Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan.acs.syr.edu!jfbruno
From: jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu (John Bruno)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: it would be nice
Message-ID: <1990Sep20.155858.19560@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 90 15:58:58 GMT
References: <2285@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> <6419@castle.ed.ac.uk> <13857@brahms.udel.edu>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga
Organization: Integrated Healthcare Technologies, Inc.
Lines: 47

In article <13857@brahms.udel.edu> don@brahms.udel.edu (Donald R Lloyd) writes:
>In article <6419@castle.ed.ac.uk> aimd@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Davidson) writes:
>>In article <2285@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> scoile@gmuvax2.UUCP (Steve Coile) writes:
>>>Okay, the Amiga is a better computer.  Happy?  It's not like most of us
>>>are going to run out and get a new computer.  I personally have NO extra
>>>money, even if I WANTED to get an Amiga.  I personally don't like the
>>>Amiga's set-up, nor Commodore itself.  I like my ST because I like
>>>Atari.  I have always like Atari, and I will stand by it because of it.
>>
>>Yuk, just because it's got a copper and super-flickery modes doesn't
>>mean its better.
>>
>	It's also got a blitter which actually gets used; the "super-flickery"
>modes do mean it's better... for those who need to work with video.  The 3000
>has a de-interlacer, the new Enhanced Chip Set for all Amigas will provide
>hi-res non-interlaced modes.  Amigas don't have to be rebooted to switch 
>resolutions, either...
>
>>In order to have a decent Amiga system you need loads of memory ( to run
>>more than one program at a time), need more than one disk drive or a
>>hard drive and a monitor to access the migrane-modes.
>>
>	The vast majority get by with 1 meg.  Yes, more memory is nicer, especially
>when you do a lot of multitasking.  As far as needing a HD or more than one 
>floppy, I wouldn't want to run ANY system in a 1-floppy configuration.
>
>>Personally, I've never needed one of AmigaDos' biggest selling points -
>>the multi-tasking, although I realise that all Amiga owners play
>>Populous while they run massive ray-tracing sessions. (Well, actually
>>you can't do both those things on the Amiga at one time but we'll keep
>>quiet about that so that people think you can).
>
>	Why can't it do this?  Certainly on a 68000 machine you'll see a slowdown.
>But you can set one task at a lower priority to speed up the other.  Of course,
>I can plug in a 68010, or an '020 or '030 board, or buy a 3000, for various
>levels of speed increase.  I have yet to see an ST running on faster than a 
>14MHz 68000, mostly, I assume, because TOS doesn't support the 0[1-4]0.
>I can speed my system up anywhere from 5-10% for $10 (68010) to over 20 times
>faster (even more for floating point) with a 50 MHz '030 board.
>	I never really 'needed' multitasking either... till I got used to it.
>I'm lharcing some files right now, while running this term program, a text
>editor with a >500K text file loaded in, an open shell window, and a directory
>utility, as well as 4 or 5 little utilities I automatically run at startup.
>My 3 meg machine reports (via one of those aforementioned utilities) that
>I have 1953K free.
>>
>>-Mark.