Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!swarren From: swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Wrong board size for Amiga 3000 Message-ID: <107337@convex.convex.com> Date: 19 Oct 90 13:25:44 GMT References: <5086@crash.cts.com> Sender: news@convex.com Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx. Lines: 41 In article mwm@raven.relay.pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: [...] >Hey, why should I pay for all them extra slots? Don't need no video; >don't really need even one Zorro ]I[ slot, but not having one at all >could be painfull, so the price break would have to be real good to >go to none. How about a stripped-down 3000 with just one slot? [...] Yeah, but I think the ultimate "minimal" cheap 3000 offshoot would include an A3000 motherboard with an Ethernet card plugged into the place where the backplane normally goes. Build it in a box with the 1950 tube and space for 2 floppies on the right side. Do it like the NCD tubes, which have a small base that contains the motherboard, and the tube is swivel-mounted (integrated) on top of the base. The maximum configuration of this machine would be 8 SCSI devices, 4 floppies (2 internal, 2 external), 16 Meg of motherboard fast ram, and 2 Meg of chip ram. Leave space for a right-angle connected CPU-slot board, so further memory expansion or CPU enhancement could occur there. There would be RGB out, 1 serial & 1 parallel port (we really should figure out a way to get 2 serial ports on there), a SCSI port, audio out, keyboard and mouse ports, a floppy port, and Ethernet. To cut expenses, and since the monitor is integrated, the RGB port could be eliminated. The floppy port could conceivably also be eliminated. The combination would be so compact, it would look as small as a monitor with nothing under it but a swivel-mount base. If people wanted to add SCSI peripherals they could purchase a cheap XT-clone case & power supply and stack the tube on top of it, and it would not take up any more space than the 2000 system does today. This tube could sell for around $2000-$2500 retail, and people would line to buy it. -- _. --Steve ._||__ DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own. Warren v\ *| ---------------------------------------------- V {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.COM