tommcc@microsoft.UUCP (Tom McConnell) (10/15/89)
I found the following article posted in the Puget Sound Computer User
newspaper. I thought that some of you might be interested in the
"details" about the Amiga 3000.
Article follows:
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MORE COMMODORE DETAILS
London (NB) -More details of the much-rumoured Amiga A3000 are emerging
from Newsbytes' sources. The unit will, as expected, feature a 25MHz
68030 microprocessor, along with a 68882 FFP running at other speeds up
to 33MHz. The entry level machine-expected to be the only model launched
at Comdex Fall this November-will come with 4MB of 32-bit RAM, expandable
internally to 8MB.
Commodore will initially target the A3000 as a Unix workstation, so
a large hard driver - 300 MB - is expected, as well as an optional tape
streamer. Suprisingly, Newsbytes' sources suggest Commodore will
bundle the existing A1080 and A2024 monitors with the machine, rather than
develop a new unit.
Internally, the A3000 will feature five 32-bit Zorro III slots, each
of which will take 16-bit cards. Externally, the A3000 comes in an AT
style 'tower' casing.
Availabilty? Newsbytes' sources suggest mid to late-December '89 on both
sides of the Atlantic. The machine will price in around the $7000 mark,
and come with OS 1.4 and a virtual memory handler as standard.
-Steve Gold, Newsbytes News Service
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In another article on Atari's new machines, the news service has the
following paragraph.
"Tramiel confirmed that plans call for a new range of ST machines. The
STE series will replace the existing ST family series by early next year.
The STE series will initially come in two configureations, the
1040 STE and the 4160 STE.
As the names imply, the machines come with 1 and 4 MB of RAM and
an enhanced palette (_4,096_ colors) stereo 8-bit digital sound and
analogue joystick ports as standard. "
Sounds like ol' Sam and his gang have figured out that they can make
more money by buying up old A1000's and repackaging them as ST's!!! :-)
:-) ;-) :-)
--
"Hey COW!" _____________(( "My employer couldn't care less about cows..."
/ ** o \ ______ __________________________
/| **** \ _/moo...\ | Tom McConnell |
/ | ** /\__/ \______/ | uunet!microsoft!tommcc |ken@i-core.UUCP (Ken MacLeod) (10/18/89)
In article <8052@microsoft.UUCP>, tommcc@microsoft.UUCP (Tom McConnell) writes: > MORE COMMODORE DETAILS > [...] > > Internally, the A3000 will feature five 32-bit Zorro III slots, each > of which will take 16-bit cards. Externally, the A3000 comes in an AT > style 'tower' casing. I guess one month before the supposed introduction of this machine that it's too late to tell Commodore not to go with a completely non-standard 32-bit bus? I thought so. If there were an alternate reality, the A3000 would come with NuBus slots so as to take all those neat cards for the Mac IIs and put them into a machine that can make better use of them. Of course, a few backwards compatible 16-bit slots would be in "NuBus slot 0" (the motherboard). Anyway, this error can still be recovered by third parties (and applied to the 500, 1000, and 2500) with a NuBus expander box, so maybe it's not too bad. Has anybody put any thought to this? Some Amigans may not know this, but the Mac graphics cards are _all_ laid out the same, the only difference is X-Y resolution, number of bits, palette entry size, and of course the quality of the video you pay for (i.e. studio quality NTSC vs. high-res CAD workstation). NuBus slots, a few days with a amiga.net.hacker, and suddenly the Amiga has 50+ video cards that work with most things you've already got. Not to mention the extra network, multi-port serial, DSP, and other cards that would make available. Think of the things one can do with that kind of hardware... ...with an OS that can do something with it. -- Ken MacLeod, Barkeep, Bitsko's Bar & Grill ken@i-core.uucp
bevis@EE.ECN.PURDUE.EDU (Jeff Bevis) (10/20/89)
In article <1989Oct18.034020.28878@i-core.UUCP>, ken@i-core.UUCP (Ken MacLeod) writes: > > [reference to A3000 omitted] >I guess one month before the supposed introduction of this machine that it's >too late to tell Commodore not to go with a completely non-standard 32-bit bus? > One month? Really? Gee, you *must* be living in the future! :-> > >If there were an alternate reality, the A3000 would come with NuBus slots so >as to take all those neat cards for the Mac IIs and put them into a machine >that can make better use of them. Of course, a few backwards compatible >16-bit slots would be in "NuBus slot 0" (the motherboard). > >suddenly the Amiga has 50+ video cards that work with most things you've >already got. What? You must be kidding! Do you really expect to pop in some exotic graphics card and expect graphics.library to spontaneously begin to use it? Forget the blitter; It won't even know such a thing exists... That affects windows, text, lines, everything! To suggest that any ol' hacker can come up with the mega-kluge-patch to accomplish this, hardware interfacing aside, it's asking a bit much... >Think of the things one can do with that kind of hardware... > ...with an OS that can do something with it. I can imagine -- it would be glorious. However, we'll all just have to wait for C/A to integrate such functions into the hardware & OS (can you say, ECS?) +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Jeff Bevis (bevis) "But I don't like spam!" | | en.ecn.purdue.edu / ei.ecn.purdue.edu Give me Amiga or nothing at all. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
don@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Donald R Lloyd) (10/20/89)
Sounds like a decent idea, but what would apple have to say about this? "Hmmmm.... the expansion slots on this machine have a verrry familiar look and feel....." -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- Don Lloyd El Campeador don@vax1.acs.udel.edu | | |Gibberish is | DISCLAIMER: don@pyr1.acs.udel.edu | | |spoken here. | My employers are idiots. They wouldn't understand | | --------------- my babbling even if they WERE literate enough to read it. | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------