Just found this on an IT news-site.

"Chico, California -- (November 16, 2006) -- SciTech Software, Inc. today announced that it has ceased further development of its SNAP device driver technology in favor of a new line of web and business logic technologies. SciTech also announced that it would begin looking for a buyer for the company’s existing core technology, SciTech SNAP. SciTech SNAP represents both a massive code base as well as a major advancement in the field of operating system independent device driver development. With existing support for well in excess of 240 unique graphics chipsets, HD and AC97 audio codecs, and nearly a dozen API’s and operating systems, SciTech is confident that the technology will attract a the attentions of a well qualified buyer. Interested parties should email Andrew Bloo at the following email address: andrewb@scitechsoft.com"

Link to announcement on SciTech website

Post of a staff member in the SciTech support newsgroup: "It is unlikely that we will support any Radeon X1x00 chipsets in the foreseeable future, unless we get a contract from a large OEM. ATI will not share specs otherwise."

What implications could this have on SNAP for OS4.x? What was the last plan anyway regarding SNAP for OS4?

@hatschi

I've read about this one OS/2 news sites. This technology had so much potential. It's sad to see it die like this.

SNAP filled a major gap that IBM left open in OS/2.

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@hatschi

Quote:

Just found this on an IT news-site.

I'm still not sure why OS4 needed SNAP anyway.

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Sam

@hatschi

sad news


@-Sam-

To support tons of graphic cards out of the box without waiting for the P96 team to write a driver? (call me when P96 supports nVidia/Matrox/S3 graphic cards)

Because SNAP drivers have been tested in lots of operating systems and sometimes Scitech drivers are faster and less buggy than the official ones?

UniVESA and Scitech Display Doctor were other good products from this company... didn't you use SDD on in win95/98? It was simply great.

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@Crumb

Quote:

To support tons of graphic cards out of the box without waiting for the P96 team to write a driver? (call me when P96 supports nVidia/Matrox/S3 graphic cards)

What for? Why not support just a few Radeons? All these new motherboards - will they actually run the old cards? Unlikely. Why not just buy a cheap Radeon 7000? Seems a pointless bit of software to me. Probably why it's died.

Quote:

Because SNAP drivers have been tested in lots of operating systems and sometimes Scitech drivers are faster and less buggy than the official ones?

But seeing as there is no reason not to use a cheap Radeon you will be using the OS4 Forefront stuff anyway which is bound to be better.

Quote:

UniVESA and Scitech Display Doctor were other good products from this company... didn't you use SDD on in win95/98? It was simply great.)

Yes I did - but that was a decade ago and on the PC where the choice in 2D boards was immense. Actually I think it was even further back than this - and then only in DOS as DirectX took hold I didn't need them for Win95/98.

I still see no point in SNAP for OS4.

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Sam

@-Sam-

Quote:

Seems a pointless bit of software to me. Probably why it's died.

No. The main reason why development was ceased is that they didn't get enough support from graphic-chip producers anymore since they required bigger OEM-clients.
Basically the same problem that X-server developers are facing with ATI/AMD. They simply don't get enough information necessary for an own open-source driver for the latest ATI gfx-cards. While x86 Linux-users can still rely on ATI's own driver, this doesn't help BSD or Linux-PPC users at all.

@-Sam-

If you are a desktop user, sure, just get a Radeon. But as OS4 has been targeting the embedded market, where a Radeon may not the the best choice, having support for just about every gfx chipset there is outn there could be usefull.

@hatschi

Quote:

The main reason why development was ceased is that they didn't get enough support from graphic-chip producers anymore since they required bigger OEM-clients.

I suppose you have to look at why the video card producers don't see it as a priority anymore.

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Sam

@AmiDog

Quote:

But as OS4 has been targeting the embedded market, where a Radeon may not the the best choice, having support for just about every gfx chipset there is outn there could be usefull.

Very good point.

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Sam

Hi,


mmh ... see no relevance for OS4 ...
The "only 2D" GFX market is dead anyway ..
heck .. even cell phones become in the next gen 3D chips ..
So no one is interested more in a pure 2D solution ...

