swansonc@balder.acc.stolaf.edu (Chris Swanson, Systems Operator - ACC @ St. Olaf College) (04/13/90)
I have heard rummors of an Amiga compatable portable that is due to be
released late this spring or early this summer by a W-German company.
Has anyone else heard of this machine or know more about it, or is it
just vapor-ware? Please e-mail me the responces, and I will post a
follow-up if there is enough interest.
-Chris
--
Chris Swanson, Academic Computing Center, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
INTERNET: swansonc@acc.stolaf.edu UUCP: swansonc@stolaf
AT&T: Work: (507)-645-6845 Home: (507)-663-2154
I would deny this reality, but that wouldn't pay the bills...dan@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Daniel Heath) (05/25/91)
Hey all,
I seem to remember, way back when, that there was talk of an amiga
portable. What ever came of that? I currently have a 2000 but I really
need a portable, to the point that I may be willing to sell my 2000 to get
one. I use my system primarily for MIDI. I really like my amiga and would
hate to buy another kind of system, but I am considering something like a
STacy (no flames, please :-) . I also have so much time and money invested
amiga software and stuff that it would hurt to change over. So, any word
on the amiga portable?
Thanks in advance,
Dan Heath
dan@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) (05/27/91)
The last I heard was that the amiga portable was scraped due to legal problems. I know this a blow to the amiga community, considering the increased popularity of laptops, but it happens. We really should press Commodore to market a wider range of machines, including '020s (on the motherboard) and laptops, but knowing how slack Commodore is, I doubt this would ever happen. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU force@cs.su.oz
chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU (James Chiu) (05/27/91)
In article <2466@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) writes: >The last I heard was that the amiga portable was scraped due to legal >problems. I know this a blow to the >amiga community, considering the increased popularity of laptops, but it >happens. We really should press >Commodore to market a wider range of machines, including '020s (on the >motherboard) and laptops, but knowing >how slack Commodore is, I doubt this would ever happen. > Care to comment as to what KIND of legal problem? >MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU But my dear sir, I ain't no Jedi Knight! > > force@cs.su.oz
force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) (05/27/91)
In article <1991May27.033800.9769@agate.berkeley.edu>, chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU (James Chiu) writes: > In article <2466@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) writes: > >The last I heard was that the amiga portable was scraped due to > >legal problems. > > > Care to comment as to what KIND of legal problem? > I can't be sure, but it's a good bet that it has to do with copyright/patent violations. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU force@cs.su.oz
cmw1725@tamsun.tamu.edu (Christopher Walton) (05/27/91)
In article <2468@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) writes: >> >> Care to comment as to what KIND of legal problem? >> >I can't be sure, but it's a good bet that it has to do with copyright/patent >violations. > I knew a guy who had made a portable Amiga 2000, (It was a HUGE portable), but he got heat from commodore... It wasn't copyright or patent problems, because he used STOCK Amiga 2000's to make his portable, therefore he owned the machine and could do what he wanted with it. (Throw it off a bridge if you want to, but who would!) Something about how they might do it one day, and they didn't want any inferior things on the market... (He wired it up to have more ports, and some other neat stuff...) Anything of this sort, where you use the original components, can be classified as an addon, of enhancment, which 3rd parties are free to make. Look at Bodega Bay, and the A1500 case. These are basically the same thing as making a portable Amiga. Problem is that no one has been able to do it using, stock Amiga computers, and make it small, and useable. The one I am talking about was from Micro Momentum, about 3 or 4 years ago. (This baby was HUGE!!!) Christopher Walton cmw1725@tamsun.tamu.edu
johns@dworkin.Amber.COM (John Silvia) (05/28/91)
The only other Amiga Portable that I had heard of was one that I reported to INFO Magazine a long while ago. The President and Founder of DynaMac Inc. Who's brother I was working with in the State of N.J. had gotten me to talk with him, and in our conversations he let me "in" on the secret project that he was working on. The project was the taking of an A500 and repackaging it into a portable case, and adding a display that would operate on batteries. This was a "go" until the investing company for the DynaMac decided that the Amiga was not worth the trouble of repackaging, so they canned the entire project. Note that Dynamac went out of business on a similar note. DynaMac built their portable macs the same way that they wanted to do the Amiga clones - they would buy Mac Pluses and take them apart, and then scavence/remanufacture/recase parts as necessary. Their largest problem was with price. The cost of taking apart a machine that cost the same as one for college students was just too much overhead, and Apple managed to kill the company by milking them in the wallet.
bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.033800.9769@agate.berkeley.edu>, chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU (James Chiu) writes: > In article <2466@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) writes: >>The last I heard was that the amiga portable was scraped due to legal >>problems. I know this a blow to the > Care to comment as to what KIND of legal problem? The 'portable' was not being developed by C=. It was/is(?) being developed by a third party company (name forgotten) in Germany. The first prototype that I heard about used an A500 motherboard. I've heard nothing else since then. Although the 'protable' may have died, the development that did go into it has produced some marketable products, such as a 2.5" internal hard disk for the A500 (exactly how they fit the interface I don't know. Possibly a piggyback arrangement in the 68000 socket). I only heard about the internal disk from a european magazine reviewing an Amiga expo about a year ago. I have no idea if it ever went on sale to the public. Bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au OR bull@monu1.cc.monash.oz Alias: Gareth Bull, The Opal Dragon DOD# 251 '84 VF 750 Closet Ducatisti Disclaimer: "It's a cruel world when you can't afford a Ducati."
chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Erik Funkenbusch) (05/28/91)
bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes: > The 'portable' was not being developed by C=. It was/is(?) being >developed by a third party company (name forgotten) in Germany. The first I believe it was GigaTron, i could be wrong though. >prototype that I heard about used an A500 motherboard. I've heard nothing >else since then. Although the 'protable' may have died, the development >that did go into it has produced some marketable products, such as a 2.5" >internal hard disk for the A500 (exactly how they fit the interface I >don't know. Possibly a piggyback arrangement in the 68000 socket). I only >heard about the internal disk from a european magazine reviewing an Amiga >expo about a year ago. I have no idea if it ever went on sale to the public. of course, actually the internal drive is produced by ICD, a very American company. it's called the Novia, and uses a standard 2.5" IDE drive. nothing major, just uses a VERY small interface hooked into the 68000 socket. I really don't like these very much, if you buy one of them, the you decide to get a MegaMidget Racer or something you have to lose the HD. .--------------------------------------------------------------------------. | UUCP: {amdahl!tcnet, crash}!orbit!pnet51!chucks | "I know he's come back | | ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!chucks@nosc.mil | from the dead, but do | | INET: chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org | you really think he's | |-------------------------------------------------| moved back in?" | | Amiga programmer at large, employment options | Lou Diamond Philips in | | welcome, inquire within. | "The First Power". | `--------------------------------------------------------------------------'
johns@dworkin.Amber.COM (John Silvia) (05/28/91)
BULL, you mentioned something about a 2.5" hard disk for the A500, and I though that you should know that in all the Amiga Mag's like Amigaworld and such, there are ads for those new controllers all over the place. The new controllers, namely the AdIDE, requires the removal of the 68000 and placing it into a socket on this board, and then placing the board into the same socket where the CPU goes. Then a Conner or other small ide drive connects up and there is a quick 20 megs under the hood. It should not be impossible to build a portable 500 using some of these new parts that are out there, the only problem is that making the machine small would be difficult. The keyboard could not be moved over, and the motherboard in a 500 is large enough that moving it into a smaller case would be a nightmare. The most portable that an A500 would be is a little larger than a Compaq Portable 3, and they aren't portable by my standards.
monty@sagpd1 (05/29/91)
I think there are two major stumbling blocks in the way of a portable
Amiga: 1) the price of color LCD displays are still horrible, and 2)
the custom chip set is much to power hungry to put in anything that
uses battries. There is one other factor that probably slows it down
and that is precieved market, just how many could they sell? The
European market may support them but at present the U.S. market
would not.
Just my two cents worth,
Monty Sainelimonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli +1 201 408 5389) (05/29/91)
[ Followup-To has been set to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy where IMHO
this discussion belongs. ]
I hate to say it, but who would really PURCHASE an Amiga Portable?
The price would be more than an Amiga 500, so forget that market.
That market wouldn't want to play games on an LCD display anyway.
The price would be more than an Amiga 2000, so maybe that market would
have a chance, but at that price the person could buy an Amiga 2500 or
3000. 80% of those sales are in video or graphics production. Who
would want to do either of those on an LCD?
