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From: rodent@netcom.UUCP (Richard Noah)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Atari TT030 vs. Amiga 3000
Message-ID: <17900@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 2 Dec 90 08:07:35 GMT
Organization: Netcom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 62


  I work as a C/systems programmer here at VersaSoft, where we produce a
DBMS that runs on a great many platforms, including the Amiga and Atari.
Due to some strange arrangements, we have here both a top-of-the-line
A3000 and an Atari TT030.  As a longstanding amigoid (since Dec'85) I was
curious about Atari's efforts to keep up and compete.  Last I checked, 
ST sales in the US were nearly dead, so I wasn't expecting much in the way
of new development.  However, it appears they are as alive as ever in
Europe, so they managed to produce this interesting machine, which is
quite obviously an attempt to duplicate the 3000:

Atari TT030 specs
-----------------
68030 @ 32 Mhz / 68882
2, 4, 6, or 8 MB RAM, expandable to 26 MB using 4Mbit chips
Graphics: palette of 4096 colors
 ST video modes plus: TT Low (320 x 480 x 256)
		      TT Medium (640 x 480 x 16)
		      TT High (1280 x 960 x 2) requires special monitor
Ports: (this is where it gets really interesting)
  Midi In, Midi Out
  VME-compatible Eurocard slot
  Monitor port (same VGA port as a 3000)
  Parallel port
  2 serial ports (labeled "VME" on the machine)
  2 "fully configured" RS232 Modem ports
  Floppy Disk port (include controller)
  SCSI port
  LAN interface
  ACSI DMA port (10 megabits per second DMA transfer rate)
  ROM Cartridge port (after all, it IS an Atari) (128K capacity)
  Mouse/Joystick and Joystick ports
    (thats what the manual says, but in reality the mouse plugs into the
	keyboard (keyboard has a mouse/joystick port on each side!))
  Stereo sound output
And:
Built-In hard disk (apparently available in 20, 40, 60, or 80 MB, but this
  is never stated directly anywhere)

My impressions:
  The first thing you notice is that the fan is extremely noisy.  The second
is that TOS hasn't changed noticably in 6 years, still clumsy, ugly,
lacking important things like multitasking or even a shell, and SLOW,
even on a 68030 that supposedly at 32 Mhz (although half the documentation
says it's 16Mhz).  There was a mandelbrot demo included that was both
ugly and extremely slow, and a 3D graphic demo which was impressive, but
totally took over the machine (power switch to exit, ugh!).
  After two days it stopped working.  I wasn't surprised.

Conclusions:
  The workstation market has nothing to fear from this machine, even if
Atari prices it at $1500 or some such ridiculously low Atari price.  Frankly,
the operating system is so horrid, puny and slow that even with all the
PD enhancements (most of which don't work on an 030/latest TOS) the machine
is unusable.

Now we can go back to our much more interesting 3000/color Next discussions,
yeah!

------------------------------------
Ben Discoe, caltech escapee and frustrated visionary, borrowing this account
that will undoubtably be killed at any moment.