haddock@ti-csl.CSNET (Rusty Haddock) (11/16/86)
This past Saturday (Nov. 15th) the Dallas SCOPE (Society for Computer
Owners and PET Enthusiasts) featured Pete Baczor from Cmdr, West
Chester. If you didn't know, Pete is one of (or the only) users
group liaisonss for Commodore. Pete showed off a PC-10 which is
Commodore's entry into the IBM clone market which has been selling for
several years in Canada and Europe. Pete also opened himself up to
questions and answers about Commodore computers in general.
It is possible that some of this information is "old hat" 'specially
if you attended the Developer's Convention or COMDEX. I didn't go so
that's the name of that tune.
In essense this Amiga related information was disseminated:
[Comments in "[]" are mine and only mine]
1) Commodore will not be introducing an Amiga with an '020 for
sometime. There WILL BE a new machine announced possibly
as early as Summer '87 but it will have no '020. [I presume
an '010] Cost reduced as well as enhanced machines are
definitely in the works.
2) MusicCraft has been passed onto AEGIS for completion after
going through its FOURTH developer.
3) Last Wednesday(?) Commodore canned their MIDI interface for
the Amiga. The feeling was there were sufficient third
party MIDI interfaces on the market for the Amiga.
4) Sidecar is awaiting a "sticker" from the FCC. The earliest
we could see them start delivery might be just before
Christmas. Three slots with a single floppy and any harddisk
(even the hard-cards) will be partitionable in just about any
proportion.
5) A-Squared, again, is still awaiting an FCC "sticker".
Expect to see it in January or February. [I'll believe it
when I see it on my local store's shelves]
6) TextCraft Plus. Even though AmigaWorld had a review (or
was it PREview) of this product, Pete has not seen it in
West Chester. He wondered where those writers got their
information.
7) Some of Commodore's delay in getting out products can be
attributed to contractual problems with the third parties.
8) Kickstart and Workbench 1.2 will be SOLD for US$14.95. It
will be called the "Amiga Enhancer". Delivery is to
commence this Monday, the 18th, I believe and include three
disks, Kick', Workb', and Extras. [I confirmed this with
my local dealer. As an aside, the letter that went to the
dealers about this stated that not all programmers/developers
would want this package. I s'pose this is due to some software
not working with version 1.2.]
9) To avoid possible "information leaks", Commodore has moved
some [maybe all] of their R&D overseas.
10) Pete is s'pose to be putting together a parts list that
will contain various chips (ones that are socketed) and
various what not that will be available from Commodore at
retail prices from the general public.
DISCLAIMER(s):
There were probably some more tidbits but I can't remember
them right this moment. If I've misquoted some of Pete's
information or taken it out of context I apologize and would
hope that we could get corrected only from C-A themselves.
Texas Instruments, Incorporated, as my employer, is in no way
responsible for this or any of my other postings to the net.
================================================================
Rusty Haddock +++ Texas Instruments, Inc. +++ Dallas, Texas
Computer Science Center, CRD&E +++ CSNET: Haddock@TI-CSL
USENET: {ut-sally!im4u,convex!smu,sun!texsun,rice}!ti-csl!haddockhaddock@ti-csl.CSNET (Rusty Haddock) (11/16/86)
I stated that the Sidecar was awaiting an FCC sticker when in fact it has already received such acceptance. My apologies. -Rusty-
hadeishi@husc4.harvard.edu (mitsuharu hadeishi) (11/17/86)
In re: C-A moving R&D OVERSEAS!?!?!?!?! Say it ain't so!! Pleeez. . . say it ain't so!! -Mitsu
cc100jr@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Joel Rives) (11/18/86)
Can anyone tell me if the new AmigaDOS 'Enhancement' wil be available directly
from Commadore? The local Amiga dealer here is a real pain to do business
with and I'd rather not if possible.
Joel Rives
--
There is no place to seek the mind;
It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky.
