DFLINT02@ULKYVX.BITNET.UUCP (09/25/87)
Did someone on the net ask for reasons on why an upgrade for the atari 6502 should be attempted. Reasons for an upgrade to a 65816: Upgrades in general tend to focus attention to computers, thus the mega STs were born. A more powerful processor in our venerable 8-bits would draw great attention from those who put their atari's on the shelf So they could use/(play games on) c-64'S). The apple came out with the apple IIgs which has the 65816 in it. This addition of the horsepower attracted new interest to venerable 8-bit line. Chances are it will do the same for ATARI. Since more atari xe/xl machines exist than IIgs mabye some of the companys that wrote software for the IIgs might try to recover there loses by writing software for a machine which a potentially larger user base. Porting Apple software to the atari shouldn't be to hard, tho the IIGs call would have to be emulated. If atari designed such an upgrade they would not have to much trouble get 65816 software developers? Some one has mentioned that Mac65(which is no longer in production) can support the extra 6502 commands this chips supports. The main reason i would want a 65816 in my machine would be to embarrass TRAMIAL. He has bumbled with a great machine. The handling of the 8-bit as compared for the ST has been unexcusable. Atari should realize by now that the whole 1.5 million active atari 8-bit users are not going to upgrade to the ST. When IBM is backing a new comparable machine in the same price range. Reasons for an upgrade in speed for the 6502, for the atari Xe/Xl machines: 1 Floating Point operations. Currently the 8-bit rom floating code is slow. >>A faster 6502 running around 3.58Mhz could crank out these calculations twice as fast. 2 I/O rates. >>Since the PBI(parallel bus interface) is driven directly by the cpu, MIO's and other harddrive interfaces could be accessed at standard PC speeds. 3 Integer calculations and Data jugling operations. >>This is the reason people buys the new 16/32 machines. Everyone wants their information delivered at a reasonable speed. Remember for Humans the less time something requires the more it seems to be used. 4 The windowing/icon user interface would be workable in the graphics 8 mode for machines with more than 64K. The botton line is Any upgrade to the moderately useful XE/XLs line would be appriciated. BUT ANY UPGRADES THAT WOULD NOT REACH A MAJORITY OF THE 8-BIT ATARI COMMUNITY WOULD NOT TEMPT THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS TO WRITE FOR OUR MACHINES. MY 8-bit will still be used whether or not i buy a new computer. Most of the info-atari8 readers feel the same way. William M Buford (Novice Hardware Hacker) (An Action! Programmer!) Dflint02@ulkyvx.bitnet
hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen) (09/27/87)
In article <8709242218.AA05629@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> DFLINT02@ULKYVX.BITNET writes: >Did someone on the net ask for reasons on why an upgrade for the atari 6502 >should be attempted. > > >The main reason i would want a 65816 in my machine would be to embarrass >TRAMIAL. He has bumbled with a great machine. The handling of the 8-bit as >compared for the ST has been unexcusable. Atari should realize by now that the >whole 1.5 million active atari 8-bit users are not going to upgrade to the ST. >When IBM is backing a new comparable machine in the same price range. > >The botton line is Any upgrade to the moderately useful XE/XLs line would be >appriciated. > >William M Buford The 16/32 bit upgrade to the Atari 800 line has been on the dealers shelves sinse September 1985 !! The problem that most Atari 800 owners have is one of idenity -- they fail to see what has been placed in front of their faces. I of course am talking about the Amiga 1000. I bought my Atari 800 for its great graphics, sound, and FRIENDLY user interface, BTW its SN is 00232 ! The Amiga 1000 IS the NEXT generation Atari 800 ! The chief H/W architect for the Atari 2600, Atari 800 and the Amiga 1000 is Jay Miner ! The Amiga's great MULTITASKING OS is just a super bonus to an already super computer. BTW my Amiga's SN is D605 - its a preproduction box ! BTW I have worked for Atari (pre JT), Commodore (during the JT reign), and Amiga (1984-5). Am I jaded ? YES I will not purchase a JT product ever again ! I am no longer connected with either Atari or Commodore except that I own their products. Amiga 1000 Simply the best computer for 3X the price Atari 800 Best 8 bit computer built. Atari 400 Expanded to 48K. Same as above. C64 Used only to play games on. OS sucks cow sn@t. VIC20 Same as the C64. Atari 2600 Great little game machine. Hans These comments are mine, mine, mine... however all may share them.