steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) (12/08/88)
Hello everyone!
The following article was is the December 5, 1988 issue of
Electronic Engineering Times, page 63. It has been copied here
without permission.
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BIG COMDEX SPLASH
COMMODORE ON THE MOVE AGAIN
By Richard Doherty
West Chester, Pa. - Commodore Computer demonstrated its commitment to
the latest technology by showing off its 68020- and 68030-based
multi-operating-system Amigas, as well as a forth-coming
Transputer-based Amiga, at last month's Comdex/Fall.
This aggressiveness can be attributed to none other than Max Toy,
who became Commodore's president just over a year ago.
Toy assumed the reins at Commodore after stints at IBM Corp. and
Compaq Computer. Two of his predecessors as company president, Jack
Tramiel and Thomas Rattigan, left troubled staffs in the wake of their
departures.
That is a heritage Toy doesn't plan to repeat. Rattigan's
contract is still in legal dispute after his abrupt dismissal last year.
"I told Irving Gould [Commodore's chairman and founder] that the
day we needed a contract was the day I wasn't doing my job here," Toy said.
Under his leadership, Commodore recently trotted out the
68020-based Amiga 2500 and a new hard-disk version of the Amiga 2000,
the 40-Mbyte 2000HD. Commodore also took the covers off it's first
80286-based machine, the PC-40 III, a 12-MHz small-footprint addition
to its bread-and-butter PC line.
The high-end PC-40 III will offer VGA graphics and 13-ms access
times for a hard disk, Toy said. He added that he expects the machine
to be tough competition for IBM's new PS/2 Model 30 286 system.
The Amiga 2500 comes with 3 Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 9
Mbytes. Commodore has just added new Kickstart ROM protocols to the
Amiga operating system, along with printing and multitasking
enhancements. These enable to Amiga 500 and 2000 systems to be booted
from either hard disk or RAM disk.
Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a
Transputer-based Amiga system. It also displayed - to selected
parties - a 68030 powered system.
Aside from the doings at Comdex, Toy has other reasons for good
cheer. Commodore netted $56 million on revenue of $861 million for
the fiscal year-up slightly over 1987 performance.
More than 9 million Commodore 64 systems have been shipped. The
company's 8088-based PCs are selling well, while the 68000-based Amiga
is taking on more and more professional tasks.
Most of Commodore's product pizzazz comes from the three-year-old
Amiga series. The Amiga 500, a low end (under $1,000) color computer
version, is selling well. That machine helps attract major software
developers to a growing base of consumer software (including
educational, productivity and entertainment titles).
On the other end of the performance spectrum, the Amiga 2000 is
presently the undisputed champion in the fledgling desktop video market.
Toy used Comdex as the forum for demonstrating the power of Amiga
desktop video. Using the machine's interlaced video and high-resolution
graphics, users can translate their computer graphics directly to
conventional TV screens, or to videotape. With the aid of third-party
video digitizers, users can grab conventional video screens for
editing and embellishment.
Toy said the company's new TV commercials promoting the Amiga
series, running on the MTV cable network, were created using the
Amiga's own video graphics and video overlay capabilities.
He said the commercials would have normally cost more than
$500,000 to produce. Using the Amiga gear, however, the cost was
trimmed down to about $75,000.
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The above article was reproduced without the expressed, written
consent of anyone.
-= Steve =-
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LIVE: Steve Hall (617)969-0050 | "This page was
ARPA: adelie!morgoth!steve@harvard.HARVARD.EDU | intentionally
UUCP: {harvard | ll-xn | mirror | axiom}!adelie!morgoth!steve | left blank."w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) (12/09/88)
In article <495@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) writes: >Quotation from EE Times: > Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a >Transputer-based Amiga system. It also displayed - to selected >parties - a 68030 powered system. What *is* this? A transputer-based Amiga would not, in my opinion, be an Amiga. The transputer has a strange and wonderful multitasking system in microcode, and it doesn't resemble Exec. I suppose you could implelent Exec on a transputer, but it seems odd, and you would have to break a few rules that might not be breakable on the next generation of transputers. Also, the nice thing about transputers is the small cell size you can achieve when hooking up a lot of them - not quite a personal computer's worry (yet, at least). Other than that, it's a most annoying chip to work with - metastability on the MemWait pin, no supervisor mode, etc. I assume this EE Times reporter is talking through his hat, but could someone who knows reassure me? Thanks. (P.S. I also like the reference to the 500, and, "at the other end of the performance spectrum", the 2000. Gee, I hadn't noticed one was faster than the other; had you?) -- -Colin (uunet!microsof!w-colinp)
steveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Steve Beats) (12/10/88)
In article <37@microsoft.UUCP> w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) writes: >In article <495@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) writes: >>Quotation from EE Times: >> Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a >>Transputer-based Amiga system. > >I assume this EE Times reporter is talking through his hat, but could >someone who knows reassure me? > It's not a transputer based Amiga, it's a plug in transputer card. So the EE Times reporter was just a tad confused. Steve
