Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:76436 comp.sys.amiga.misc:120 comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:131 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!vsi1!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: A3500 ?? Summary: A topic for .advocacy, for heaven's sake! Keywords: sheesh! Message-ID: <1991Jan17.050949.11038@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 17 Jan 91 05:09:49 GMT References: <665@tronsbox.xei.com> Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 131 tron1@tronsbox.xei.com (Kenneth Jamieson) writes: > Ok, well, with the A3000out in the world, all the specs now known. I > think it is more than time to start talking about the A3500 (or would > it be the A4000 ?) Which is a topic specifically meant to be isolated to c.s.a.advocacy; please _start_ such discussions there, and save the rest of the groups the pain of moving them. > In the long tradition of c.s.a I will expect this to get very spirited > and look forward to all the rumors and wish lists (1/2 ;-) Which is why it should be in .advocacy, and not the groups you chose. Those of us interested in participating in such discussions are already running a permanent floating net.riot in .advocacy; do join the fun. > Actually, I am not trying to stir up trouble here, but I was thinking > the other day abou this topic. My development env here is bogging > down, and my choice is to spend approx 1800$ now and get a '486 MB or > wait and get a A3000/UX. A posting that both points to a future path for the Amiga and suggests that any other piece of trash has a hope of acting as a sop until you get an Amiga is an _excellent_ and 100% guaranteed way to stir up trouble; use some sense! > But I just cant justify the expense of a A3000/UX for >UNIX< > development over a '486 IN MY CASE because I would need a entire > A3000/UX as opposed to just a '486 MB. Tell someone who cares. I call that throwing good money after bad. > So I started thinking, "Ok, get the '486 now and start saving for the > NEXT generation Amiga, or a A3000/UX and a Toaster when they make it > fit." .. but what WILL be the next generation Amiga ?? "Next" is not a word we like to hear around here a lot, either. > Ok... on to the rumors... Heeeeere's Kenny.....: > I have heard that (from the rumors guy at our users group) (Actually, > they are such logical changes that they should be true) > 1) The A3500 will be a tower case with 6-8 slots. Probably. > 2) The A3500 will be sized to fit a Toaster. The _A3000_ was sized to fit a Toaster; it isn't Commodore's fault that Newtek didn't employ anyone competent to read an engineering drawing, and made a card that wouldn't fit the perfectly well delimited space allowed. Screw 'em; let Newtek fix their own engineering gaffes. > These have been alternately mentioned for a "A3500" or "A4000" so I'll > list em here... > 3) A possible '040 at > 25 MHZ Probably the best you can do. Yawn. Wake me up when you can do that at 100 MHz with memory fast enough to keep up. > 4) New 256 or 4096 color modes (640x400 or better) Far too little imagination; if CBM is going to keep a lock on the Video market in the face of the fast oncoming competition, without an adequate advertising budget, then there _must_ be a stock 24bit color system _from CBM_. If you can't suck them in with advertising bullshit, you have to actually blow the competition out of the water with technical merit. > 5) Standard ethernet ? (rumored workstation configuration) Depends a lot on your intended market; if you are still targeting the high end home market, then ethernet is a bull-nipple as a standard feature for 90% of your market, and should probably be left out to reduce the base price; if you only intend to sell into the workstation market, then you are going to have to jack the machine speed up to outcompete the R6000 class machines, and the cost of ethernet is going to disappear into the noise level compared to the cost of the whole unit, so you might as well toss it in to help you compete on techinical merit. If you're competing in this market, you'd better be striving for 1280x1024 resolution as well, or you'll keep being seen as a toy vendor. > My WISH LIST would start as follows... > 1) Commodore to embrace C++ as the new standard in the way they did > with C. Gag! Follow comp.std.c++. The C++ language is rapidly going the way of Ada -- too damned complicated and counterintuitive to be used for anyone of less than deific competence. Like Ada, C++ has incomprehensible identifier visibility rules, bizarre separate compilation interactions, and adds poor compromises between upward compatibility with C and object oriented programming support, baroque inheritance rules, et ad nauseum cetera. > 2) The better video modes. Keen plan; that's what CBM's been about. The hardware is in place, it is unclear to what extent software support/compatibility has been accomplished. I'm not the least bit thrilled with a monitor technology that seems to paint the screen in quadrants, though; that tremendously complicates the "draw after the scanline is passed" schemes to support BOB motion without double buffering overhead or screen trash from uncoordinated blits. > 3) A standard >3< button mouse. Looks like it will be crucial for AmigaUnix to be used smoothly with the existing software base; it would be nice to see it hacked in to become a standard part of AmigaOS, but that implies that the A3000 should ship with a three button mouse, and the user community will need to upgrade or to have a keypress that emulates the middle mouse button. > Hehehe -- have fun! Sure, but there's a playground for this kind of stuff; please use it. Deliberately starting a thread like this _away_ from .advocacy is just being hostile to the c.s.a.* community. /// It's Amiga /// for me: why Kent, the man from xanth. \\\/// settle for \XX/ anything less? -- Convener, COMPLETED comp.sys.amiga grand reorganization.