What are portables good for? So far, they are good for
meat-and-potato applications (word processing mostly) and off-site
data-entry (sales people et al) which are best done on cheap portable
PC clones. If your main application is on the Amiga, there is no
reason that you can't do data entry or text processing (initial text
entry) on a cheap portable PC clone and upload it to the Amiga for
processing, formatting, printing, etc.
Just MHO,
Tom
--
Tom Limoncelli tlimonce@drew.edu tlimonce@drew.bitnet 201-408-5389
"People in tight pants, moving fast."daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/29/91)
In article <2466@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk) writes: >The last I heard was that the amiga portable was scraped due to legal >problems. What Amiga portable? There aren't any likely legal problems for C= or a third party building such a beast, if they approach it properly. Witness the Mac market. Apple actively tried to discourage non-Apple Macs, but still this laptop "DynaMac" was done by a 3rd party, by canniblizing Macs. C= hasn't announced any plans to do a portable. I suspect any third party project that was cancelled was cancelled as a "business decision", not a "legal problem". >I know this a blow to the amiga community, considering the increased >popularity of laptops, but it happens. An Amiga battery-operated laptop, at present, is impossible. Amigas eat too much juice. Doesn't matter who makes it. >We really should press Commodore to market a wider range of machines, >including '020s (on the motherboard) and laptops, Hey, you got '030s on the motherboard, whaddya need '020s for? As for laptops, we'd all like them too. Maybe some day... >but knowing how slack Commodore is, I doubt this would ever happen. Hey, since WHEN has SLACK been a problem? What are you, PINK or something. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.
chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Erik Funkenbusch) (05/30/91)
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli +1 201 408 5389) writes: >[ Followup-To has been set to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy where IMHO >this discussion belongs. ] > >I hate to say it, but who would really PURCHASE an Amiga Portable? *I* would buy a portable. why? simple. I use an IBM at work, I am a programmer. I don't LIKE the IBM. my company won't buy me an Amiga. I DON"T want to buy an Amiga for the Office only. I DO want an amiga i could bring into work, work on things on the Amiga, xfer them to the PC when i'm done, not only that, but i can work on my own programs during lunch break, etc.. (i have quite a bit of free time). of all the people i know who own amiga's, i know of 6 others that would also purchase portables. their reasons are different, some are that they travel quite a bit, and like the flexibility offered by Amiga programs and the ability to mix-n-match programs to get an optimum environment, and don't want to have to learn IBM packages. some are because they move their computer around alot, and a system designed to be portable would just plain be more convenient. I have a 2500 and certainly CAN'T move this around all the time, the situation will get worse when the 3000T comes out, that is even LESS moveable. I want the power of the Amiga in something i can take with me, wheather it's to the office, or on a trip. even an amiga with a handle and a small monitor would be better than lugging a 500 around. I *DO* see a market for one. granted it is (currently) LESS than the 500 market, but possible more than the 2500 market. > >The price would be more than an Amiga 500, so forget that market. >That market wouldn't want to play games on an LCD display anyway. > >The price would be more than an Amiga 2000, so maybe that market would >have a chance, but at that price the person could buy an Amiga 2500 or >3000. 80% of those sales are in video or graphics production. Who >would want to do either of those on an LCD? > >What are portables good for? So far, they are good for >meat-and-potato applications (word processing mostly) and off-site >data-entry (sales people et al) which are best done on cheap portable >PC clones. If your main application is on the Amiga, there is no >reason that you can't do data entry or text processing (initial text >entry) on a cheap portable PC clone and upload it to the Amiga for >processing, formatting, printing, etc. > >Just MHO, >Tom >-- >Tom Limoncelli tlimonce@drew.edu tlimonce@drew.bitnet 201-408-5389 > "People in tight pants, moving fast." .--------------------------------------------------------------------------. | UUCP: {amdahl!tcnet, crash}!orbit!pnet51!chucks | "I know he's come back | | ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!chucks@nosc.mil | from the dead, but do | | INET: chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org | you really think he's | |-------------------------------------------------| moved back in?" | | Amiga programmer at large, employment options | Lou Diamond Philips in | | welcome, inquire within. | "The First Power". | `--------------------------------------------------------------------------'
