lcs@remus.rutgers.edu (Lyle C. Seplowitz) (03/25/91)
To follow-up on my original post...
There are a few things that I would like to respond to. First of all,
someone brought up the redundancy of the complaints/suggestions in my
post. You have to expect this. New people, like myself, are constantly
joining the regular readership and they haven't seen some of the
arguments in the past. Hopefully, however, responsers of these
redundant posts will use the past knowledge to provide a better
answer. Technology itself is changing so quickly that these redundant
posts may not be entirely redundant. Being new to this group (and not
yet an Amiga owner) I try to keep up with what's going on--but there's
a lot going on! You would need most of the day, everyday, to keep up
with everything posted on the Amiga newsgroups.
After recently reading the April issue of AmigaWorld (AW), I realized
that I let my frustrations overtake my suggestions. Killing the A500
would be a bad move, as many people pointed out. The A500 is an
excellent low-end machine that is well targeted for the average user
(based on its price and performance). I still think that the A500
should have 1 Meg standard. Most software requires or works better
with 1 Meg. Users will be better served by the memory. Now, whether
this will add to the cost of the machine...ideally it shouldn't, but
in reality? There is also the question of whether this memory should
be Chip or fast. I think it should be CHIP, but then that is my bias
towards graphic intensive applications. From the responses to my post
I discovered that Commodore really doesn't like this idea, 1 Meg of
Chip RAM for the A500. I was disappointed to discover that the A500P
still only has 512K of Chip RAM. I don't understand this distinction
that Commodore is trying to make with the A500. It is essentially a
A2000 without the slots and detachable keyboard.
I still think that Commodore should introduce a middle machine between
the A500 and A2000. The A500 currently sells for around $500 and the
A2000 for somewhere over a $1000. The so-called A1500 could be priced
somewhere in-between. I can only speculate on the machines features,
but it should definetly have a detachable keyboard. There should be at
least one slot (hopefully two, one being a video slot). For users that
need more power and expandability (as well as IBM compatibility) there
is the A2000 (and A3000). Like the A3000, the A1500 should offer fast
RAM expansion on the motherboard (it saves the slot).
For those that don't like that idea of adding a machine to the Amiga
line (and I'm not entirely sure it's the best thing for Commodore to
do with their time), consider the following changes to the A500. As I
said before, the A500 should have sockets for 1 Meg of Chip RAM.
Commodore can still fill it with 512K if it wants to be stubborn,
users can always upgrade anyway (that means the A500 should have the 1 Meg
Agnus). There should also be sockets for either 1 or 2 Megs of fast
RAM. Why? Easy expansion and it gives A500 owners more options right
out of the box. Expandability is important, no computer should be
without some sort of expansion options.
I was amazed that ICD was able to squish a hard drive inside
the A500's case. This gave me an idea. The A500 has a 3.5" drive on
the right side, why not let it be able to hold a hard drive similarly
positioned on the left side? Now I don't know the feasability of this,
but how about letting a controller card be installed under this hard
drive and above the motherboard? Of course, this wouldn't be standard,
I want to keep the price down. By the way, in ICD's ad, I noticed that
on the pictured A500's motherboard, there are sockets for 1 Meg of
RAM. It even says on the motherboard, "512K/1M RAM." Does the A500
have the ability to hold 1 MB already? If so, 1 MB of what, chip or
fast or both?
Finally, to promote expansion, convert that 501-style
slot to a Zorro II-style half-sized slot (with memory expansion on the
motherboard, there's no need for the 501 expander). I think it can be
done? What about the price? Personally I don't think the price would
be effected that much. And the options given to owners would be
tremendous. They can have 3 MB, a hard drive, and who-knows what in
the slot--all internal! No need for tripling the size of the A500 just
to add a hard drive!
The only thing I can recommend for the A2000 is a visual reworking. It
is a little to big and boxy (at least that is my opinion). From your
response I realized that offering two models of the A2000, one with
and one without a hard drive does have its advantages. As many people
stated, the version without a hard drive lets users choose which
controller and drive they want in their machine. However, I do wish
Commodore would allow 8 MB of RAM to be installed on the card rather
than 2 MB. It would be nice if the A2000 had sockets for fast RAM
expansion right on the motherboard.
As for changing the custom chips...it would be nice if they could
support 8-bitplanes. However, as people mentioned, 24-bit color and
all the accessories would cost too much to install in the A500. Maybe
Commodore doesn't need to change their custom chips that much. I would
like to see a 24-bit color custom chip as an option for any machine.
But there is definite need for 24-bit color and more bitplanes per screen.
A separate card that would take over the visuals and plug into the
video slot would be nice. While there are 24-bit frame buffers, there
aren't really any cards that actually let you change how the Amiga
handles graphics.
It is very important for software companies to distribute programs
that take advantage of that machine. Recently, companies have started
to do this, providing more powerful and faster programs for the Amiga.
This needs to continue. A computer can have the most wonderful
hardware, but without software, it's nothing.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:) :( :> :< :] :[ ;) :| :? :} :{ :* :^) :^( :+ :-) :\ :/ :! :$ :' :@ :O :# :<>
l c s @ r e m u s . r u t g e r s . e d u
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everything stated or expressed in this post is strictly my opinion or viewpointmykes@sega0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) (03/25/91)
In article <Mar.24.17.15.06.1991.18462@remus.rutgers.edu> lcs@remus.rutgers.edu (Lyle C. Seplowitz) writes: > >To follow-up on my original post... > >For those that don't like that idea of adding a machine to the Amiga >line (and I'm not entirely sure it's the best thing for Commodore to >do with their time), consider the following changes to the A500. As I >said before, the A500 should have sockets for 1 Meg of Chip RAM. >Commodore can still fill it with 512K if it wants to be stubborn, >users can always upgrade anyway (that means the A500 should have the 1 Meg >Agnus). There should also be sockets for either 1 or 2 Megs of fast >RAM. Why? Easy expansion and it gives A500 owners more options right >out of the box. Expandability is important, no computer should be >without some sort of expansion options. > How about adding sockets for Mac ROMs. It would be a Classic Killer! >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >:) :( :> :< :] :[ ;) :| :? :} :{ :* :^) :^( :+ :-) :\ :/ :! :$ :' :@ :O :# :<> > l c s @ r e m u s . r u t g e r s . e d u >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Everything stated or expressed in this post is strictly my opinion or viewpoint -- ******************************************************* * Assembler Language separates the men from the boys. * *******************************************************