Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: New Amiga questions: 2630 vs. GVP/Multisyncs
Message-ID: <10253@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 19 Mar 90 20:39:23 GMT
References: <25950@ut-emx.UUCP> <191@uncmed.med.unc.edu> <23211@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1990Mar19.180839.21488@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 58

In article <1990Mar19.180839.21488@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:
>In article <23211@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> dwallach@riki.berkeley.edu (Dan Wallach) writes:

>>The salesman was extremely vague about the 2630 vs. the GVP board.
>>He was saying how awesome the 2630 was and how "everbody else is
>>just playing catch-up" with Commodore's wonderful product.  What's true?

>	That's just not true. The GVP boards are faster, and come in
>28, 33 and 40MHz versions. 

GVP just (Saturday night) officially announced their 40MHz version.  The 28MHz
version is using a 25MHz part -- some people think it's OK to do that, others
don't.  My guess is that it usually works OK.

>The design is much better, 

Better is a relative term.  It really depends on what you want.  The GVP boards
are the first non-Commodore accelerator boards that seem reasonably compatible
and reasonably reliable.  

>but they are also more expensive. GVP does really seem to set the standard for
>speed, but you get what you pay for.

>	The 2500/30 lets you have up to 4MB on board. There is a
>daughterboard which can add more memory, however, the daughterboard is
>not yet in production. 

The daughterboard specifications have, however, been released to developers.
There may be a choice of daughterboards before long.  You can logically address
about 64 megabytes on the daughterboard.

>The GVP lets you have up to 8MB of RAM expansion on board. 

Well, not really.  The GVP board doesn't allow any memory to be added on-board.
The currently do ship a daughterboard (follows their own conventions) which can
have either 4 or 8 megabytes of 32 bit memory on it.  That memory board is a bit
faster than the on-board A2630 memory, but of course the separate board and
additional logical complexity (for burst-mode support) makes it more expensive.

>>In summary, what's the nicest, most elegant way for me to have a 68030/68882
>>Amiga with lots of memory, and compatibility with 1.4 and other future stuff?

>	They both appear to be fully compatible in the future. 

Well, actually, most GVP boards currently out there need a PAL change to work 
right with 1.4 and some other things.  However, GVP has already solved the 
problem.  I would certainly expect them to try and support their customers; they 
seem to be trying to make their stuff follow the Commodore specifications for 
things wherever possible.  For example, theirs is the only other accelerator 
board on the market that implements its 68000-space 32 bit memory correctly 
(autoconfigs and supports DMA).

>Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
                    Too much of everything is just enough