Knisely@his-phoenix-multics.arpa (04/10/84)
You'll notice that Wilkinson notes that only one of the mentioned things
isn't true. When the XL line was announced last year, there was to be
an expansion box available for adding some number (8??) out-board cards
which would be accessed via the parallel bus. The box existed, is/was
real, does/did work -- but we're not going to get it. Along with the
CP/M box that was also very real and did work, it has been dropped from
the marketing plan (and I use the word "plan" VERY loosely here folks).
There is some information in the Info-World mag of two weeks ago and
more in the one from about 4-6 weeks ago. So far as I can tell, there
is currently nothing to plug into the parallel bus on the 800XL and only
the memory expansion for the 600XL (when it appears).
As to the inherent "serialness" of the Atari drives, the previous
comments are correct. However, the 1450XLD machine has a built in drive
that does use the parallel bus for xfer, which should make it much
faster than those connecting via the daisy chain. And it has a
wired-out spot for a second drive. BUT -- you can't buy one and
probably never will be able to do so. In its now all too typical
fashion, Atari has just about dropped this box from the "plan" as well.
I have never been able to figure out what marketing strategy Atari has
decided to pursue -- it would explain a great deal if it turned out
there WASN'T one. ....s i g h ... (end soapbox mode).
>From the frustrated fingers of one Atari user, Dick K.
................................................(Knisely.DSP1%pco at
CISL)