perry@atux01.UUCP (09/19/87)
(the atux01 path to me is not reliable - use well!perry for email)
What follows is an article intended NOT to stir controversy, rather
it IS intended to help answer some of the questions shrouding A1000
expansion right now.
#begin
A lot of people owning A1000's are unsure as to what they should do
about upgrading their machines. With the A1000 to A2000 upgrade pol-
icy now in effect A1000 owners are presented with many upgrade al-
ternatives.
In this note I hope to outline some of the alternative paths which
you might choose to follow possibly presenting some new ones which
you might not have thought of.
The A1000 to A2000 Trade In
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The upgrade is real. Here's how it works. First, it is of limited
time. The offer is good now until October 31st. After that CBM will
no longer participate in the upgrade offer but dealers may elect to
continue it at their own expense.
The finances are as follows: Your old A1000 with no expansion de-
vices (or monitor) plus 1000 dollars will get you a basic A2000
system unit (again with no monitor). Your expansion floppy (like
the 1010 3.5 inch unit) can be directly used on the A2000 and is
not part of the deal. Same is true for ANY other modification done
to your machine. (ie: you keep it).
Your Choices
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Your choices really revolve around two central themes. Either up-
grade your A1000 to an A2000 via the above mentioned trade in of-
fer or continue to use your present A1000 (expanding it) along the
way.
A2000 - The Machine That Gives You Flexelence!
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(That by the way is the term coined for the A2000 promotional cam-
paign going on in the UK - it'd be nice if they had one here - a
promotional campaign that is :-)
If you choose to go with an A2000 you can either exercise the trade
in option now and get the A2000 or get an A2000 sometime in the
future.
If you do get an A2000 then your inside type expansion products
will do you no good. Also, your C Ltd, RS Data, Alegra, Pacific
Cypress, Pacific Peripherals, Expansion Technologies, etc will have
to be thrown away as well. And, the same goes for any A1000 True
Zorro expansion products.
Interestingly, if you own a StarBoardII from Microbotics, that com-
pany is said to be planning an adapter for their product to the
Zorro slots of the A2000 (or 2000-and-1 - see below).
However, you can get several fine A2000 True Zorro boards right
now which will work directly on the A1000 with an inexpensive adap-
ter. For two megabyte boards the best value is from Micron Technol-
ogies. And apparently the only eight megabyte board currently ship-
ping for the A2000 is the ASDG 8MI. Both of these products can be
had with an adapter for the A1000 (in the case of Micron the adap-
ter is around 50 bucks - in the case of ASDG the adapter is either
free or is 95 bucks).
If you think you might go with the A2000 at some point in the fu-
ture but want to expand your A1000 now just the same, you should
consider a full Zorro II card with a low cost adapter for the
A1000. That way, if you stay with your A1000 then you've got your
memory board. Or, if you go with the A2000 then you've got your
memory board.
And also, you might consider that some manufacturers (for example,
ASDG) will be coming out with a full scale A2000 compatibility box
for the A1000. Thus, boards which were designed for the A2000 can
be used on your A1000. (I'll give some pros and cons of this later
on).
A1000 - The Little Machine That Could (And Does)
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You may make the choice to stay with the A1000. You might make this
choice for one of a number of reasons:
1. You might not have the bucks to reinvest in the A2000 trade in
deal or you might miss out of the deal entirely.
2. You might have some A1000 expansion products already in your
possesion which you will not want to toss away if you upgraded
to an A1000. This can include A1000 Zorro products, one of the
several A1000 internal expansion products, something going on
your keyboard port, something going on your video connector or
your mouse connectors.
3. You may simply like your A1000 and want to stay with it.
If you stay with the A1000 you can expand your machine in one of
three approaches:
1. Expand Your A1000 With An Eye Towards An A2000
This is explained above. You can keep all of your options open by
purchasing expansion products which are directly compatible with
the A2000 and which can be easily adapted to the A1000. For example
the ASDG and Micron 2 megabyte memory board can be used directly on
an A1000 (and of course on an A2000) and also the ASDG 8 megabyte
board for the A2000 can also be used. Not all A2000 boards can so
easily be put on an A1000 as those above. This is because the three
boards mentioned above do not require the active components normal-
ly found in a Zorro BOX to be present in order to work yet work
perfectly well if those components ARE there.
2. Expand Your A1000 With Zorro I Standard Products
This is still a completely viable option. There are several (fewer
today than two months ago though) manufacturers who make FULL SPEC
Zorro I boards and boxes. These can usually be had for about the
same cost as non-standard products.
One thing that should be mentioned here is that if you have REAL
Zorro I cards they can be used in a box like the ASDG 2000-and-1.
The 2000-and-1 can contain 2 A1000 boards and 6 A2000 boards. Thus,
you can expand you A1000 with A1000 standard boards and still make
use of products coming out for the A2000.
3. Expand Your A1000 With Non-Standard Stuff
If you choose this method of expansion you'll probably get what you
pay for. Non-standard slap on the side or internal stuff has ample
evidence behind them which clearly show they produce marginal un-
predictable results at the very best.
Also, chances are very great that your investment cannot be reused
if you decide to upgrade to an A2000 in the future. Chances are
also great that you won't be able to use non-standard products in
an A1000 to A2000 compatibility box. So why close your options?
What And A1000 To A2000 Compatibility Box Cannot Give You
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I've sung the praises of a box like the ASDG 2000-and-1 which gives
you the option of using many A2000 products on your A1000. To be
fair, there are some things such a box cannot possibly give you.
These are:
o The A2000 Video Slot. One cannot reach inside the A1000 and
bring outside signals which don't even exist inside an
A1000.
However, this is probably not as bad as it sounds. The
A2000 video slot will be used for things like a gen-lock on
a card, well, the A1000 already has several gen-locks a-
vailable for it.
Boards like frame grabbers will probably go in an A2000
Zorro slot which CAN be had in a box like the 2000-and-1.
o Ability To Use 1 Meg of Chip Ram. Someday the A2000 will be
able to use 1 megabyte of chip ram. There's nothing an ex-
ternal box like the 2000-and-1 can do to solve this defic-
iency in the A1000.
What An A1000 To A2000 Compatibility Box CAN Do For You
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A box like the CSA Turbo Hi-Rise or the ASDG 2000-and-1 will allow
you to maintain your invenstment in the A1000 while still affording
you an unhidered expansion path to A2000 products. For example, the
ASDG 2000-and-1 offers:
2 A1000 Zorro I Slots
5 A2000 Zorro II Slots
1 A2000 CPU Slot
3 IBM Slots
2 3.5 Inch Drive Bays
1 5.25 Inch Drive Bay
The CSA product offers a different array of slotage:
7 A2000 Zorro II Slots (I think)
1 A2000 CPU Slot
4 IBM Slots (I think)
Space for at least two drives internally.
Both products offer different advantages in addition to their com-
mon advantage of allowing A1000 owners the opportunity to maintain
their investment.
Summary
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Now is as good a time as any to expand your A1000. But now it is
more important than ever to stay with full spec expansion pro-
ducts. Getting less than full spec products means you will be stuck
for future expansion options while with full spec products your op-
tions are just beginning.
You should consider upgrading your A1000 with A2000 compatible pro-
ducts. Adpaters and full scale racks like the ASDG 2000-and-1 are
or will be readily available. Plus if you should go to the A2000
then your expansion products are reasily reused.
Your A1000 - The Best Then, And Undiminished With Time.
Yours,
Perry S. Kivolowitz
ASDG Incorporated
You may freely cross post this and/or publish this note in any and
mediums. Provided you don't alter it of course.