schabacker@frambo.dec.com (CB, through Tim & DEC) (06/27/88)
[Gee, can YOU say L.I.N.E.-E.A.T.E.R ???] Since the discussion about how the Amiga should look like in the near and distant future seems to be very vivid again this time (look guys/gals, even the .bizarre arch enemies Richard and Kent spoke up to this matter :->), I think it's time for me to waste some net.bandwith with my two Pfennig's worth: As mentioned before, the Amiga only has a chance in the big buisiness market, if it keeps on outperforming the competition, either performance or price wise. The MOC TOO and SOS/2 thingies are catching up fast. The A3000 should feature a set of graphic chips which a) speed things up, and b) give a higher resolution, especially colorwise. The video (NTSC/PAL) compatibility should be maintained, but non-interlace modes and provisions for the upcoming high-res TV standard should be included. This will hopefully establish it as the #1 desktop video machine. An on-board SCSI/ESDI 32-bit DMA interface would be nice. The same would be true for high density (2 MB unformated) 3-1/2 disk drives, so one can read those 1.6 MB PS/2 disks (if one has to :-)) and get about 1760 KB disk space in native Amiga (FFS) format. The case design should go back to the roots, and try to be a compromise between visual appearence/user friendliness and production costs. Unlike the current B2000 design, yuck. It should also provide as much space internally as possible for expansion cards, disk drives, etc. Perhaps a "tower" approach would be suitable. Since the CPU of choice would probably be a 68030, some efforts should be made to provide some form of protected memory. No VM, just protection from mad tasks. I know, this is a 1.4 (1.5?) proposal and has already been beaten to death, but I really WANT this, ok? But if this couldn't be implemented without the gaining of some (much?) weight to the native Amiga tasks/processes, I'd rather live with the occassional guru. If I want to substitute a sleeping pill, I watch George Bush making a speech (via American_Forces_Network), or use UN*X. :-) ;-) ;-D (hey republicans & UN*X users, lighten up) Another nice feature would be a second serial port and/or a native medium speed LAN interface (including the software!). And when marketing this baby, don't force the costumer to take a large bundle of things he doesn't need or can't afford right now. I.e don't have a 80MB hard disk as "minimal configuration" build into it, ok? Yours idealistic, <CB> -- __ __ / / | \ \ <CB> aka Christian Balzer - The Software Brewery - // / / | \ \ UUCP : decwrl!{frambo|fra03|fra04}.dec.com!schabacker // < < |---< > or : schabacker@{frambo|fra03|fra04}.dec.com \\ // \ \ | / / CIS : 71001,210 (Be brief!) | Phone: +49 6150 4151 \X/ \ \__ |__/ / Snail: Im Wingertsberg 45, D-6108 Weiterstadt, F.R.G "If there is something more important than my ego, I want it rounded up and executed." Spelling errors are the result of your imagination!