Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!eugene!swarren
From: swarren@eugene.uucp (Steve Warren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga 1000 and 1.4
Message-ID: <3255@convex.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 89 19:11:20 GMT
References: <1984@psueea.UUCP>
Sender: news@convex.UUCP
Reply-To: swarren@convex.COM (Steve Warren)
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx.
Lines: 38

In article <1984@psueea.UUCP> bartonr@jove.cs.pdx.edu (Robert Barton) writes:
> 
>  Selling them a board would put more money in their pockets than selling them
>nothing except for maybe an Enhancer package every 2 or 3 years.  They would
>be selling ROMs and Super Agnus chips to people who wouldn't otherwise be
>buying them.

I am sure that it would be a nightmare to try to support a "hacker" style
hardware upgrade.  Commodore would have no control over who would install
it or the assembly process.  As the manufacturer they would probably find
themselves in court because people didn't assemble or install it correctly.
They would have to document it and track the upgrade.  They would have to
distribute support documentation to all their dealers and make sure it was
being supported "out there".  They would get blamed for the inevitable
incompatabilities that would be introduced by the upgrade, so they would
have to come out with ECNs to the upgrades to make everything work right.
Not to mention the impact on their image - "Commodore, they're the ones
that expect you to build your own upgrade."

Selling an assembled upgrade that costs as much as a complete A500 CPU
box would probably open them up to more ridicule than acclaim, and I am
pretty sure that they would need to price it in that range to make it pay
for itself in support and development costs.  Ultimately they would
probably rather that you just buy a 500 to get the new chips.  Stick
your 1000 in the corner with a Lucas card in it chugging away on some
ray-tracing, it doesn't even need a monitor for that ;^).

But if you really want total compatability for your 1000, there is
always the rejuvenator.  Costs about what a 500 does (but it yields
a 1000 with increased functionality - more ram, kick-rom, video port, etc).
So what's the problem with that?  Seems like a pretty reasonable
situation to me.

DISCLAIMER - I own a 1000

--Steve
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