Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!oliveb!amiga!jimm
From: jimm@amiga.UUCP (Jim Mackraz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Amiga Custom Chips - why hasn't C= made them faster?
Message-ID: <6456@amiga.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 91 21:08:53 GMT
References: <CPETTERB.91Apr2105151@mickey.glacier.sim.es.com> <1991Apr2.235710.13984@news.iastate.edu> <1991Apr3.130218.25163@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Organization: I and I Computing, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 57

In article <1991Apr3.130218.25163@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:
)
)  I'm not going comment on your 'charts' because I have no idea what the
)units on your numbers mean. And in the past you have demonstrated your
)inability to read market statistics, so for all I know, those numbers
)could be the number of pizzas C= execs ordered last year.
)
)  You still have no idea what your talking about and you fail to see the
)big picture.

I tell ya, if you posted more quantitative facts and fewer words, your
point might be a compelling as Marc's.  His documented point is that
C= spends much less on R&D than other computer companies.

This is true.  It's a problem.  In case you haven't noticed the
Amiga is evolving *very* slowly, particularly in the "crown jewels,"
the custom chips.  We all wonder why the A500 isn't trumpeted as
a leader in the new "home computer influx" and the answer is that
it's just too old to be of great interest to the media or the public.

C= gets pretty good bang for its buck from the Engineering team, esp.
if you consider how much effort is spent on interim band-aids,
such as the A2024 monitor, the Amber circuit, and the "Productivity mode"
of ECS Denise (which also ate up a considerable amount of system
software resources to support...).

But there should be more dollars, if the plan is to compete as
a computer, or even as a home computer or game machine.  Real
improvements in graphics and display are still missing in action.

As a software developer, I like faster CPU's and disks most of all,
though, but I sure would like a couple hundred more high-res colors.

By the time we see that on the Amiga (unknown) I fear the rest of
the world will be doing millions of colors, with full-motion video.

But I take issue with Marc's implication that C= doesn't know what
it's doing.  Perhaps Irving and Mehdi know exactly what they're
doing, and maybe they're making a conscious choice to focus on the
"new" consumer market for CDTV, to the exclusion of the difficult
"proprietary architecture PC" efforts.

... and just aren't bothering to tell us in so many words.

The computer business can be a problem.  For example, it requires too
much R&D money to be competitive...

But CDTV, whoa, we could get Big Rich here.  Their frontman (Bushnell)
has talked about C= owning 80% of a $40 Billion market.  Who needs
computers...?

	jimm

-- 
--- opinions expressed herein are my own. ---
"... Because they can."
		- profound punchline to joke about dogs