Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Macs etc.
Message-ID: <15321@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 22 Oct 90 19:20:06 GMT
References: <901017.09584647.033595@CMR.CP6>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 46

In article <901017.09584647.033595@CMR.CP6> Dennis_Grant@CMR001.BITNET writes:

>     Dave Haynie writes:
>>Bad,wicked,evil analogy. A Miata and a Chevette are day and night
>>different. [stuff deleted]

>    Not really when you look at the mechanicals. Both are 4-cylinder, low
>displacement, front-drive small cars. Even (if I recall correctly) the
>suspension is comparable.

The Miata is rear wheel drive.  Front drive would not have made any sense.
And while there are both 4-cylinder engines, the engines are very different.
Both the VAX 11/780 and the MIPS R6000 based computers have 32 bit CPUs,
but they are hardly equivalent in power.  Similarly, there can be a world
of difference between cars with the same basic kind of suspension, even if
these are similar in basic design (don't really know what's in a Chevette, I 
only know that it prevents safe fast cornering at high speeds).  Anyone who
doesn't appreciate the difference shouldn't pay the extra money.

>     Good point, and very true, but how many A3000's have been sold? 

Probably about as many as Commodore could make since around May/June when they
really started coming off the production lines.  But you don't just stamp
these things out like C64s.  I have heard a number of complaints about waits
to get A3000s; hopefully that's not the case any longer.

>And as the A3000 is price compareable to the Macs, wouldn't it be better to 
>have that advantage in the cheaper machines as well? (A500,2000)

You don't get color in any Mac similar in price to an A500.  You can add this
to an A2000.  The A2000 has less of a bang/buck out of the box than an A500,
since you have to pay for a 200Watt power supply vs. the 500's 35 or so Watts,
lots of board and case space for expansion boards, etc.  The A500 and the
new Macs can cut down on system cost by disallowing much expansion.

>     Incidently, why didn't the A3000 add an extra bitplane? I seem to
>recall an allowance for one in the OS. (no flame, just curiosity)

The OS would probably allow several, but the A3000 still uses a version of the
ECS Amiga chips, which don't support anything like that.

>| Dennis Grant DETUD595@CMR001.BITNET |   There ain't no replacement |
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	Standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold	-REM