JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (09/17/90)
The show in Valley Forge, PA, which was a World of Commodore show last
year, proved somewhat disappointing in its 1990 incarnation. Some major
exhibitors were noticably absent, including Commodore itself (thus the
name change for the show.) Explanations for Commodore's no-show weren't
forthcoming, but it did have the domino effect of causing such other
vendors as NewTek and Great Valley Products to also not show, even though
GVP is headquartered less than 10 miles from the show site.
On to who WAS present. ICD displayed possibly the most exciting new
product, in their AdSCSI 2000 hard drive controllers. One demo they
had set up was an Amiga 2500 with their AdSCSI controlling an 80-meg
Western Digital drive, to show about a four minute clip of the movie
"Predator" directly off of hard drive!! The real time video was also
synced with matching audio. The ICD rep. could freeze and reverse
the video at will. He said in order to achieve this real-time video
they were using a hard drive that is approximately 3 times faster than
a Quantum. The spec. sheet he handed out compares the ICD controller
to the MicroBotics HardFrame, the Supra WordSync, and Commodore's
2091, with separate stat. tables for 68000 and 68030 performances.
The results are impressive, with the ICD controller transfer rates
coming up twice as fast as the nearest competitor in the 68030 tests
(faster, but not by a factor in the 68000 tests.)
Pulsar was showing off several new products, the most touted of which
was their Power PC Board, an entire IBM XT compatible on a board which
fits in the A500's underside expansion slot. The board outperforms
Commodore's 2088 bridgeboard by running at 8 MHz, and is otherwise
comparable, with a Phoenix BIOS, MS-DOS 4.01 & GW Basic included, and
Hercules/CGA and Monochrome graphics support, with your choice of colors
and shades. The internal 3.5" drive is fully supported in IBM mode,
as is any external 3.5" or 5.25" drive. Worried about it taking up
your Amiga-side RAM expansion space? Not to worry.... In Amiga mode,
the Power PC Board supplies a battery-backed clock and 512K RAM expansion.
Price: $525.00!!!
Aside from the two notable products above, the remainder of the show
was essentially a computer flea-market. Most major mail-order firms
who you would expect were there, such as BriWall, Comp-U-Save, and
SoftWare Hut.
Interestingly, there were a surprising number of 8-bit developers and
sellers present. Anyone who thinks the C-64 and 128 are dead units
should have witnessed this show. By the looks of things, 8-bit users
need not have any worries finding new software or hardware for years
to come. And lest ye wonder, yes, the 8-bit products were selling well.
Well, those are my impressions. The show could have been larger, and
I was quite disappointed not to see a Video Toaster, but the show was
better than nothing! :-)
Kurt
--
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|| Kurt Tappe (215) 363-9485 || Amigas, Macs, IBM's, C-64's, NeXTs, ||
|| 184 W. Valley Hill Rd. || Apple ]['s.... I use 'em all. ||
|| Malvern, PA 19355-2214 || (and in that order too! ;-) ||
|| jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu --------------------------------------||
|| jkt100@psuvm.bitnet jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1 QLink: KurtTappe ||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------don@brahms.udel.edu (Donald R Lloyd) (09/17/90)
In article <90259.173025JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu> JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) writes: >The show in Valley Forge, PA, which was a World of Commodore show last >year, proved somewhat disappointing in its 1990 incarnation. Some major >exhibitors were noticably absent, including Commodore itself (thus the Somewhat? I was done looking around in less than an hour! >Interestingly, there were a surprising number of 8-bit developers and >sellers present. Anyone who thinks the C-64 and 128 are dead units >should have witnessed this show. By the looks of things, 8-bit users >need not have any worries finding new software or hardware for years >to come. And lest ye wonder, yes, the 8-bit products were selling well. > I was surprised at this too. There were hard drives and expansion systems at decent prices, and 128D's were everywhere. >Well, those are my impressions. The show could have been larger, and >I was quite disappointed not to see a Video Toaster, but the show was >better than nothing! :-) > Did you see the new Compute! They were selling for $1? I'd avoid it. It's basically the same for every platform (Exact same cover, almost completely PC-oriented), with a few Amiga-specific pages thrown into the middle (right after an equal or larger nuber of PC-specific pages and an otherwise all-but-PC-specific magazine) for the Amiga Resource version. Somehow, I doubt too many Amiga users will want to buy an AMiga magazine to read about the PS/1 or PC Geos.