Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!vaxf.iastate.edu!TAAB5 From: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Amiga bashing Message-ID: <1991Jun21.090025.18635@news.iastate.edu> Date: 21 Jun 91 09:00:25 GMT References: <1991Jun11.204407.16603@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,<1991Jun20.200326.16487@bmerh409.bnr.ca> Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Reply-To: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA. Lines: 49 In article <1991Jun20.200326.16487@bmerh409.bnr.ca>, drews@bmerh796.bnr.ca (Drew Stevens) writes: >A few days ago I noticed this newsgroup and thought I'd have a look. >To be honest I don't know much about the Amiga but the near-religous >attitude its users seem to have has caught my interest. I was >particularly interested by the comments which praise the machine's >hardware support for multitasking and wonderful graphics. It was >also suggested that VGA-based IBMs were 'toys' by comparison. > >Could someone expand on these statements? A $2000 386/33Mhz actually >multitasks quite well under OS2/UNIX/WIN3. The CPU provides >virtual memory support, memory protection, and pre-emptive multitasking. >Also, a $100 SuperVGA card provides resolutions up to 1024x768 >(non-interlaced up to 800x600) and a quarter-million colour palette. > >Which Amiga configurations are available that offer superior capabilities >and how expensive is such a system? Right now, there are no Amigas available that have resolutions greater than 640x960 or 1280x512 (both interlaced, 2 colors out of a palette of 64). With Commodore's A2024, you can get resolutions up to 1024x1024 mono with 4 gray levels, but this is only with this particular monitor, and you cannot use any other monitor to get this resolution. The best graphics you can currently get on an Amiga is 704x560 with 16 colors out of 4096 or 340x560 with 4096 colors out of 4096, both non-interlaced on an Amiga 3000. There are third-party cards which can give you better color capabilities but they are all interlaced and none of them are compatible with the Amiga's operating system (which means you can display pictures on them, but cannot run programs on them). BTW, supposedly Commodore is going to come out with a video card with resolutions up to 1024x1024 non-interlaced with 256 colors out of 16 million. However, this card has yet to reach the market more than four years after it was first shown, will probably carry a hefty price tag when it does reach the market, and is also incompatible with the Amiga's native OS (the card will be usable only with Amiga UNIX). > >-------------------------------------- >Any opinions expressed are mine alone. >-------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- / Marc Barrett -MB- | BITNET: XGR39@ISUVAX.BITNET / / ISU COM S Student | Internet: XGR39@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU / ------------------------------------------------------------ \ The great thing about standards is that / \ there are so many of them to choose from. / -------------------------------------------------------