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From: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Subject: Re: CDTV titles on an A500?
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.054319.10135@news.iastate.edu>
Date: 3 Jun 91 05:43:19 GMT
References: <1991May31.093712.47965@cc.usu.edu>
Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
Lines: 47

In article <1991May31.093712.47965@cc.usu.edu>, sl87m@cc.usu.edu (The Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Ensemble) writes:
>
>I saw lots of new Amiga goodies at a presentation here at Utah State a couple
>of weeks ago, including A3000UX and the CDTV. Since CDTV has been out for only a
>few weeks, the information I'm curious to know may not be available:
>
>Would it be possible to hook up an autobooting CD-ROM drive to an A500, and
>then be able to run CDTV titles? I see CDTV as having lots of potential, and
>would like to get a couple of the titles already out.  However, a lack of $$$
>for the CDTV restrains my wife and me.
>

   Commodore is developing the A690 CD-ROM drive for the A500, with
interfaces for other Amigas.  The A690 will (from what I've read around
here) carry a retail price of $699.

   One thing that concerns me, though, is the likely problem of
compatibility with the CDTV.  I've mentioned this before, and got no
responses at all, so I will try again.  

   The CDTV uses a modified 1.3 ROM.  The 1.3 ROM is 256K, however the
CDTV uses a 512K ROM.  The extra 256K is filled with system software
specific to the CDTV.  This 256K of software may not be present on an
Amiga with the Commodore CD-ROM drive, and certainly will not be 
present on an Amiga with any other CD-ROM drive.  There are other
features of the CDTV that also may not be present on an Amiga with
a Commodore CD-ROM drive, but the extra 256K of ROM is the most
important one.

   How is this problem going to be solved?  Obviously there is a great
potential for CDTV software using some of the routines in this extra
256K, and any software that does so may not run on an Amiga with the
Commodore CD-ROM drive and will not run on Amiga with the Xetec CD-ROM
drive.  

>
>-------
>TZMattaryey
>sl87m@cc.usu.edu
>
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