Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!ucsd!sdcc6!sdcc5!cs171wbu
From: cs171wbu@sdcc5.ucsd.edu (Dave)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: 68030+68040 on A3000: is it possible?
Message-ID: <18991@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 4 May 91 03:41:50 GMT
References: <24561@well.sf.ca.us> <15543@life.ai.mit.edu>
Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
Distribution: comp
Lines: 79


It is probably not practical to expect both an 030 and an 040 to
use the same ram (on the motherboard) which is how the 040
acceleartor slot on the 3000 is designed to wor.  If you wanted to
have both an 040 and an 030, you would want the 040 put in one of the
32 bit slots on the 3000, with its own private ram, acting as a
coprocessor for the 030 (which could ofload processes to the 040
to run in the background).

An 040 accelerator for the 3000, which uses the 040 slot and
has 64bit ram will hopefully be available soon.  An 040 is 3-5
times faster than an 030 at the same clock speed (for integer
operataions) and even faster for floating point.
Commodore needs to push this accelerator development -
You can currently get a next computer with an 040 and a 200 meg
hard drive for $4000 (educational prices), monochrome monitor
only, but its high res.

Commodore should also develop a standard 8 and 32 bit color graphics
card (with many megs of graphics memory) and hopefully a graphics
coprocessor like i860.  If they don't they will start loosing
multimedia marketshare.  You can get a nextcube with a 32bit
graphics card, i860, stand video in/out, video compression chips, etc.
and a very high res color monitor (not to mention a 68040,
hard drive, (and optical drive too I think)) for about $12000.
The video toaster can hardly compete.

Image running color x-windows and/or advanced amiga dos windows
with a 68040 accelerator and a 32 bit color card and high res color
monitor (at least 1200 X 800) !!!!

The next can compress video in real time and store up to 1 hour
of video on a hard drive.
The amiga 3000 is a good platform, being a full 32 bit machine (
except for the old graphics/sound chips).  They need to develop
the 040 card and 32 bit color card and push them hard to keep
up with next and other companies.  (And hopefully these will
be cheaper when they become available for the amiga than they
are on competitors computer systems).

Write Commodore/Amiga and tell them that we want 32 bit color!! 

And we want it as a standard card which amiga will release with
future versions of the 3000 or 4000(maybe 3500Graphics) or something,
so that software producers can write software specifically for
it (the other 24 bit color cards aren't standard for the Amiga
line and we won't see wide software support).  Amiga has to
take command and make the transition from the old 12 bit HAM to
true full 32 bit color!  This is necessary for a multimedia machine.

Hey, that Amiga 3000 deal sounds like a real good way to upgrade
your performance.  I have a 3000 (which I got through the educational
purchase plan) and I like it alot.  Some good peripherials are
citizen gsx140 24 pin printer (around $300), and practical modem
9600sa (9600 v.32 for around $480) - SHOP IN COMPUTER EDGE MAGAZINE!
Some software crashes on the 3000, namely alot of games, but they
are continually releasing upgrades to software which will run on the
3000.

I looked at a demo for Amiga unix (full blown system 5 release IV),
at warners, and it looked nice.  Need a large hard drive though and
you need to have rom chips installed which boot the unix system.
Hopefully, we will eventually all be running unix with amigados
running on top of unix, mac dos running on top of unix, xwindows
running on top of unix, etc. - the true multienvironment machine.

Another note, Apple stock fell $7.00.
Ha Ha Ha...
They sell their machines for such inflated prices that they
deserve to loose market share.  The IIfx is a 40 mhz 68030 at
some inflated price like $6000 (+ costs for monitor, keyboard, etc.)
For that price you can almost get a nextcube with an 040 and i860
risc processor which will run 10 times faster and has 32 bit
graphics and lots of slots, and excellent sound, and runs unix/mach,
has eithernet, and will probably be able to emulate the whole mac line
in the near future.  Who are they trying to fool?  And those "low
cost" color macs are pretty pitiful as well - they are stripped down
in computing power (some aren't even sloted for a math coprocessor),
expandability, and the color isn't even that good.