Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:1112 comp.sys.mac.misc:9565
Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac and Amiga (Games--Macintosh vs A500)
Message-ID: <19884@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 23:16:25 GMT
References: <91MAR12.134551@ducvax.auburn.edu> <1991Mar13.131004.9647@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Mar13.221028.8703@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Mar14.003252.27833@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1991Mar14.182414.11033@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 48

In article <1991Mar14.182414.11033@neon.Stanford.EDU> torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:

>>with a full 32-bit bus running at 25MHz, built in 32-bit SCSI and

>  Is this SCSI-2?  SCSI-1 is an 8-bit protocol.

Well, actually, the A3000 ships with SCSI-1 now, but can easily support SCSI-2
with a chip change.  SCSI-1, and most SCSI-2 implementations as well, use 8
bit datapaths.  So what?  AppleTalk and RS-232 use 1 bit data paths, that
doesn't mean I'm going to make my computer read each of these in one bit at a
time.  In most Mac, that's exactly what you're doing with SCSI.  In the A3000,
data from the SCSI bus goes into a FIFO.  When the FIFO is full, the hard disk
controller masters the bus and dumps that data to memory, going fast and using
the full system bus with of 32 bits.  Then it goes away, and waits for the FIFO
to fill again.  When the transfer is complete, it send the CPU an interrupt.
Amiga SCSI works the same on A2000s and A500s, except they use the 16 bit data
path on those machines.

>>up to 18MB on the motherboard, 

>  Well, you can put 128MB on the motherboard of a Mac II today... not
>that it's really relevant.

Certainly not MOST Mac IIs.  The IIcx here in my lab only has two banks of
SIMMs.   It supports (at least I think it does...) up to 16Mbit SIMMs, which 
would give you 32MB, if fully populated.  It is a moot point, since the Mac 
OS can't use more that 16MB (sure, cheap shot, but it was a big target...).

>  CDTV IS innovative - I forgot about that... but it seems to suffer
>the age-old Commodore problem of being announced 10 years before it's
>ready to ship :-)  

Gee, guess I missed that 1981 announcement.  Of course, I was kind of out of
touch in college...

>  Look at what Apple is doing this year

Well, that's what Apple is announcing this year.  Like CDTV, or Mac OS release
7, we'll believe it when it's out.

>Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu   


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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	"What works for me might work for you"	-Jimmy Buffett