aer@alice.UucP (y) (09/20/85)
I have a question: In this month's _Compute_ magazine which I found in the library, an article on the Amiga stated that current Amigas, sold as 256K machines, would actually have 512K or RAM, the upper 256K of which would be write-protected and used as virtual ROM for the operating system. Later Amigas were supposed to have this memory removed, and replaced with ROM chips. There was no talk of being able to upgrade one's RAM Amiga to a ROM Amiga when the operating system was compacted and given to ROM. This means that early Amigas will have to have the operating system on disk, and that it will also to take time to load the operating system at each powerup. So how long does it take to load? And by the way, what is the transfer rate on the disk drive ports? When will the ROM based Amigas come out? Do you really think Amiga won't upgrade the machines? (There are two empty DIP spaces on an Amiga motherboard.) Could the extra 256K be used if and after a ROM upgrade? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to modify one's operating system a bit anyway, and have it always upgradeable? What is a better deal? A RAM Amiga now, or a ROM Amiga later? (Please post to the net- this I believe is of general interest.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Rosenberg on Murray Hill @ ATT/BTL /\ uucp: ..!ihnp4!alice!aer (mail TO DAN)-- My opinions are my own. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
davecl@orca.UUCP (Dave Clemans) (09/23/85)
> When will the ROM based Amigas come out? Do you really think Amiga won't upgrade > the machines? (There are two empty DIP spaces on an Amiga motherboard.) If you compare pictures of ROM and RAM versions of the Amiga motherboard (see Amigaworld, Byte, etc.) I think that you will see the WCS dynamic ram using the board space where the ROM was; i.e. to change to a ROM based OS you would have to take out the WCS daughter board. (Besides two empty DIP spaces will not hold ~200K bytes of OS...) dgc
zarifes@bnrmtv.UUCP (Kenneth Zarifes) (09/25/85)
> In this month's _Compute_ magazine which I found in the library, an article > on the Amiga stated that current Amigas, sold as 256K machines, would actually > have 512K or RAM, the upper 256K of which would be write-protected and > used as virtual ROM for the operating system. > > Later Amigas were supposed to have this memory removed, and replaced with ROM chips. > > When will the ROM based Amigas come out? Do you really think Amiga won't upgrade > the machines? (There are two empty DIP spaces on an Amiga motherboard.) > Commodore is not answering either of those questions. > Could the extra 256K be used if and after a ROM upgrade? Wouldn't it be > always upgradeable? What is a better deal? A RAM Amiga now, or a ROM Amiga > later? > You couldn't use the extra 256K after a ROM upgrade because it will be being taken up by the ROM. It's just *address space*. You pull out the RAM chips and replace them with ROM chips. As for which is the better deal...it's hard to say. The upgrade will probably cost you money. But why bother? Most developers are saying that they really don't care which Amiga they get. You can boot a little faster with the OS in ROM, and you will have more room on your floppy. Big deal. Cheers, Ken Zarifes