Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!boulder!tramp!hunt From: hunt@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Lee Cameron Hunt) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Dave Haynie's response Re: Amiga 2000 REVs Message-ID: <11262@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Date: 1 Sep 89 19:57:14 GMT Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU Reply-To: hunt@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Lee Cameron Hunt) Distribution: na Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 76 I have received quite a few requests for this and I could not respond to many of them do to a braindamaged mailer. So, here it is: >From daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com Mon Aug 28 08:52:47 1989 Received: by spot.Colorado.EDU (5.57/Ultrix2.4-C) id AA21718; Mon, 28 Aug 89 08:51:04 MDT Received: by boulder.Colorado.EDU (cu-hub.890824) Received: by ncar.UCAR.EDU (5.61/1.00.UUCP-MOD.8-11-85) id AA03997; Mon, 28 Aug 89 08:50:57 MDT Received: from cbmvax.UUCP by rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.2/3.04) with UUCP id AA10127; Mon, 28 Aug 89 10:30:59 EDT Received: by cbmvax.UUCP (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 12/21/87)) id AA16312; Mon, 28 Aug 89 10:32:54 EDT Date: Mon, 28 Aug 89 10:32:54 EDT From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Message-Id: <8908281432.AA16312@cbmvax.UUCP> To: ncar!boulder!spot!maziar@spot Subject: Rev 6 Status: R Commodore is aware of the conflict between the Rev 6 board and the Microbotics hardframe, and we (George Robbins, !cbmvax!grr) are investigating the conflict. I'm not personally involved in this investigation. In any case, what I can tell you: - The Rev 6 timing is identical to the Rev 4.x timing. All the same parts are used. - The pullup fix you're talking about was something officially sanctioned by Commodore to bus a potentially troublesome situation in which BAS* could take too long to rise. This problem was corrected in production starting at Rev 4.5, and it's of course on Rev 6. I really wouldn't recommend an additional 1k pullup there. - The problem you heard of an earlier "timing problem" on older 2000s seems to have been exaggerated quite a bit. The original 2000s were shipped in conjunction with a keyboard made by Cherry in West Germany. These keyboards had very strong output drivers which caused lots of noise, and to pass the FCC tests, our FCC engineers had placed an extra set of bypass capacitors on the keyboard lines. When production switched over to the more common (these day) HiTek keyboard (which is very similar internally to the A1000 keyboard design), these capacitors were no longer necessary, but they didn't immediately get the word to remove them in production. The HiTek keyboard used different drivers that were occasionally marginal with these extra capacitors. Generally, the CIA that reads the keyboard would get confused on powerup and the first keystroke in a CLI window could be missed. This didn't effect mouse operation at all, and in most cases, the missed first keystroke was the extent of the problem. That was fixed long ago in production. Anyway, the Rev 6 investigation is underway, and as usual, if it's Commodore's fault, you get a free fix, even if your warrenty is out (that's what they tell me, and I agree with the policy). Far as we know, the only conflict has been with the Microbotics design, but they probably do push the bus as fast or faster than anyone out there, so if it is a Rev 6 problem and not theirs, we'll certainly find out. Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy We have no choice. We are, after all, professionals. A side note: In moving from my appartment to to another residence I put the cover back on my 2000 (I had already installed the omnious 1K pullup resistor between pins 11 and 20 of U605). It had not been working reliably with that setup (but it was working better, at least I could format the drive). Anyhow, with the cover on it has been working fine! (and I don't know at all why... perhaps it's cooler). --Lee (...!ncar!boulder!spot!tramp!hunt)