smaug@eneevax.UUCP (Kurt Lidl) (12/10/88)
In article <37@microsoft.UUCP> w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) writes: >In article <495@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) writes: >>Quotation from EE Times: >> Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a >>Transputer-based Amiga system. It also displayed - to selected >>parties - a 68030 powered system. > >What *is* this? A transputer-based Amiga would not, in my opinion, >be an Amiga. The transputer has a strange and wonderful multitasking >system in microcode, and it doesn't resemble Exec. I suppose you could >implelent Exec on a transputer, but it seems odd, and you would have >to break a few rules that might not be breakable on the next generation >of transputers. > >Also, the nice thing about transputers is the small cell size you can >achieve when hooking up a lot of them - not quite a personal computer's >worry (yet, at least). Other than that, it's a most annoying chip to >work with - metastability on the MemWait pin, no supervisor mode, etc. > >I assume this EE Times reporter is talking through his hat, but could >someone who knows reassure me? > >Thanks. > >(P.S. I also like the reference to the 500, and, "at the other end of the >performance spectrum", the 2000. Gee, I hadn't noticed one was faster >than the other; had you?) >-- > -Colin (uunet!microsof!w-colinp) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Article in Electronic Engineering Times Summary: Transputer clarification References: <495@morgoth.UUCP> <37@microsoft.UUCP> Reply-To: smaug@eneevax.umd.edu.UUCP (Kurt Lidl) Distribution: net Organization: University of Merryland, EE Computer Staff Keywords: CBM,Amiga,C-A,Comdex,Electronic Engineering Times,Transputer In article <37@microsoft.UUCP> w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) writes: :In article <495@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) writes: :>Quotation from EE Times: :> Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a :>Transputer-based Amiga system. It also displayed - to selected :>parties - a 68030 powered system. :What *is* this? A transputer-based Amiga would not, in my opinion, :be an Amiga. Sure it is - just stick your good old transputer on a card into a B2000 and you have a transputer based system... Same way we get '020 and '030 systems today. Having a computer with expansion slots is pretty nifty, eh? :The transputer has a strange and wonderful multitasking :system in microcode, and it doesn't resemble Exec. I suppose you could :implelent Exec on a transputer, but it seems odd, and you would have :to break a few rules that might not be breakable on the next generation :of transputers. Personally, I would like to a decent implementation of Exec on transputers. Would probably be at least comparable to Helios (this is tongue-in-cheek, I've never even fully read the Helios specs....). :Also, the nice thing about transputers is the small cell size you can :achieve when hooking up a lot of them - not quite a personal computer's :worry (yet, at least). Other than that, it's a most annoying chip to :work with - metastability on the MemWait pin, no supervisor mode, etc. :Thanks. You're welcome. : -Colin (uunet!microsof!w-colinp) -- ================================================================== == Kurt J. Lidl (smaug@eneevax.umd.edu) (301)454-3184 == == UUCP: [seismo,allegra]!umcp-cs!eneevax!smaug == ========"It's after 3am, no point in going to sleep now..."=======
elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (12/12/88)
in article <37@microsoft.UUCP>, w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) says: > In article <495@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steven G. Hall) writes: >>Quotation from EE Times: >> Commodore took the opportunity at Comdex to show prototypes of a >>Transputer-based Amiga system. It also displayed - to selected >>parties - a 68030 powered system. > > What *is* this? A transputer-based Amiga would not, in my opinion, > be an Amiga. The transputer has a strange and wonderful multitasking It works like the Bridgeboard -- Helios in a window. See the proceedings from the last DevCon, which had a writeup on what the German guys did for the Transputer board.... > I assume this EE Times reporter is talking through his hat, but could > someone who knows reassure me? Not talking through his hat, simply didn't make it clear that the 68030 board and the Transputer board were both simply plug-in cards for the Amiga 2000. > (P.S. I also like the reference to the 500, and, "at the other end of the > performance spectrum", the 2000. Gee, I hadn't noticed one was faster > than the other; had you?) Hmm, let's see... plug this 68030 board into this slot, HERE, and... gee, NOW do you see the difference?! ;-). -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 "We have treatments for disturbed persons, Nicholas. But, at least for the moment, we have no treatment for disturbing persons." -- Dr. Island
karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) (12/16/88)
Not to make trouble or anything, but it is illegal to quote entire copyrighted articles such as has happened here in comp.sys.amiga and elsewhere on the net. As I understand it, it *is* legal to describe the article and to quote parts of it. This is called "fair use." So when you see a copyrighted article about the Amiga and you decide to post about, say in what issue, date, page, etc. the article appeared, its title, describe what it's about and quote juicy parts that are best verbatim, but do so sparingly. -- -- "We've been following your progress with considerable interest, not to say -- contempt." -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV -- uunet!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 438-5018