[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] A Few Questions on the A3000

valentin@cbmvax.commodore.com (Valentin Pepelea) (05/02/90)

In article <6971@orca.wv.tek.com> whansen@vsgft1.WV.TEK.COM (Bill Hansen) writes:
>
>The tape said the machine can take a bridge card, is this indentical to a
>2000 bridge card or different?

The same bridge card that the A2000 uses.

>How does the 3000 bridge card access hard drives? How do you attach a 5-1/4
>inch floppy?

Like usual.

>Does the 3000 have a composite video out? (For feeding to a VCR for example.)

Nope. Video buffs are expected to use genlocks and other such fancy
equipment. An RF modulator is still available.

>Is it true that BOTH the roms for 1.3 and 2.0 are on the mother board.

No. The A3000's that your dealer currently has loads in the kickstart image
from the hard drive and uses the MMU to map it at $F00000.

>Do the CHIP and FAST ram areas use the same kind of ram? (and can you order
>more than the default amount pre-installed.)

Yes. The fast ram area accepts to types of chip pinouts. The usual DIPs and
exotic ZIPs. They won't be so exotic in a few years. If you want to add more
fast ram, the right thing to do is take the DIPs out of the fast ram DIP
sockets and plug them into the chip ram DIP sockets. Then plug in ZIPs in
the fast ram ZIP sockets. You may plug either 1 megabit or 4 megabit ZIPs in
there.

Valentin
-- 
The Goddess of democracy? "The tyrants     Name:    Valentin Pepelea
may distroy a statue,  but they cannot     Phone:   (215) 431-9327
kill a god."                               UseNet:  cbmvax!valentin@uunet.uu.net
             - Ancient Chinese Proverb     Claimer: I not Commodore spokesman be

monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (05/02/90)

In article <11246@cbmvax.commodore.com> valentin@cbmvax (Valentin Pepelea) writes:
>Yes. The fast ram area accepts to types of chip pinouts. The usual DIPs and
>exotic ZIPs. They won't be so exotic in a few years. If you want to add more
>fast ram, the right thing to do is take the DIPs out of the fast ram DIP
>sockets and plug them into the chip ram DIP sockets. Then plug in ZIPs in
>the fast ram ZIP sockets. You may plug either 1 megabit or 4 megabit ZIPs in
>there.


	I was wondering, do you need the fast ram? What I am saying is can you
simply move the shipped 1 Meg of fast ram over to the chip ram banks and have
2 Meg of Chip ram and 0 Meg fast Ram? Is there a hardware reason that you could
not do this? Dave?

Monty Saine

rjtatz@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Robert J. Tatz) (05/02/90)

Using a genlock on the A3000 raises a question about the monitor.
The A1950 looks great but can it be used with a genlock?  I don't
think it has any composite input like the A1084.  One of the best
Amiga features is having one monitor "do it all".  I know it would
be more expensive but is it possible to build a multisync with
RGB and composite inputs?

Bob          rjtatz@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu

daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/03/90)

In article <755@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:

>	I was wondering, do you need the fast ram? What I am saying is can you
>simply move the shipped 1 Meg of fast ram over to the chip ram banks and have
>2 Meg of Chip ram and 0 Meg fast Ram? Is there a hardware reason that you could
>not do this? Dave?

There's no hardware requirement for Fast RAM being there.  I've run 3000s in
the lab without it under 1.3 many times.  As currently shipped, the magic 
EPROMs in the dealer 3000s count on that memory being there.  I don't know
what 2.0 plans once it's firmly in ROM.

>Monty Saine


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit" -REM

addison@pollux.usc.edu (Richard Addison) (05/03/90)

In article <1259@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> rjtatz@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Robert J. Tatz) writes:
>One of the best Amiga features is having one monitor "do it all".
>I know it would be more expensive but is it possible to build a
>multisync with RGB and composite inputs?

That's why I chose a Mitsubishi DiamondScan.  I believe its list
price is about the same as the 1950, but widely available for much
less than 'suggested' retail.

When I saw an A3000 with a 1950 monitor this past Saturday, I made
it a point to see if the 1950 has a composite input.  It doesn't.

--Rich

valentin@cbmvax.commodore.com (Valentin Pepelea) (05/03/90)

In article <755@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:
>
>	I was wondering, do you need the fast ram? What I am saying is can you
>simply move the shipped 1 Meg of fast ram over to the chip ram banks and have
>2 Meg of Chip ram and 0 Meg fast Ram? Is there a hardware reason that you could
>not do this? Dave?

Sure, you could do that. (Don't race over to your dealer to try it out on
his demo A3000 though :-)) But shipping it with 1 Meg in the fast ram slots
gives you a better performance. Fast ram is not accessed by the custom chips,
thus the CPU can hog it as much as it wants.

Once you buy yourself a 3000, (you will, right?) try out benchmarks with
only chip mem, and then try them out again from fast ram. You should see
at least a 10% improvement, depending on the resolution your current
screen is in.

Valentin
-- 
The Goddess of democracy? "The tyrants     Name:    Valentin Pepelea
may distroy a statue,  but they cannot     Phone:   (215) 431-9327
kill a god."                               UseNet:  cbmvax!valentin@uunet.uu.net
             - Ancient Chinese Proverb     Claimer: I not Commodore spokesman be