NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/sys/amiga/misc/13991

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-14 | 3.2 KB

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From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Problems with the A4000
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 15 Sep 92 01:18:19 -0500
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon Computer Club
Lines: 61

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dave Haynie) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Marc N Barrett) writes:
>
>>   The problem comes down to the architecture of the A4000 itself.  As has been
>>rumored before, several good systems were canceled not long after DevCon '91,
>>a year ago.  What has not been said is that these included all of the systems
>>that Dave Haynie designed that incorporated the AA chipset.  Indeed, none of
>>the new Amiga systems -- including the A4000 -- were designed by him.  They
>>were designed in a rush by junior engineers at Commodore.
>
> As usual, Mark is, to put it bluntly, talking out of his ass here.
>
> There was ONE system discussed at DevCon, something called I called the A3000+.
> It, like the A4000, was based on the A3000 system architecture and the AA
> chips.  I had some other goodies put in there, and I had hoped that this would
> go on as a production machine, but it was just a development platform.  We
> did development with it, then moved onto real production.  The A4000 is the
> first fruit of that development effort.
>

Dave , why was the AT&T DSP taken out of the A4000's design? The new Atari
machines have one. And what were the other things in the A3000+ design
left out of the A4000?


> The AA chipset is hardly "kludged" in.  The form of the AA chipset is something
> me, Greg, and the AA people (Bob Raible and Bill Thomas) discussed at length
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Commodore has only 2 people working on designing new graphics chips?
I had hoped they'd have 4 or 5. No wonder development is so slow. C='s
engineering dept is seriously underfunded.


> The inclusion of IDE cost a few months of Joe Augenbraun's time.  Joe was a
> junior engineer working for Greg (he left C= a little while back to go invent
> HDTV in Princeton or some-such).  Say what you will about IDE's inability to
> address lots of cool devices, I'll agree.  But it cost practically nothing to
> develop, it's a very, very simple interface.  And it costs very little to
> build, it's basically a PAL and a couple TTL buffers, not a full controller
> like SCSI.  IDE was designed to be nearly free to add back when the PClone
> industry whipped it up.
>
>>   In addition to the costs involved in removing the SCSI subsystem from the
>>A4000's design,
>
> We're now having to pay to remove SCSI from the A4000!?!  Buy yourself a
> clue, man!
>

Dave, if IDE is so great then why didnt the A3000 design use it. It was
certainly around at the time of the A3000's creation. I also remember you
doing some serious ragging on IDE in comp.sys.amiga.advocacy. What changed
your mind?

                           Thanks
                         Scott Corley

[e-mail]