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From: dave@exactus.UUCP (Dave)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore Research and Development.
Message-ID: <X6yBV2w163w@exactus.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 91 02:23:32 GMT
References: <1991Jan3.003449.1@ccvax.iastate.edu>
Organization: Exactus Inc, Santa Rosa, CA
Lines: 57

taab5@ccvax.iastate.edu writes:

> 
>    I would seriously like someone to tell me why, over the past few years,
> Commodore's research and development has become very, very lax.  To prove
> my point I would like to present six cases in which Commodore hardware R&D
> has fallen well behind the rest of the industry -- in some cases two or
> three generations behind.
> 
> [MOST OF THE FLAME DELETED]
>
>    In conclusion, I feel that Commodore has fallen so for behind in their
> R&D that they will probably never catch up.  Commodore has never been
> a company that produces innovative new technologies, and very likely never
> will be.  Commodore is a 'catch-up' company that is forever trying to
> catch up with the rest of the industry, to avoid going out of business
> altogether, and will likely always be this way.
> 
>     AMIGA -- YESTERDAY'S TECHNOLOGY, FOREVER!!!
> 
Well, I tend to agree with you, and realistcally speaking, all I see from
a lot of developers out there is to basically deny it left and right, when
it is obvious that the Amiga is already way behind in the video display
technology (among several other things). Way back then, I used to be one of
those saying that not only the Amiga has MORE colors, BETTER resolutions,
and NTSC compatibility, but I also couldn't resist telling them how much
cheaper it was. Today, I find myself working 80% of my time under Windows
3.0 with a TIGA 34020 card, which until very resently was not even talked
about by the Amiga Developers community. Yes, the Toaster and the VideoMaster
are too excellent technologies that beat anything out there,  but they are
NOT Amiga technology by any means. Short from it... The VideoMaster 32 is
based on the 34020 chipset from TI, which is readily available on other
platforms as well. It is also quite incorrect to say that this technologies
are too expensive on the PC world, because they are not. A Hercules Graphics
Station Video Card, which is based on the 34010 chip, with 24 bit support,
goes for a little less than $700 street price. And even SuperVGA cards are
not capable of displaying 1024x768x8bits with considerable speed, and they
go for as little as $350.00.

It is quite sad that none of the Amiga video cards can't even display the
operating system on them. Here we have a graphics.library that does nothing
for device independency! Even Windows 3.0 has this kind of capability. But
that's not all, I have seen several developers here not even concerned
about this most important capability! Soon enough (if not already), we will
be talking about the 10 different video standards on the Amiga, each one
of them with its very own set of programs that work with it and only it.


Dave

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