Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk
From: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Time For A New Computer?
Message-ID: <651@cbmger.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 90 09:29:37 GMT
References: <1990Dec18.214018.15242@solo.csci.unt.edu>
Reply-To: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Organization: Commodore Bueromaschinen GmbH, West Germany
Lines: 31

Ok, it's Christmas time, time for wishes. So I'm going to throw
in my thoughts of about what seems possible to me to blow up
the A500 to even more power:
- replace that A501 bay by an array of RAM sockets as in the 3000
  (is perhaps rather cost-neutral)
- provide one Zorro II and one video slot, the cards arranged
  lying flat above the main board (perhaps the case would get
  a little higher). The two slot connectors are arranged ca. in
  the middle of the main board so that one card covers the back
  half and the other one the front half of the mainboard.
  The cards would have their end strips at the
  left side, replacing the current expansion connector. There
  could be provided a means to make it still possible to connect
  current expansion devices by using a simple adapter cable from
  the Zorro II slot plus an extra connector inside that provides
  the remaining pins for the expansion bus. Or make this cable
  really a Zorro card, stretching to the outside with the
  compatible expansion connector, fetching the remaining bus
  signals from that mentioned internal extra connector.
- put an RTC on the mainboard
- perhaps provide a SCSI controller on-board
- processor: as far as I heard, the 68020 has no big future,
  so either take a 68000 with 14 MHz or a 68030 (aren't there
  rumors of Motorola launching a cheap, 16-bit version of it?)
  Make processor speed switchable back to 7 MHz for compatibility
  purposes 
- naturally, use ECS, provide for 2 MB chip RAM

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk