Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!tmiuv0!rick
From: rick@tmiuv0.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CAN I USE the originial AMIGA for something?
Message-ID: <3159@tmiuv0.uucp>
Date: 12 Jul 90 10:43:02 GMT
References: <2697404b-25ffcomp.sys.amiga@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Organization: Technology Marketing Inc., Irvine, CA
Lines: 43

In article <2697404b-25ffcomp.sys.amiga@vpnet.chi.il.us>, topgun@vpnet.chi.il.us (robert white) writes:
> I have the original Amiga,I believe it's called the 1000 model.

Yup, that's correct.  I have one here on my desk which I use to debug HUGE
programs before they go onto a Unix system.

>   I went to my local AMIGA store and asked them what I would need to
> do in order to use the computer to communicate with online services
> and so forth. They told me that there is so little memory on this model
> that it's useless. They suggested I dump it since it would cost way
> too much to try and upgrade it.
>    Are they accurate? What would I neeed to do to be able to use it
> to get services such as Compuserve and various BBS.

No, they're not accurate.  The stock A1000 came with 256K of memory.  You
could plug another 256K into a socket on the front of the system, giving
you a total of 512K.  There's a socket on the right hand side called the
expansion connector that allows you to stick all kinds of stuff on it.  My
machine has 2M of memory in there, and a SCSI disk interface.  So, my 1000
has 2.5MB of memory, and 80MB of hard disk.  Not bad for an "outmoded"
machine, eh?

The "cheap" Amiga (the Amiga 500) which is being sold now is really merely
a repackaged A1000 -- it has the same stuff in it (for the most part) as
it's older brother.  In fact, expansion boards for the A500 will work on
the A1000, except for the fact that they'll look weird.  The A500's expansion
connector is on the left.  To use A500 devices, you have to plug them in
"backward" on the A1000 (just move the device clockwise to the right of the
A1000, raise it up off the table and plug it in).  Like I said, it'll look
weird, but it works.

There are still A1000 peripherals available.  The memory I have on my 1000
is a MicroBotics StarBoard 2.  It's still being made.  The SCSI disk is
a StarDrive module (plugs into an expansion connector on the StarBoard) and
an el cheapo Mac hard disk.
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[- O] Rick Stevens
  ?   EMail: uunet!zardoz!tmiuv0!rick -or- uunet!zardoz!xyclone!sysop
  V   CIS: 75006,1355 (75006.1355@compuserve.com from Internet)

"I'm tellin' ya, Valiant!  Da whole ting stinks like yesterday's diapers!"
                                - Baby Herman in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
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