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From: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: *** The New Amiga 3500 !!! ***
Message-ID: <7986@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 14 Nov 90 21:18:36 GMT
References: <6026@munnari.oz.au>
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Reply-To: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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In article <6026@munnari.oz.au> jimt@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Jim Trivellas) writes:
>
>	I just obtained a copy of the November issue of the British Magazine
>"AMIGA USER INTERNATIONAL", which has some information on the Amiga 3500
>Workstation !!!
>
>	As far as I can tell, it has a 68030 @ 50Mhz, 68882, 5Mb RAM 
>(expandable to 18Mb), a SCSI controller, an enhancer to produce flicker-free 
>output whilst in graphics mode, and other so called "standard features".
>CBM will probably market it with Unix-V.4. The system comes in a Tower case
>(the article has a picture of it), and it looks almost identical to an 
>MS-DOS (yuk!) machine. Naturally CBM didn't comment on its price.

Actually, I doubt that CBM commented on anything here.  I wonder if
that picture is really of a 3500.  It takes little effort to stick a
"3500" on an MS-DOS machine.  The early reviews of the CDTV had "faked"
pictures of the machine.....

>Has anyone seen the 3500 or heard anything about it?

Something I'm surprised nobody mentioned:

The schematics diagrams in the back of the A3000 hardware intro book
have several boxes here and there.  These boxes often have a little
note saying "IF AMIGA=3500" or "IF AMIGA=3000".  I assume that this
means that I also have the schematics of the 3500 in my hands.

DISCLAIMER:  I AM NOT AN EXPERT IN INTERPRETING SCHEMATICS, AND THERE
ARE SURE TO BE MISTAKES BELOW.

Anyway, they show this:

p. E-7 3500 has different style of serial port (rectangular, not
D-connector), and all the LED's are combined (different colors??).

p. E-4 Two differing styles of plugs, the 3000 with a 3x5 grid of
holes, and the 3500 with a 2x12 grid.  There are lines going out
called TICK and _FAIL, so you figure it out.

p. E-9 Big box with nothing in it.  Commodore must be keeping SOMETHING
secret.

p E-11 Two different video slots!!!  3000 shows normal slot, but 3500
shows slot broken up into two in-line parts, both with 36 pins.  Also
(for both machines), there is a chip labeled "vidiot". Go figure.

p. E-12 Unknown slot, but only for the 3000.  No mention of what
you get for the 3500.  This one has 100 pins.

p. E-13 Five (only five?) slots side by side for the 3500.  They look
like Zorro III slots.  However, the "3500" is hard to read, and looks
more like "3300".  Start your own rumors.

p. E-14 Four AT-style slots for your bridgeboard.
   Also, something both machines get, a very complicated bugger called
   the "Amiga 32-bit local slot".  There's one line called EXTCPU and
   another called RAMSLOT, with about 200 lines total.  I'll bet that
   this is the real CPU slot.  So, what's that thing on E-12?

If anybody is better at reading schematics, perhaps he could explain
this stuff, especially E-12 and E-4, and the justification for the
different video slots.

>(How about a 4000 with a 68040 ???)

Commodore would be foolish if they aren't working on this, but their
policy is not to talk about it.  That means we won't hear from Dave.

>  Jim Trivellas.

             Dan Zerkle  zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu  (916) 754-0240
           Amiga...  Because life is too short for boring computers.