[net.micro.amiga] Expand at your own risk!

michael@vlsi.caltech.edu@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (02/23/86)

From: michael@vlsi.caltech.edu

I advise everyone to not buy either fixed hard disks or memory for their
Amiga yet.  We are about to see the next quantum leap in the capacity of
memory chips, to 1 megabit per chip.  A company called TheSys has
announced a single IBM PC expansion board containing 8 megabytes of 1
megabit chips.  Actually the board contains 12 MB;  the extra capacity is
used to implement error correction on board.  The memory is CMOS, meaning
it can be backed up with batteries.  Cost: $800.  Granted that it doesn't
need to be as fast for an IBM as for an Amiga, this is still much less
per megabyte than any board based on 256 kbit chips.  This number is also
within a factor of 2 or 3 of the per megabyte cost of small hard disks.
The same company will also be making a 16 Mb board which looks like a hard
disk (even plugs in to your current controller), but one with a 10
microsecond "track-to-track" access time.

I hereby predict that fixed hard disks will be obsolete within a year.

					Steve Walton
					Caltech Solar Astronomy
					swalton@caltech.bitnet
					walton%deimos@hamlet.cit.edu

dillon%cory@BERKELEY.EDU@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (02/24/86)

From: dillon%cory@BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)

	I disagree completely, on several counts:

	(1) I would never trust keeping 'permanent' records in ram.  Apart
from the obvious power/computer glitch problems (and software error's
having the ability to erase/destroy the entire memory block, there are
also problems with ram reliability... EVEN WITH ECC.  Additionally there
is the philosophy amoung many that permanent storage refers to 'that
which does not require any means of power to be non-volatile'

	(2) Magnetic disk storage is increasing.  You can now get a 10Mb HD
on a board which fits into a single slot on your IBM.  60Meg half height drives
will soon be affordable (20 meg already is.).

	(3) The next quantum leap is comming around with the advent of
R/W optical disks, with gigabytes storage where only Megabytes existed
before.

	Ram certainly will never replace the hard-disk.


	HOWEVER.  I agree with your premise.  That is, I don't think now is
the right time for us poor developers/users to begin buying hardware.  With
so few companies in the Amiga market, prices will be rather extreme.  I
myself would very much like an HD for my Amiga, but do not want to shell
out $2000+ to get one.



				-Matt

hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu) (02/24/86)

In article <1355@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> daemon@caip.UUCP writes:
>From: michael@vlsi.caltech.edu
>
>I advise everyone to not buy either fixed hard disks or memory for their
>Amiga yet.  We are about to see the next quantum leap in the capacity of
>memory chips, to 1 megabit per chip.  A company called TheSys has
>announced a single IBM PC expansion board containing 8 megabytes of 1
>megabit chips.  Actually the board contains 12 MB;  the extra capacity is
>used to implement error correction on board.  The memory is CMOS, meaning
>it can be backed up with batteries.  Cost: $800.  Granted that it doesn't
>need to be as fast for an IBM as for an Amiga, this is still much less
>per megabyte than any board based on 256 kbit chips.  This number is also
>within a factor of 2 or 3 of the per megabyte cost of small hard disks.
>The same company will also be making a 16 Mb board which looks like a hard
>disk (even plugs in to your current controller), but one with a 10
>microsecond "track-to-track" access time.
>
>I hereby predict that fixed hard disks will be obsolete within a year.
>
>					Steve Walton

A friend of mine told me about this card last December, when its price
was projected at near $1500 for a 15 meg version.  Yes, it is CMOS with
a battery back-up, but from what I was told, the company manufactures
its own RAM's and they're not fast enough to be used as main memory.
Instead, as you guessed, it was designed to replace hard drives, although
I'd heard there was zero track-to-track time.

-dave
-- 
David Hsu	Communication & Signal Processing Lab, EE Department
<disclaimer>	University of Maryland,  College Park, MD 20742
hsu@eneevax.umd.edu  {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!eneevax!hsu

"Godzilla has been spotted in Sector 5!"

rb@ccivax.UUCP (02/28/86)

In article <1355@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> michael@vlsi.caltech.edu@caip.RUTGERS.EDU writes:
>From: michael@vlsi.caltech.edu
>I advise everyone to not buy either fixed hard disks or memory for their
>Amiga yet.
>The same company will also be making a 16 Mb board which looks like a hard
>disk (even plugs in to your current controller), but one with a 10
>microsecond "track-to-track" access time.

	Let's hope it has an SCSI interface!

>I hereby predict that fixed hard disks will be obsolete within a year.
>					Steve Walton

Don't count on it.  We have 65Mb RAM disks and we still need CDC 300MB
drives to back them up.  Hopefully, this company will come up with a
good "Swapper and Cacher" package to go with the RAM disks, if it does,
the MMU problem may become almost acedemic(sp?).

rb@ccivax.UUCP (rex ballard) (03/01/86)

In article <1361@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> dillon%cory@BERKELEY.EDU@caip.RUTGERS.EDU writes:
>From: dillon%cory@BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
>	Ram certainly will never replace the hard-disk.
>	HOWEVER.  I agree with your premise.  That is, I don't think now is

>the right time for us poor developers/users to begin buying hardware.  With
>so few companies in the Amiga market, prices will be rather extreme.  I
>myself would very much like an HD for my Amiga, but do not want to shell
>out $2000+ to get one.
>				-Matt

The critical question is will Amiga adopt a standard like SCSI with CCS,
which allows you to buy almost ANY drive (many at OEM prices), or will
Amiga go proprietary and wait for drive manufacturers and OEMs to produce
for their particular machine.

Perhaps one or more third parties will come up with a good cheap SCSI
interface, a boot/driver ROM, and let Commodore "Stick to Knitting",
making the Amiga and other great computers, which is what they do
best.