but please answer as fully as possible. In a previous interview with Alexander Clauss, I questioned him about the Milan computer. He stated he would not buy a Milan because, for one reason, it offers the same incompatibilities as, for example, MagiC Mac. So I'm asking you to defend yourself. Why should Atari users buy a Milan and run MagiC or N.AES on it as opposed to buying a PC or Mac and running MagiC on that?

Ali:
First of all I'd like to thank you for this interview and for giving us the chance to talk about the present and the future of Milan computer systems.
To answer your first question, which is not very hard for an Atari-fan, from our point of view everyone who believes in the practicality of Atari systems should buy a Milan system. For sure a Milan is not completely compatible with an Atari ST, but the Atari Falcon (when it was released) was not either.
We found a way to make it as compatible as possible - the Milan board has two programmable logic chips. Each time Atari software is trying to work with non-existent hardware, the Milan system report an exception error and the missing Atari chips are emulated by our logic chips.
That makes a Milan more compatible than any Mac or PC and we also have the possibility to continue development on the chip-programming, which means the Milan's compatibility can be optimised continuously without needing to change the motherboard hardware.
The reason for buying a Milan would be that people want an authentic Atari feeling based on modern hardware. When emulated TOS is always based on Windows or MacOS and always dependent on the stability of the host OS. The Milan TOS is booted directly from a TOS chip just like every former Atari system, which means booting only takes a few seconds, before you have a pure Atari computer.


Many people are wondering exactly how many Milan's are out there. Have Milan Sales been high, average or disappointing? Could you give us an estimate of the total number of Milan's in circulation?

Milan sales have been good. They may have been even better, if we could have produced as many as we needed. Please understand, I cannot give you
a definitive total. Milan has been on sale since August '98 and we have been able to produce at least 50 per month (Ed: I make that around 500 machines to date)


MagiC Milan has recently been released. In what way do you believe this will change the Milan? Could MagiC Milan possibly replace Milan's version of N.AES as the pre-installed OS?

MagiC Milan is a big win for both Milan and MagiC users. It looks great, works fine and as you can see from the benchmarks on our webpages it's nearly as fast as Single-TOS. It makes the whole system look even more modern and friendly. At the moment I can't tell anything about the future of the pre-installed OS (Ed: Since the interview it appears MagiC has been confirmed as the pre-installed OS).


A common complaint of MagiC users and MiNT advocates is that MagiC seems to be unstable on certain, if not all, systems (i.e. Falcons).
How does MagiC Milan perform? Is it stable? Have you experienced frequent crashes? Furthermore, what are your first impressions regarding MagiC Milan?

We've been running MagiC Milan for more than one week continuously and it has been working fine. There are no more crashes than with MagiC on any other Atari, and we only experienced crashes if the user runs old or incompatible software like games...


** MAGICMIL.GIF here **
** Caption **
MagiC running on a Milan
** /caption **


MagiC Milan does not, like the original, totally replace the Milan OS. In fact, MagiC Milan works alongside it. What is the reasoning behind this?

The reason for this is very easy to describe. Adding MagiC to another platform means re-programming the hardware dependent parts of any new Atari-System. That's the reason why development for the Falcon and HADES machines took so long, and why the HADES version isn't running very well.
Our developers have been reprogramming the hardware dependent parts of the original TOS to make them PCI and ISA compatible.
To ensure MagiC Milan is as compatible as possible we decided to only develop the non-hardware dependent parts of MagiC. The big advantage of this approach is that each time we release new hardware versions MagiC will still run with the new TOS-base and always retain its compatibility.


Does MagiC Milan have the same "snappy feel" to it that it does when ran on a Falcon or ST?

I would say it's even better because it's incredibly fast. The subjective feeling is similar to running a 300MHz Pentium PC.


The Milan has been great for the Atari world. Although it is debatable if the Milan actually converted any PC, Macintosh or Amiga users, there is no question it has prevented many people leaving our beloved platform.
What should we expect from Milan Computers in the future? Will we ever see the Milan take advantage of technologies such as PowerPC (or even multiple 68060) processors, built-in USB, Firewire, or even DVD ROM support?

YES YOU WILL! We've been quiet for a while but we have the most incredible news to share with everyone you could imagine. If everything works out fine, in late autumn/early winter we will have a brand new Milan, called "ATARI Milan" that will feature SDRAM, USB, an 060-processor, DVD-ROM support and a big range of (new) software.
This all will be produced by Motorola and AXRO GmbH in co-operation with Motorola Computer systems and it will be sold in several hundred (computer) shops!. This has all been top secret for many months, but there's a range of software developers working on Milan software, games, hardware add-ons, new graphic card drivers and so on. But it will be possible, if we are able to get the name "ATARI" under license from HASBRO. So our brand new Milan 060 will probably be called "Milan 500" and it could be the one and only Atari successor! Good news, isn't it?


