kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) (08/27/86)
[ "Send lawyers, guns, and money ..." ]
At the BADGE meeting last week, I had a conversation with "a reliable
source" about the Sidecar, and its availability. According to this
person (and it *is* someone who should know), the Sidecar has passed
VDE testing (VDE is the German equivalent of the US FCC). It has
supposedly been released for manufacturing (in Germany), and should
be available now, or in the *very* near future (again, in Germany).
At this point, I have to consider this to be "a reliable rumor". I'm
posting this with the hope that someone on the net in Germany can
confirm the story, or provide some additional information (how many
expansion slots, price, etc.) Anybody know/heard anything?
Of course CBM could always make a statement, too!
BTW, the same person also said the German version of the Genlock was
available there now too ...
/kim
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[ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ]
[ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]hamilton@uiucuxc.CSO.UIUC.EDU (08/29/86)
>At the BADGE meeting last week, I had a conversation with "a reliable >source" about the Sidecar, and its availability. According to this >person (and it *is* someone who should know), the Sidecar has passed >VDE testing (VDE is the German equivalent of the US FCC). It has >supposedly been released for manufacturing (in Germany), and should >be available now, or in the *very* near future (again, in Germany). in a PLink conference a few nites ago, another "reliable source" [actually, "informed" or "knowledgable" would be better adjectives] told us not to expect sidecar (here in USA) before christmas. he also said the amiga II was due "early next year". wayne hamilton U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL UUCP: {ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!hamilton ARPA: hamilton%uiucuxc@a.cs.uiuc.edu USMail: Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801 CSNET: hamilton%uiucuxc@uiuc.csnet Phone: (217)333-8703 CIS: [73047,544] PLink: w hamilton
rodney@gitpyr.UUCP (RODNEY RICKS) (09/02/86)
A few weeks ago, my boss was talking with someone from a computer store
in France. He said that they had three sidecars in his store. I am not
100 percent certain whether they were for sale or merely pre-release
versions (but why would they have THREE pre-release sidecars?).
Also, I have had a chance to play with a pre-release sidecar right here
in the U.S. This sidecar is quite old. It seems to be of pre-Comdex
vintage, since it doesn't have the color graphics drivers in yet, and
doesn't seem to recoginize any more disk drives than the built in one.
The drive on this sidecar is way out of alignment from being carried around
alot. Because of this, it won't format and has problems reading simple
unprotected DOS disks. As far as compatibility goes, everything that
we could get loaded on the unaligned drive seemed to run, including
Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, a new golf game from Electronic Arts (however,
the color didn't come out correctly, because of the lack of drivers), and
a couple of others.
We also ran Norton's utilities to test the performance of the Sidecar as
compared to a standard IBM PC. It came out as a 1.0, which is the same as
an IBM.
By the way, it seems that you might be able to start up the Amiga with the
Sidecar and turn off the Amiga and leave the Sidecar running, as someone
on the net asked about.
Rodney Ricks,
(Not officially respresenting...) The 64 Store. Atlanta, Georgia 30339
UUCP: ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!rodney
or : !gatech!gt-oscar!rodney
Mail: 4265 Hidden Valley Dr. College Park, Ga. 30349kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) (09/12/86)
In article <2207@gitpyr.UUCP>, rodney@gitpyr.UUCP (RODNEY RICKS) writes: > A few weeks ago, my boss was talking with someone from a computer store > in France. He said that they had three sidecars in his store. I am not > 100 percent certain whether they were for sale or merely pre-release > versions (but why would they have THREE pre-release sidecars?). The following is an item that was posted on an internal (to Amdahl Corp.) conference for Amiga related discussions by Steve Schoettler on 8/28/86. Re-posted here with Steve's permission: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I heard a rumor that the sidecar was being sold in West Germany. I figured I could get around the 220V, 50Hz, 4 prong plug compatibility problems and order one through a friend in W. Germany and have it in a couple of weeks. In case you might have had the same thoughts, here are my experiences: This morning I called the Commodore office in Braunschweig, which referred me to the office in Frankfurt, who said it won't be available for another four to six weeks. The West Chester, PA office had said US delivery should begin in about ten weeks. Oh well. Another rumor down the drain. If you're really dying to have one, I have the name of a guy in West Chester who might give you a 'preliminary' version of a sidecar if you send him a convincing enough letter as to why you should get one. In other words, "How many Amigas can YOUR product sell?" "There's always another way" -- Steve --------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve didn't have "the guy in West Chester's" name handy, but his recolection was that he was a V.P. or Director level person. > By the way, it seems that you might be able to start up the Amiga with the > Sidecar and turn off the Amiga and leave the Sidecar running, as someone > on the net asked about. This might be dangerous! At the demonstration that RJ Mical gave for the BADGE group, he said that there is the potential of "burning up" either the Amiga or the Sidecar (sorry, I don't remember which) if they are not powered up in the correct sequence. To minimize the chance of this happening, the Amiga's power cable is plugged into the Sidecar, and it controls the power on sequencing (the Amiga's on/off switch is left in the "on" position). Wow, just like on real big machines, Virginia! There was nothing specifically stated about powering off the Amiga, but I would want to be *VERY* sure about this before trying it. Any comments from Los Gatos or West Chester? /kim -- UUCP: {sun,hplabs,ihnp4,cbosgd}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25 [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]