papa@bacall.UUCP (03/10/87)
Well, this time it seems that Amazing Computing beat BYTE, AmigaWorld and Compute on the Amiga 500 coverage. Just today I received the latest issue filled with information and specifications on the Amiga 500 (and the 2000,too). By the way, Don Hicks finally made it. Starting from this issue you'll be able to buy Amazing Computing at Dalton Bookstores and Software Stores. Anyway, John Foust (of AMICUS fame) has three articles which include informationon the Amiga 500. These are some of the things I found interesting about the Amiga 500. First of all, the machine looks great. If this one doesn not make money for Commodore, I don't know what will. Package similar to the Commodore 128, it has a single 3 1/2 in. drive on the right side of the box (computer and keybord are one piece). Standard memory is 512K expandable internally to 1Meg. The expansion bus is almost identical to the Amiga 1000 except that it is on the left side. A1000 boards will NOT fit into it without some kind of connector that switches the lines. Hardware manufactures need only change the orientation of the package not the electrical design. The keyboard is similar to the A2000 keyboard. Kickstart is in ROM. New Kickstart disks will be accepted. The memory is ALL on the same bus. That is, "fast" memory is not fast anymore. The 68000 will see contention on the memory above 512K when using lots of bitplanes or high res. Basically you have the same speed of an A1000 with 52K (no fast mem). Reason: cost. The gender of the parallel and serial ports has been changed to be able to use IBM PC compatible cables. The A1000 genlock will NOT work with the A500. The power supply is external like on the Commmodore 128. The A500 includes the "fat Agnes" chip: this has the same resolution as the old Agnews but packs more chips that were on the motherboard of the A1000. Two new custom chips are on the board, named Gary and Buster. A gate array chip, and a bus arbitrator that again pack various components together. At CES in Las Vegas Commodore showed a low-cost SCSI interface that plugged into the A500 expansion bus and two new video monitors. The A500 entered preliminary testing in February. At the same time a pilot production was started in WestChester. Production will move to Hong Kong. In a separate article John Foust states that "reliable estimates place the initial production run of the Amiga 1000 to 140,000 units. The production stopped at the end of the summer of 1986 [any Comments?]. According to sources close to Commodore there are only a few thousands Amiga 1000 left in the wharehouses. This indicated a planned sellout of the Amiga 1000 line. ... Chances are good that another small production run might occur in the future, if demand arises." In a third article of "roomers", the Bandido (:-) reports that "with the effective retirement of Jay Miner, and the slow attrition of the Los Gatos staff, the odds are slim for their long-term survival. ... Commodore West Chester officials asked the California team to move to Pennsylvania. Guess what they said?" Another rumous states that Tim King has been working with the Los Gatos people to impeove hard disk speeds through modification of AmigaDOS. The changes have improved disk access by four times. That's it for now. If you want all the details, just wait until this issue showes up on your Dalton Bookstore. -- Marco Papa
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (03/11/87)
I'll try to correct a few confusions in Marco's posting. I haven't seen the Amazing Computing article yet, so I'm not sure who is confused... In article <2314@bacall.UUCP> papa@bacall.UUCP (Marco Papa) writes: >Well, this time it seems that Amazing Computing beat BYTE, AmigaWorld >and Compute on the Amiga 500 coverage. > > The expansion bus is almost identical to the Amiga 1000 except that it is > on the left side. A1000 boards will NOT fit into it without some kind of > connector that switches the lines. A simple 2" extender with connector for an external power supply will do the trick. > The keyboard is similar to the A2000 keyboard. I think it's the other way around, but never mind. >Kickstart is in ROM. New Kickstart disks will be accepted. Provision to load alternate kickstart is not supported by 1.2 - possibilities for future release, but details not worked out... Kickstart code is exactly the same as 1.2 for A1000 & A2000. >The memory is ALL on the same bus. That is, "fast" memory is not fast anymore. >68000 will see contention on the memory above 512K when using lots >of bitplanes or high res. Basically you have the same speed of an A1000 >with 512K (no fast mem). Reason: cost. This is the same situation as the A1000 - any external expansion memory can be fast - to do this internally would required two sets of memory control logic - a $$$ no-no. > The A1000 genlock will NOT work with the A500. This is just a mechanical/power supply problem. The A500 is capable of genlock action. Status of possible A500 versions of genlock / framegrabber devices not clear yet. > Two new custom chips are on the board, named Gary and Buster. A gate array > chip, and a bus arbitrator Gary is only used in the A2000 - it controls the built-in expansion bus. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (03/11/87)
in article <1533@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>, grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) says: >> Two new custom chips are on the board, named Gary and Buster. A gate array >> chip, and a bus arbitrator > > Gary is only used in the A2000 - it controls the built-in expansion bus. ^^^^ > George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr > but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV > Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite) Whoops! That's Buster that's only in the A2000, Gary that's new for the A500. Buster does various aspects of Amiga bus arbitration, Gary replaces a bunch of things that were done in TTL and PAL in the A1000. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Haynie Commodore Technology // /| ___ __ __ __ {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh |\ // /_| | / \ / \ / \ Commodore rarely admits to knowing me, \\// / | +--+ | | | | | | much less sharing my personal opinions. \/ / | |___ \__/ \__/ \__/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jfoust@well.UUCP (03/21/87)
Thanks for the corrections, George and Dave. It was hard to get everything nailed down about the 500 and 2000, but I tried. Who helped Byte and AmigaWhirled do such a good job on the 2000? Frankly, I was jealous of the great coverage they did, but it looked quite spoon-fed. Yes, pholks, I am on the net, but I don't get to read everything I'd like to, since I have to use the Well to get here, and 1200 baud through Telenet is the pits. Amazing Computing is always looking for comments, ideas, and new writers, so if you are interested, or have something to say, just drop me a line here. John Foust, Amazing Computing Technical Editor
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (03/23/87)
In article <2803@well.UUCP> jfoust@well.UUCP (John Foust) writes: > >Thanks for the corrections, George and Dave. It was hard to get everything >nailed down about the 500 and 2000, but I tried. Who helped Byte >and AmigaWhirled do such a good job on the 2000? Frankly, I was >jealous of the great coverage they did, but it looked quite spoon-fed. > >John Foust, Amazing Computing Technical Editor We just got copies of your A200/A500 issue at a user's group meeting. I guess you just have to live with the up-and-coming, better-every-issue image vs. the general coverage and glossy stuff for a little while yet. Nice articles, by the way, but you should have promoted a trip out here for a "technical review" of your article. You could have gotten more good dope and cleaned up a lot of minor errors...of course maybe a nudge in the ribs or gentle kick in the shins too, but so it goes... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)