wwm@pmsmam.uucp (Bill Meahan) (05/30/90)
I have a recurring dream (some might call it a nightmare): Dave Small manufactures a new motherboard/box for the Atari with a 25-Mhz 68030, an EISA bus (that actually WORKS with cheap, available PC interface/ memory boards), at least 2 serial ports (one with 8530 controller for Ham Packet), full, REAL SCSI, capable of booting a UNIX (or look-alike) OS that runs TOS as a GUEST process so most, if not all, of my software collection is still usable. Plus X11R4, 16 MB RAM capacity, Spectre GCR built in (or available as a simple plug-in option). Sigh, It can't happen, can it? Someone like Dave (or some other happy hardware hacker) couldn't possibly put together such a system, could they? They couldn't possibly keep the cost competitive with a 386SX PC-Clone, could they? Ah, it's only a dream like the other one where the enraged ST community stages an LBO of Atari and .... -- Bill Meahan WA8TZG uunet!mailrus!umich!pmsmam!wwm I speak only for myself - even my daughter's cat won't let me speak for her!
watters@ellipse.eng.ohio-state.edu (david r watters) (05/30/90)
In article <1990May29.203020.28441@pmsmam.uucp> wwm@pmsmam.uucp (Bill Meahan) writes: >I have a recurring dream (some might call it a nightmare): > >Dave Small manufactures a new motherboard/box for the Atari with a 25-Mhz >68030, an EISA bus (that actually WORKS with cheap, available PC interface/ >memory boards), at least 2 serial ports (one with 8530 controller for Ham >Packet), full, REAL SCSI, capable of booting a UNIX (or look-alike) OS >that runs TOS as a GUEST process so most, if not all, of my software >collection is still usable. Plus X11R4, 16 MB RAM capacity, Spectre GCR >built in (or available as a simple plug-in option). > Well, Your dream is almost fullfilled! You can get almost all the things you want very soon, it's called an Amiga 3000. Enjoy! >Sigh, It can't happen, can it? >Bill Meahan WA8TZG uunet!mailrus!umich!pmsmam!wwm >I speak only for myself - even my daughter's cat won't let me speak for her! _______________________________________________________________________________ | | | | David Watters | If you take a piece of crap, and sell | | The Ohio State University | millions of them... each one is still a | | watters@cis.ohio-state.edu | piece of crap. (Proof: Appl* & Nint*ndo) | |______________________________|______________________________________________|
jonka@microsoft.UUCP (Jonathan KAGLE) (06/01/90)
In article <1990May29.203020.28441@pmsmam.uucp> wwm@pmsmam.uucp (Bill Meahan) writes: >Dave Small manufactures a new motherboard/box for the Atari with a 25-Mhz >68030, an EISA bus (that actually WORKS with cheap, available PC interface/ >memory boards), at least 2 serial ports (one with 8530 controller for Ham >Packet), full, REAL SCSI, capable of booting a UNIX (or look-alike) OS >that runs TOS as a GUEST process so most, if not all, of my software >collection is still usable. Plus X11R4, 16 MB RAM capacity, Spectre GCR >built in (or available as a simple plug-in option). The question is where you would fit the ST into all of this. It seems that the only pieces of hardware that are NOT replaced are the keyboard, mouse, floppy, and video display (and of course you want 24-bit 1Kx1K, z-buffered graphics, no?). Seems like you are looking for a new computer. -Jonathan P.S. Keep the ST to run all of your old software. Even better, put it in a "compatibility" box. :-)
micro@imada.dk (Claus Pedersen) (06/01/90)
In article <80988@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <watters@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >In article <1990May29.203020.28441@pmsmam.uucp> wwm@pmsmam.uucp (Bill Meahan) writes: >>I have a recurring dream (some might call it a nightmare): [details about a very true dream deleted] > >Well, Your dream is almost fullfilled! You can get almost all the things >you want very soon, it's called an Amiga 3000. Enjoy! Now you must be dreaming - just about the only thing your A3000 have is a 68030. And that is with 2 wait states on *fast ram*. Who needs Amiga500 graphics on a 68030 machine anyway?? >| David Watters | If you take a piece of crap, and sell | >| The Ohio State University | millions of them... each one is still a | -Klaus
jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) (06/01/90)
