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From: chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Erik Funkenbusch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Revised Amiga line
Message-ID: <4702@orbit.cts.com>
Date: 26 Apr 91 00:26:29 GMT
Sender: news@orbit.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Lines: 41

Well, i was doing some thinking (a not so common occurance nowadays :)  and i
came up with some new ideas (or maybe not so new).   These are my suggestions
for a new improved amiga line:

1) An EXTREMELY low cost 500.  this would be a totally re-designed 500
motherboard with ECS, NO Zorro expansion, built-in scsi, and a Pizza box
(slab) design.  my reasons for this are severalfold.  MOST people who buy a
500 over a 2000 do so because "I don't want to expand, so why should i pay for
all those slots".  This should be marketed as a no-expansion machine as a
feature, i.e. your not paying for something your not going to use.  this is my
largest qualm with the Mac LC, the no-slot, no-expansion is downplayed to such
an extent that many people don't know that they can't expand it when they buy
it.  but i drift, this machine could make heavy use of VLSI to reduce cost. 
although the scsi controller would add to the cost, there being no expansion
would reduce cost more i would think making it a net cheaper cost to produce.

2) A redesigned 2000.  this would look more like a 3000, i.e. snazzier case
design, backplane expansion.  however i think it could be designed such all of
the costly parts of having an expandible architecture could be placed on the
backplane (i.e. busmaster, buffers, etc..) so that the machine could be sold
without the backplane at a substantially less cost, then people could purchase
the backplane when they were ready to expand.

3) A trade-up offer for 500 slab machines to higher machines. so that
purchasing a low end machine doesn't mean you lose your investment.  the
traded up machines could be re-furbished and leased out, sold at a lower cost,
or given to schools as a tax-break.  

If anyone has an address (email or USMail) of someone at commodore that might
be interested in these and more comments i would appreciate it if they could
send it to me.   otherwise, i'd like to know what people think of these
concepts.

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