R-TEAM

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@R-TEAM
Quote:

The "only 2D" GFX market is dead anyway ..

That may be true but when are these chip making companies going to stop with this secrecy garbage when it comes to sharing their docs? It is especially bad in the 3D arena as we all know.

I think the whole concept of "Intellectual Property" is just utterly broken. Society should no longer allow companies to hide information like this. Basically, if you are not a large company with a large amount of money you are not allowed to use their chips. What are the smaller players supposed to do? How does this benefit society? I just don't see how the arguments for intellectual property concepts hold any merit any longer.

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@ssolie

Quote:

Basically, if you are not a large company with a large amount of money you are not allowed to use their chips.

ATI seem more open.

Hopefully those companies that open their designs become stronger -through more support - and then this encourages openness further.

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Sam

@hatschi

First of all we need support new graphics cards not old ones, 240 drivers for all old crappy graphics cards, no thanks way do we need that? We need support for new Graphic cards whit 3D support, Snap only offers 2D support.

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@NutsAboutAmiga

Quote:

We need support for new Graphic cards whit 3D support, Snap only offers 2D support.

But there is the problem: As I stated, it will become more and more difficult to get any support/documentation from companies such as ATI/AMD for those "new" graphic cards when you are only a small fish (OS4) in the sea.
Btw, what "new graphic cards with 3D support" do you propose for current AmigaOnes (some AGP, some only PCI)?

@ssolie

Quote:

That may be true but when are these chip making companies going to stop with this secrecy garbage when it comes to sharing their docs? It is especially bad in the 3D arena as we all know. I think the whole concept of "Intellectual Property" is just utterly broken. Society should no longer allow companies to hide information like this. Basically, if you are not a large company with a large amount of money you are not allowed to use their chips. What are the smaller players supposed to do? How does this benefit society? I just don't see how the arguments for intellectual property concepts hold any merit any longer

I don't think the concept of "Intellectual Property" is what's broken... It's in the abuse of it implemenation. Especially in the US where patents can be made intentionally vague so as to encompass entire technologies (i.e. JPEG, DVR (a la Tivo), SCO vs. IBM, Novell & Linux et al, NTP vs. RIM, etc., etc.) and where infinite copyrights are being enforced through the abusive DMCA (http://chillingeffects.org/).

What we need is a return to more rational "IP" policies. Ones that spur innovation rather than stifling it.

Last edited by ShadesOfGrey on 17-Nov-2006 at 06:55 PM.

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@hatschi

As it is there are many small company’s that do need gfx driver for there embedded designs, if ATI/AMD closes doors completely they be killing lots of smaller companies, don’t you think.

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@NutsAboutAmiga

Quote:

As it is there are many small company’s that do need gfx driver for there embedded designs, if ATI/AMD closes doors completely they be killing lots of smaller companies, don’t you think.

Yes, I absolutely agree on that. But you didn't answer my question.

@hatschi & Others

I cannot believe that this is not "the top news story"...

I'm still coming to terms with what this will mean for OS4' ability to support a full range of graphics cards. I cannot see any other option for a small OS to get a full range of drivers any other way.

I HOPE that this is picked up by a company able to continue developing this software and is not just "binned".

Darren

@newbee

Quote:

I cannot believe that this is not "the top news story"...

Honestly, I *was* considering to submit it as a news item, but since I was unsure about current plans and if SNAP is still relevant for OS4.x (see my question), I decided to post it as a forum thread instead.

@newbee

Quote:

newbee wrote: @hatschi & Others I cannot believe that this is not "the top news story"... I'm still coming to terms with what this will mean for OS4' ability to support a full range of graphics cards. I cannot see any other option for a small OS to get a full range of drivers any other way. I HOPE that this is picked up by a company able to continue developing this software and is not just "binned". Darren

The SNAP thing was never going to appear on OS4 anyway. This was only one of many bombastic announcements from Ben Hermans during that particular time. Ben Hermans, Fleecy and Alan Redhouse said a lot of things back then, problem is that a lot of people took what they said seriously ...