mendoza@aero.ARPA (Lee Mendoza) (10/06/85)
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I am posting this message for Mike Boiko of Digital Equipment Corp.,
who is currently unable to post his own messages, due to a problem
with his UUCP connection. Replies to Mike should be sent to me, I
will forward them via ARPANET mail.
----------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------
From: boiko%cgvax2.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Michael Boiko MKO2-2/KO2 264-3626)
Subject: BYTE'S BW replies on Atari ST....
I too was very upset by what seemed to be BYTE magazine's lack of
interest in a computer that sets all kinds of new price/performance standards
for the home/office market. As I said in my conversation to Bruce, the ST is
not a perfect machine, but for $799.00 retail (mono) and as low as $659 mail
order (mono) it is truly an amazing deal....
For all you people who don't know, Bruce Webster writes the "According
To Webster" column in BYTE magazine. Just for the record I would like to add
that I do enjoy Bruce's BYTE column and there is a problem with BYTE's long
"write to print" lead times not to mention vendor demo support at review time
and this goes for Commodore as well as Atari....
I'am sure Bruce and I will be having many more conversations in the
future, and I will try to print them here.
Well happy reading...BYTE's January review date isn't *that* far
off, is it....???
Mike Boiko
Tel (603) 884-9427 Digital Equipment Corp
Nashua, NH
Disclaimer: These are my views and not
the views of my employer.
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ask.webster/m68000 #110, from mike_boiko, 1231 chars, Sat Oct 5 04:42:15 1985
This is a comment to message 103.
There is/are comment(s) on this message.
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Bruce,
Many readers on the Arpanet and USENET have been wondering why
the ST has not been reviewed...and I'am one of them. What's going on
this is a super machine. I've just about had it with all the hype
surrounding the Amiga. I've read all about the Amiga (sound,graphics,ect
..)specs and mag. - I am not impressed by the text quality,screen flicker,
system cost or present lack of availability.
Am I wrong or what we are talking about a machine that has sold
over 50,000 units!!(Atari ST520 NOT Amiga)..Here's a machine that has
been benchmarked by more then a few USENET subscribers at just under
VAX 11/750 speed (BYTE C sieve benchmark), that comes with a rock steady
70 hz mono monitor, 1/2 MB (standard),VT100/VT220 clone keyboard,10 M/Bit
DMA interface,bitblt graphics support,custom sound chips,..ect..
I couldn't help but wonder what Neil Harris and company thought of
your ST remarks in the Oct issue of BYTE. The bottom line I feel is that
the ST is not a perfect machine, but the remarks I have heard seem to
imply that the ST is vastly inferior to the Amiga-when this is not the case.
At $799 I believe the ST must at the very minimum,mark some type
of price/performance highwater mark....
_Mike Boiko_
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ask.webster/m68000 #123, from bwebster, 1755 chars, Sat Oct 5 12:32:21 1985
This is a comment to message 110.
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Mike:
the main reason the ST hasn't been reviewed is that for months Atari
refused to make any machines available to BYTE, despite repeated requests.
It wasn't until the August issue (cover story on the Amiga) came out that
Atari suddenly changed its tune and put things into motion to get BYTE some
equipment. For the last few weeks, BYTE (in the form of Jon Edwards and
Phillip Robinson) has been preparing a product preview of the ST, much like
the one done of the Amiga. I finally received a 520ST a few days ago; some
development software is on the way, and I plan to write quite a bit about
the machine. And if it makes you feel any better, in my January column (which
I just sent in a week or so ago), I picked the 520ST to be the big winner of
1986 because of the price/performance combination.
The reason I wrote so much about the Amiga was because I attended the Amiga
developers' conference last May and spend three days learning about the
machine in detail. At that time, I was expecting to have a machine to work
on within six to eight weeks. When development systems became available, I
no longer had the funds to buy my own machine. However, Commodore told BYTE
(in early August) that they would ship some machines to BYTE right away. Said
machines (one of which was to be forwarded to me) have never been shipped, and
I find myself in the somewhat embarrassing position of having raved about a
machine that I haven't worked with to any extent.
The upshot of all this is that my opinions of the 520ST and the Amiga are
becoming a bit more balanced then my earlier columns reflected. I make no
apologies for my enthusiasm about the technical aspects of the Amiga, but I
hope to give equal time to the 520ST.
..bruce..
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