Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Will A3500UX have an 68040?
Message-ID: <17741@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 17 Jan 91 18:28:24 GMT
References: <9101140911.16.855@INSIDER>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 37

In article <9101140911.16.855@INSIDER> sysop@insider.zer.sub.org writes:

>>...CBM reps and Amiga experts have said that the Amiga3000's
>>CPU slot can handle an 040, and was designed with the 040 in mind.

>Sure... what I meant was putting an 040 on the motherboard.

As long as there is no speed difference, why would you care where a 68040
is physically located in any given machine?

The coprocessor board concept is far from a kludge.  It is something we 
intended to use from the beginning, in real system setups.  We could have
built a basic 68020 or 68030 based Amiga 2500, with the CPU on the 
motherboard rather than in a coprocessor slot.  But that would have given
you no advantage, and us several disadvantages: [1] no simple upgrade for
A2000 owners, [2] too many different Amiga models.  

Once the need for a full 32 bit system in larger volumes became clear, we did 
the A3000.  But that was quite a bit more work than simply having the CPU on
the motherboard, and it took much longer (I started working on A3000 related
things in August of 1988).  And the main A3000 advantages aren't CPU speed
related anyway -- except for burst mode on the A3000, the 25MHz 3000 runs
the same memory cycle as the A2500/30.  But along with that, you got faster
Chip RAM, a much faster hard disk controller, a real 32 bit bus, and a lower
cost.  Because the A3000 was designed as a full new system, not just "68030
on the motherboard".

I think its reasonable to expect the same basic paths to be followed with 
68040s and Amigas.

>Amiga - What else ? |  Garry Glendown         The Insider HST/V32 0662177923

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"Don't worry, 'bout a thing. 'Cause every little thing, 
	 gonna be alright"		-Bob Marley