-zenrinpage@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) (11/18/86)
hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) wrote in article <668@husc6.UUCP>: > In re: C-A moving R&D OVERSEAS!?!?!?!?! > Pleeez. . . say it ain't so!! What I've heard (this is NOT stated to be fact): The sidecar was built in Germany. The 2500 (new amiga) was designed in Germany. There are two s/w people left at Amiga (three if you count Andy F on loan). The chip design group remains INTACT in Los Gatos. I heard a while ago that CBM bought Amiga because they were looking for a ``western R&D lab'' - the fact that Lorraine (now Zorro / Amiga A1000) was there was nice too! Maybe after CBM's financial situation made them get rid of lots of people at Amiga, after more people left to do other things, the people that were no longer there got a little too loose-lipped for West Chester's taste. Keep in mind that rumors of a dream machine right around the corner (go ahead, add your own features) would KILL sales of the A1000. Can you say Osborne? Sure. I have heard details of the new machine from Completely Reliable sources, and it is not anything so great that I will run out and get one. CBM wants to put a lid on rumors, and I don't blame them. I bet SOME r&d went to Germany, but not all of it. Again, don't take any of this as Solid Fact. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. ulowell!page, page@ulowell.CSNET
dale@amiga.UUCP (Dale Luck) (11/18/86)
In article <668@husc6.UUCP> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes: > > In re: C-A moving R&D OVERSEAS!?!?!?!?! > > Say it ain't so!! > > Pleeez. . . say it ain't so!! > > -Mitsu This is absolutely untrue. We have actually bought up all the available seats on the next 4 shuttles, to move r&d to a space station. We've found that zero gravity helps the blood flow to the head and makes our programmers more productive, as well as our chip foundaries can make some really super fast IC's with new techniques we've been developing, we're talking multilayer blitter's here. As I said before on BIX, when someone accidently tripped across a prerelease of the ellipse software for Mars (Mars ellipses are based on a different geometry) this will make it easier for us to establish our distribution to the outer areas of the solar system. Dale Luck give me a break, duck.
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/19/86)
In article <668@husc6.UUCP> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes: > > In re: C-A moving R&D OVERSEAS!?!?!?!?! > Say it ain't so!! > Pleeez. . . say it ain't so!! > It ain't so... It ain't so... It ain't so... It ain't so... THe original article didn't include the context of Pete's replys, but this one sounded somewhat tongue-in-cheeck. It is true however, that both Commodore in Germany and West Chester are taking a more active and visible role in Amiga R&D than in earlier days. -- 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)
mikeb@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Mike Brenner SW) (11/19/86)
In article <668@husc6.UUCP> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes: > > In re: C-A moving R&D OVERSEAS!?!?!?!?! > > Say it ain't so!! > > Pleeez. . . say it ain't so!! > > -Mitsu This DEFINITELY is NOT SO. There are engineering facilities in both Europe and the Far East who are being asked to contribute more to North American product development. This includes PC compatible products which have been supported in Europe for the last two years. The primary R&D for Commodore still resides in West Chester, Pa and Los Gatos, Ca. There are no plans to change this arrangement. Instead, Commodore is making better use of its total worldwide engineering talent creating an international development team capable of delivering state-of- the-art, competative product, on a timely basis, to a worldwide market. Michael C. Brenner Vice President, Software Commodore Business Machines
kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) (11/19/86)
In article <772@ulowell.UUCP>, page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) writes: > What I've heard (this is NOT stated to be fact): > The 2500 (new amiga) was designed in Germany. I may as well add a little fuel to the fires ... A friend of mine called up CBM Parts Dept. the other day looking for the price/availability of the floppy controller board. He was asked, "Is that for the A1000 or the A1010"? ^^^^^ So, what's an A1010? An A1000 with ROM'ed Kickstart? With a 68010? A new floppy drive? A slip of the tongue? /kim -- UUCP: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,seismo,oliveb}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25 [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/20/86)
In article <4205@amdahl.UUCP> kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) writes: >In article <772@ulowell.UUCP>, page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) writes: > >A friend of mine called up CBM Parts Dept. the other day looking for >the price/availability of the floppy controller board. He was asked, >"Is that for the A1000 or the A1010"? >So, what's an A1010? An A1000 with ROM'ed Kickstart? With a 68010? >A new floppy drive? A slip of the tongue? >/kim The A1010 is the standard Amiga 3.5" expansion drive. It seems that there was some failure in communications, and the person in the parts department probably though your freind was after a replacement drive, rather than the little bitty interface board. -- 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.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (11/25/86)
> > I may as well add a little fuel to the fires ... > [...] > So, what's an A1010? An A1000 with ROM'ed Kickstart? With a 68010? > A new floppy drive? A slip of the tongue? Let me add some halon to your fire: The A1010 is the little drive that you plug into the back of your A1000. Most people call it df1: > /kim -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Haynie {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "Laws to supress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security." -Bene Gesserit Coda These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they may be yours too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) (11/26/86)
In article <1030@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>, daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes: > > So, what's an A1010? > The A1010 is the little drive that you plug into the back of your A1000. > Most people call it df1: So *that's* why things don't work so well for me ... I've been using "B:" all this time :-)! Happy Turkey Day to everyone on the net, and especially to all the AmigaFolk at West Chester and Los Gatos! /kim -- UUCP: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,seismo,oliveb}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25 [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]