NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/hardware-part1/6739

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 7.8 KB

Path: coranto.ucs.mun.ca!gnoel
From: [e-mail] (George Noel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: New slot box Amiga
Date: 10 Mar 1996 07:21:10 GMT
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Sender: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <4htvt7$[e-mail]>
References: <4hgsel$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: plato.ucs.mun.ca
Summary: Improvements
Keywords: Easily expandable even into the next generation!

In article <[e-mail]>, Paul Chan  <paul> wrote:
>[e-mail] (George Noel) wrote:

>>Or was this all a hoax and they are sticking to the original plan but
>>decided to release this news perhaps to boost A1200 sales stopping people
>>from waiting for the "A1300"?
>
>That`s a very cynical view to take isn`t it? ;) ;)

Yeah.. :) Even the most die hard enthusiasts get cynical everynow and
again!  I was getting very frustrated about no new A1200s entering
North America and when I heard possible cancellation of the A1300, my
hopes severely dropped.  I am again interested, moreso now in this new
Amiga IF it comes to North America in a fast enough time frame after mass
production stops.  I just hope it doesn't get too close to the Power
Amiga's release date.. a nice June - September launch into North America
would be nice now.

>I would suggest it`s a possibility. AT should have known the reaction of the
>crowd here to an announcement of a machine that was supposedly better spec than
>the poorly received A1200. The likelier solution is that, with AT sticking

Yes, having the A1200 at the right price would be good but having a
better speced 1200 at a decent price also would be even better!

>rigidly to their IMHO unreasonable price structure, you could reasonably expect
>the A1200Plus/A1300 to be priced at 700 UK pounds (with extra RAM) and that
>doesn`t guarantee a hard drive IMHO either. In other words AT were scared off

The last time I checked the UK pounds and Canadian dollar is in a 1:2
ratio so 700 pounds would be around $1400 Canadian would it not?  I
certainly hope the A1200Plus/A1300 isn't going to be too much over $1000.

>further development of the A1200Plus by:p
>
>1.      Possible backlash from further frustrated Amigans who view the A1200
>Plus as still not enough in terms of technical ability.

All that is really needed is to be able to add a graphics card, easily
connect a CD-ROM drive without rendering something else useless and
easily add more memory (same as last point) and still offering a way to
increase the CPU.  The original A1300 design wouldn't have allowed for
all of that so the new design is better and hopefully will be priced
right.  In the March CU Amiga in one of the Points Of View sections, the
author suggested combining an accelarator with a graphics board for the
trap door (and he suggested some possibilities on how to do this), then
the SIMM sockets on the motherboard could handle the RAM expansion and
the PCMCIA port could be left for the CD-ROM drive.

>2.    Same as above, except backlash is due to prohibitive price and shouts of (I
>could get a fully kitted out Pentium at that price!)

Yes, the price has GOT to be right!

>3.    Low sales of the A1200 are partly due to expectations of an A1300, something
>that would not happen if the A1200 was expandable in the first place an
>assurances were in place that essentially said you could upgrade your A1200 now
>to the same spec as the A1300, which, if the A1300 came with a few ZorroIII
>slots, is patently untrue (Yes, I know about the tower kludges, but that`s all
>they are: kludges, and overpriced at that!).

Yes the announcement of the A1300 did affect A1200 sales and hopefully AT
will get the new A1300 right in easily expanding to the next generation
Amigas when the time comes or no one will fork out the money if they have
to buy yet another computer the following year!

>As far as slots go, the average mid-range Amiga user only adds a gfx card, a
>few hrd drives, and maybe a CD drive. There has been very little need for the
>Zorro sots in anything other than much higher end uses.

I agree.

>If an biggish Amiga came out with room for cheaper internal expansions (CD, HD,
>floppy) and an improved motherboard gfx/sfx upgrade, then 90% of existing
>Amigans would be happy. Not only would they be happy, but with some extra

Well the improved motherboard gfx/sfx will have to wait until the Power
Amiga but even for now, the ability to add a graphics board would be nice.

>expansion potential (direct cpu slot) and some carefully placed information

What they SHOULD do is use a similar device as the Prototype board PhaseV
had with the 68030 and the Power PC chip on it.. have two sockets (such
as the ROM switchers have) but for the CPU in which the lowend would come
with just the 68030 with one slot open to add a PowerPC chip later and the
highend come with both CPUs. They wouldn't even have to be running
simultaneously (though that would be nice) but say in your startup
sequence you could select which CPU you want to boot from and do a warm
boot using Control-Amiga-Amiga as usual but to switch to the other CPU do
a say Control-Alt-Amiga which will load up its own startup sequence and
files.  This would act as a nice transformation machine between the two
generations.

>(i.e. don`t worry folks, buy now, you can upgrade to the standard of the next
>machine by buying a new PDS card) you can avoid the paranoia that surround the
>expectations of Amiga owners when a new machine is due out.

Exactly.

>Past machines have been completely revolutionary, making older machines
>obsolete due to the impossibility of upgrade. A guy who bought an A600 the day
>before the A1200 went into the shops was screwed. A guy who buys an A2400 (for
>arguments sake) is OK because when the A3600 comes out the later, he hasn`t
>lost too much money because all he has to do is swap out the cpu card and maybe
>upgrade a few gfx/sfx chips if necessary.

Yes, this has got to be the way AT makes their next two machines! Using
the same box is a benefit so even if they can't just swap out the chips,
I would assume a swap of the motherboard would be all that is needed (I'd
prefer the chip way though).

>When AT said the A1200Plus will be based on the A1200 with very minor
>adjustments they were doing the right thing in terms of marketing their
>announcement carefully. Unfortunately, the A1200 isn`t a very desirable machine
>at the moment anyway (I`m sure you read my list of shortcomings with the
>A1200).

Yes, and the slight adjustments to the A1200 they had planned and the
price they might have been looking for it wouldn't have worked..as well.

>Their last announcement that I read about (maybe from a 2nd hand source) was
>that they would unveil a prototype PPC macine instead. This makes things

I don't think so.. they have stated still an 68030 @ 40 MHz but like I
said, hopefully they would have an extra CPU slot to add a PowerPC chip
down the road.. maybe perhaps then your second hand source would be right.

>interestng. If they were to say that the A1200 accelerator upgrade for this
>included a DSP or somesuch to improve the sound and maybe add to the gfx speed
>they would have a lot of interested customers looking at the A1200 again. In

Yes, and if not just the graphics speed but the graphics themselves also.

>fact, to coincide with the announcement, they could cut the price of the A1200
>slightly (say, 50 UK pounds) to sweeten it up.

Yeah, and jack up the price of the "accelarator" 50 UK pounds. :)

>All they have to do is announce the prototype, say it won`t be ready until next
>year, announce the A1200 card (as described above) will be ready in Summer, and
>then drop the price of the A1200 at the same time.

This is a good possibility but I don't think the accelarator idea is in
their minds right now.

-=*George*=-