BARRETT%FOREST.ECIL.IASTATE.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Marc Barrett) (03/28/90)
As I said in my last message, I have had pure motives in all the
trouble I've started here. since the Amiga 1000 was intorduced in
1985, Commodore has not been on the offense in the computer industry
at all. quite the contrary, everything Commodore has introduced since
1985 has been an effort to 'catch up' to the rest of the industry.
With IBM, compaq, and Apple introducing powerful new workstation
systems, unless Commodore gets into shape, they do not stand a chance
in anything but the low-end home computer market. I do not want to
see this happen. And is doesn't necessarily have to happen. All
it requires is to prevent this is a little capital and a lot of
imagination.
Instead of contributing trouble now, I would like to contribute
ideas. I have already outlined the possibility of instilling a
10-bitplane HAM mode into the Lowell video board. This alone would
cause Apple a lot of trouble. This would allow Commodore to produce
a product with the capability of producing millions of colors on the
screen with less than 2/5 the amount of memory per frame as the
Apple graphics board requires.
There is also this small company called Digital Animation Productions
which is producing a product called the Video Transputer. The last
I heard, there are having quite a time trying to develop and market
this product themselves. What if Commodore were to purchase this
small company, and make the Video Transputer circuitry standard
hardware for an Amiga Graphics Workstation? What would THAT do to
the FX??? (A LOT. The Video Tranputer has the same graphics
capabilities as the FX, but a hell of a lot faster. Put into a high-
end 68030-based Amiga, and given a 32-bit communications channel to
the 68030, it would, quite literally, blow the FX out of the water,
for approximately the same price).
Then there is also the Video Toaster. I doubt NewTek would want
to be acquired by Commodore. But what if Commodore were to license
the Video Toaster, and offer an Amiga 3000 package with the Video
Toaster? I was in one of only TWO Amiga user's groups nationwide
which were priviledged to see the V.T., and it blew me away. And
NewTek hasn't been sitting on their hands with it for the last two
years, either. It is 10 times more powerful now than it was then,
and man was it powerful then. The trouble is, a lot of companies
don't like to touch third-party hardware because of the risks
involved. They'd rather go with hardware from the company that
produces the system. An Amiga 3000 package with Video Toaster would
be just what the doctor ordered for such companies.
Other ideas can be considered. I just want Commodore to go
with one of them, instead of sitting on their hands as they have
since the MAC II was originally introduced.
-MB-
AMIGA <middle deleted> FOREVER!!!es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (03/29/90)
There's been a lot of talk about Commodore buying other companies to make their products, such as Marc's comments about the Digital Animation's transputer. My problem with this is: what's wrong with third party hardware? Commodore doesn't have to make everything. I would rather see Commodore focus on a more limited range of products such as the 3000, 1.4, Unix and future versions of same, rather than make this and that here and there. Commodore only has just so much money. Let Commodore spend that money doing what they do best: making Amigas. BTW, I don't know that much about this transputer. Before we praise it as our saviour, I think we need to know how good it is. Has anyone seen it actually doing real tests? The last word I had was that the company lied about who was actually supporting it. -- Ethan Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu "If Commodore had to market sushi they'd call it `raw cold fish'" -- The Bandito, inevitably stolen from someone else
schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) (03/29/90)
In article <15241@snow-white.udel.EDU> BARRETT%FOREST.ECIL.IASTATE.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: > > > With IBM, compaq, and Apple introducing powerful new workstation >systems, unless Commodore gets into shape, they do not stand a chance >in anything but the low-end home computer market. Marc - Most of us don't think that the Mac IIfx offers much more than the IIcx did, certainly not a revolutionary machine (and like most Apple products, IMHO, its overpriced for its capabilities). I'm not sure what type of 'powerful new workstation' you state Compaq has come out with, unless you are referring to high-end 80x86 machines. As for Big Blue, if you're referring to their new 6000 series, firstly that's in a totally different niche of the market, price wise, and secondly if I wanted a machine using a Silicon Graphics graphics engine (which the 6000 does), at a relatively low price, I'd look at a Silicon Graphics Personal Iris. (However, since I get to play on an Iris 4D/120GTX, hopefully to soon be upgraded to a 220VGX, I'm kind of spoiled). > > Instead of contributing trouble now, I would like to contribute >ideas. How about contributing facts, as opposed to opinions and rumors disguised as facts. Maybe then, you would be feeding a decent discussion instead of a Flame War. > There is also this small company called Digital Animation Productions >which is producing a product called the Video Transputer. The last >I heard, there are having quite a time trying to develop and market >this product themselves. Transputers (I believe all Transputer's themselves are made by INMOS, or INMOS licensees), are relatively new technology, and still somewhat experimental in nature. The first Transputer, the INMOS T414 is less than 5 years old. While I had previously heard of the proposed Digital Animation Productions product, I have seen little information about it, or any actual experience with it. The master's student who basically runs the Transputer Lab here had not heard of the product (or the company), not do I recall seeing any mention of it on comp.sys.transputer. > Then there is also the Video Toaster. I doubt NewTek would want >to be acquired by Commodore. But what if Commodore were to license >the Video Toaster, and offer an Amiga 3000 package with the Video >Toaster? I was in one of only TWO Amiga user's groups nationwide >which were priviledged to see the V.T., and it blew me away. And >NewTek hasn't been sitting on their hands with it for the last two >years, either. It is 10 times more powerful now than it was then, >and man was it powerful then. The trouble is, a lot of companies >don't like to touch third-party hardware because of the risks >involved. They'd rather go with hardware from the company that >produces the system. An Amiga 3000 package with Video Toaster would >be just what the doctor ordered for such companies. I have no intention to bad mouth NewTek. I have had excellent customer service from them. However, until it is actually released, the Video Toaster is still pretty much 'vaporware', as is, at this point in time, the Amiga 3000. While both are known to be under development, neither has been released to the public. Until these products are actually released, talking about capabilities that may or may not be part of the pre-production units, as if they will be present in the production version is probably premature. Jeff Schweiger -- ******************************************************************************* Jeff Schweiger CompuServe: 74236,1645 Standard Disclaimer ARPAnet (Defense Data Network): schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil *******************************************************************************
UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) (03/29/90)
In article <963@cs.nps.navy.mil>, schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) says: >overpriced for its capabilities). I'm not sure what type of 'powerful new >workstation' you state Compaq has come out with, unless you are referring to >high-end 80x86 machines. As for Big Blue, if you're referring to their new Speaking of the 80x86 machines, I read a report of a talk by one of Intel's engineers wherein "plans" for the 80786 were discussed. According to this report, it will be a 1 inch cube with 4 parallel cpu's, 2 floating point vector processors (for more parallelism) and 2 MB of cache memory. It's due in 1999. I'm not buying any more Amigas. I'm gonna wait for this baby. Meanwhile, I think my HP calculator will be plenty. 8-)