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From: cseaman@sequent.UUCP (Chris "The Bartman" Seaman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: New baseline Amiga?
Message-ID: <58430@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 24 Apr 91 19:40:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: sequent.58430
References: <8737@crash.cts.com> <1991Apr23.115648.3059@news.iastate.edu>
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 56

xgr39@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes:
< uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) writes:
< >I think the focus should be on getting the price of the A500 to as low
< >as possible.  Get it lower than it is today, and it will be more accepted
< >by the mass market.
< 
<    I don't think this is the right way to go about marketing the A500 at
< all.  A lower price would not necessarily guarantee it success.  I would
< much rather have the price remain the same, and have the O.S. software
< upgraded to AmigaOS2.0, and full ECS utilized, without being crippled.
< (No more of that stupid practice of putting the Super Agnus in, and 
< only having it address 512K)

I would tend to agree, though I question whether the ECS can be added
without increasing the price of the unit.  Also, the addition of the
ECS would imply the necessity of a multi-sync monitor, which adds to
the cost to the consumer.

< >Basically what would the guestimate of the retail price on an 020 based
< >32 bit A500 be?
< >
< >-Roger
< 
<    As many people would probably remember, I used to be a very strong
< advocate of putting a 68020 into the A500 and A2000.  I no longer am.  I
< have since realized that is plenty more that is important besides the
< processor.  Instead of putting in a faster CPU into these systems, I
< would much rather see Commodore include the display enhancer hardware,
< an HD floppy drive, and a SCSI controller.  The display enhancer alone
< would be far more useful in these systems than a faster CPU.
< 
<  / Marc Barrett

This is interesting.  I think these would be valuable additions to the
A500, although there is the ever-present question of real estate.
Fitting all these things in a stock A500 case might prove difficult.
Then again, a case re-design might be in order, anyway :-).

The only real problem I would have with this is the display enhancer.
Maybe there should be two models, one with, and one without.  Why?
Cost.  There is no way that Commodore could include the display
enhancer without bumping the list price of the machine.  Also, there
are still those who are not bothered by the flicker, or simply won't be
using their A500 in any of the interlaced modes.  Why should they pay
for the extra hardware, not to mention the required multi-sync
monitor?  Perhaps an A500, without the enhancer, and an A500E, with it,
would be a good solution.

Regards,
Chris

-- 
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