Wonder TV A6000 and A6060
Developer: Lotus Pacific
Launch date: 1998 |
It came as a surprise during late 1997 when Chinese company, Lotus
Pacific announced they had bought the Amiga patents. The Western
world had focussed upon the Gateway acquisition and were shocked at
the thought of the machine being sold again. The basis of this
announcement was investigated by Gateway, who took legal action
against the company. Lotus Pacific's claims stemmed from a 1995
deal between Newstar/Tianjin Family
Electronic and Escom to sell Amigas in the Japanese market. When
they went into liquidation the company was bought by Rightiming
Electronics Corporation (REC), which in turn was taken over by
Lotus Pacific. The newly-formed Amiga International disputted this,
stating the previous agreement could not be transferred to another
company. An examination of the original Escom press release
indicates a licence was only given for production and trading, not
complete ownership of Amiga patents in that area of the world. For
a time there appeared to be a huge court battle looming over the
Amiga again, until the two companies reached an agreement and Lotus
Pacific appeared on the list of official licenses at the beginning
of 1998.
The WonderTV A6000 and A6060 machines appear to be based upon a
custom Amiga motherboard, designed by several ex-Commodore
employees and DCE of Germany. They represent one of many attempts
at bridging the gap between computer and information appliance,
combining the following functions:
- Amiga Computer
- Fax Machine
- Internet Box
- Audio CD and CD+G Player
- MPEG Video CD Player
- Karaoke Player
- PhotoCD Viewer (optional)
- Access to the REC TeleWeb broadcast information system(A6060
only)
The system specification for the machine are nothing special but do
provide a relatively low-cost machine for Internet browsing
- 68020 CPU (68030 Optional)
- AGA Chipset
- 2 Megs Chip/ 7 Megs Fast
- MPEG Decoder Board
- "High Speed" IDE CD-Rom
- PC HD Floppy
- Ports for:
- VGA, RF (NTSC or PAL),
- S-Video and RCA Composite
- PC Keyboard
- Serial and Parallel Devices
- Amiga Joystick and Joypad
- REC IR Remote (like CDTVs)
- 2 Microphone Inputs
- R-L Audio Out
TeleWeb Broadcast Information Service
During October 1997, Lotus Pacific announced a cooperation with the
Chinese Central Television Teletext based upon the Wonder TV A6060
that would give subscribers access to cable channels and the
internet. This eventually led to the development of the TeleWeb
broadcasting network. This is an Internet based system that
broadcasts information to the home user through the cable TV
network. It is similar to schemes throughout the US and European
market; a "small" monthly fee is required, allowing access to
community networks, providing local information, as well as
programme information, shopping, finances and education. A present
the system is only available to Shanghai residents, although it
seems likely that this could be expanded to other regions, or even
countries in the future.
Desktop Model
In the past REC have referred to an A5800 desktop model that was
just waiting for certain patents to be registered in China. It
seems that with the confirmation of Gateway as the legal owner, REC
were forced to back off and only release the systems in production
at the time. Later versions of the WonderTV - the A8000 and A9000 -
were designed around an x86 CPU and used the Windows CE operating
system.
Related Links
Read review of the WonderTV (Local
Link)
4th Quarter 1997 Report (Local Link)
Gateway dispute Lotus Pacific's purchase
of the Amiga (Local Link)
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