🚀 go-pugleaf

>>The card called 'Delfina' does not, however, have any software as yet.
>>
>>Therefore this is a plea to get some interest from any programmers to
>>develop support software for this product which we feel is of great
>>importance to the Amiga.
>
>There's plenty of interest from programmers, but the company producing
>Delfina does not seem to be interested in actually supplying the
>programmers with any prototype or development boards.

We have chosen to not give free development boards to programmers who
we don't have a formal relationship with. If we changed this, we would
probably have to increase the selling price.

Our objective was to make a card that is easily programmable, and to 
not have limits to making applications for it (like for example
Sunrize did). That means, that hobbyist programmers can write their
own audio effects, DSP maths libraries, module players etc. and make
them available for other users for free or against payment. The Amiga
would then be close to NEXT, which had a 56k standardized. 

There is no development version of Delfina DSP, all shipped cards have
the same autodocs, compilers and documentation.

If we gave someone free cards, while others (who also program for it)
would have to pay for it, there would be injustice. If we ask
someone to write a piece of software and give a free card in advance,
what happens if he remains unable to write it?

The Internet offer is targetted at programmers. $400 (plus VAT in EC)
barely covers manufacturing and distribution costs. If someone is going
to make software for Delfina, we can maybe give a special discount.
But outside a joint venture between two companies or a written 
agreement with a programmer, we would rather not give Delfinas
without payment.

>My attitude is that if they can't be bothered supplying a board to have
>software written for it, I can't be bothered investing in a dead
>product.

Did Commodore, or does Amiga Tech. supply developers with free Amigas?
No (as far as I know), they give discounts at best. In the old days
you even had to pay in order to become a developer.

The companies who give out free hardware usually are overcharging their
customers. Delfina is substantially more costly to make than e.g.
Toccata.

>I know that Teijo was willing to support the Delfina in Octamed, but
>the Delfina people weren't willing to supply him with a board to work
>with.

Teijo was initially ordering Delfina, but as he is somewhat switching over 
to PC's (and not investing in Amiga anymore), he cancelled his order.
We have written the first version of Octamed V6 driver for Delfina, but
haven't been able to test it yet (because we have no Octamed sources).

>Their statement that you don't NEED the board to write software for it
>is ridiculous. Audio applications are real-time by nature, one needs
>to be able to assess the performance in real-time.

This is absolutely true. What we meant is, that if the application is
not critical on processing speed, the compiler, autodocs and examples
at ftp://spot.lnet.lut.fi/pub/amiga/sfx/delfina are theoretically
sufficient for writing a small piece of software. Thereafter you
always need the board to test and debug the program(s).

Delfina DSP is hardly a "dead product". We and our partners are writing
software for it, and the next version is at designing stage. We
recognize that some programmers who would have good ideas for software
are unable or unwilling to spend money on it - for them I say: Mail 
us! All above said, we are always open for negotiations. We can license 
your software for sale with Delfina DSP, we can buy your expertise in 
our current programming projects, anything. Delfina is currently the 
most powerful and versatile sound card for Amiga, it would be a shame 
if people wouldn't get to use it in what they feel useful.

-JP

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                Delfina DSP.  Discover the Sound of Power.