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From: breemen@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl (E. van Breemen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Hardware Idiots ?
Message-ID: <1991May30.095308.25743@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl>
Date: 30 May 91 09:53:08 GMT
References: <21889@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991May27.090523.8605@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl> <22006@cbmvax.commodore.com>
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In article <22006@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:

>>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 

If you look from a theoretical hardware view it is. It is still a Neumann 
machine. There are some extra features like a blitter,copper and DMA but
the basic principle is still the same. The main difference is the OS.

>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 

I bought one of the first A500 (no 14xxx). The OS hasn't improved for me. I
bought 1.3 1 year ago. Apart from FFS nothing much has changed. For the
normal user: Kickstart 2.0 is not released. So you can't speak of much
improvements of the OS (for the A500/A2000 users).
The next thing is the hardware. OK, you can have now 1MB chip (or even 2MB
if you take the A3000). But the hardware for the A500 stayed the same. In 1986
having 32 colors was great. Nowadays not. Most computers can have 256 (real)
colors on their screen. A palette of 256000 colors is becoming more and more
a standard. I like to have those things changed on my A500. But I know, from
hardware points of view it is almost impossible. The answer had to be the 
A3000, but isn't. Yes it is great to have 640*400 without flickering. But my
plain IBM could do that a long time ago (and still have 16 colors). What I
need is colors and resolution (both not just one of them). I work as an
astronomy student in Leiden. People prefer the Sun workstation above the
DEC 3100 even though the DEC is 3 times faster. Why? The Sun has the 
possiblity to have a larger screen (in pixels). To be able to make a machine
which is attractive to the business market, one should look what is needed.
That is 1024*800 screens with 256 colors out 16000000. You have to stay in
front of the competition.(i.e. look at Screen machine , counterpart for
Amiga Vision). If that is not done, I see , I really regret this, the Amiga
just die a slow death like the C64. 

>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.  

See above.

As a possitive contribution: why not introduce a graphicscard standard. People
can buy the graphiccards they want, plug them into their Amiga and go. This
should be  supported by a special library written by Commodore. Something
like the IBM. Then you are not limited by the original hardware. If the OS
of the Amiga is properly written, it should be easy to be able to redirect
the graphics output (assuming the OS always uses graphics.library for output).
If there is a standard for those cards then manufactures can build cards for
them.


>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.

Erwin