sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) (06/04/90)
I went to Orange Park, FL (the closest location of an
authorized Amiga dealer) and I got to see and use an A3000.
I knew it was supposed to be small, but !!! However, in
playing around with it, I ran into a few questions.
1) I ran NewTek's Demo Reel III. Everything worked fine until
the demo got to the Dynamic Hires picture of the close up
of a man's face. This picture was ALL messed up. There was
no discernible image, but the colors did appear correct. It
was as if the synchronization between each scan line was off.
Or, perhaps more clearly, as if each scanline was shifted
w.r.t. the others. What gives????
2) There is a close gadget on the WB window. According to the
store owner, you have to close all other windows before closing
the WB window. Also, I asked him if a CLI is left after the WB
is closed. He said no, if you close the WB screen, the machine
"locks you out" (no response to mouse or keyboard input) and you
have to reboot. Now, I realize that this is NOT the final WB 2.0,
but I would like to know what is going on here.
3) I have heard that the first A3000 units will allow the user to choose
between WB 1.3 and 2.0 (both on HD). I have a couple of questions
regarding this. How do you choose? When I booted up the system, I
was always put in 2.0. Do you have to use a trick similar to that used
by the 2620/2630 when they switch between the '020('030) and the '000??
In other words, to get WB 1.3, do I reboot, hold down the mouse buttons
(or some other key(s) on the keyboard) and then get an options screen?
Another question revolves around memory. I have heard that these first
A3000 units, in order to have the ability to access WB 1.3, give up
512K of RAM. Well, when I booted up the A3000 (off the HD), the
total RAM count was something like 820K of CHIP (I assume the rest of
the 1 Meg was used for the 640x400x2 display (and icons, etc...), and
280K of FAST. Now, with 2 Megs of RAM in the system, if the WB 1.3
option takes up 512K, then I would expect this latter number to be
close to 450K or even 500K. Now, I realize that in my vanilla A2000
I have one Meg but get only 900K after booting (870K or so with WB
1.3), but the A3000 seems to take up almost 200K of FAST RAM over and
above the 512K for the optional WB loading capability. Now, my
questions here are: Why does it take 512K to have this optional
ability to run WB 1.3 if WB 1.3 is located on the HD?? Why does this
become available again when the final 2.0 ROMs are installed? And
where does this 200K or so of ADDITIONAL FAST RAM go upon booting up?
It was very disappointing to have only 1.1 Meg of RAM in a 2 Meg.
machine. Is this due to, at least in part, to the presence of a
HD? I know that when I used an A2000HD for a while, with a
Xetec controller and 40 Mb Seagate, I got only 720K of RAM available
to me after startup. Why does the presence of a HD necessitate the
using of so much RAM?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, if I buy an A3000 now (I know
that they won't be shipping for a month or so) without the 2.0 ROMS and
then decide to upgrade when these ROM chips are ready, will it cost me
extra, or is it covered in the 1 year warrantee???
Thanks,
Scott Sutherland
sutherla@qtp.ufl.edudaveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (06/06/90)
In article <1024@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) writes: >1) I ran NewTek's Demo Reel III. Everything worked fine until the demo got > to the Dynamic Hires picture of the close up of a man's face. This picture > was ALL messed up. There was no discernible image, but the colors did > appear correct. It was as if the synchronization between each scan line > was off. Early versions of the program(s) that dynamically display these images were CPU speed dependent. The same problems would show up on an A2500/30 or other 68030 based Amigas. They have supposedly taken care of this now. >3) I have heard that the first A3000 units will allow the user to choose > between WB 1.3 and 2.0 (both on HD). [...] Do you have to use a trick > similar to that used by the 2620/2630 when they switch between the > '020('030) and the '000?? In other words, to get WB 1.3, do I reboot, > hold down the mouse buttons... Exactly. You'll get a menu, which will ask if you'd like 1.3 or 2.0 booted from floppy or hard disk. You can only get this menu on a power-up, unless you use some trickery to trash the MMU setup. >Scott Sutherland >sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit" -REM
daveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Berezowski) (06/09/90)
In article <1024@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) writes: > > I went to Orange Park, FL (the closest location of an >authorized Amiga dealer) and I got to see and use an A3000. >I knew it was supposed to be small, but !!! However, in >playing around with it, I ran into a few questions. > >2) There is a close gadget on the WB window. According to the > store owner, you have to close all other windows before closing > the WB window. Also, I asked him if a CLI is left after the WB > is closed. He said no, if you close the WB screen, the machine > "locks you out" (no response to mouse or keyboard input) and you > have to reboot. Now, I realize that this is NOT the final WB 2.0, > but I would like to know what is going on here. > The easiest thing to do if you want to close workbench is hit Amiga-E (to bring up the execute requester) and enter 'NewShell' <ret> which will give you a new shell. You can then quit wb without fear of having no cli. daveb