CDTV Publishing 0628 770088 Amiga Robotics arrives at last Since issue 18, we’ve been making the ease that the Amiga is ideal I© control small-scale robotic models but it’s newer yet been done* How, Think Limited has c©me up with an Amiga-driven scale replica of real industrial robots, intended for educational use* The Amiga launch follows a survey which revealed an Amiga-based system would be more popular than any other computer. The Alfred Arm is a fully-articulated production-line robot arm, but is only two-feet high. The arm is controlled from the screen of the Amiga, enabling direct control or a teaching process wherebf a simple program is constructed I© make the arm do a particular task. The basic system costs £36© for educational buyers, though others can also have it for a mere £4© more. Think Limited ©21-384 4188 Serious video tools get cheaper Previously, the only piece of software available to record animations and the like to video frame by frame was Simpatica, an excellent but expensive system, aimed purely at the professional and costing around £1000 (see review, Amiga Format ?). Now Syntronix have announced a new system called Editman which will cost a dam sight less at £499 plus VAT, What’s more, it’s available for a limited period at only £325. Editman will control a domestic VCR at single-frame accuracy, as well as providing audio dubbing and allowing the manipulation of IFF graphics. Other extensions to the system include a computer recording interface at £249, which minimalises the loss of quality when you record computer stuff to video from a composite output. Syntronix claims results are better than with a genlock. Finally, there’s an RGB digitising system (£199.95) with a real-time version available. We’ll take a look at the whole system very soon. Syntronix 0332 298422 Great Valley Products, one of America’s most respected hardware manufacturers and known for the quality of their equipment, has released a new hard card that takes the Amiga to outrageous levels of power. Described as “the uitimate all-in-one Amiga 2000 add-on”, it features a 68030 accelerated processor with up to 16MB of RAM and a SCSI hard drive controller. With the board at max expansion potential, it outclasses even a fully-expanded Amiga 3000, using a faster 33MHz processor (as opposed to the A3000’s 25MHz) and therefore leaves ail the other five Amiga expansion slots free for other uses.