Hyperion Entertainment

Aachen, Germany - June 2, 2003

Hyperion Entertainment and Individual Computers are pleased to announce that they have been cooperating on Kickflash, a highly optimized flashrom card for the Zorro-based Amigas.

The Kickflash device will allow users of AmigaOS 4.x to locate a compressed Kickstart 4.0 image in flashrom memory, cutting down significantly on booting times.

Kickflash was announced several years ago, but was never released due to licensing problems, according to Jens Schönfeld, CEO of Individual Computers. With the planning of the new PPC-native version of the AmigaOS, Hyperion and Individual Computers started a cooperative venture more in May 2002. The Kickflash product is priced very attractively with na SRP of 29 EUR in Germany. Up to date flashrom chips with 100.000 guaranteed re-programming cycles ensure reliable operation far beyond the 2-year warranty period.

"We are very happy that we can offer users of AmigaOS 4 a cost-effective solution to cut-down significantly on booting times, says Ben Hermans, managing partner of Hyperion Entertainment. Short booting times have always been one of the key trademarks of the Amiga and we are keen to preserve that trait."

Kickflash OS4 will be available to betatesters this summer. Mass production will start in time for the release of OS4 ensuring that OS 4 customers will have an alternative to the ALGOR card or Romulus cards by E3B (http://www.e3b.de), the third partner in this cooperation.

About Individual Computers

Individual Computers (http://www.ami.ga) is a privately held German company founded in 1994. The company started off doing custom hardware designs only, then entered the Amiga market with own products in 1996. Digital HiFi equipment was added to the product line in 1999, and PC diagnostic hardware is produced since fall 2002. Individual Computers also engages in Retro computing, preserving "ancient" computer knowledge. Forensic data recovery has been done with partners like DN-Systems GmbH (www.dn-systems.de), Vogon International ltd. (www.vogon.de) and the US Computer Forensic Department of Defense.

About Hyperion Entertainment VOF

Hyperion Entertainment (www.hyperion-entertainment.com) is a privately held Belgian-German company, founded in March of 1999. The company specialises in 3D graphics and the conversion of top-quality entertainment software from Windows to niche-platforms including Amiga, Linux (x86,PPC) and MacOS (OS 9/X). Hyperion Entertainment has undertaken contract-work in the field of 3D graphics for companies such as Monolith (www.lith.com) and has developed a mature, fast, small foot-print technology to bring 3D graphics to low power digital devices such as PDA's and STB's. Hyperion is currently working on AmigaOS 4.0, a vastly enhanced PPC native incarnation of the groundbreaking multimedia OS introduced by Commodore in 1985.

Garching, Germany - May 31, 2003

E3B and Hyperion Entertainment are pleased to announce that both companies are cooperating to ensure that E3B's ALGOR and ROMulus flashroms are properly supported by the upcoming AmigaOS 4.0 developed by Hyperion.

The ALGOR is a Zorro II based USB controller which supports both USB 1.1 and 2.0 (no highspeed mode) and which comes with 512Kb of onboard flashrom memory. Existing HIGHWAY USB controllers can be upgraded with the ROMulus flashrom module.

Users of AmigaOS 4.x will be able to locate a compressed Kickstart 4.0 image in flashrom memory and thus cut down significantly on booting times. This also opens up other possibilities such as using a USB mouse to control the AmigaOS bootmenu or booting from USB mass storage devices like memory sticks or flashcard readers.

"We have been cooperating very well with E3B in the past and this cooperation has already yielded tangible results in the form of USB support for the HIGHWAY USB controller", says Ben Hermans, managing partner of Hyperion Entertainment. "We're happy that we can expand on this relationship as many prospective OS 4.x customers have expressed their desire to be able to locate a Kickstart 4.0 image in flashrom memory."

"Our collaboration with Hyperion in the field of USB technology is established for quite some time now and proved to be successful", says Michael Böhmer, CEO of E3B. "For our customers' sake we could achieve things like integration of a HIGHWAY / SUBWAY hardware driver into the new Amiga operating system. We are proud that our ALGOR / ROMulus customers will even gain functionality with availability of AmigaOS 4.x."

About E3B

E3B (http://www.e3b.de) is a privately held German company, founded in 2001. The company entered the Amiga market with ground breaking new controller cards, which made new technologies like USB available on the Amiga Classic for the first time. As a pioneering company new developments and outstanding hardware designs can be found in all E3B products which are manufactured in Germany to the highest quality standards. E3B moreover offers a wide variety of hardware design services as well as almost any complex custom logic design on FPGAs, CPLDs and microcontrollers.

About Hyperion Entertainment VOF

Hyperion Entertainment (www.hyperion-entertainment.com) is a privately held Belgian-German company, founded in March of 1999. The company specialises in 3D graphics and the conversion of top-quality entertainment software from Windows to niche-platforms including Amiga, Linux (x86,PPC) and MacOS (OS 9/X). Hyperion Entertainment has undertaken contract-work in the field of 3D graphics for companies such as Monolith (www.lith.com) and has developed a mature, fast, small foot-print technology to bring 3D graphics to low power digital devices such as PDA's and STB's. Hyperion is currently working on AmigaOS 4.0, a vastly enhanced PPC native incarnation of the groundbreaking multimedia OS introduced by Commodore in 1985.