Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A590 Controller
Message-ID: <1963@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 11 Sep 90 11:54:36 GMT
Lines: 45
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <1990Sep11.202511.17745@uncecs.edu>, utoddl@uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) writes:
>In article <1952@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
>>Well, the A590 has the A590 controller. It's functionally equivalent to the
>>2091. There is no problem with overscan. It does have an interface that the
>>2091 does not have, but it is not ST506; it is IDE (or whatever the IBMers call
>>their kludge).
>
>Wonderful.  So in theory it should be possible to make an A590 work with
>an A2000.  It would take some mechanical work, certainly, but shouldn't
>it be possible?

You could make an A590 work with a 2000, but it would require a fair bit of
work. The connector is the wrong gender, and has the wrong number of pins, and
there are some signals you would have to derive.  The best solution by far is
to get the proper stuff to begin with, and barring that, to sell off the A500
stuff and buy the A2000 equivalents.

>I suspect there are lots of people out there who have A590s on either
>A1000s or A500 who would like to get an Amiga with slots but don't want
>to leave their A590s behind.  This, to me, is the biggest chink in the
>Amiga line--if you start small (with an A500) and want to upgrade later,
>you have to ditch the extra hardware you have accumulated along the way.

I suppose it would be nice, but the realities are that the product line is
sharply differentiated between the A500 and the rest of the line, with the A500
being sold as an entry level system with limited expandability. In order to
allow this sort of differentiation, and because of it, a sharply differentiated
price, certain design decisions were made.

>Seems like there should be a cheap way to do this.  If anybody comes up
>with one, I'd like to hear about it.

Various third party manufacturers have already tried to provide cheap ways to
upgrade, mostly for the A1000. TANSTAAFL.

-larry

--
It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs.
    -D.Wolfskill
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ 
|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
| \X/    lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips |
|        COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322  -or-  76703.4322@compuserve.com        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+