caromero@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (C. Antonio Romero) (04/06/89)
Well, this has been out for a few days and no one has mentioned it, so I figured I would: InfoWorld has a report about the Atari PC4 and PC5 MS-DOS machines coming out next week at Spring Comdex. The PC4 is an AT-class 12-MHz 286 machine, with 1 meg memory; offering CGA, EGA, and VGA compatibility, a 1.2 meg floppy drive, and a 60 meg hard disk it comes in at $2295. It is supposed to ship in June. The PC5 is a 386-based 16 MHz machine with 2 Meg of RAM and is otherwise pretty similar to the PC4. The article mentions 64K of static RAM for 'disk caching' but this doesn't sound sensible-- maybe for the main memory, but not for disk... It's supposed to cost ~$2800. There's also talk of a 20-MHz version of this machine; no information given about pricing yet. Both 386 machines are predicted to ship in August. Now, for my money the 286 machine sounds like a loser, for price/performance-- at a higher clock speed, and with a monitor included, maybe (unless one _is_ included that would handle the color VGA); but not at 12 MHz. The 386, on the other hand, sounds kind of nice. With a VGA momochrome monitor at well under $200, that comes out to a very nice price indeed, assuming it's the right price. On the whole, the machines don't sound like worldbeaters, but they don't sound bad either... if the bundled software is right and they threw in a mouse, I'd think they were targeting the Vendex Headstart, Amstrad, etc. market segment, which wouldn't be bad. But from what little I see in the article (all of three column-inches) I can't tell what's going on. Anyone from Atari want to clarify? Or leave things under wraps till the show, and then post a more reliable description of the machines? Will these prices include monitors? How many slots will the machines have? What's the deal on the 64K cache? Drive access time? RLL or MFM controller? Bundled software? Well, enough questions. Floor's open. (And please, no bozos jumping in with skeptical 'yeah, right' postings. They don't solve anything. I realize we've been stung more than a few times by vaporproducts, but things seem to be a lot better than they were. Atari, while we'd like to know about this, if you're keeping this under wraps until COMDEX day, that's fine-- just please post complete specs _when it's time._) -Antonio Romero romero@confidence.princeton.edu
GASPARD@HROEUR5.BITNET (04/11/89)
>The PC5 is a 386-based 16 MHz machine with 2 Meg of RAM and is >otherwise pretty similar to the PC4. The article mentions 64K of >static RAM for 'disk caching' but this doesn't sound sensible-- maybe >for the main memory, but not for disk... That's right, the 64K is for the main-memory. >Anyone from Atari want to clarify? Or leave things under wraps till the >show, and then post a more reliable description of the machines? >Will these prices include monitors? How many slots will the machines >have? What's the deal on the 64K cache? Drive access time? RLL or MFM >controller? Bundled software? We are using the PC5 for about 3 months now, running our multi-user BBS. I don't have the facts on the PC4, but here they are on the PC5: It's a 16MHz 80386 AT with a 60 MByte RLL disk and a 1.2 Kbyte diskdrive. It's complete with: MSDOS 3.3 and GW-BASIC. MS-Windows/386. MS-DOS Userguide. MS-Windows Userguide. Using MS-Windows MS-Windows Quick-ref. GW-BASIC User's ref. PC5-Owners manual. PC-Floppy & HD Manual Disk Contr. Manual. Atari Licence Argeement Warranty Card It's a small case AT with 6 slots. It was installed within 10 minutes and we never had any trouble with it. It run's our multi-line BBS just fine. We have more Harddisk-I/O in one hour then you should have a day. As for short: I'm very pleased with it. You need more info, just ask. Bert Rozenberg. Dutch ST-foundation. Sysop STER BBS ++31 1880 40035 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + I forgot to type in the disclaimer + + and saved this message without it. + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++