Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!mbs110 From: MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu (That neat guy, Mark Sachs) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: An interesting idea... Message-ID: <91134.022556MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu> Date: 14 May 91 06:25:56 GMT References: <1991May7.235145.12420@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <1991May12.190016.28094@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <1991May12.201647.29549@sbcs.sunysb.edu> Organization: Penn State University Lines: 62 In article , melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) says: > >In article <1991May12.201647.29549@sbcs.sunysb.edu> >dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes: > > Well, it sounds kind of mushy, but I was making a joke about the 6502. E >mIK > made it sound as though only nEXT will have 50 mip chips and no other > computers will. > >Every company will be able to buy these chips, but how many will be >able to build a computer with them and not lose their current software >base? Is the Amiga OS written in C? How well will the blitter work Is the NeXT's? And even if it is, do you really believe all you'll have to do is recompile the source on the new processor? If you do I've got some Coleco Adams I'd like to sell you... Quite simply, if the processor is so different that the OS can't just be copied over and tweaked a bit, then it's different enough that the OS will have to be rewritten to work properly with it. This goes for both Amiga AND NeXT. >with a 50 mip CPU? The blitter is already a problem. What is the THE BLITTER, FOR THE LAST TIME, IS NOT A BLEEDIN' PROBLEM. It works alongside the CPU. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to! But if you want, you can offload the time-wasting memory moving and graphics tasks to it, freeing up valuable cycles on the main processor. Incidentally, you've been repeating over and over "68040 is more powerful than 68030 + blitter." Even if it is, so what? An 040 Amiga will actually be 68040 + blitter. So much for NeXT's supposed display speed advantage... >highest graphics mode on the A3000? How does it compare to the >NeXTstation color, which is a million pixels with 4096 colors. My The NeXTstation color also costs more than the gross national product of several third world countries. If you're keen on megapixel displays there's a monitor Commodore's pushing that gives you 1008x800 pixels. If it's colors you want, there are cards producing 16 million colors for less than $500. The U of Lowell card (coming out Real Soon Now (tm)) apparently gives you 1008x800 PLUS the 16 million colors, although I'm not absolutely certain about that one. This is the official Commodore upgrade thing, by the way. >guess is that backwards compatibility is taking up a lot of silicon. Not really. The Amiga isn't a difficult computer to keep backwards compatible. The custom chips HAVE been changed, and it works fine. Even a 68030 chip doesn't kill well-behaved applications (read: anyone who followed the rules clearly spelled out by Commodore in excruciating detail since Day One.) And the blitter is still an asset, no matter how fast the CPU is. (Though it would be even neater to have a faster one...) >The Amiga probably has about a dozen graphics modes by now. What's wrong with that? You pick the best one for the job. /Mark "Remixed for Common Household Appliances" Sachs IS: MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu\ | STEVEVAX Administration HQ, World Domination & Bake Sales Ltd. || // || | DISCLAIMER: It's NOT MY FAULT. Kei and Yuri forced me to say it.||\X/ AMIGA|| \== "I think this calls for some diabolical laughter! RAAH HA HA HA HA HA!" ==/