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From: kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Time For A New Computer?
Message-ID: <1990Dec19.185247.28977@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 19 Dec 90 18:52:47 GMT
References: <9012191335.AA17268@cwns1.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: NCSU Computing Center
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In gentle reply to ai065@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Thomas Hill)'s
 <9012191335.AA17268@cwns1.INS.CWRU.Edu>:

> I wager that Commodore could do it now, but by the time the thing
> comes out in a year or more it'll be even more "cheap" to build. 

Okay, that makes your intent _much_ clearer.  A "year or more" from
now is a long time, and brings it more into the realm of possibility.
Please allow me to add some side comments which may be of interest
or help, from our experience designing those new OS-9 68K machines:

You're right about the 1.5meg drives! They're inexpensive if you
have a disk controller that can handle them.  OEM cost? <$50.

The 68020: Dirt cheap now.  But we couldn't find a supplier willing to
guarantee quantities.  Our guesses are that Apple grabbed all in sight,
and also that Motorola intends to drop it soon (anyone know?).

We did make a board set (it's now in use around the country in things
such as 125 feet per minute 36" printers) with a 16mhz 68030...and
for our own home use we added DMA HDfloppy/SCSI and 256 from 16-million
color graphics boards into the 6-slot backplane.  The actual parts cost
(excluding the 6-layer board layout, etc) was only around $500 to hand
assemble one.  But throw in floppies, case, keyboard, mouse, pwr supply,
packaging, software costs, and dealer discounts (can't forget that!)...
and you'd end up with an easily $3000-range *retail* machine.

The question is then: how much will the cost change in a year or so?
<scratching head>  Hard to say.  I wonder just how much Motorola will
drop the 030 price without risking undermining the 040, for instance.
RAM will drop more, we hope.  But some of the main costs (labor, case
and other needed hardware, marketing, software) will stay fairly level.

> One thing is very obvious to me. The under-$1000 market needs something
> newer than the plain 68000 CPU and 8 bit graphics. If Commodore doesn't
> do it, somebody will.

Yes, somebody surely will.  And if it pushes others in the 68K market to
do the same, then all the better! cheers - kevin <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>