Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!johnhlee From: johnhlee@CS.Cornell.EDU (John H. Lee) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: A3000 Keywords: 3000 Message-ID: <1991May1.164152.9821@cs.cornell.edu> Date: 1 May 91 16:41:52 GMT References: Sender: news@cs.cornell.edu (USENET news user) Reply-To: johnhlee@cs.cornell.edu (John H. Lee) Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853 Lines: 75 Nntp-Posting-Host: oboe.cs.cornell.edu In article moore@iastate.edu (Moore Brian Joseph) writes: [...] >My questions are to the 3000 owners/dealers. As I said, I want to avoid more >problems. Some of the things I'd like to know are: I'm a new Amiga 3000-25/50 owner, having upgraded from an A2000. > - Is the 3000's display interlaced? What's the monitor most often used, and > is it VGA compatible? There are two video ports: a normal 15KHz port, and a de-interlaced port that is VGA-compatible when the de-interlacer is active. I normally run overscanned hi-res interlaced which is non-interlaced and flicker-free from the de-interlaced port. I have a late-model A1950 which I find is more than adequate. Others advocate various NEC and Sony models. > - Can I still run WB 1.3 if 2.0 doesn't meet my needs? Yes. Kickstart is loaded from disk into RAM for the time being and a kickstart menu can be brought up on power-up to to select either Kickstart 1.3 or 2.0. There are publicly-available programs to do this without power-cycling as well. When the 2.0 ROMs are installed, Dave Haynie's SetCPU program can be used to do the same thing and run 1.3 from RAM. > - What HD controller is in the 3000? If its the A2091, will its problems be > corrected? The A3000 has a built-in SCSI controller, not an A2091, that takes advantage of the A3000's 32-bit bus. However I would not be surprised if they have similar designs. There are no problems that I am aware of besides a SCSI reselection problem not present in units shipping at this time (I run three SCSI devices--an in-box Quantum, an external Rodime, and an external tape-drive--with no problems.) A new device driver that fixes this problem for units with an earlier version of the Western Digital SCSI controller chip is/will be available. > - How much RAM can I put on the motherboard? I believed that 16Mb can be installed if 1Mbx4 ZIPs are used. > - How well does the Bridgeboard work on the 3000. Are there many slots for > this purpose. Does the ATOnce work on the 3000? From postings here and in c.s.a.hardware, the Bridgeboard works fine if care is taken to disable caching on the Bridgeboard's shared memory. This is a simple one or two line command in your startup-sequence. With a BridgeBoard installed, the A3000 has space for one additional AT card. The A3000T will have many more. > - (How well) does AMAX work with the 3000? AMAXII works superbly. It boots from an AMAX partition on my harddisk and shows the same amount of high compatibility (if not higher) as on my A2000. The system looks like a Mac Plus with a 68020 and 68882, but no PMMU since AMAX uses that to make the memory space appear contiguous. It is noticeably faster than a Macintosh SE/30 on campus. >Also are there plans for a faster BridgeBoard (SX maybe) in the works. 8 MHz >doesn't thrill me. As I said, I sometimes need to use MS-DOS and I need to >consider this. I don't know. I thought the AT-Bridgeboard was faster than 8MHz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The DiskDoctor threatens the crew! Next time on AmigaDos: The Next Generation. John Lee Internet: johnhlee@cs.cornell.edu The above opinions of those of the user, and not of this machine.