Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From: BARRETT%FOREST.ECIL.IASTATE.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Whither Amiga?
Message-ID: <15134@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Date: 27 Mar 90 17:35:57 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 55


  I have been pointing out, for some time, the fact that the Amiga is
no longer a serious force in the computer industry.  So far, I have
gotten precisely the the responses I expected.  The responses were to
the effect that the Amiga is still the best low-end computer money
can buy.

   But this is exacly my point.  Everything Commodore produces ends
up a home computer.  The Amiga will forever remain a home computer,
and Commodore will forever remain a home computer company.  Commodore
may be satisfied with this, but I am not.  There are no longer any
serious uses for the Amiga in the business, scientific, or
workstation markets.  Therefore, there is no business, scientific,
or workstation software for the Amiga.

   The Amiga's ability to display a puny 4096 colors is no longer
state-of-the-art.  Companies that previously used Amigas (with its
ability to display 4096 colors at once) will now use Macs (with
their ability to display any of 16 Million colors at once).

   Since 1985, Apple has improved the MAC by leaps and bounds,
but Commodore has hardly improved the Amiga at all.  None of the
current Amiga models is more than slightly different than the
original Amiga 1000.

   'But', you may say, 'Commodore does not have the R&D budget
that Apple has.'  True, but do you realize just how many times
bigger Commodore is compared to NeXT, Inc.?  And yet, NeXT has
managed to muster a R&D budget larger than Commodore's, and
produce more truly innovative products than Commodore.

   In order to aviod being relegated to the home computer market,
Commodore must find a way to produce a video card for the Amiga
with the ability to display millions of colors at once.  I have
already outlined [in previous messages] a way to do precisely
this: by modifying the Lowell board to turn the two overlay bit-
planes into control planes for a HAM mode.  If Commodore's
engineers cannot do this, then they should contact Jay Minor and
the original designers of the Lowell video card.  This would
allow the Amiga to compete directly with the MAC in the
scientific, multimedia, and workstation markets.

   Commodore needs to do this immediately.  I originally made
my ideas about this public a year ago.  As far as I know,
nothing has been done so far.  That is a whole year of wasted
time.  Time is growing ahort, and no more time can be wasted.

   BTW, I would like everyone here to know that I have pure
motived in stirring up trouble here.  I love the Amiga, and
I do not want it to become a simple home computer.


                              Marc Barrett

      AMIGA : Yesterday's Technology, FOREVER!!!!!