MCOHAN@UMASS.BITNET.UUCP (03/11/87)
imagen!atari!leavens@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Leavens) writes: >> Will people who don't want to upgrade to the blitter be able to get >> new debugged ROMS? I hope so... > > There's been no final decision made on this--I think Leonard's comment >about "Leaving this up to marketing types" was more of a hedge than an actual >statement of intent. At this point I think we want your input. How many >of you _aren't_ going to upgrade to blitters, but still want the ROMS? > >--alex @ Atari Let me put in my vote AGAINST having a ROM w/o blitter upgrade. As an Atari dealer, I can see a real nightmare arising from this- if there was a ROM/no blitter upgrade, there would end up being two classes of ST's out there for all of eternity, those with the blitter upgrade, those without it. We'd be in a quandry about which software worked with which version of the upgrade, the developers would have to write a blitter/non blitter version of their software, we'd have to explain to customers who don't know a lot about computers which upgrade they should get (argh), etc. etc. etc. It would be total confusion. I think that when Atari comes out with the upgrade, it should be ONE upgrade that everyone should be expected to get. Within a few months, everyone would have it, and there would once again be only one type of ST-- the kind with the blitter. Since the Mega-ST's will have the blit chip installed, it is unrealistic to expect Atari to continue supporting non-blit machines when all the new ones will have the chip. Michael P. Cohan MCOHAN@UMASS.BITNET, Mikecohan on DELPHI Organization: The Computer Bug, Inc. 50 Main St (rear) Amherst, MA 01002. (413) 253-7782. Authorized Atari Sales and Service.
grunau_b@husc4.UUCP (03/11/87)
In article <870310212811.000024B0.AFQM.MA@UMass> MCOHAN@UMASS.BITNET (Michael Cohan, U of Mass/Amherst) writes: >imagen!atari!leavens@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Leavens) writes: >>> Will people who don't want to upgrade to the blitter be able to get >>> new debugged ROMS? I hope so... >> >> There's been no final decision made on this--I think Leonard's comment >>about "Leaving this up to marketing types" was more of a hedge than an actual >>statement of intent. At this point I think we want your input. How many >>of you _aren't_ going to upgrade to blitters, but still want the ROMS? >> >>--alex @ Atari > >Let me put in my vote AGAINST having a ROM w/o blitter upgrade. >As an Atari dealer, I can see a real nightmare arising from this- >if there was a ROM/no blitter upgrade, there would end up being >two classes of ST's out there for all of eternity, those with the >blitter upgrade, those without it. We'd be in a quandry about >which software worked with which version of the upgrade, the >developers would have to write a blitter/non blitter version of >their software, we'd have to explain to customers who don't know >a lot about computers which upgrade they should get (argh), etc. >etc. etc. It would be total confusion. I think that >when Atari comes out with the upgrade, it should be ONE upgrade >that everyone should be expected to get. Within a few months, >everyone would have it, and there would once again be only one >type of ST-- the kind with the blitter. Since the Mega-ST's will >have the blit chip installed, it is unrealistic to expect Atari >to continue supporting non-blit machines when all the new ones >will have the chip. > >Michael P. Cohan MCOHAN@UMASS.BITNET, Mikecohan on DELPHI > >Organization: >The Computer Bug, Inc. 50 Main St (rear) Amherst, MA 01002. >(413) 253-7782. Authorized Atari Sales and Service. *sigh* For those few who might have been misled by the above comments (which I felt I had to include in full), let me re-iterate that we are talking about two entirely SEPARATE topics, here: -- on the one hand, there is the topic of an "upgrade" -- making your computer do something it was not originally designed to do. Here, I would have to agree that these should be kept to a minimum. -- on the other hand, there is the ENTIRELY unrelated notion of an UPDATE. Or, in other words, FIXING your computer so it does what it was originally designed to do but did not do properly (such as allow an $800 piece of equipment, such as a hard disk, to be used without undue danger to the data stored on it; something the forty folder limit does not currently allow). Although we have heard many times that Atari is striving to rewrite GEMDOS in order to fix the forty folder limit, there have been NUMEROUS hints (directly from Neil Harris, and indirectly from one of the Tramiel sons) that the rewritten GEMDOS may NOT be made available to all ST owners. We are not talking about an upgrade here. We are talking about a bug fix. Current blitter ROMs do not contain the bug fix, so they are irrelevant. However, I believe it would be an outrage for Atari to consider NOT supplying the rewritten GEMDOS to every person who owns a 520, 1040 or any other kind of ST. The rewritten ROM should not cause any compatability problems, nor should it be considered an upgrade. grunau@husc4.UUCP or --- !seismo----- \ --- !rutgers----- !husc6!husc4!grunau / --- !decvax!ihnp4 or BITNET hostname is "harvsc4"; ARPA address is grunau@husc4.harvard.edu.
sansom@trwrb.UUCP (03/12/87)
>... Since the Mega-ST's will have the blit chip installed...
Maybe Alex@Atari can shed some lite on this for us. Simon reports that
Shiraz Shivji (sp) has stated that the blitter can easily be added to the
Megas. Does this mean that the Megas won't come with the blitter?
-Rich
--
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/// Richard E. Sansom TRW Electronics & Defense Sector \\\
\\\ {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!trwrb!sansom Redondo Beach, CA ///
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////leavens@atari.UUCP (03/14/87)
in article <1663@trwrb.UUCP>, sansom@trwrb.UUCP (Richard Sansom) says: > >>... Since the Mega-ST's will have the blit chip installed... > > Maybe Alex@Atari can shed some lite on this for us. Simon reports that > Shiraz Shivji (sp) has stated that the blitter can easily be added to the > Megas. Does this mean that the Megas won't come with the blitter? > As of right now the word was that we won't be shipping Megas until we can ship 'em with blitters. And we still expect to make our late 2nd quarter target date. --alex @ Atari BIX:alexl. GEnie: ALEXLEAVENS AtariCorp: 408-745-2006 "How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all."