For a "dead" platform, the Milan040/060 really has quite a bit of competition! Currently available there's the Centurbo II which offers incredible Falcon performance as well as maintaining compatibility. There is also the Hades040/060, and soon, if we are lucky, the Tempest accelerator (which claims that it will offer PowerPC processor's with speeds well over 200MHz).
To make things even harder for you, in the near future the Phenix060 is planned to make its entrance. What is your opinion of the Centurbo II, Tempest, Hades, and Phenix? Does Milan computer welcome a bit of friendly competition or are you guys beginning to feel the heat?

Of course we welcome that bit of friendly competition, but as you can see we're trying to deal in another market. We've been working very long and very hard on that deal, but wait until you see the price (which will be published in August '99) then objectively I would say that no one will ever pay DM 3000 (around œ1100) for a 040/060 system or DM 700-800 (œ250-œ300) for a hardware-add-on. And with the new Falcon compatibility card for about DM 400 (around œ150) more, Milan machines will become a very powerful Falcon compatible workstation.


When the Milan arrived, the powerful Hades040/060 was already on the market. What motivated you guys to introduce an entirely new clone, and how long was the Milan in development?

We developed about one year and our motivation was, at least, to make a much more flexible system that costs less than half the price of the HADES. I think we succeeded on all points.


It sometimes seems the German Atari market is blind to the needs of the Atari users in North America. Where can Americans/Canadians purchase a Milan from?

Yes, it seems so. Regarding Milan Computer systems we do have a lack of manpower for distribution in North America. But with the new system we'll have a very strong and working partner already used to international distribution. We expect the new Milan systems to be available in Europe in early 2000 and in America from April 2000.


Do you believe the Milan is the future of the Atari Platform? If not, what is? What are your feelings regarding MagiC Mac/PC?

Of course I do believe that Milan is the future of Atari systems. Nothing else can be, because the Milan will be the only Atari clone which will be an original Atari, which will be produced by a big partner like Motorola and which will be built in larger quantities. I like MagiC Mac/PC as well as some other emulations, but as I explained already they are all based on existing, fat and not always stable OS's.


The Milan website is huge, packed with information and downloads, updated regularly, and is available in many languages. There is no question that it is truly one of the most useful and impressive Atari related sites available to internet users. Since the arrival of MagiC Milan, will we see a separate "MagiC Section" of the pages, containing MagiC Milan related downloads/patches, reviews, and information?

There will be a separate MagiC section but not before our webmaster has a Milan computer. Until now we had to sell every machine we could build but from June/July onwards, Joachim Fornallaz, the webmaster, will continue website development on a Milan running MagiC Milan.


I noticed you have a banner on the Milan main page stating "Over 300,000 visits in one month." If this is true, it is very impressive, and proves once again that the Atari Platform is far from dead. How many visits, on average, do the Milan pages receive lately?

To be honest I have not checked the number of accesses for more than six months but I can truly assure you that the banner is not lying. I will try to find out the actual number of website accesses as soon as possible.


Now some easy questions.  What computers, other then Milans, are used in the production of the Milan and the Milan website? Which software is used by the team on a regular basis?

Actually we use a Mac for website development, running MagiC Mac, but only until we can spare a Milan system for the webmaster. We also work with PCs for the billing system, but since the Milan060 card has been available, we are working with Calamus on an Atari system again - before that we used a Mac.


Why did you stay with the Atari platform for so long, and why do you continue to support it?

We love it and we love the way people love it!


Do you consider the Milan a success?

Yes, I would say so, and especially looking towards the future it will become an even bigger success! But we have to keep in mind this all depends on our Atari name license negotiations with HASBRO. If they don't agree, we won't be able to launch the system the way we want to.


Finally, is there anything you would like to say in conclusion of this interview?

Yes, we, the Milan team, want to thank you all for supporting Atari systems for such a long time, and we will try to give back what Atari was obviously not willing to give you back anymore after 1993: We will produce and offer new powerful systems for a low price and with the feeling that they have something very special PCs and Macs do not have!

** MILANCRW.GIF here **
** Caption **
The Milan team. From left to right: Uwe Schneider, hardware development, Ali Goukassian, founder/management, Thomas G”ttsch: founder/support/graphic card driver development, Michael Schwingen, TOS development
** /caption **