jtravis@dworkin.Amber.COM (Jim, Sysop) (05/30/91)
johns@dworkin.Amber.COM (John Silvia) writes: > The only other Amiga Portable that I had heard of was one that I reported to > INFO Magazine a long while ago. The President and Founder of DynaMac Inc. > Who's brother I was working with in the State of N.J. had gotten me to talk > with him, and in our conversations he let me "in" on the secret project that > he was working on. > > The project was the taking of an A500 and repackaging it into a portable > case, and adding a display that would operate on batteries. This was a "go" > until the investing company for the DynaMac decided that the Amiga was not > worth the trouble of repackaging, so they canned the entire project. > > Note that Dynamac went out of business on a similar note. DynaMac built > their portable macs the same way that they wanted to do the Amiga clones - > they would buy Mac Pluses and take them apart, and then > scavence/remanufacture/recase parts as necessary. > > Their largest problem was with price. The cost of taking apart a machine > that cost the same as one for college students was just too much overhead, > and Apple managed to kill the company by milking them in the wallet. Actually, Dyanmac was bought up by Apple Computer, in lieu of litagation. Jim And I think we're all thinking of the Amiga portable project by the German company Gigatronics. What ever happened to them? Are they still around? ..and now the commercial.. --------///---------------------------------------------------------- /// Jim Trascapoulos * CSAccess BBS * 609-584-8774 /// *** Usenet: jtravis@dworkin.amber.mccc.Edu *** \\\ /// "I was told once that people don't like to think anymore, \\\/// so I tried to sell one a Mac. It worked." --\XX/--------------------------------------------------------------- "Spread the legs, open breach, erect launcher, apply lube, ram home into the breach, fire." -Field Artillery manual
jma@retiree.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) (06/01/91)
John Preston of Preston Enterprises at (904) 968-2232 has built an Amiga portable. It's the size of a Compaq XT transportable, since he uses Compaq cases. There is no legal problems since Commodore sells Amigas and Amiga boards OEM (a la NewTek...) -- John M. Adams --****-- Professional Student /// Internet: jma@cis.ufl.edu Genie: vlad /// Only the Amiga Sysop of The Beachside, Amiga BBS, Paragon 2.0858 \\V// Makes it Possible Fido Net 1:3612/557. 904-492-2305 (Florida) \X/
logan@netxcom.netx.com (Jim Logan) (06/12/91)
In article <22000@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: # Hey, since WHEN has SLACK been a problem? What are you, PINK or something. Interesting to find someone else out there that knows Dr. Bob Dobbs. -- Jim Logan Home: logan@gimlet.cntv.va.us Consultant Work: logan@netx.com Net Express, Inc. Phone: (703) 749-2269
rang@cz2.ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) (06/12/91)
In article <453@netxcom.netx.com> logan@netxcom.netx.com (Jim Logan) writes: >In article <22000@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com >(Dave Haynie) writes: ># Hey, since WHEN has SLACK been a problem? What are you, PINK or something. >Interesting to find someone else out there that knows Dr. Bob Dobbs. Remember, BOB is your key phrase. A friendly Church of the Subgenious message. Roger P. Ang (rang@ICS.UCI.EDU) "Hey, Dyna-Pink. Nice tattoo." Grad student at the Mr. Wonderful - DynaMan Dept. of Info. & Comp. Sci. Univ. of California, Irvine.
rabbits@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (66314000) (06/12/91)
does anyone know if commodore has definitly-for-sure cancelled all plans for making an amiga portable ??? thnx me
orovner@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Oleg Rovner) (06/12/91)
In article <453@netxcom.netx.com> logan@netxcom.netx.com (Jim Logan) writes: #In article <22000@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com #(Dave Haynie) writes: ## Hey, since WHEN has SLACK been a problem? What are you, PINK or something. # #Interesting to find someone else out there that knows Dr. Bob Dobbs. # # "Bob" is. "Bob" becomes. "Bob" is not. -- "One man's 'harsh and bitter truth' is another man's 'foolish and uninformed fiction'" -d.haynie
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (06/13/91)
In article <16956@darkstar.ucsc.edu> rabbits@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (66314000) writes: >does anyone know if commodore has definitly-for-sure >cancelled all plans for making an amiga portable ??? Philosophically speaking, if you never had such plans in the first place, could their current state of nonexistence be considered cancellation? I think not. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "This is my mistake. Let me make it good." -R.E.M.