Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Hardware Idiots ?
Message-ID: <22006@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 29 May 91 18:01:02 GMT
References: <1991May22.193016.12202@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> <21889@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991May27.090523.8605@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 31

In article <1991May27.090523.8605@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl> breemen@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl (E. van Breemen) writes:
>In article <21889@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:

>>I'm probably the one who used the term "idiots", and it certainly doesn't apply
>>to anyone who bangs the bits on these systems.  I meant it specifically to
>>apply to the people who go directly to the hardware for absolutely no good
>>reason, other than the fact that they don't like the way the OS does a thing,
>>or they think the Amiga is some big C64.  Or they're just plain lazy.  Or they

>The Amiga IS a big C64 with lots of memory and nice custom chips. 

No it's not!  You are absolutely wrong.  That's the problem.  The Amiga is 
something considerably more.  Keep the C64 in mind when you think of treating 
the Amiga the same way.  Ever notice how the C64 just kept improving over the 
years?  How all the bugs in the Kernal were fixed, new functions added, new 
and improved VIC and SIDs created, faster 6510s built.

Of course not.  The C64 is pretty much locked in stone.  Real stupid things,
like the exact execution time of 6510 instructions, all the Kernal and BASIC
code, bugs included, even the bloody font patterns, have become part of the
hardware definition of the C64.  You change one thing and 50 programs break.
Believe me, I was the #2 hardware guy on the C128.  Even though it was a 
virtual hardware clone of a C64, we still ran into problems.  

You don't want Amigas to become C64s.  If the Amiga was now treated as a C64
by everyone, the A500 and 1.3 would be locked in stone, and no Amiga would 
ever improve upon that.  
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.