In article <769@imada.dk> micro@imada.UUCP (Claus Pedersen) writes: >Now you must be dreaming - just about the only thing your A3000 have is >a 68030. And that is with 2 wait states on *fast ram*. >Who needs Amiga500 graphics on a 68030 machine anyway?? I'd like to have someone at C= confirm this. The 3000/25 is a 68030 machine with a 68882 and resolutions up to 1280x800 - that ISN`T 500 graphics. The 500 will be able to do it later, but for $3039 for a 2 meg A3000 with a 25MHz 68030/68882 under the educational discount, it's hard to beat. -- | husc6!m2c!wpi!jdutka | "Hey, baby - wanna do some HEAT TRANSFER? | | jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu | Heh, heh, heh!" | | John Dutka, Jr. | -Mechanical Engineers On The Prowl | | jdutka%wpi.wpi.edu%mitvma.bitnet __________________________________________|
watters@mum.cis.ohio-state.edu (david r watters) (06/02/90)
In article <13202@wpi.wpi.edu> jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) writes: >In article <769@imada.dk> micro@imada.UUCP (Claus Pedersen) writes: >>Now you must be dreaming - just about the only thing your A3000 have is >>a 68030. And that is with 2 wait states on *fast ram*. >>Who needs Amiga500 graphics on a 68030 machine anyway?? > >I'd like to have someone at C= confirm this. The 3000/25 is a 68030 machine >with a 68882 and resolutions up to 1280x800 - that ISN`T 500 graphics. The >500 will be able to do it later, but for $3039 for a 2 meg A3000 with a 25MHz >68030/68882 under the educational discount, it's hard to beat. >| John Dutka, Jr. | -Mechanical Engineers On The Prowl | Don't forget a MultiSync monitor (~14") and AmigaVision (which is awsome) and WordPerfect all thrown in at the same price, with a 1yr. waranty. That 2 wait state bit is incorrect anyways! The resolutions are over 1300x800 with overscan and Pal options that are fully viewable from edge to edge or not, which is all possible on the A1950MultiSync which is included! ps. And a ST-emulator if you want. dw
micro@imada.dk (Claus Pedersen) (06/03/90)
In article <81101@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> david r watters <watters@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >In article <13202@wpi.wpi.edu> jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) writes: >>In article <769@imada.dk> micro@imada.UUCP (Claus Pedersen) writes: >>>Now you must be dreaming - just about the only thing your A3000 have is >>>a 68030. And that is with 2 wait states on *fast ram*. >>>Who needs Amiga500 graphics on a 68030 machine anyway?? >> >>with a 68882 and resolutions up to 1280x800 - that ISN`T 500 graphics. The >>500 will be able to do it later, but for $3039 for a 2 meg A3000 with a 25MHz >>68030/68882 under the educational discount, it's hard to beat. >>| John Dutka, Jr. | -Mechanical Engineers On The Prowl | > [sales stuff deleted] > >That 2 wait state bit is incorrect anyways! Now that is what the article in BYTE states (2 wait states). It also states that it can transfer 32 Mbytes/sec in burst transfer, and good weather. My 68030 data sheet says that after the transfer is initiated the CPU will read ONE 4 byte word every cycle (on a 25Mhz 68030 it means 100 Mb/s???). Any way the graphics part of the machine, is doll except for the figure 1280, the bus is 16 bit (call that a 32bitter again), to be compatible or ???? The main feature added to the graphics subsystem is a flicker-fixer. As I remember C= promised 16M colors, 32 bit blitter and more of that kind. The 68030 have instructions to manipulate bit aligned graphics (such as Bitfield Insert). Which means that if it were on a fast bus it would not need the blitter, as the bitblit loop would run from the internal cache, and not compete on buscycles for fetching instructions. And 1280x800 is with interlase. [to superpositioned 1280x400 images, or so it appears to be on a 500 ;-)] Yes in comp.sys.amiga, I read that the chipset would be available to the 16 bit series too. And 1280x400 (without interlase) should be possible on 500 to (it is the same number of buscycles as 640x200 in 4 bitplanes), and the basic 500 runs just about 2 Mhz in that configuration :-() [We ran a small program which should execute in 90 secs (2 DBRAs)(7.09Mhz), and only when we turned the screen off we could get the 90 secs, and in 640x4 bitplanes, it took 260 secs!!! (remember ZX81 (or Timex) :-)] >ps. And a ST-emulator if you want. [How does you simulate 640x400 noninterlase 72 Hz quality]> >dw -Klaus (should we not stop now???)