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From: ken@i-core.UUCP (Ken MacLeod)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: More Commodore Details
Keywords: Amiga 3000 rumours, standard bus, NuBus
Message-ID: <1989Oct18.034020.28878@i-core.UUCP>
Date: 18 Oct 89 03:40:20 GMT
References: <8052@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: Bitsko's Bar & Grill, Public Access, Salt Lake City, UT
Lines: 39

In article <8052@microsoft.UUCP>, tommcc@microsoft.UUCP (Tom McConnell) writes:
> 			MORE COMMODORE DETAILS
> [...]
> 
>    Internally, the A3000 will feature five 32-bit Zorro III slots, each 
> of which will take 16-bit cards.  Externally, the A3000 comes in an AT
> style 'tower' casing.

I guess one month before the supposed introduction of this machine that it's
too late to tell Commodore not to go with a completely non-standard 32-bit bus?

I thought so.

If there were an alternate reality, the A3000 would come with NuBus slots so
as to take all those neat cards for the Mac IIs and put them into a machine
that can make better use of them.  Of course, a few backwards compatible
16-bit slots would be in "NuBus slot 0" (the motherboard).

Anyway, this error can still be recovered by third parties (and applied to
the 500, 1000, and 2500) with a NuBus expander box, so maybe it's not too
bad.


Has anybody put any thought to this?  Some Amigans may not know this, but
the Mac graphics cards are _all_ laid out the same, the only difference is
X-Y resolution, number of bits, palette entry size, and of course the
quality of the video you pay for (i.e. studio quality NTSC vs. high-res
CAD workstation).  NuBus slots, a few days with a amiga.net.hacker, and
suddenly the Amiga has 50+ video cards that work with most things you've
already got.

Not to mention the extra network, multi-port serial, DSP, and other cards that
would make available.

Think of the things one can do with that kind of hardware...
  ...with an OS that can do something with it.
-- 
Ken MacLeod, Barkeep, Bitsko's Bar & Grill
ken@i-core.uucp